Editors' Picks // August 2025

Well, howdy! After a well deserved month off, focusing on our mid-year content that is not actually taking time off, we return once again with the best picks of August. You know when I say "best" I mean "the ones we liked the most" right? You know we've left the pretense that our opinions are somehow superior to anyone else's in the past, yes? The goal of this column, and this blog, is to introduce you to new music, not to tell you which music is the best. Just which music we like the best. And that's why review scores have been gone for a decade, give or take, and why we don't really rank albums anymore and why I fucking love still doing the blog.

Remember: the journalism, our writing, is secondary to the music itself. The art is the point. That's why we're all here. And so, without further ado and self-deprecation, let us get to that art. It's a good crop!

-Eden Kupermintz

Hypomanic Daydream – The Yearning

This is probably the hardest album of the year to write about and/or describe. When other bands say their death metal is avant-garde, this is the ideal which they are signifying. But I want to go beyond superlatives about the arrangements and compositions on this album. Yes, they are wild. Yes, everything whirls into an impressive amalgam of black, death, grind, and experimental extreme metal. But what makes this album avant-garde more than anything else which pretends to that title is the feeling of raw emotional pain that is poured into every note of this.

The Yearning, as both the name of the album and the project implies, deals with psychic damage, with the pain of existence itself. Its avant-garde, swirling, overwhelming components are meant to convey just that, the very pain of existence. In that, it is most successful; when you listen to this album, try to give into the feelings of anxiety and being overwhelmed. It’s exactly what the album is trying to get across and why it deploys its maximalism. Akin to a panic attack, the whole idea is that your senses lose a frame of reference. Therefore, unlike many of the releases in this space, this is not experimentation or fragmentation for their own sake; there is a unique, and agonizing, emotional state which the art is trying to convey.

Which is how we loop back to the avant-garde because what does a “forward guard” do if it does not breach borders, go further, into states, places, and mental states that are beyond the norm? And what is more normal than being able to parse, to make sense of reality? In that sense, our most extreme mental states can be said to be “breaks from reality” and that is also what the avant-garde, when it’s done well, tries to convey. So sure, The Yearning does not conform to norms of genre and composition. But more than that, it does not conform to norms of feelings and their expression, trying to get beyond to places that are radical, unsettling, and upsetting. In that, it does its job very well, perhaps better than any other album I’ve heard this year.

-EK

Abigail Williams - A Void Within Existence

There are few bands I’ve done a harder and more abrupt about-face on than Ken Sorceron’s ever-evolving black metal(?) project Abigail Williams. 2019’s Walk Beyond the Dark changed my perception of the band completely, and this year’s follow-up to that seminal release is no less engaging and riveting. From songwriting, instrumental, and vocal perspectives it may be the best thing they’ve yet written.

Though “they” is a truly nebulous term in regard to Abigail Williams. With a constantly shifting group of players with Sorceron at the helm it genuinely feels like each new record is in a sense its own contained world, operating on its own wavelength and outside of the influence of anything that came before it. While A Void Within Existence certainly has its fair share of incredibly unique moments (brought to bear with able technical prowess by Mike Heller of Ghost Bath and Vance Valenzuela of Vale of Pnath), there’s a strong undercurrent of consistency with some of the sonic themes of the project’s last record. These are grand, epic, incredible black metal compositions that are more interested in impact than subgenre allegiance.

And while that last bit may seem (for better or worse) to be the Abigail Williams calling card, it appears that Sorceron has finally cracked the formula of consistency that allows his records to breathe with unique energy while still maintaining some semblance of a sonic throughline. A Void Within Existence takes all the good parts of Walk Beyond the Dark and amplifies them with aplomb. Hard hitting riffs can be found throughout the record, from blistering opener “Life, Disconnected” to the mammoth “Talk To Your Sleep,” which serves as an absolute highlight of the record and a high point of the project’s career thus far. From front to back, this thing rips. Simple as that.

It’s nice to be proven wrong about a band that didn’t exactly suit your fancy early on. Abigail Williams has converted me into a full-on fanboy and I cannot wait to see how they build from here. With this level of quality as the new expectation, a long wait is just fine by me.

-Jonathan Adams

Asunojokei - Think of You

As great as it is to hear an established and recognizable sound done well, it's hard not to be drawn to artists who take that sound and give it their own unique twist. This is often even more interesting when that twist is related to something unique about the band itself, such as their own niche cultural influences. Such is the case with the Japanese band Asunojokei and their distinct take on the subgenre of blackgaze, fusing it with something known as “Shimokita-kei guitar rock” for a truly novel sound. In short, it sounds a bit like if Deafheaven wrote an album of 90s anime intro theme songs, and it kicks ass.

Despite forming in 2014, the Tokyo-based four-piece didn’t really break out until the release of their previous full-length Island in 2022. This album saw them first really start to integrate both more of a post-hardcore spin, and letting their Japanese-roots shine through in their song-writing, which has carried over onto their new album, Think Of You. The Shimokita-kei style incorporated is essentially a Japanese branch of alternative rock that emerged largely in the 90s, known for its energetic and melodic overdriven guitar leads and often influenced by J-Pop. Turned heavier, the energetic guitar melodies aren’t that far removed from the Gothenburg-style of melodic death metal such as early In Flames, with a hint of the black n’roll of Kverletak. It feels flowing and dynamic with an adventurous quirk, while harnessing a sense of uplifting triumph that makes for an empowering listen. Everything is bright and punchy, and the production matches that perfectly.

