2025 will go down as a year that sucked for me, and a lot of that is because my house burned down in the Los Angeles wildfires in the first week of the year. I lost everything from my impressive CD collection to all the cards from my late grandma. Between the literal burning and the burning out from two semesters of foolishly overloading math courses¹—along with the PhD application process in a year with academic budget cuts due to a vitriolic administration fueled by ignorance and hate—2025 was certainly awful.

On the positive side, I explored parts of the globe I hadn’t before. I have many excellent friends, an incredibly sweet girlfriend,² and a very supportive family, so I never felt alone—that doesn’t even include my incredible friends and enemies at the Subway who I am extremely grateful to have.³ I’m going into 2026 as a much more content person.

Now that I’ve shared a bit about my personal life, how was the musical year 2025? Well, a massive disappointment and straight-up the worst since 2014. Truthfully, I don’t want to dwell on the negatives too much, but I’ll call out a handful of the biggest letdowns: An Abstract Illusion, Dream Theater, Obscura, Little Simz, Nishaiar, Panopticon, The Reticent, and the entire genre of power metal.⁴ Too many awesome artists to count released decent enough but underwhelming albums, too, like Ghais Guevara, Coroner, Kardashev, Midnight Odyssey,⁵ Avantasia, Amorphis… the list goes on and on.

But out of the 1,050+ (and counting) albums released in 2025 that I listened to, some made listening to music worthwhile and the whole “music critic schtick” still fun,⁶ so I’m thrilled to share my list with my throngs of adoring fans. Without further ado, what music made 2025 tolerable?

Honorable Mentions:

• Silvana Estrada – Vendrán Suaves Lluvias: On her sophomore album, Silvana Estrada is no longer just one of the most promising new presences in folk music: she’s proven she’s the real deal. Estrada’s voice, virtuosic and full of agility, is always the centerpiece of the largely minimalist arrangements, her poetic lyrics of heartbreak and grief touching. Vendrán Suaves Lluvias is a record as gorgeous as Estrada’s voice.
• Maruja – Pain to Power: After a decade of EPs and one collection of rehearsal jams, it was time for Maruja to release an LP, and they blew their strong back catalog out of the water. Pain to Power is expressive and vibrant post-punk/prog rock, taking the best of what the Windmill Scene⁷ has to offer and improving upon it. From the shouted raps in a Manchester accent to the Colin Stetson-esque saxophone playing, Maruja exceeded every lofty expectation for their debut.
• Rosalía – Lux: Spirituality is a difficult enough theme to capture with the full sonic toolkit of metal, so I was skeptical when the concept of Spanish flamenco pop icon Rosalía’s new album, Lux, was revealed—dealing with divinity. But Lux sees her at her most audacious—operatic and polyglottal vocals, orchestration, flamenco, and dozens of memorable moments—and Rosalía has created what is easily among the most sonically ambitious pop albums of all time. Lux is ecstatic, thrumming with divine power, and the best non-prog album of the year.⁸

EP of the Year:

• Lorem Ipsum – Même Quand ta Main Quittera la Mienne: This short EP of French screamo over chamber music instrumentation is, against the odds, the release I returned to the most in 2025. Lorem Ipsum write intricate, beautiful arrangements for piano, acoustic guitar, drums, and violin, and Maxime Foulon’s evocative vocal performance tugs on the heartstrings in its rawness—I don’t need to understand the lyrics to be fully moved by the EP.⁹ At only thirteen minutes, I couldn’t place it in the actual list in good faith, but know that Même Quand ta Main Quittera la Mienne would have a place near the summit.

Songs of the Year:

• Phantom Spell – “The Autumn Citadel”
• Laufey – “Sabotage”
• Rosalía – “Berghain”
• Suncraft – “High on Silence”

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10. Wyatt E. – Zam​ā​ru Ultu Qereb Ziqquratu, Pt. 1

Style: Psychedelic rock, doom metal, drone (Clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Om, Lowen, Earth, Neptunian Maximalism

January was a full year—and over a thousand albums—ago, so it’s always interesting seeing what albums have stuck with me for that long, while fighting the uphill battle against recency bias. The best record from way back when was Zam​ā​ru Ultu Qereb Ziqquratu, Pt. 1. As much as I dug the record in January, I never expected the ancient Babylonian drone to make my top ten. That’s my error, though, because these freaky Belgian droners¹⁰ intimately understand atmosphere and pacing—from the first lengthy buildup in “qaqqari lā târi Part I,” I’m instantly transported back a few thousand years and many thousands of miles. Zamāru is tasteful with emotional folky singing, impeccable usage of maqams, sweltering guitar leads, and immaculate and dynamic percussion. Altogether, Zamāru sounds like a desert apocalypse is coming, and I’m ready to be blown away by Pt. 2.

