This year was certainly one of personal milestones—moving from New York City to Los Angeles, getting married in Greece, honeymooning throughout Europe and later in Kauai, and becoming competitive in trail running. It was also my first year writing for The Subway, and a busy one at that. Aside from reviewing dozens of albums, I listened to hundreds of new releases and made it to quite a few shows. Did 2025’s music live up to the rest of my year, which had to have been the best of my life? 

I’ve got quite a bit to say about it, so let’s dive right in.

Surprises of the Year: Doubling as an honorable mentions category, I found these five albums particularly surprising—all for the better. 

• Calva Louise – Edge of the Abyss. On paper, the band’s overproduced, maximalist, poppy brand of metalcore—a genre I’m not crazy about in the first place—should be headache-inducing at best. Yet ridiculously catchy hooks, deliciously frenetic instrumental performances, and the dynamic, charismatic vocals of Jessica Allanic have me listening to this album more than I’ll ever admit.  
• Khan – That Fair and Warlike Form // Return to Dust. Putting out a two-track, forty-six-minute LP will raise an eyebrow or two, even in the realm of stoner metal. And managing not only to keep it compelling all the way through but transcendent for much of the runtime is a feat few bands are capable of achieving. These Aussies nailed it. 
• Decline of the I – Wilhelm. Post-black metal certainly isn’t the first style I’ll reach for, but I’ve returned to this album consistently since February. The band somehow cohesively layer monastic chants, ethereal choirs, bowed strings, trip-hop passages, and bites of spoken philosophy into wandering tracks that compromise on neither the post- nor the black metal. Isn’t it lovely when ambition meets execution?
• Bask – The Turning. Here we’ve got some twangy, Appalachian-influenced stoner rock that’s as compositionally expansive as it is accessible. The Turning plays like a fluid, dreamy—though never stagnant—journey from late North Carolina summer into autumn, bolstered by engaging instrumentation and lush production. The record’s certainly a trip, but one that’s so delightfully effortless to take.
• Steven Wilson – The Overview. Ok, maybe this one is less of a surprise than the others—Steven Wilson has put out some of my all-time favorite music across his various projects. Still, the last solo release of his that I truly enjoyed came out a decade ago. The Overview is a massive, rich, and dense but approachable return to form. 

And now, The Subway’s ten best albums this year, or so I’d have you believe.

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10. Kauan – Wayhome

Style: post-rock, post-metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Empyrium, Sólstafir, Agalloch, Alcest

Atmosphere is a powerful force in music, and few artists harness it as well as Kauan. The band have become renowned for their distinctive cinematic post-rock, blending folk, doom metal, black metal, and ambient influences into a sound that’s both melancholic and nostalgic. And with the seamless through-track release Wayhome, we see their style as refined and poignant as ever. Beautiful melody flows after beautiful melody, as the album journeys patiently through atmospheric shades and rich textures. Wayhome is incessantly gorgeous; full yet measured, and captivating yet never overbearing. It’s one of those transportive albums you can’t help but melt into—letting its wonderfully detailed compositions and performances take over entirely for fifty serene minutes.

Recommended tracks: play in its entirety
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | original review

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9. Suncraft – Welcome to the Coven

Style: stoner rock, punk, melodic hardcore (mixed vocals, mostly clean)
Recommended for fans of: Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, Social Distortion, early AFI, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater soundtracks, blast beats

We all grow out of certain genres, or maybe it’s that those genres don’t grow with us. Like many, I’ve left pop-punk and skate punk in my younger days—quickly strummed chords and whoa-ohs just don’t do it like they used to. But, seemingly out of thin air, Norwegian rockers Suncraft released an album that sounds as if the music of my youth had grown up with me. Of Welcome to the Coven, the band say it best: “One foot [is] firmly planted in stoner rock, while the other foot is mindlessly kicking down the many doors of various rock subgenres.” Atop a foundation of heavy fuzz, Suncraft supply an ingenious combination of pop-punk accessibility, skate punk and melodic hardcore energy, and, unexpectedly enough, the tremolo-picked riffs and blast beats native to Norway. More than being eminently listenable, the album is backed by killer performances and unlikely cohesion among all the genre-hopping. Welcome to the Coven is the sonic equivalent of being on summer break during my teenage years, running amok in my Southern California hometown. But nostalgia isn’t what makes the record stick—musically, it’s right up there with the rest of my rotation.