While this fusion is prominent instrumentally, some fans of Island may miss the inclusion of some of its up-beat j-rock style clean vocals. Instead, vocalist 布 [Nuno] has stuck to their raspy screams which feel somewhere between the screamo shrieks of country-mates envy, and more typical black metal vocals. Whichever box you want to put them in, they’re portrayed with earnest emotion which seeps through the music with ferocity, desperation and passion. With all of the lyrics being delivered in Japanese, the texture and tonality of them feels accentuated for non-speakers of the language.

Think Of You is a fun and refreshing spin on a genre that’s generally associated with being devastatingly depressive at worst, and sentimental and sombre at best. Yet part of what makes this special is that there still are these moments of atmospheric introspection, melancholia and candor that add a bittersweet and romantic quality. Asunojokei have successfully bridged a stretch of influences and moods into some of the coolest post-black metal and in general, screaming rock music, that you can find.

-Trent Bos

Floating - Hesitating Lights

Metalheads are an opinionated crowd, deliberating over genre influences versus foundations with the kind of enthusiasm typically reserved for political debates. But as we all know here at Heavy Blog is Heavy, there is a massive difference between blackened death metal and deathened black metal. And damnit, we will beat that debate into the ground.

That commitment to nuance is what makes Floating so maddeningly enticing. Even among the unhinged roster of Transcending Obscurity Records, the Swedish duo stands out for their distinct blend of post-punk and progressive death metal, a fusion they deliver so flawlessly that it’s nearly impossible to decipher which genre influences which. Glimmering synths glide into thick riffs, adding layers of gothic cool to deadly intensity. Vocalist Arvid Sjödin manages to bend death metal growls into the low-key affectations of post-punk without losing any of the ferocity. Every moment seethes with fury, combining the seemingly opposing forces of unleashed death metal with the practiced sophistication of post-punk. The brawling brute meets the mad scientist for sonic experimentation.

Perhaps the secret of Hesitating Lights is that relentless experimentation. Both post-punk and progressive death metal have emerged and evolved with the singular driving force of “what if,” the pursuit of musical frontiers and maniacal explorations of sound. Whether pounding out jagged time signatures with bludgeoning riffs or layering synths over distorted guitars, Floating seem to delight in moments of surprise.

Songs swing off-kilter with deliberate abandon, with post-punk and death metal seamlessly trading places at the forefront. The bass cedes control to synths, allowing futuristic steeliness to lead into a primal riff for tightly controlled chaos that bursts into punishing grooves that are only enhanced by electronic pulses. Layers (a word I’m using a lot in this discussion) of raw death metal and smooth post-punk join forces to inflict addictive rhythms on the unsuspecting populace. Hesitating Lights is one of the most unique releases you’ll hear this year, no question.

- Bridget Hughes

FURTHER LISTENING

Phantom Spell – Heather & Hearth

The only reason this album is in the Further Listening section is because I’ve written about it extensively on the blog before. It’s hands down my favorite album of the year - it does everything I love about progressive rock and heavy metal. It moves me to tears every time I listen to it. Please listen to this album.

-EK

We Lost The Sea – A Single Flower

If the other album I wrote up for this section is my favorite album of the year then this is my favorite post-rock album of the year. Somehow, We Lost the Sea take the formula of classic, build-up and crescendo based post-rock and infuse it with more energy and dynamism than all of their compatriots in the genre combined.

-EK

PSYCHO-FRAME - Salvation Laughs in the Face of a Grieving Mother

You like it nasty? So does PSYCHO-FRAME. Quickly climbing the ranks of deathcore’s modern elite, Salvation Laughs is a relentless, uncompromising opening salvo of death-based madness that is among the filthiest things I’ve heard this year. If you’re looking for subtlety and nuance, probably go ahead and skip this one. If you’re looking for skillful hands that are ready to cave your skull in, you’ve come to the right place. An excellent and brutalizing debut.

-JA

Ben’s Raincoat - Radiant Cliffs

Falling somewhere between the melodic tech death of The Faceless and the older progressive deathcore of bands like Slice the Cake, early Fallujah and Kardashev, Ben’s Raincoat (named after an item from the indie-game Risk of Rain) is a love letter to an era of metal I have a lot of nostalgia for. Great riffs, breakdowns, atmospheric melodies, solos, and meaty vocals incorporating lows and some Travis Ryan screams. Even the production feels very 2010, arguably both (complimentary) and (derogatory) depending on how you feel about that.

-TB

Boneflower - Reveries

It was inevitable, skramgaze is here. The Spanish group Boneflower has expanded their fusion of passionate clean-toned post-hardcore with dense, lush shoegaze textures for the perfect summer screamo album to relax in the sun with.

-TB

Blind Equation - A Funeral in Purgatory

Hyperpop, nu-metal, cybergrind, and chiptune collide in this time capsule from the future. Pummeling grooves are blasted apart and stitched together by a synthetic intelligence, then fused with blips of ethereal memories of half-remembered pop songs and videogame samples. Frenetic beats and soothing nostalgia live side-by-side – then are put through a blender.

- BH

Weald & Woe - Far From the Light of Heaven

Huzzah, the year of epic heavy metal continues! This time, however, with a black metal twist. The latest chapter in Weald & Woe’s medieval saga delivers a haunting, energizing quest through unknown lands with adrenaline-inducing beats wrapped in howling vocals and eerie melodies. A must-listen for dark knights with hearts of gold.