Terrible year for humanity, pretty good year for music! There were so many great albums that came out this year, it was impossible for me to include them all. Mentioning them in a list of “also-rans” doesn’t feel right either. If you released an album this year and don’t see it listed, please don’t take it personally. It doesn’t mean I didn’t like it or think it was worthy of inclusion. There’s just limited space in our age of oversaturation. I know how anxiety-inducing “list-season” can be and questioned whether this was a worthy exercise to participate in when writing. To quote Fenriz “it’s all lies because music is no competition.” Not ordered other than number one…
Larum – Christian Mistress – Sharon Van Etten – Hiraeth – Kaikkivaltias – Dolven – Jenn Taiga
Lathe of Heaven – Unreqvited – Alicia Cordisco – Everson Poe – Oskoreien – Messa – Tribunal
Vanessa Funke – Pleasure Dome – Coltaine – John McKay – Atlantic – Deep Sea Diver
YHWH Nailgun – Flummox – Wode – Propagandhi – Paradise Lost
Larum – The Music of Hildegard von Bingen Part Two
Chet Doxas and Micah Frank take me to a world of sound I’ve never been to before and never want to leave. Using von Bingen’s template of medieval choral beauty, Larum recontextualize her compositions into singularly impressive arrangements. The use of electronics, woodwinds and guest musicians reveal infinite layers of transformative sound. While many bands were hyped for their innovation this year, Larum crafted 2025’s most original album from music that is one thousand years old. Listening to this album makes me feel what I can only imagine hearing Godspeed in the late nineties was like. My favorite album of the year.
Christian Mistress – Children of the Earth
While some diehards will still hold up Possession as the band’s finest hour, few albums this year struck a chord with me as much as Children of the Earth. The songs on this record have the most replay value of anything on this list. They’re unbelievably catchy, full of NWOBHM riffs and harmonies, and brought together by Christine Davies’ triumphant and personable vocals. Her lyrics are deep, but not dense, offering simple, mythical reflections on the ruins of our world. Children of the Earth offers hope and a soundtrack to our fight against fascism. The live eight-track recording gives the album a warmth that’s all too rare in an overpopulated landscape of DAW-metal. Their earlier albums are modern classics, but I feel comfortable saying Children of the Earth is my favorite.
Sharon Van Etten – Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory
When “Sleeping Beauties” was chosen as the theme for the 2024 Met Gala, it seemed to cement our cultural re-fascination with the gothic. A lot of artists have turned towards the dark in the past couple years, some more successfully than others. After shaping the contemporary indie-folk scene, Sharon Van Etten and her new band The Attachment Theory delivered everything I want from an album of dark alternative. The holy trinity of early “indie” bands: New Order, Cocteau Twins and The Smiths, all of whose influence is predominant throughout this record, were just as notable for influencing goth music as they were for signing to independent labels. Celebrating the goth/indie alliance that early post-punk documented equips a figure like Van Etten to make such a move convincingly. This doesn’t sound like an album she rushed together to capitalize on a trend, it sounds like an album she’s been waiting her whole career to make.
Hiraeth – Tales of Resistance
The only EP I felt compelled to include in a list of full-lengths, Tales of Resistance has a way of creeping into your subconscious. While the Bathory marches, atmospheric passages and idiosyncratic vocals come together as something like “epic blackgaze,” the band I think of most when it comes to Hiraeth is Joy Division. This isn’t because they sound similar aesthetically, but because Hiraeth display JD’s incredible command of negative space. They both allow for atmosphere to create and brood beneath a song, not just sit on the surface. The lyrics summon the listener with commanding power, sending up the revolutionary leftist spirit in Welsh history and myth. This EP displays a lot of potential and I’m all too eager to see what Hiraeth does next.
Kaikkivaltias – Routaa ja rautaa
“Castle metal” is an emerging subgenre in the metal underground and no record sold me on it quite like this one. This one person Finnish project knows how to write the sickest riffs. Sweeping, melodic and raw, the compositions on this album feel so powerful. They twist with some unexpectedly tricky time changes and dynamic swells. I’m particularly drawn to how Kaikkivaltias incorporates some of the best goddamn Priest-style riffing into its medieval context on track five “Teräksen taika.” It’s an album devoid of pretense. Not every record needs a grandiose concept or compelling way to express a worldview. Sometimes shit just rips because it rips.
