Best New Music 2025 Edition

It's time to share my rankings of the year. Solid metal year for the bands I like.

Album Of The Year: Helloween - Giants & Monsters. Some of the songs could have been better, but overall it's the strongest and varied.

Other highlights:

Battle Beast - Steelbound
Bloodbound - Field Of Swords
Primal Fear - Dominion
Majestica - Power Train
Wings Of Steel - Winds Of Time

Songs of the year:

Helloween - ''Giants On The Run''
Helloween - ''We Can Be Gods''
Helloween - ''Majestic''
Helloween - ''A Little Is A Little Too Much''
Bloodbound - ''Born To Be King''
Battle Beast - ''Angel Of Midnight''
Battle Beast - ''The Burning Within''
Majestica - ''A Story In The Night''
Primal Fear - ''Far Away''
Primal Fear - ''Eden''
Avantasia - ''Phantasmagoria''
Wings Of Steel - ''Winds Of Time''
Wings Of Steel - ''We Rise''
Anguish Project - ''What's Believing''
Smith/Kotzen - ''Wraith''/''Life Unchained''/''Darkside''

Vocalist of the year: I guess Leo Unnermark (Wings Of Steel)
Best lyrics: not sure
Best solos: Parker Halub (Wings Of Steel). Solos in albums: Helloween, Smith/Kotzen.
Best melodies: Field Of Swords.
Best verses: something from Battle Beast.
Best chorus: really tough to say, some song from Battle Beast or Bloodbound albums, too good, or ''A Story In The Night'', ''Eden''.
Best riffs: Dominion/Winds Of Time.
Best instrumental section: ''We Can Be Gods'', ''Majestic'', ''A Story In The Night'' or ''Winds Of Time''.

Album Cover Of The Year: probably Legends (Sabaton).
 
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I have no listened any music since may due to personal issues so I cannot update this thread with my favorite albums through the year.

But until April my favorite albums are:
  • Avatarium - Between You, God, The Devil and The Dead
  • Pentagram - Lightning in a Bottle
  • Riverside - Live I.D.
  • Yazz Ahmed - A Paradise in the Hold (Jazz)
  • Apocalypse Orchestra - A Plague for Thee
  • Jethro Tull - Curious Ruminant
  • Smith / Kotzen - Black Light / White Noise
  • Envy of None - Stygian Wave
 
Wow, I only picked up 4 albums this year:
  • A-Z - A2Z²
  • Bruce Dickinson - More Balls To Picasso
  • Ellefson-Soto - Unbreakable
  • Smith/Kotzen - Black Light / White Noise
A-Z is pretty great, Dickinson and Smith/Kotzen are both quite good, and the Ellefson-Soto album is pretty good.
 
I don’t usually listen to much in the way of new music, but I will say that Ethel Cain’s first release this year, Perverts, was a super interesting project. It’s a drone album, so lots of drawn-out, slow, repeating passages, that marry the sound she established on her debut with something even darker and spookier. I quite liked it.
 
I submit for your consideration “Wrath and Ruin” by Warbringer. The Sword and the Cross is my most-listened-to 2025 metal song. Perhaps not appropriate for Christmastime! :D It walks the right side of the line between awesome and ridiculous, in part because it is built upon a solid old-school thrash foundation. Enjoy.
 
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Cream of the Crop
  1. Ghost - Skeleta
  2. Smith/Kotzen - Black Light/White Noise
  3. Halestorm - Everest
  4. Dream Theater - Parasomnia
  5. Mammoth - The End/Spock's Beard - The Archaeoptimist
Middleground:
  • Helloween - Giants and Monsters
  • Amorphis - Borderland
  • Tremonti- The End Will Show Us How
  • Robert Plant - Saving Grace
  • Alice Cooper - The Revenge of Alice Cooper
Disapointments:
  • Steven Wilson - The Overview
  • Neil Young - Talking With the Trees

Overall a decent year, some really strong albums came out early on which I got a fair bit of listening to. I'm looking forward to the new Alter Bridge in a couple of weeks, and hopefully a west coast show.
 
I didn't listen to enough many albums from 2025 to have a definite opinion on more categories than two. If someone would ask me what my favourite album of 2025 was, I'd say Give Us the Moon by The Night Flight Orchestra. Related too, this was my favourite overall song of 2025:
 
Abas said:
I didn't listen to enough many albums from 2025 to have a definite opinion on more categories than two. If someone would ask me what my favourite album of 2025 was, I'd say Give Us the Moon by The Night Flight Orchestra. Related too, this was my favourite overall song of 2025:
Click to expand...
Agreed on both counts. It was very early in the year so easy to forget by the end but nothing that has come since matched it for me.
 
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