I’m gonna do a better job tracking the best albums of 2025 than I did in 2024. Here’s my top albums of 2025, which will be regularly updated as I discover new favorites. Hopefully, it’ll be a better year for music. Did I miss out any awesome 2025 albums in here? Write me on Instagram.
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- Stefan Nordström
- Musician, songwriter, content creator, digital freelancer
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Bands: Desolator, Soliloquium, Ending Quest, Ashes of Life, Trees of Daymare, The Ashen Tree
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Shameless self-promotion of 2025
My progressive death/doom band Soliloquium is releasing an album entitled “Famine” on April 11th. If you dig dark Nordic music like Katatonia, Insomnium, Swallow the Sun and like, why don’t you have a listen? You might dig it!
I’m also featured on the brand-new Sorrowful Land album “Hiraeth”, melodic death/doom metal from Ukraine:
My 25 top albums of 2025
25. Last Leaf Down – Weight of Silence
Switzerland’s Last Leaf Down is a reliable producer of dreamy, atmospheric music since 2003. This is another tasty dive into post rock and shoegaze that I’ll definitely spin from time to time. Recommended for fans of the style.
Listen: “Reach the Sun”
24. Blood Red Throne – Siltskin
The Norwegian riff machine always delivers. This is another solid offering on par with the previous albums, and if you previously know the band, you know what they are capable of.
Listen: “Husk in the Grain”
23. Testament – Para Bellum
The unexpected brutality of this album really caught me off guard. I’m all in when it comes to Testament with blastbeats and death/black metal tendencies. Extremely strong album for a legacy band in a stagnated genre.
Listen: “Infanticide A.I.”
22. Crippling Alcoholism – Camgirl
This one’s wild, and I’m not sure where to place it. Very atmospheric and dark gothic/synth overlap with some noise rock and metal tendencies. Really cool and cinematic album with a palpable, direct darkness to it.
Listen: “Saran Wrapped Cash”
21. Deafheaven – Lonely People with Power
While I’m not on the 4,0+ rating on RYM hype train, this is certainly a good album that I’ll give repeated listens. Solid atmosphere and songwriting, and the album title and its themes couldn’t be more fitting for the unreal times we live in.
20. Unreqvited – A Pathway to the Moon
I’ve dabbled in Unreqvited before, but this album is what really lifts the band from a good band to a great band. The addition of soaring clean vocals into their atmospheric/post black metal sound is a perfect idea, increasing the emotional impact of the sound a lot. Love this album, especially the singles.
Listen: “The Starforger”
19. Steve von Till – Alone in a World of Wounds
I always loved the meditative factor of ex-Neurosis guitarist/vocalist Steve von Till’s solo material. “Alone in a World of Wounds” is another great addition to this discography, this time with much more darkness. His raspy baritone sounds as phenomenal as ever, and the atmosphere hits hard.
Listen: “Watch them Fade”
18. Dawn of Solace – Affliction Vortex
Tuomas Saukkonen + Mikko Heikkilä is an unbeatable Finnish doom/gothic metal combo, and I already knew this would be good. This right on par with the last two albums after reactivating the project, which means it’s absolutely wonderful. If you’re looking for Finnish winter sadness, this is it!
Listen: “Murder”
17. Matt Berninger – Get Sunk
Sorry (not sorry) to smash semi-pop music in her, but “Get Sunk” is more doom than a lot of the albums on this list. Lots of stuff here perfectual captures my mood in 2025, and it feels like Matt is more musically free here than in The National. Catchy, varied songs. Dude has a way with words, to say the least.
Listen: “No Love”
16. Kauan – Wayhome
After the lovely “Ice Fleet”, this is yet another lovely piece of post metal/post rock. Kauan really doesn’t have to stray far from their formula here to make something amazing. Just a testament to the bands longevity and songwriting talent.
15. Maruja – Pain to Power
Super-hyped Rateyourmusic albums are very hit and miss. In Maruja’s case, it’s all hit. “It’s our differences that make us beautiful”. Fuck yeah, I’ll sign on that. Whatever the hell this is, I really like it. It has rap and saxophones and so on, so many of you might hate it. But I definitely don’t.
Listen: “Look Down on Us”
14. Noctambulist – Noctambulist II: De Droom
I really enjoyed the debut from this Dutch atmospheric black metal band, and it feels like they took another step forward here. It sounds amazing sonically, seamlessly mixing extreme and non-extreme moments. Very tasty album that totally hits the spot for me.
Listen: “Lichteter”
13. Novembers Doom – Major Arcana
I haven’t been listening to Novembers Doom in a long time, but that certainly changed in 2025. Probably my favorite album from them since “The Pale Haunt Departure”. Vocalist Paul Kuhr sounds massive on this, as his always amazing growls is combined with revitalized clean vocals. The music is also more lively and aggressive than it’s been in years. Great stuff!
Listen: “Major Arcana”
12. Dawn of Ouroboros – Bioluminescence
Another atmospheric and style-acrobatic album from DoO. As usual, both the brutal and gentle stylings of the band leave me impressed. I hear everything from Rivers of Nihil to Twin Peaks music here. DoO is clearly going places, and for good reason. I’m certainly ready to put the band in the quality-guaranteed category after a third super-nice full-length release.
Listen: “Bioluminescence”
11. Lunatic Soul – The World Under Unsun
Mariusz Duda apparently keeps staying ultra-productive, and as always, it’s good stuff. Unsurprisingly, it’s yet another Lunatic Soul with strong introspective emotion. The huge run time is not my thing, but the quality is definitely there. Lovely atmospherics as always.
