By Greg Maki
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And just like that, another year has come and gone. And what a year 2025 was for heavy music, led by this summer’s instantly legendary Back to the Beginning concert and Ozzy Osbourne’s passing just a couple weeks later—not unexpected but no less devastating because of that. Those titanic events served to shine a spotlight on a scene that has been thriving and growing just outside the mainstream of late, with year after year seeing bands young and old issuing vital, landmark albums. Our godfather may be gone, but metal is alive and well. Here is the best of what we heard in 2025.
HONORABLE MENTION:
Dead Heat – “Process of Elimination”
Dying Wish – “Flesh Stays Together”
Killswitch Engage – “This Consequence”
Lorna Shore – “I Feel the Everblack Me Festering Within Me”
Slaughter to Prevail – “Grizzly”
10. Wednesday 13 – “Mid Death Crisis”
“The devil made me do it/I’ll do it again …”
The 10th full-length studio recording from Wednesday 13 finds the erstwhile Murderdolls frontman doing what he does best—embracing his roots in punk rock and sleazy, ‘80s glam metal, and soaking it all in blood and guts. After a few records veering off into heavier, darker territory, “Mid Death Crisis” is light on its feet with hooks galore, macabre wordplay and a playfulness that we haven’t seen from Wednesday in some time. In a large body of work, this is among his best.
Key tracks: “When the Devil Commands,” “No Apologies,” “Decapitation”
9. Babymetal – “Metal Forth”
“Let the power go from me to you …”
Purists be damned—Babymetal is flat-out fun and metal through and through. The fifth studio album from the Japanese band, now somehow a decade and a half into its career, boasts an impressive roster of special guests—Poppy, Spiritbox, Slaughter to Prevail, Tom Morello, Bloodywood, Electric Callboy—yet those artists never take over the songs as so many features seem to do. The sound and vision of Babymetal are too strong and cohesive to allow for that. Track to track, this might be Babymetal’s most consistent album to date, catchy and heavy in equal measures.
Key tracks: “From Me to U” (featuring Poppy), “Song 3” (with Slaughter to Prevail), “Kon! Kon!” (featuring Bloodywood)
8. Orbit Culture – “Death Above Life”
“I’m reaching for fragments of fractured light …”
Album number five has proven to be the Swedish band’s international breakthrough, dialing back the death upping the groove in its metallic formula. That, plus the effective incorporation of clean vocals, opens up the sound a bit while sacrificing little in the way of heaviness. White very much its own band with its own sound, Orbit Culture should scratch the itch of fans (im)patiently awaiting Gojira’s first album since 2021.
Key tracks: “Inferna,” “The Tales of War,” “Death Above Life”
7. Turnstile – “Never Enough”
“Running from yourself now, can’t hear what you’re told …”
While maybe not quite equal to the band’s 2021 genre-bending masterpiece “Glow On,” Turnstile’s fourth full-length finds the Baltimore band expertly operating at the confluence of punk, hard rock and post-hardcore. A surprising emphasis on ambient, electronic soundscapes lends a cinematic scope without sacrificing catchiness or the occasional blast of aggression.
Key tracks: “Never Enough,” “Dreaming,” “Slowdive”
6. Dream Theater – “Parasomnia”
“Eyes wide open, but I can’t see …”
Welcome back, Mike Portnoy. While Dream Theater never stopped sounding like a progressive metal juggernaut while Mike Mangini manned the drums—let’s just not think about “The Astonishing,” OK?—everything seems to make a little more sense now. “Parasomnia,” the band’s 16th(!) studio album, plays it a little safe within the Dream Theater formula, but that just means it’s packed with epic, godlike performances—in the service of real songs, not just mindless noodling. Forty years into its career, the world’s leading progressive metal band is as strong as it’s ever been.
Key tracks: “Night Terror,” “Midnight Messiah,” “Bend the Clock”
5. Architects – “The Sky, the Earth & All Between”
“‘Cause I gave you all a part of me …”
On its 11th studio album, under the steady hand of producer Jordan Fish, British metalcore band Architects strikes a near-perfect balance between the radio-friendly sound of recent efforts and the more aggressive tendencies of its past. Vocalist Sam Carter gives the standout performance, alternating between ferocious screams and massive, melodic choruses. The record feels like a summation of the band’s career to date powered by the same fire and energy of its earlier days.
Key tracks: “Elegy,” “Whiplash,” “Seeing Red”
4. Spiritbox – “Tsunami Sea”
“You all deserve each other …”
Spiritbox’s second full-length album washes over the listener like the massive wave of its title, pulling us down into the depths of singer Courtney LaPlante’s anxieties and insecurities. Shifting from anguished screams to hypnotic melodies as the mood fits, LaPlante is our guide on this tumultuous journey, while guitarist/co-producer Mike Stringer leads a musical attack that pulls from metalcore, nu metal and djent bathed in an electronic sheen. Equal parts epic and accessible, “Tsunami Sea” is a powerful, unstoppable musical statement.
Key tracks: “Fata Morgana,” “Soft Spine,” “No Loss, No Love”
3. Testament – “Para Bellum”
“Another game in the land of the free …”
To the surprise of many, Testament’s 14th studio album features a full-blown power ballad, a song that 35 years ago might have made the Bay Area thrash act one of the biggest metal bands on the planet. But that’s never been Testament’s game. In the 1990s, when its peers leaned toward alternative rock and then nu metal, Testament got heavier, embracing death metal and black metal. With this year’s “Para Bellum,” the band has pulled together all the flavors of its long career, mixing up thrash, death, black and groove metal (along with a bit of progressive flair) into a sound that comes across as both vintage and modern in all the best ways.
Key tracks: “Infanticide A.I.,” “Meant to Be,” “Nature of the Beast”
2. Rivers of Nihil – “Rivers of Nihil”
“Existence is, oh, so temporary …”
I don’t know exactly when a death metal band no longer is a death metal band, but the line probably should be drawn somewhere around the prominent use of saxophone. Or maybe we can say that Rivers of Nihil isn’t just a death metal band. The loss of founding member and vocalist Jake Dieffenbach is barely felt on the Pennsylvania act’s self-titled fifth album, with bassist Adam Biggs taking over harsh vocals and new guitarist Andy Thomas handling the prominent cleans. With an extra punch from a relatively compact 50-minute runtime, the record is heavy, dynamic, catchy and technical—progressive metal at its finest in 2025.
Key tracks: “The Sub-Orbital Blues,” “Water & Time,” “House of Light”
1. Castle Rat – “The Bestiary”
“Behold the flame and all you have burned …”
What can I say—I’ve always been a sucker for a good gimmick. Metal and fantasy long have been intertwined, and the marriage never has been stronger—or more effective—than it is with Castle Rat. With the onstage battles of the Rat Queen, aka vocalist/guitarist Riley Pinkerton, and the nefarious Rat Reaperess going viral, the Brooklyn, New York, act became one of the most buzzworthy metal bands of 2025. But there’s a lot more to Castle Rat than swords and chainmail bikinis. “The Bestiary,” the band’s second album, is a doom metal masterwork worshipping at the altars of Black Sabbath and Frank Frazetta as Pinkerton guides us through a wizard’s menagerie of mystical creatures. Playing out like the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual set to music, “The Bestiary” features huge riffs, earth-shaking basslines, thunderous drums and unforgettable vocal melodies. Hail to the queen.
Key tracks: “Wizard,” “Siren,” “Sun Song”
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