Dolven – In My Grave… Silence
Call it “acoustic doom,” “dark folk,” or just good songwriting, Dolven craft a sound that reverberates through medieval church ruins to the present day. Lengthy, contemplative acoustic passages might sound daunting, but the tracks on In My Grave… Silence are so eloquently composed that you quickly get lost in their atmosphere. The melancholy guitar arpeggios are more graceful in their subtlety than any virtuoso playing. The vocal performance is also terrific and I’m always a sucker for songs that aren’t afraid to have great hooks. This album expresses a passionate mood through a beautifully understated delivery. When the day starts to dwindle and you want an album with sunset ambiance, Dolven perfectly nail the vibe.
Jenn Taiga – Sanguine Descent
While often associated with the dungeon synth scene, that term always seems to oversimplify Jenn Taiga. Sanguine Descent pulls from a much wider array of influences and goes for something far more cerebral than the average dungeon synth lore. While a lot of fantasy music seems deliberately impersonal, the emotion of this album is informed by powerful lived experience. This isn’t background music, unless you’re reading something incredibly dark like The Eclipse from Berserk. I’m reminded of both Dead Can Dance and Tangerine Dream as her compositions lead me through esoteric dungeons of the mind. After I settle in, I uncover beautiful melodicism in her strange synthesizer enigmas. Her best recorded music to date and a new height for Jenn.
Lathe of Heaven – Aurora
I wrote about what this album means to me here.
Unreqvited – A Pathway to the Moon
The first show we played as this MK II lineup of Fourth Dominion was opening for Unreqvited’s new genesis as a live band. They were on a killer tour with Harakiri for the Sky and Ghost Bath. Both those bands were terrific, but Unreqvited stole the show. A Pathway to the Moon feels informed by鬼’s experiences playing live, channeling them into a wondrous new beginning. With a consistent discography that is already influential within the atmoblack genre, this album showcases Unreqvited at the project’s most fully realized. The vocals are so harmoniously layered and tie the fabric of dreamy gaze pop with melodic black metal together perfectly. “The Starforger” is a highlight, being one of the best standout metal tracks from any album in 2025. The memorable guitar lines and varied textures fill me with indescribable emotion. 鬼 rides the very pathway to the moon they created and the results are unforgettable.
Alicia Cordisco – The Burden of I
Alicia Cordisco is a riff pythoness. Her first foray into black metal is a standout in an incredibly oversatured genre. While the momentum of the riffs propel the feeling of icy wind characteristic of black metal, the album’s brilliance owes just as much to its expert grasp of trad metal licks and melodies. The songwriting is so dynamic, switching effortlessly to beautiful acoustic passages, ensorcelling Stormkeep-like key parts and an incredible vocal performance from Vanessa Funke. Most albums that go for a black/heavy sound do so with a degree of “fun” I am notorious for hating. The Burden of I synthesizes its genres in a way that is moving and powerful, not lustful and vampiric. Similar to Sanguine Descent, this album is born from sincere expressions of emotion. Allie’s art is about The Real Shit (TM).
Everson Poe – Enough is a Myth
I’ll be honest, I hadn’t seen David Bruckner’s remake of Hellraiser until after hearing this album, upon which it is based. More than anything on this list, Enough is a Myth feels like a journey, a well-crafted start-to-finish through hell. Poe’s nightmarish soundscapes exquisitely echo the film’s themes of bodily exploration and physical trauma. With a super gnarly bass tone recalling both Peter Steele and Kim Gordon, the way Mae Shults uses bass to achieve the album’s heaviness is smart. It fills so much space with so little and growls harder than five layered guitars. This leaves room for the post-punk guitar lines over the gorgeous Tristanian doom of “v. lazarus” or phenomenally cool synths in the John Carpenter-esque “iii. laudarant.” Probing the sensory experience of the listener through Simonetti and Samael, this is a work that feels truly cinematic.
