Heavy Blog Staff's Top 25 Albums // 2025

If you insisted on assigning as disparate a unit as Heavy Blog a common trajectory, it would be a move away from ranking and scores and enforced order towards a more fragmented, looser approach to music. Which is not to say that no ranking is allowed ever, since that's a form of enforced order as well. Rather, we like to give each staff member the freedom to approach music as they see fit. Some take this to mean that lists are still good and important but that ranking inside of them is meaningless. Others stick to the conventional forms of ranked lists. And others still don't make lists at all, preferring to contribute across different genres inside of centralizing their taste at all.

Which I think is why we've even kept the Staff Lists post alive at all - it's a good showcase of the different tastes we have onboard but also the different approaches we have of organizing those tastes. And also it's just a cool post that forgoes all analysis and smacks you in the face with around a hundred fantastic releases. So, enjoy trawling through the lists below - there's a bunch of really killer releases on them. See you next year.

-Eden Kupermintz

Eden’s Unranked List of Unranked Awesomitude

Dessiderium - Keys to the Palace (progressive black metal)

Naxatras - V (psychedelic rock)

Calyces - Fleshy Waves of Probability (progressive stoner metal)

Estuarine - Corporeal Furnace (progressive grindcore)

clipping. - Dead Channel Sky (noise/rap)

Snooze - I KNOW HOW YOU WILL DIE (math-rock/metal)

Ominous Ruin - Requiem (death metal)

Phantom Spell - Heather & Hearth (heavy metal/rock)

Helms Deep - Chasing the Dragon (speed/power metal)

Pillars of Cacophony - Paralipomena (progressive death metal)

Benthos - From Nothing (progressive metal)

Museum of Light - Diviner (post metal)

Object Unto Earth - The Grim Village (progressive rock)

Kaschalot - Anemoia (post-rock)

VOID - Forbidden Morals (heavy/thrash)

Trudger - Void Quest (progressive sludge/stoner)

Melpomene - A Body Is a Suggestion (instrumental progressive stoner/doom)

An Abstract Illusion - The Sleeping City (progressive death metal)

Ihlo - Legacy (progressive metal)

Species - Changelings (technical thrash metal)

Sacred Leather - Keep the Fire Burning (heavy metal)

Kamra - Unending Confluence (deathened black metal)

Alpha Male Tea Party - Reptilian Brain (math/post rock)

Waxwolf - Magic Madness Sadness (progressive death metal/chiptune)

Oromet - The Sinking Isle (funeral doom)

The State of Heavy Address: JD’s Dreaded Top 25 of 2025 (unranked)

Town Portal - Grindwork (instrumental post-rock/math rock)

Shiner - BELIEVEYOUME (post-hardcore/rock)

Bursting - BURSTING (post-hardcore)

Pile - Sunshine and Balance Beams (rock/noise rock)

Gumby’s Junk - Business & Pleasure (experimental/progressive post-punk)

Halfmass - Ten-Gallon Heart (everything)

Decultivate - Decultivate (grindcore/d-beat)

Cratophane - Exode (post-metal/sludge/zeuhl)

Baan - neumann (post-metal)

Hangman’s Chair - Saddiction (gothic/doom metal)

Blue Youth - Defeatist (noise rock)

Lafayette - Unsolved Miracles (prog rock/dream pop)

Tate McRae - So Close to What (pop)

After Nations - Surface | Essence (instrumental post-rock/prog metal)

Waldo’s Gift - Malcolm’s Law (instrumental jazz/prog rock)

Belted Sweater - Belted Sweater (synth post-punk)

Barker - Stochastic Drift (ambient/dub techno)

Dijon - Baby (alternative R&B)

Hotline TNT - Raspberry Moon (shoegaze/power pop)

Tropical Fuck Storm - Fairyland Codex (psych/noise rock)

Toru - Velours Dévorant (experimental/noise rock/drone)

Quadeca - Vanisher, Horizon Scraper (folktronica/chamber pop)

MOLT - MOLT (post-hardcore/noise rock)

Maruja - Pain to Power (experimental post-rock/post-punk)

DOOM GONG - MEGAGONG (psych/jazz rock)

Jordan’s Too Small of a Slice of 2025

Cloakroom - Last Leg of the Human Table (gaze)
mclusky - the world is still here and so are we (noise rock)
Chat Pile/Hayden Pedigo - In The Earth Again (noize)
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets - Carpe Diem, Moonman (stoner/psych/math)
Rwake - The Return of Magik (doom)
Agriculture - The Spiritual Sound (blackened noise)
Conjurer - Unself (sludge)
Turian - Quantum Blood Blues (hardcore)
Deafheaven - Lonely People with Power (post-black)
Viagra Boys - viagr aboys (post-punk)
Stereolab - Instant Holograms On Metal Film (avant-pop)
Malthusian - The Summoning Bell (black/death)
Imperial Triumphant - Goldstar (avant-black/death)
Kinski - Stumbledown Terrace (stoner/psych)
The Armed - The Future is Here… (hardcore)
Eyes - Spinner (hardcore/noise)
Corridoré - Abandon (sludgy bm)
Frankie & The Witch Fingers - Trash Classic (post-punk/new wave)
SUMAC & Moor Mother - The Film (art sludge)
Veilburner - Longing… (black/death)
Hayden Pedigo - I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away (acoustic)
We Are Impala - Les Efímeres (post-rock)
Trudger - Void Quest (sludge)
AFI - Silver Bleeds the Black Sun… (post-punk)
Chaos Inception - Vengeance Evangel (death)