Recommended tracks: qaqqari lā târi Part I, The Diviner’s Prayer to the Gods of the Night, Ahanu Ersetum
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | original review

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9. Imperial Triumphant – Goldstar

Style: Progressive black metal, avant-garde metal, dissonant death metal (Harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Gorguts, Charles Mingus, Oranssi Pazuzu, Blut Aus Nord, Ulcerate

I’ll be honest: although Goldstar certainly has “Nine ‘Class A’ Tunes,” the record’s a bit of a letdown since the previous three Imperial Triumphant albums had a bunch of ‘Class S’ tunes. Dialing back the experimentation has undeniably worked for the NYC power trio—among the top metal albums of the year on Rateyourmusic, Anthony Fantano’s number one metal album of the year, high scores across the board—but that aspect of their sound is sorely missed by their biggest fan (me). And yet Goldstar is still convincingly one of the best records of the year because of who Imperial Triumphant are at their indispensable core. Their mix of jazziness and weird black/death metal is still present with crazy solos, unexpected twists, sleek Art Deco aesthetic, and irrefutable proof that “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” has the first metal riff. The more compact structures and straightforward riffs on Goldstar also work in the band’s favor in some ways, as I found myself often turning it on when I didn’t know what else to play. Its straightforwardness is definitely addicting… “Nine ‘Class A’ Tunes,” indeed.

Recommended tracks: Gomorrah Nouveaux, Hotel Sphinx, Rot Moderne, Industry of Misery
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | original review

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8. Kostnatění – Přílišnost (Excess)

Style: Experimental black metal, dissonant black metal (Mixed vocals, mostly harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Blut Aus Nord, Deathspell Omega, Mare Cognitum, Melechesh

Excess is an apt choice of title. With a wide array of influences ranging from microtonal Turkish classical music to black metal to nu metal, Přílišnost shows D.L. (the man behind Kostnatěni) continuing to refine his unique voice in the metal world. For thirty-four maelstromic minutes, black metal is taken to places it hasn’t been, but even if you aren’t into copious experimentation, the riffs are scorching hot, as if you’ve succumbed to heat stroke. As D.L. says on Bandcamp, Přílišnost is “dedicated to the suffocating, destructive pursuit of self-perfection,” and it’s clear he means that. The album is radical and different, and although not every experiment works perfectly, that’s part of its charm. Kostnatěni’s previous record Úpal was my 2023 Subway AOTY, and Přílišnost is a worthy successor: insanely creative, relentlessly energetic, and viciously fun every time.

Recommended tracks: Kostely byly mrakodrapy (Churches Were the Skyscrapers); Zpět ke kmenům (Back to the Tribes); Znal jsem tě (I Knew You)
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | original review

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7. Maud the Moth – The Distaff

Style: Neoclassical darkwave (Clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Björk, Lingua Ignota, Anna von Hausswolff

Amaya López-Carromero’s sirenical voice guides the unprepared listener through her magnum opus, The Distaff. The instrumentation continually shifts: minimalist piano undulations, distending cellos, Moog synthesizers fraught with noise, bird calls. López-Carromero’s arrangements coalesce and collapse organically—a thread of piano dies, leaving her delicate voice naked, and the crunch of an electric guitar heralds in a flurried rush of activity before disappearing into the abyss again. The music itself sits within the ether of introspective thought, pulling directly from various wells of emotion in an unsettlingly effective way. The beacon of constancy in The Distaff, in the inky depths of the artistic mind, is López-Carromero’s delicate soprano, but that, too, (de)materializes at will. She leaves us with only the silence between; it is the undulating disquiet that makes The Distaff such an alluring masterclass in organic songwriting.