Recommended tracks: Love’s Underrated, Wizards of the Anger Magic, Charlatan Killer, Forgotten Goddess
Related links: Apple Music | Facebook | Instagram | original review

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8. Psychonaut – World Maker

Style: post-metal, progressive metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Mastodon, Tool, The Ocean, Dvne

Subway darlings Psychonaut have given us yet another magnificent effort, as we all could have guessed as soon as World Maker was announced. These Belgians simply have a way with groove and dynamics that stands above the rest of the progressive metal world. The album is an instrumental beast, full of growling bass lines, elaborate and ever-changing drumming, and guitars that fill the spectrum from thick and heavy to light and airy. Meanwhile, the compositions are huge: building, swirling, crashing, and resolving, all enveloped in a psychedelic haze. Still, the highlight might be the powerful vocals from Stefan de Graef, whose planet-smashing shouts and measured cleans tell bittersweet—but ultimately uplifting—narratives of love, loss, and the transition of life. World Maker marks three straight bullseyes from Psychonaut and solidifies them as one of the best bands in today’s scene.

Recommended tracks: You Are The Sky…, …Everything Else Is Just The Weather, And You Came With Searing Light, All In Time
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | original review

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7. Coroner – Dissonance Theory

Style: technical thrash metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Vektor, Voivod, Kreator, Strapping Young Lad

Returning from a thirty-two-year studio hiatus, tech-thrash legends Coroner released what could properly be considered the most surprising album of the year. But it’s too good to file above in the “surprises” section, so here it sits on the main list at number seven. With Dissonance Theory, these old Swiss men deliver at a level modern thrashers can hardly touch. It’s as if the band went into their decades-long hibernation, dreamt of nothing but riffs, leads, and how to elegantly destroy a drum kit, and then woke up and put it all to tape. The band sound heavier and more aggressive than ever, wrapping the dynamic juggernaut that is Dissonance Theory in an addictively dark and urgent atmosphere. The record marks another notch in a legendary discography and emphatically spurns the idea that time erodes all things.

Recommended tracks: Consequence, Symmetry, The Law, Trinity, Renewal
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | original review

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6. Blood Vulture – Die Close

Style: doom metal, sludge metal, alternative metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Alice in Chains, Baroness, Pallbearer

A debut from a virtually unknown one-man act helmed by Jordan Olds, Blood Vulture’s Die Close is a sludgy, gothic opus that borders on rock opera. About a vampire who’s still kicking around well after humanity’s demise, the album explores existential themes through compelling vocal performances—Olds sounds a stone’s throw away from Jerry Cantrell of Alice In Chains, while guest vocalists (particularly Kristin Hayter, ex-Lingua Ignota, Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter) shine in their coloristic contributions. A steady atmosphere hangs, while a deluge of killer riffs, inspired leads, and memorable hooks floods the ears. Die Close carefully balances the narrative and the composition, offering an experience that’s both conceptually and musically engrossing. With this, Jordan Olds delivers a concept album that’s far more effective than those from plenty of bands with decades more experience and magnitudes more fame.

Recommended tracks: An Embrace In The Flood, Entwined, Burn For It, Abomination
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | original review

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5. Royal Sorrow – Innerdeeps

Style: progressive metal, alternative metal (mixed vocals, mostly clean)
Recommended for fans of: Leprous, TesseracT, VOLA, Voyager, Ihlo

As we cross the list’s midway point, here we have another debut—or a rebrand, if you will. After signing a record deal with Inside Out Music, the members of prog metal group Edge of Haze conceptualized Royal Sorrow as a new band, starting from scratch. And boy am I glad they did. Innerdeeps showcases the accessible, melodic, and at times djenty side of modern progressive metal at its absolute finest. The record isn’t just extraordinarily catchy and instantly enjoyable—its polished songwriting and level of detail give it staying power that’s exceedingly uncommon for the style. The album boasts one of the strongest vocal performances of the year, while also providing an endless string of tight grooves and a depth of textural layers. Several of the songs are permanently etched in my brain, while the final minutes of the album-closing title track are as blissfully energizing as anything 2025 has on offer.

Recommended tracks: Metrograve, Bloodflower, Give In, Innerdeeps
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | original review

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4. Dormant Ordeal – Tooth and Nail

Style: death metal, technical death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Decapitated, Ulcerate, Behemoth, Mgła

Relentless. That’s how I can best characterize Dormant Ordeal’s aptly titled Tooth and Nail. The record is an inescapable barrage of blackened death metal, but it’s done so damn well that I’ll gladly let the artillery fire rain. The band’s visceral sound draws from several styles and fully adopts none. The riffs have technical flair but eschew the fretboard heroics typical of tech death; dissonance is wielded with a light touch, accenting but not defining the band’s sonic identity; and melody is a commodity to be rationed for the moments that require it. The guitars of Maciej Nieścioruk drill right into your chest cavity and violently rip you apart, and then Maciej Proficz’s gruff yet articulate growls speak venom into your exposed soul. Meanwhile, session drummer Chason Westmoreland’s inhuman performance bludgeons and shines in equal measure. Perhaps a glutton for punishment, Tooth and Nail hasn’t left my rotation since its April release.