If I Build It, They Will Come Read My Albums of the Year; The Josh Fields’ of Dreams Edition

Snooze - I Know How You Will Die (happy, heavy mathcore)

Solshade - Proxy (proggish metalcore)

The Callous Daoboys - I Don’t Want to See You In Heaven (contemporary genre-fluid metalcore)

Imperial Triumphant - Goldstar (jazzened black metal)

Psycho-Frame - Salvation Laughs in the Face of a Grieving Mother (deathcore)

Town Portal - Grindwork (post sludge/math rock)

Totorro - Sofa So Good (math rock)

Hayden Pedigo - I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away (ambient americana)

Bore - Feral (mathcore/metalcore)

Oklou - Choke Enough (ambient electronic)

Chat Pile/Hayden Pedigo - Into the Earth (sludge meets americana)

Rivers of Nihil - Rivers of Nihil (progressive metal)

Purity Ring - Purity Ring (electronic/pop)

The Armed - The Future Is Here and Everything Needs to Be Destroyed (hardcore)

Deftones - Private Music (alt metal)

Scorched Mind - Embracing the Dying Sun (hardcore)

Eyes - Spinner (hardcore)

Stray From the Path - Clockworked (hardcore/metalcore)

Parachute Day - Seasonal Expression (inst. math rock)

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power (shoegaze/black metal)

Ethel Cain - Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You (indie, sad girl)

Fallfiftyfeet - Counterfeit Recollections (metalcore)

For Your Health - This Bitter Garden (screamo/metalcore)

Nicolas Synder - Common Side Effects OST

Vildhjarta - Där Skogen Sjunger Under Evighetens Granar (thall)

Life Is Short, but These Projects Are Shorter: The Year's Best EPs by Mish

1. Dog Race - Return The Day

2. FERMENT - S/T

3. Killing Me Softly - To Forever Fall Through God’s Safety Net

4. Paris Texas - They Left Me with the Sword & They Left Me with a Gun

5. Missouri Executive Order 44 & Usurp Synapse - split 7"

6. Feel The Pain - World In Two

7. Uboa - All the Dead Melt Down as Rain

8. Final Resting Place - Bound By Affliction

9. Crowquill - S/T

10. Ethel Cain - Perverts

11. New World Man - Peeling Through The Skin

12. Dance - Demo

13. xWeaponX - Weapon X Demo 2

14. Car Bomb - Tiles Whisper Dreams

15. Quest - Katana

16. Big Boy - Love Songs

17. God Complex - He Watches In Silence

18. Crush Your Soul - Living Gracious

19. Big Boy - Love Songs

20. The Shredder - Bloodforged

21. Anvil Chandelier - S/T

22. Martirio - Los Siete Sellos

23. Stand Tall - Running In Place

24. Skrillex - hit me where it hurts x

25. Cross Of Disbelief / Impunity - New York v.s. North Yorkshire

Jonathan’s What Year Is It?! Top 25

Yellow Eyes - Confusion Gate
Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power
Centuries of Decay - A Monument to Oblivion
Barren Path - Grieving
Deftones - Private Music
Igorrr - Amen
Cryptopsy - An Insatiable Violence
An Abstract Illusion - The Sleeping City
Der Weg einer Freiheit - Innern
Suffering Hour - Impelling Rebirth EP
Imperial Triumphant - Goldstar
La Dispute - No One Was Driving the Car
Coroner - Dissonance Theory
The Callous Daoboys - I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven
Agriculture - The Spiritual Sound
Messa - The Spin
Qrixkuor - The Womb of the World
The Acacia Strain - You Are Safe from God Here
The Ominous Circle - Cloven Tongues of Fire
Snooze - I Know How You Will Die
Pillars of Cacophony - Paralipomena
Primitive Man - Observance
Paradise Lost - Ascension
Evoken - Mendacium
Dormant Ordeal - Tooth and Nail

A Painful Process of Extraction and Distillation: Boeli’s Unranked Top 25 of 2025:

