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.
 
Well one more year has passed so here are my top records for 2025 (divided in two groups (other than that no order in particular):

Sleigh Bells - Bunky Becky Birthday Boy (Electro/ Alternative Rock): It's been quite a wait since the excellent "Texis" but Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller came back with a vengeance. The new album is 100% Sleigh Bells craze and energy. No bullshit here or deeper layers... just pure fun and adrenaline surge. A lot of great tunes on this one, but "Wanna Start A Band" is perhaps my favorite. Indeed a breeze of fresh air.

Peter Murphy - Silver Shade (Alternative Rock/ Post Punk): Good old Mr. Murphy simply can't disappoint me, can he? Now, I wasn't expecting him to surpass his last full length "Lion" - which I simply consider to be the best album he ever put out among several releases of a brilliant career - but damn! Once again he manages to deliver big time. The title track and "Soothsayer" are IMO living proof that Murphy can still equal his best compositions while fast approaching 70 years old with his stunning voice remaining pristine. There's still room for a duet with... Boy George?! And go figure: it works amazingly well, like almost everything this guy does.

The Hives - The Hives Forever Forever The Hives (Garage Rock/ Proto Punk): "The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons" was a great return to form after more than a decade without studio recordings. Yet this time the Swedes only took a couple of years to release new music. And while it's true that what you'll find here is the band's meat and potatoes, IMO they still know how to cook them really well. While they're not the absolutely electrifying young dudes that stormed the mainstream during the late 90's and early 2000's, their freshness and stamina remain untouched. Songs like "Bad Call", "Legalize Living" or the frantic "OCDOD" are full of both as far as I'm concerned.

Dimscûa - Dust Eater (Blackgaze/ Post Metal): Off to less accessible sonorities and let me tell you: this was the biggest surprise of the year as far as I'm concerned. These Brits' ambiance is absolutely hopeless (and so are the lyrics), the black metal screeching underlines it (and IMO is the factor I'm least fond of here), yet... the guitar and keyboard melodies are the stuff of dreams. Creating a perfect dichotomy while balancing depression and hope, absolutely stunning beauty and crushing abandonment, these melodies sound humongous, like ultra bright shards of light that bleed through a mass of blacker than coal clouds. All four songs are stunning, yet the opener "Elder Bairn" is nothing short of jaw dropping A band I'll surely pay a lot of attention to in the future.

The Young Gods - Appear Disappear (Industrial Rock): IMO The Young Gods released nothing but bangers up till their 2000 full length "Second Nature" (included) and during that span they were easily one of my favorite bands. Then they deviated a tad bit too much into psychedelia, ambient music and other fringes and I lost interest in their later releases. Yet this new album revived my liking for their new music. Perhaps because it's a really well wrapped up mix between their initial works and the more experimental stuff of late, thus bringing some of their old fire in a new form of ignition, without sounding forced, self derivative or a trip down melancholy lane. Cuts like "Blue Me Away", "Mes Yeux De Tous" or "Blackwater" sure convinced me from day one. Great return to form.

Paradise Lost - Ascension (Gothic/ Doom Metal): I shall begin by saying PL is simply one of my favorite bands ever, no matter the genre they decide to play. And IMO their previous album "Obsidian" was easily on par with some of the best stuff they've done in years (IMO being band's immaculate run from 1992 to 1997). So expectations were high when they were close to release their new album. In the end all I have to say is the shadow kings' new album is kind of a mixed bag. On one hand there's typical PL Goth Metal I absolutely love, like "Tyrants Serenade" (above all), "Silence From The Grave" or "A Life Unknown". Then the Dead Can Dance influenced "Lay A Wreath Upon The World" is also stunning. It's when the songs go more doom and gloom that things tend to get less well achieved IMO. With the exception of the amazing "Salvation" everything else sounds too much forced and even boring at times to me. So, yeah... a bit of a disappointment when compared with its predecessor. Yet the handful of aforementioned tracks are so excellent that I couldn't leave "Ascension" out of this list.

Obscure Sphinx - Emovere (Sludge/ Post Metal): Up till its release I thought the Polish quartet were recording a new album, yet it happened to be just a three track EP. Nonetheless, while not being on par with their top tier material, these are three excellent tunes, especially "As I Stood Upon The Shore". And BTW... Zofia Fras continues to amaze me more and more as a singer, aging like a fine wine. Now bring on a new full length, please.

Now, I didn't like the following as much as the previous ones, yet I think they're worth making it to the list.

Johnny Marr - Look Out Live! (Pop Rock): Not much to say here... good old Johnny playing live some of his best solo stuff, as well as some classics he composed back in The Smiths. Quality assured for all Marr fans like me.

Messa - The Spin (Doom/ Post Punk/ Gothic Rock): While not as daring and IMO good as their previous two works, and relying in a more straight forward formula, the Italians' new work sure has its moments. There's a lot of Sisters Of Mercy and Siouxie And The Banshees references here, giving it a early 80's goth/ post punk feel to it while not sounding derivative. So if you like both bands with a softer breed of Doom poured all over, get this one. If you're more like me I believe you won't pick this one as often as other of Messa's releases.

Testament - Para Bellum (Thrash Metal): Testament's last three albums are a conundrum to me. A considerable amount of tracks are great yet the albums themselves as a whole seem to lack consistency like past ones had... And I won't even compare them to classics like "The Legacy" or "The New Order" which are product of a whole different era. Just take "Low" or "The Gathering": despite being 25 years apart from the aforementioned recent records they sound way more similar when it comes to the more "modern" take on the band's blueprint. Yet, IMO, both those late 90's albums sound tight as hell as a whole. "Para Bellum" sure as some excellent tracks: "For The Love Of Pain", "Shadow People" and "Witch Hunt" and a couple more are pure Thrash (and sometimes even Death) Metal savagery with flashes of top tier technical brilliance. Yet as a whole it seems I can't help but feel there's something missing. Still I can't ignore how a band still can deliver some absolutely eviscerating tunes while other of the genre's veterans are simply a pale sketch of what they were.
 
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