Recommended tracks: Horse Eater, Orphans, Solvent, Everything That Isn’t Silence Is Trivial
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | original review

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3. Obscure Sphinx – Emovere (EP)

Style: post-metal, progressive metal, sludge metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Cult of Luna, Neurosis, Tool

Ah, Emovere. Obscure Sphinx’s hiatus-breaking EP was one of my very first reviews for this blog, and it remains tied for the highest score I’ve dished out. Released not a week into 2025, this three-track tour de force has managed to stand firmly on my personal podium for twelve full months, and for good reason. Emovere is thirty minutes of post-metal par excellence. The band’s sound centers around the dynamic vocals of Zofia “Wielebna” Fraś, whose emotive cleans and screams are a performance to behold. Surrounding her, dark, down-tuned instrumentation fluidly oscillates between crushing and beautiful, without a single passage or transition out of place. The result is a soundscape that’s awe-inspiring yet soothing, and ultimately deeply resonant. Don’t let the fact that this is an EP throw you off—Emovere provides more impact than nearly any full-length released this year.

Recommended tracks: all three
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | original review

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2. Changeling – Changeling

Style: progressive death metal, technical death metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Alkaloid, Obscura, Devin Townsend

Shared among most of The Subway’s writers is a love for progressive death metal, and I certainly fall right in line. Yet here we are, nearly at the end of my list, and only now does prog death get the spotlight. This year was a strong one for the genre—Centuries of Decay, Dessiderium, Tómarúm, Ancient Death, and Fallujah all released records that nearly landed in my top ten—but, for whatever reason, only one album truly stuck with me. That album is Changeling’s self-titled debut, and it’s a monster. 

Masterminded by ex-Obscura member Tom “Fountainhead” Geldschläger and featuring the beastly, cosmic vocals of Alkaloid’s Morean, Changeling offers an hour of prog death in its grandest form. The two are joined by veterans Mike Heller on drums and Arran McSporran on fretless bass, along with the beefiest list of guest musicians I’ve ever seen, making Changeling a supergroup of sorts. Beginning with an opening salvo that features some of the best quick-hitting tracks of the year, and moving on to a series of breathtaking epics, Changeling is a masterclass on how to work unbridled technicality into truly excellent songwriting. The album is exceptionally diverse while still cohesive; restrained but judiciously irrepressible. The sheer amount of memorable moments and instrumental brilliance packed into this record places it among the decade’s best progressive death metal releases. It’s no wonder you’ll see it on several of our 2025 lists.

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

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1. Messa – The Spin

Style: doom metal, progressive metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Windhand, Chelsea Wolfe, Pallbearer

So, how can anything in 2025 beat Changeling? Well, this is my list after all, so I’ve got to go with the album that impacted me the most. Messa’s scarlet-doom masterpiece, The Spin, takes the coveted prize of Cory’s Favorite Album of the Year. On a more objective, critical level, the album is nothing short of remarkable. Messa’s progressive blend of doom metal with elements of dark ambient, stoner rock, blues, and jazz is as unique as it is mesmerizing. Sara Bianchin’s ethereal vocals float above a lush and varied musical tapestry, as an enticingly haunting aura enthralls. This is doom at its most beautiful. 

But it’s on a more personal level that this album takes my top spot. For my tastes, no release this year is as complete as The Spin. The diversity of its tracks, its pacing, and its structure add up to an experience that, for me, is unmatched. Only self-restraint has kept me from replaying the record into oblivion. Shrouded in a dark atmospheric cloud, Messa line up kinetic bluesy rockers, longer compositions with genre-mixing flair, and moody cuts in a way that builds unstoppable momentum—once I hit play, it’s inevitable that I’ll finish the album. And what a finish it is: “Thicker Blood,” a nine-minute slow burn that might well be my song of the year, closes this marvel of a record emphatically. Ultimately, The Spin is the album I engaged with the most this year—and the most meaningfully—so it takes its rightful place here at number one.

Recommended tracks: Void Meridian, Fire on the Roof, The Dress, Thicker Blood
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | original review

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Overall, 2025 was another solid year for progressive music, at least on par with the past couple. But I tend to have an anti-recency bias: I enjoy albums more as time goes on, and so this year’s place in my mind will continue to change. Maybe it’ll settle around average, where it stands now, or maybe a decade from now I’ll view it as one of prog’s best—we’ll see. So many of these albums, and ones left off this post, are inextricably linked to the awesome life events 2025 offered me, so it’s likely I’ll look back with rose-colored glasses. Anyway, enough reflecting. Let’s get going with 2026!

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