Recommended tracks: A Temple by the River, Exuviae, Despeñaperros, Fiat Lux
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | original review

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6. Blut Aus Nord – Ethereal Horizons

Style: Blut Aus Nord – Ethereal Horizons (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Mare Cognitum, Ihsahn, Deathspell Omega, The Ruins of Beverast

For the last several years, I have become increasingly infatuated with dissonance in my music. In 2018 I confidently declared melodic death metal was clearly the best style of music, and as recently as 2020, you can find me in the Angry Metal Guy comment sections disparaging Imperial Triumphant.¹¹ In 2025, however, half of the death and black metal I enjoyed most was on the vile side. When Blut Aus Nord announced a new record, I was hyped to smack a high score on another amazing dissoblack record this year—after all, BAN originally defined the style. Ethereal Horizons is not dissonant, but the pervasive alienness of previous BAN releases still permeates every pore of the record. Shedding their dissonant skin to reveal the blinding post-black metal core, BAN have sculpted an enticing new sound full of prog metal riffs, gothic clean vocals, and enough weirdness to keep me satiated. Ethereal Horizons was a welcome surprise and proof that sixteen albums in, Vindsval still has new tricks up his sleeve.

Recommended tracks: Shadows Breathe First, The Fall Opens the Sky, The End Becomes Grace
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | original review

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5. Vauruvã – Mar de Deriva

Style: Progressive black metal, atmospheric black metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Wolves in the Throne Room, Panopticon, Kaatayra, Mare Cognitum, Blut Aus Nord

For the sixth consecutive year, Caio Lemos (Kaatayra, Bríi, Vestígio, Vauruvã) has made my top ten. What more is there to say? He makes music that tickles my brain like no other musician does so consistently. Intoxicating hypnagogic atmospheres, dynamic and fluctuating song structures, and Caio Lemos’ extremely distinctive harmonic fingerprint makes Mar de Deriva his dreamiest record yet. At this point, it’s textbook for the guy to release masterpieces annually, though, and I’m slowly running out of things to say about his majestic work. Caio Lemos already had the artist of the decade award locked up from the first half alone, and this is a damn good start to the second half.

Recommended tracks: Os Caçadores, As Selvas Vermelhas No Planeta dos Eminentes
Related links: Bandcamp | Instagram | original review

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4. Changeling – Changeling

Style: Progressive death metal, technical death metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Alkaloid, Obscura, Devin Townsend, Morbid Angel, Yes

If you want to know how to make my Album of the Year list, pay attention to what Tom “Fountainhead” Geldschläger is doing on his Changeling debut. It’s a cheat code. The Akróasis-era Obscura fretless guitar virtuoso has assembled a supergroup of sorts, along with a dozen fantastic guests, to write one of the most ambitious progressive death metal records this decade, blending several of my favorite bands into one. Morean (Alkaloid) provides his always-stellar lyricism with his unique vocals, recalling Obsidious with some of his best choruses to date (“Falling in Circles,” “World? What World?”); the instrumentation is like Alkaloid or Obscura at their proggiest; and the massive array of real orchestration and folk music from around the world tie the album together. All of these glorious and diverse sounds are relayed to us earthlings through winding and intense songs, capped off with the cinematic epic “Anathema.” So yeah. If you have the pedigree of helping to create one of the best albums in tech death history, bring along your friends with similar accolades, turn up the ambition to eleven, and then deliver a quality final product, you are guaranteed a spot near the top of my album of the year list. Well done, Fountainhead.

Recommended tracks: Instant Results, World? What World?, Falling in Circles
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | original review

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3. Dessiderium – Keys to the Palace

Style: Progressive death metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Ne Obliviscaris, Insomnium, Disillusion, Kardashev, Wintersun, Wilderun

The keys of Keys to the Palace are largely major, and the record is a jubilant affair, overflowing with a cornucopia of positivity and harmony. It’s not Alex Haddad’s first foray into major key songwriting—2021’s masterpiece Aria is full of it—but it’s his first overwhelmingly happy record; Keys to the Palace concludes a trilogy of albums whose narrative and sonic arc covered depression (Shadows Burn), sage acceptance (Aria), and now, this immense celebration. Keys to the Palace is always colorful and full of textures, with Haddad’s excellent guitar playing stealing the show as he continues refining his distinctive style. Relying more heavily on his steadily improving clean vocals, Haddad’s performance on that front is warm and airy, helping add to Keys to the Palace’s immaculate vibes. Keys to the Palace is further proof (as if we needed it) that Haddad is a fantastic musician and songwriter—and a really cool guy. (I have had the pleasure to chat with him after two Atheist shows as well as an Arkaik show. Still haven’t caught Dessiderium live, though.) Keys to the Palace is maximalist and unabashedly positive—an excellent addition to an already stellar 2020s for Dessiderium.