An Abstract Illusion - The Sleeping City (progressive black/death metal)
Árstiðir - Vertrarsól (Icelandic hymns)
Asira - As Ink In Water (progressive metal)
Blackbraid - Blackbraid III - (folky black metal)
Bleed From Within - Zenith (metalcore)
Burned in Effigy - Tyrannus Æternum (melodic death metal)
Crippling Alcoholism - Camgirl (murderpop)
Conjurer - Unself (sludge metal)
Dimscûa - Dust Eater (blackened post metal)
Dormant Ordeal - Tooth and Nail (blackish death metal)
Farseer - Gateways to the Cosmic Void (progressive doom metal)
Great American Ghost - Tragedy of the Commons (metalcore)
Impureza - Alcazares (flamenco death metal)
Kardashev - Alunea (progressive death metal)
Mares of Thrace - The Loss (sludge metal)
Mawiza - Ül (death metal)
Messa - The Spin (doom metal)
Monograf - Occultation (folk/post metal)
Mors Principium Est - Darkness Invisible (melodic death metal)
Nephylim - Circuition (melodic death metal)
Point Mort - Le point de non-retour (post-metalcore)
Trudger - Void Quest (progressive sludge metal)
Värttinä - Kyly (folk)
Vower - A Storm Lined with Silver (progressive post-hardcore)
Weeping Sores - The Convalescence Agonies (progressive death/doom)

Phil K's Top 25 of 2025 - Unranked

Spares - Spares

Blue Youth - Defeatist

Crossed - Realismo Ausente

Demersal - Vi kunne ikke blive her for evigt, vel?

Telos - What They Build

Drofnosura - Ritual of Split Tongues

Town Portal - Grindwork

Bore - Feral

Mastiff - For All The Dead Dreams

Mercy Ties - Reflections and Criticisms

Trudger - Void Quest

Denude - A Murmuration of Capitalist Bees

Irk - The Seeing House

Blindfolded and Led to the Woods - The Most Difficult Thing About Being God Is That No One Believes Me

God Complex - He Watches in Silence

Haunted Horses - Dweller

Intercourse - How I Fell In Love With The Void

Pretty Mouth - Dead Ends

Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo - In The Earth Again

Malevich - Under A Gilded Sun

Svarta Havet - Manen ska lysa din vag

Abrupt Decay - The Illusion of our Choices in a World of No Options

Killing Of A Sacred Deer - A Visage of a Mangled Body

Hundreds of Au - Life in Parallel

Godot - Fever Songs

Josh B (Ranked)

1. Broken by the Scream – Solar Strain

2. Astronoid – Stargod

3. The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die – Dreams of Being Dust

4. FKA Twigs – Eusexua

5. Machine Head – Unatoned

6. Creeper – Sanguivore II

7. Dawn of Ouroboros – Bioluminescence

8. Despised Icon – Shadow Work

9. A Separate Piece – Clintoncore

10. Bleed From Within – Zenith

11. Asunojokei – Think of You

12. Dormant Ordeal – Tooth and Nail

13. Obscura – A Sonication

14. The Acacia Strain – You Are Safe From God Here

15. Rivers Of Nihil – Rivers of Nihil

16. The Callous Daoboys – I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven

17. Dream Theater – Parasomnia

18. Cryptopsy – An Insatiable Violence

19. Your Spirit Dies – My Gnawing Pains Will Never Rest

20. Warbringer – Wrath and Ruin

21. Sanguisugabogg – Hideous Aftermath

22. Object Unto Earth – The Grim Village

23. Clipping. – Dead Channel Sky

24. Ominous Ruin – Requiem

25. Ancient Death – Ego Dissolution

It’s Clobberin’ Time: Bridget’s Anxiety-Ridden and Unranked Top 25 o’25

Lipoma - No Cure for the Sick (melo-goregrind)

Orbital Gate - Demonstration of Post-Apocalyptic Warfare (conceptual slam)

Peeling Flesh - PF Radio 2 (slam-meets-hip hop)

Estuarine - Corporeal Furnace (experimental deathgrind)

Synaptic - Enter the Void (technical death metal)

Tentacult - Untamed Revulsion (cosmic technical death metal)

ByoNoiseGenerator - Subnormal Dives (jazzgrind)

Floating - Hesitating Lights (post-punk/death metal)

Kakothanasy - Metagonism (acid trip brutal death metal)

Lust Hag - Irrevocably Drubbed (death fuckin’ metal)

Sutekh Hexen - Primeval (ambient/deconstructed black metal)

Sleep Paralysis - Sleep Paralysis (jazz/chiptune/vaporwave black metal)

Mycorrhizal - The Only Way Out is Through (blackened electronica)

Embrium - Timekeeper (blackgaze)

Fortress of the Pearl - Agony and Ecstasy (medieval black ambient)

Pyramids - Pythagoras (blackgaze, neoperreo)

Sundrowned - Higanbana (post-metal, blackgaze)

Gonemage - Coldest Keep in the Bittersweet Heavens (chiptune black metal)

abriction - Forbidden Bounds (blackgaze/pop)

Pyres - YUN (stoner doom)