Even though the year’s more than half over, there’s still plenty to look forward to in 2025. I, for one, have tickets to see Lady Gaga in December, as well as I Killed the Prom Queen in October, and am hoping the new Tallah album turns out sounding a lot more like its second single than the first one. However, something else is also happening later this year that has absolutely nothing to do with music itself but is wholly responsible for how I’ve been responding to it this year and is likely to shape how I feel about everything in future as well, which is that I’m turning 35 in a few months. Given that I’m responsible for the release day roundups, I’d like to think I’m doing a pretty good job of keeping up with what’s new and haven’t entirely retreated into my nostalgia shelter just yet. But that also doesn’t change the fact that—in a year packed with adventurous, progressive, forward-thinking records—my two favourite new releases have probably been a remaster of the sixth-best (and highly contentious) Metallica record, and what might just be the sixth-best Machine Head album (when played in the right order at least), even if everyone else says it isn’t.
In my and my two favourite bands’ defense, I’ve probably spent more time with and thinking about the new Machine Head album than anyone else who isn’t the band themselves, and have laid out my favourable assessment of it at length elsewhere. The Load (1996) remaster is also truly transformative, granting the album a clarity that brings out a lot of more subtle layers and vocal harmonies, along with a presence that sounds like you’re actually in the room with them. Remasterer Reuben Cohen (Pharrell Williams, Bruno Mars)’s work on the record is truly astounding, bolstering both its already untouchable early-mid section while also bringing added depth to some of its traditionally lesser offerings. Yet again, Load is also maybe the most important album of my personal history—having been the album that, ironically, introduced me to true heavy metal, as I’ve written about before, and as I’m sure it has for many others of my generation, from the blog and beyond—and I’m not sure anyone else would have bothered giving Unatoned the time of day after hearing its initial singles (even if they definitely should).
Compounding the comfortable appeal of these two releases has been the realisation of the metalcore revival, which has finally come around in the nostalgia cycle, so that most of the new bands I have been latching onto at (almost) thirty-five sound exactly like the ones I was listening to when I was fifteen. Moreover, the once-trailblazing artists I was listening to at the time, like Killswitch Engage and even Whitechapel, who have also had strong showings this year, are now considered legacy acts. Meanwhile, I find myself at odds with almost all the big new bands. I like Poppy, but only when she’s playing stuff that sounds like music I already liked anyway. I also don’t mind listening to a Spiritbox song or two, but by the third I’m usually out and I can’t really comprehend how they of all bands have reached such a lofty, multi-Grammy-nominated, mainstream-recognised position. Bad Omens aren’t that bad, but they’re also just not that good, and although I really thought Sleep Token were onto something with their last release, only for them to obliterate all my good will with their absolute non-event of a new one (reminder that this headlined Download this year). And if Sabrina Carpenter’s brand of Disney-fied Taylor Swift imitations is the best pop music has to offer at the moment, then I’ll gladly pass.
At the more extreme end of things, I’ve begun begrudging Blood Incantation for being celebrated for doing something rather blandly that I believe better bands have been doing far more successfully for the better part of at least three decades. Knocked Loose are also decent to extremely good at times, and I’m very impressed by what they’ve managed to achieve as a genuinely and increasingly extreme and uncompromising hardcore act, but their success also has me asking “Why them?”, as does the increasing (Taco Bell-driven) popularity of Turnstile who have only become blander to me as they’ve become more interesting to everyone else. There are a few exceptions, of course. Bands like Dawn of Ouroboros, Rivers of Nihil and Aversed are still out here doing interesting and novel things within the realms of extreme metal, as are The Callous Daoboys, who have only become more interesting as they’ve become less like the foundational mathcore bands of yore, and I do still really like that FKA Twigs album. But I can’t help feeling like I’m too frequently looking backwards these days, when I should be looking further toward the future. Well, I guess this is growing up…