Well folks, we made it through another year of the post-apocalyptic 20's. This was a rough year - roughest in a while - yet I still remain somewhat even keel in my pessimism. I guess you could say I've just acclimated to the idea of living in a future imperfect. I think my list walks an interesting line between pessimism and a deep, grieving peace I feel when I think about the world I've known and will one day leave behind. 2026 is the dawn of my 50th year here, and who can say how much longer I'll be around? Probably for a while, but sometimes it doesn't feel that way at all. The impermanence of our society soaks through the everyday world and makes it all seem... doomed. But it felt that way last year, and the year before, and the year before, so... you see why I've adopted that post-apocalyptic qualifier for our present era.
And yet, 2025 was another fantastic year for music. I have some returning favorites on the list and some artists who are new to me. Before we get started, though, I want to throw some love and awe at Heaven Is An Incubator's year-end album list. If you want to really break beyond what you think you know about music, visit his list HERE.
Okay, here are my ten favorite albums that came out in 2025. I've kept the numbering at bay, but the top three are the top three. 'Nuff said.
Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power
Deafheaven returns and answers the question on everyone's mind for the last few years: "Are they done with the black metal vocals?" We've watched vocalist George Clarke develop and hone his clean vocal technique since Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, and as much as I love Infinite Granite and am here if the band wants to do more albums in that vein, I loved that Deafheaven returned full force on Lonely People With Power. The album is heavy, weird and downright caustic at times, and it couldn't sound better. Way to go, guys!
Buy HERE.
Odonis Odonis - Eponymous
Buy HERE.
Steve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST
I have bought and cherished every original soundtrack Zombi's Steve Moore has made for Joe Begos since their relationship began on Begos' second feature film, The Mind's Eye. Somehow, though, I don't think I've ever ranked one of those records in my top ten of the year. This is all oversight and a product of how my brain processes information. Soundtracks and scores feel separate from 'albums' when I compose my lists, and that's not fair at all. So I had to put Moore's score to Begos' latest, Jimmy & Stiggs, on my list this year because it's f*cking great! The film itself is insane, and the score anchors the titular characters' descent into madness as they prepare an impossible line of self-defense against the incredible, all while trapped within the familiar. Moore also knows when to swing his own proverbial hammer, and there are some magnificent moments of Herculean bombast contained within this score, which I've used to start my day more times than not since it arrived.
Buy HERE.
Young Widows fell off my radar a bit during the nearly ten-year hiatus that saw vocalist/guitarist Evan Patterson build out his Jaye Jayle project. Now they're back and I live oh so close to them, so I was ecstatic when they not only released a new album this year, but played nearby. Power Sucker is a fantastic record, and one that helped set the tone for my year. Those big sloppy slabs of sound that often earn the band a hyphenated qualifier "noise-" are in full display, the lyrics are sharp as ever, and by track thirteen's conclusion, I usually feel a bit bludgeoned.
Exactly why I continue to show up. Here's to many more Young Widows albums in the immediate future (hint hint).
Blackbraid - Blackbraid III
The progression of Blackbraid from I, through II, and now on to III is so clear and exciting. This project just keeps getting better, darker, and more experienced in laying out some of the most intricate compositions in Metal today. Like II, Blackbraid III continues to see Sgah'gahsowáh (aka John Krieger) develop the overall tapestry of his writing and sound. This plays like one large piece of music with multiple movements, and that makes it feel almost cosmic in scope. The Earthy tones temper the razor-sharp black metal with a spirit of communion and renewal, helping Blackbraid transcend the Black Metal milieu, so that I consider them a peer to a band like Blut Aus Nord or Zeal and Ardor more than any of the more conventional bands out there today (not that there's anything wrong with conventional metal of any kind).
Slow Cruch - Thirst
Nothing about Slow Crush's new album, Thirst, can be accused of reinventing the shoegaze wheel. Doesn't matter. This is an excellently crafted example of the genre, with some surprises thrown in for good measure. There's such a respect for the overall tone of the album as applied to the individual tracks, so that this feels like one long piece of music - always my favorite kind of album. Issa Holliday's vocals split the difference between a kind of dream-induced psychosis and a slightly more aggressive approach to the genre's style, which makes this one stand out. I dig how the album moves and evolves from track to track, and by the end, you just feel a big, epic energy that often invites immediate replay.
Buy HERE.
My 2025 Apple Music 'Wrapped" will tell you Deftones' private music was my favorite album of the year, and it is certainly up there. This was my most-listened to digitally - hell, it was the soundtrack to my summer. I listened to this album more days than not during those warmer months, and that was an experience I hadn't encountered for years. I began my relationship with this one rather tentatively, but very quickly it moved into place as maybe just behind Koi No Yokan as my favorite of their recent albums (White Pony and Saturday Night Wrist are untouchable, mind you). There's love, honor, appreciation and a lot of subtle hooks that really anchor the flow of the record so it feels like another of the band's coherent statements. There's even a moment that makes me wonder if this is the final Deftones album. Let's f*cking hope not, eh?
Buy HERE.
Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons
Blut Aus Nord's Ethereal Horizons is a painting. It is a musical movement that pushes aside the veil of the mundane and offers tantalizing glimpses of something beyond human ken. Part sequel to 2018's Hallucinogen, part completely new horizon, this record stands as yet another example of how utterly Vindsval and his collaborators embrace a completely original approach to creating music. This isn't metal, it's art.
Deadguy - Near-Death Travel Services
I still cannot believe that, after 30 years, I not only got to see Deadguy live last year, but we got a new album from the original line-up back in May! I mean, this is unheard of, even moreso because Near-Death Travel Services is AWESOME! This album pummels you from start to finish, not just with the heaviest riffs and phrasing I heard all year, but with vocalist Tim Singer's blistering lyrics and delivery.
"It's all a parlor trick
A hollow hand with empty offers
This life we share is a gimmick."*
This isn't one of those long-awaited reunion records that feel like Deadguy never left. Instead, just as the world has escalated over the thirty-years since Fixation on a Co-Worker, Deadguy's own mechanims for processing and traversing the current cultural climate has seen its own brand of escalation; the 'I'll-rip-your-face-off' aesthetic that endeared me to tracks like "Pins and Needles" and "The Extremist" has sequed into the, "I'll-burn-your-fucking-house-down-with-you-inside" response I think a lot of us feel toward the world at large. The trick is to keep that shit under control. One way to do that is to create music like Deadguy. Another is listening to that music.
"I don't see a happy ending, do you?
I don't see a solution, do you?
I don't think words will save us, do you?"**
This just hits the 2025 nail right on the head, doesn't it?
Buy HERE.
* Cheap Trick
** The Alarmist
Willie Nelson has always held my respect, especially after seeing him live in 2015. The man's a legend, but what I didn't know until that show is, he's also one of the best living guitar players working in popular music today. I'll not pretend to be a die-hard fan, but I have a few records I listen to now and again, and his music has made a pretty deep impact on my life on several occasions. This record being the biggest.
Now, put Crowell and Nelson together on an album where one plays songs by the other, and we have absolute magic. This album is beautiful, heartfelt, heartwrenching, and uplifting in a way few musicians could ever hope to convey. This helped me through the loss of our cat Sweetie, and thus, after spending weeks in my CD player, it slipped off regular rotation. I've been peppering it in again lately, but the nerves are still too raw. That doesn't change the fact that this is by far the best album I heard in 2025.
Buy HERE.
Finally, a HUGE shout-out to Wake the Devil.
With the singles they've released this year, I have no doubt that once the full album comes out, it will be at the top of my list.