Recommended tracks: Dover Hendrix, Pollen for the Bees, Magenta
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | original review

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2. Qrixkuor – The Womb of the World

Style: Cavernous death metal, symphonic death metal, experimental death metal (Mixed vocals, mostly harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Immolation, Teitanblood, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Stravinsky

Metal is inherently existentialist,¹² so that madness is a common theme isn’t a surprise. Delirium is, to the existentialist, a profound response to the inherent anxieties of existence—such as meaninglessness, freedom, and death—and too many metal bands have tried to capture the feeling. Few have succeeded to the level of Qrixkuor’s The Womb of the World, a grandiose descent into the primordial shadows of the human psyche. Cavernous, expansive riffs coated in pitch form the base of the four labyrinthine songs, but what elevates Qrixkuor’s sound is their use of real orchestration. A decaying regality underlies The Womb of the World, like a great mind collapsed in upon itself. The chromatic solos and horns manifesting out of the murky buzzsaw guitars are unpredictable, twisted, and clearly the work of master songwriters. The Womb of the World is one of the most ambitious and dark death metal albums of the decade, and its spot as my favorite metal album of the year is well-deserved.

Recommended tracks: Slithering Serendipity, The Womb of the World
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | original review

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1. Bruit ≤ – The Age of Ephemerality

Style: Post-rock, modern classical (Instrumental)
Recommended for fans of: Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Explosions in the Sky, Caspian, We Lost the Sea

Bruit ≤ write music that breathes life into a hostile world. The Age of Ephemerality is thematically topical, but musically, the album is timeless. Aspects of The Age of Ephemerality could only have been recorded in the last few years—the ensemble of distorted guitars recorded in a church, electronic beats, and crushing production are all slickly modern—but in spirit, the album elicits the exact same sublimity that the Romantics chased. As Mahler said, “A symphony must be like the world, it must contain everything,” and Bruit ≤ embody that sentiment. Composed in the vogue “crescendo-core” fashion of post-rock, The Age of Ephemerality’s five tracks each come alive in waves of perpetually increasing tension. From quiet beginnings, the band adds layer upon decadent layer of horns, choirs, guitars, spoken word, string quartets, and breakbeats until the air is fully saturated in radiant noise. The buildups are euphoric and crushing; Bruit ≤ climb until they touch God, and then continue on ever higher. At a piece’s giddy zeniths, Bruit ≤ shake the earth with pulsating rhythms and breathless extremity—crushing volume. The agonizingly beautiful climaxes seem simultaneously too short and endless as terrifying displays of the power of sound—the tracks only end when the instruments reluctantly cannibalize themselves in noise to spare my accelerated heart. When the record concludes, I am overwhelmed by a profound sense of peace and calmness. I always sit in quiet contemplation after hearing The Age of Ephemerality, a record which captures emotions essential to the way I experience life on Earth like few other artists have.

Recommended tracks: Progress / Regress, Technoslavery / Vandalism, The Intoxication of Power
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | original review

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1. I still wrote a personal high sixty-five reviews this year despite my pace coming to a grinding halt for most of the fall semester. ↩︎
2. Who has also helped the blog Instagram blossom into something none of us really thought it could attain. Go give us a follow! ↩︎
3. The other people in my life are grateful for my Subway friends, too, although they may not know it. I have a whole group to talk about avant-garde metal with instead of subjecting whoever is around me to it constantly. ↩︎
4.  Except for Majestica and Insania. ↩︎
5. I love Midnight Odyssey’s other ambient work, so the new one isn’t a letdown because it’s ambient.
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6.  Who am I kidding? I love a good roast. ↩︎
7.  Bands like Black Country, New Road and Black Midi. ↩︎
8. Fun fact: the Subway team had a lengthy discussion about whether or not this album was prog enough to cover. We didn’t cover it only because she has forty million monthly listeners although I still hold the opinion this is as progressive as pop gets. ↩︎
9.  In fact, knowing the quality of lyrics of other screamo bands, it’s probably better that I don’t understand them! ↩︎
10. I swear about two-thirds of all interesting drone is from Belgium. I don’t know what’s legal over there, but Neptunian Maximalism (and their offshoots) and Déhà alone have produced more worthwhile drone metal than pretty much anywhere else on their own. ↩︎
11. Ironically, I’m wearing one of their shirts while writing this. ↩︎
12. This is a bold statement to provide no proof for in the middle of a write-up, but if you don’t trust me, feel free to comment and I would be happy to elaborate. ↩︎