Oskoreien – Hollow Fangs
Quality over quantity is a dwindling practice in our algorithmic music marketplace, yet Oskoreien’s discography proves its truthfulness. Despite taking six to seven year gaps between releases, every one of Jay Valena’s albums is a near-masterpiece in its own right. Hollow Fangs is more punishing and precise than the “post-” of previous albums. This more focused songwriting approach strikes the listener with overwhelming emotional weight. Like the best black metal, this album appeals to the soul, not the intellect. The layered melodies and fierce vocals give the tracks an unexpected catchiness considering how sharp they bite. It is hard to compare Oskoreien albums, but Hollow Fangs is just as strong as the self-titled and All Too Human, if not stronger.
Messa – The Spin
Though not incorrectly praised for its adventurous musical impulses, the real heart of The Spin is its effective simplicity. The jazz breakdown in “The Dress,” bluesy opening of “Reveal” and piano-driven first half of “Immolation” are brilliant. Equally as powerful however, are the accessible and catchy “Fire on the Roof” and album opener “Void Meridian.” I will always shout out bands that cite The Sound as an influence. Adrian Borland’s brand of melodic, rhythmic and emotional post-punk is happily discernible throughout the album’s shorter gothic rock numbers. These songs are cut with gravity-defying wallops of doom and some gnarly guitar solos. Growing up Italian-American and occupying space in a goth/metal band of my own, I have a special tenderness for Messa. It’s just super cool to see an Italian band of this style be so good and successful. Our guitarist Dave was obsessed with this album and I know it’s going to be high on his list as well. I think it helped contextualize what we do for him and gave him a lot of inspiration for our next record. I think that’s awesome.
Tribunal – In Penitence and Ruin
I loved Tribunal’s debut The Weight of Remembrance, so much so that it made my top 10 list for Hornthrowers in 2023. Their sophomore effort, In Penitence and Ruin, came out around the same time as The Spin and I get the feeling it was overshadowed through no fault of its own. Though comparable on the surface, there really aren’t a lot of musical similarities between the two. Tribunal are colossally heavy for a “gothic” band. That’s part of what makes them special. They force their way into your heart with gargantuan riffs, then make effectual use of cello and keys to pull the strings. There isn’t any danceable post-punk on this release. It’s a collection of slow and brooding, yet captivating and resonant doom. The album’s closer, “Between the Sea and Stars,” is a phenomenal epic and another of my standout metal tracks from this year. The melodic guitar lines resound like poetry, tying together the rest of the arrangement and haunting me for days after the LP stops…
Vanessa Funke – Requiem / The Occasion – Songs of the Night
It’s astonishing how good Vanessa Funke’s releases are considering how many of them she puts out. Dripping with personality, her versatility and caliber of musicianship are realized with immeasurable conviction across both of these records. Requiem is full of dreary, brooding Brave Murder Day-era Katatonia riffs that give me shivers when coupled with her painful, yet powerful harsh vocals. The album’s morbidity is handled with such precision and earnestness that it’s easy to fall in love with. Songs of the Night pulls from the template Joy Division and New Order set, leaving room for contemplation and dance-floor reflection. Her clean vocals on this album also excel, with a soft, clear, almost Elliott Smith-like underplay. Both albums allure the listener with sorrowful elegance and leave me wanting more.
Pleasure Dome – Pleasure Dome
An incredible debut from a band who blew me away at the Bug Jar this summer. The shoegaze/alt-rock/post-punk vein is one that has certainly been exhausted by cynical actors in recent years. I think at this point, there’s no genre that hasn’t affixed “-gaze” to the end of its name. Pleasure Dome assert themselves by balancing a really unique brand of rock ‘n’ roll with an infectious delivery. The smooth, tricky guitar lines have the innovative quality of John McGeoch, the locked in rhythm section groove like early R.E.M., and the vocals of Cydney Edwards gracefully soar above catchy choruses with punk rock energy. Many bands that go for this style drown the vocals in Chelsea Wolfe FX, but here, they sit nicely between dreaminess and clarity. The songs that comprise the Binghamton group’s self-titled will be stuck in your head for days after just one listen.