Listen: “The World Under Unsun”
10. Kaunis Kuolematon – Kun valo minussa kuoli
Another slab of gorgeous melancholic gothic doom metal from this band. Their discography remains flawless, and this is another testament to how powerful Kaunis is. Such a special band that knows exactly how to fuse brutality, melody and more tender moments together.
Listen: “Merta”
9. Sanguisugabogg – Hideous Aftermath
I did not expect to have a death metal band in my top 20 of 2025, especially this brutal, but here we are. The relentless grooves and tempo changes of this album really caught me off-guard, as I haven’t been particularly impressed by their previous stuff. “Hideous Aftermath” is super-infectious though, and manages to have a solid amount of variation in style as well.
Listen: “Abhorrent Contraception”
Some thoughts on “Hideous Aftermath” ->
8. Jonathan Hultén – Eyes of the Living Night
Jonathan released an interesting, but uneven, debut some years ago. He’s actively breaching out his acoustic folk sound more and more, finding something more unique. Some amazing singing and emotion on this if you’re looking for something softer than most things on this list.
Listen: “Riverflame”
7. The Man-Eating Tree – Night Verses
Featuring Ghost Brigade vocalist Manne Ikonen sure piqued my interest, and “Night Verses” really surpasses all expectations. This is a superb dive into Finnish melancholic offering aggression, melody, atmosphere, and above all great songwriting. Recommended!
Listen: “The Seer”
6. Anna von Hausswolff – Iconoclasts
Anna von Hausswolff is finally back with vocals after the instrumental “All Thoughts Fly” album. The singles were a good indication that this was going to be a good one, and it definitely is. Anna is going grand Opus mode here, with a music style that feels like a more bombastic mix of “Ceremony” and “Dead Magic”. On paper, that sounds just perfect for me. Even if the songs aren’t quite as strong as on those albums, and this thing is a tad overload, it’s great and certainly goes on my top albums of 2025.
Listen: “Stardust”
5. In Mourning – The Immortal
In Mourning has had a good streak of albums, and it’s definitely continuing. “The Immortal” brings stronger production values and more variation to the table. Third banger album in a row – quite positive this one will even become my favorite of the last three.
Listen: “Song of the Cranes”
4. Nailed to Obscurity – Generation of the Void
A quality-guarantee band this one, and “Generation of the Void” keeps developing the sound. I quite enjoy the nods to “Night is the New Day” era Katatonia, as it goes well with the more extreme sections. Will probably become my favorite of theirs over time, when I’ve digested it more.
Listen: “Glass Bleeding”
3. Deftones – Private Music
Check out Vodkaccino Stefano’s Deftones album ranking ->
I wasn’t super-excited about this one, given how little I cared for “Ohms”, but this is a way more energetic and passionate offering. It’s more intense, packs more of a bit, and Chino also sounds better than on the last two albums. Far from reinventing the wheel, but that’s not really needed with Deftones either. The album has definitely had staying/growing power over repeated listens, too!
Listen: “My Mind is a Mountain”
2. Rivers of Nihil – Rivers of Nihil
This band always tends to get me, despite not entirely being my style on paper. It’s no different in 2025, as the new release blends crushing chugs, modern prog moves and huge hooks. The songs are constantly in my head.
Listen: “House of Light”
1. Hangman’s Chair – Saddiction
Considering how much I loved “Loner”, it’s no surprise that this became my leading AOTY right from Valentine’s Day (perfect release date for some of the most depressing shit ever?). This album feels a bit more loose and vocal-driven, which is just perfect, because the vocals are even more amazing than on the last album. Another total banger album! I love this band.
Listen: “Kowloon Lights”
Other good stuff
Alternative metal from 2025:
- lowheaven – Ritual Decay
Black metal from 2025:
- Afsky – Fællesskab
- Blackbraid – Blackbraid III
- Der Weg einer Freiheit – Innern
- Genune – Infinite Presence
- Kryptan – Violence, Our Power
- Obsidian Tongue – Eclipsing Worlds of Scorn
Doom metal from 2025:
- Apocalypse Orchestra – A Plague Upon Thee
- Falling Leaves – The Silence That Binds Us
- Frayle – Heretics & Lullabies
- Inborn Suffering – Pale Grey Monochrome
- Messa – At Races
- Old Night – Mediterranean Melancholy
- Opia – I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep
- Paradise Lost – Ascension
- Pilgrimage – From Amber to Sun
- Sorrow Blue – Elegy for a Bleak Autumn
Death metal from 2025:
- Demiurgon – Miasmatic Deathless Chamber
- Depravity – Bestial Possession
- Percipient – Marionette
- Phrenelith – Ashen Womb
- Proscription – Desolate Divine
- Sepulchral Curse – Crimson Moon Evocations
- Throne – That Who Sat Upon Him, Was Death
Melodic death metal from 2025:
- Mors Principium Est – Darkness Invisible
- The Halo Effect – March of the Unheard
Progressive metal from 2025:
- Green Carnation – A Dark Poem, Pt. I: The Shores of Melancholia
- Lunar – Tempora Mutantur
Sludge/post metal from 2025:
- Ainsoph – Affection & Vengeance
- Bianca – Bianca
- Black Narcissus – There Lingers One Who’s Long Forgotten
- Feversea – Man Under Erasure
- Guiltless – Teeth to Sky
- Heretoir – Solastalgia
- Novarupta – Astral Sands
- Pothamus – Abur
- Primitive Man – Observance
- Psychonaut – World Maker
- This Gift is a Curse – Heir
Thrash metal from 2025:
- Cryptosis – Celestial Death
- The Damnnation – Eyes of Despair
- Sarcator – Swarming Angels & Flies
EP’s:
- Ars Onirica – 2.5 Nighttime EP
- Obscure Sphinx – Emovere
- Rolo Tomassi – In the Echoes of All Dreams
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