my top ten is attached. lot of great metal this year tbh.
MESSSAAAA!! :D :D The Spin is awesome, was just coming here to post The Dress (still might tbh) really enjoying the Model/Actriz album too.
my favorites released this year so far, in no particular order:
-
Messa - The Spin
-
Model/Actriz - Pirouette
-
McKinley Dixon - Magic Alive!
-
key vs. locket - i felt like a sketch
-
Viagra Boys - viagr aboys
-
Honningbarna - Soft Spot
-
Aesop Rock - Black Hole Superette
-
Los Thuthanaka - Los Thuthanaka
-
Nuvolascura - How This All Ends
-
Rival Consoles - Landscape from Memory
-
Bleed - Bleed
other albums I’ve fallen in love with this year:
-
Gallows Bound - Rotting Oak
-
Holy Locust - Beneath the Turning Wheel
-
Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She
-
Elder - Innate Passage
-
James McMurtry - The Horses and the Hounds
Nuvolascura’s album is gonna end up in my top 25 for sure. i forgot about Elder! they’re one of my favorites. gonna listen tonight. i thought the new Viagra Boys was their best and Chelsea Wolfe’s triphoppy moments were awesome.
-
I am going to sound super mainstream, but the only album of 2025 that I have listened to multiple times is Hurry Up Tomorrow by The Weeknd. Not his best work, but still a great ride with some absolute bangers.
I mostly listen to older music or am late to the party with more recent stuff :).
I preferred the first record but This Bitter Garden is up there for me as well. End Beginnings from Sandwell District is another honorable mention
that Oklou album was good. it’s definitely in my top 25. other than clipping. and ethel cain i don’t know any of these acts. i’ll have to do some listening. which do you recommend i check out first?
If you like metal then that Jivebomb album is excellent hardcore punk. Along similar lines is Xiao’s Control which is more powerviolence but still great
Edit: a more sasscore aligned record you might dig is Emma Goldman’s All You Are is We. This features members of Dads Thighs, who put one of my fave emo records The Ghosts that I Fear
i’m definitely going to check out the Emma Goldman album, thanks. i’ve seen it around but didn’t know much about it.
My favorite album of 2025 so far is
Naxatras - Vdeleted by creator