Coltaine – Brandung
Glacial, crystalline and floating in air, yet fuzzy, warm and moody, it feels like Coltaine make music that appeals specifically to my sensibilities. The mix of Sólstafirian post-metal with alternative rock and psych riffs feels like it was bestowed upon us by the heavens. Vocalist Julia Frasch has a voice like no other. Her timbre is gritty, with brooding tenor undertones, yet still retains clarity and elegance. Her vocals sit perfectly within the band’s hard-rocking and orchestral arrangements. It’s impressive to hear how Coltaine can mix the extremities of black and doom metal into a modern rock record without compromising any of their integrity. When everything feels like it’s been done before, and what’s “new” seems so try-hard, Coltaine achieve that sweet spot of being both original and agreeable to the ears.
John McKay – Sixes and Sevens
An unexpected new release from the original Siouxsie and the Banshees guitarist was an instant day one buy for me. Amazingly, this collection of songs recorded shortly after McKay’s tenure with the Banshees, sounds more fresh and original than most post-punk released today. Much like The Cure’s Songs of a Lost World from last year, Sixes and Sevens shines with an artfulness that puts the new kids in their place. Proliferating bands attempt to recreate the magic of the first two Siouxsie records, yet their primary architect still elevates post-punk to mean something beyond nostalgic rigidity. Hearing John play guitar (and saxophone!) makes me sigh with relief every time I put this album on.
Atlantic – Timeworn
Far from timeworn, Atlantic’s sophomore LP feels more timeless than anything. The work is literally breathtaking, as their oceanic post-black metal sinks into your lungs, filling you with salty air catharsis. As adept as Atlantic are at creating atmosphere and mood, I also really appreciate that they know how to rock! This album is full of fist-pumping march riffs that make me feel like I’m the subject of a Winslow Homer painting. In a lot of ways, this album feels like a lost treasure from Sólstafir’s discography. That’s not to say it’s derivative, rather, it captures that type of seafaring black metal with hints of rock n roll in a way the former band never recorded. The vocals are also a strong point, with much more power and weight than those of the Icelanders’ early releases.
Deep Sea Diver – Billboard Heart
A personal favorite, this was the soundtrack to my 2025. This record reminds of the tender moments I shared with my partner this year, cuddling and making each other laugh as protection against impending fascism. Jessica Dobson is one of the unsung guitar heroes of her day. She has the coolest tones and ripping solos that are always diverse and well-balanced. Her songwriting pulls from Television and pre-goth Sharon Van Etten in a way that feels uniquely Dobson. The combination of amber and gravel in her voice sounds like honey to my ears. While I still might prefer Impossible Weight just slightly, Billboard Heart carve out Deep Sea Diver’s space as one of the hardest rocking bands in contemporary indie/alternative.
YHWH Nailgun – 45 Pounds
I’ve shown this album to a number of people and all of them hate it. And I totally understand why. YHWH Nailgun undoubtedly try way too hard to make something unique and different. They create something borderline unlistenable in the process, yet they do succeed in their goal! I, for one, commend them for their efforts. Calling this album post-punk feels blasphemous, but equally reinvigorating. As we experience “the nostalgia mode” and swaths of bands on hordes of labels mimic the gothic sounds of the 1980’s, YHWH Nailgun capture the experimental tendencies that keep us coming back to post-punk in 2025.
Flummox – Southern Progress
Flummox never waste a second. Southern Progress is full of so much creativity and expert musicianship that it feels like one record can never truly contain it. Ostensibly “progressive metal,” Flummox truly approach the avant-garde and bizarre musical tendencies that defined early prog on this LP. Despite how far-reaching and bewildering its arrangements are, some-fucking-how, through some stroke of mastery, the band manage to tie it all together and give it a cohesive narrative. It’s a massive step forward in production and craft than their previous releases, which were also very good. Their live shows are a testament to their staying power. You will never forget a Flummox performance. There have been no other bands like Flummox and there will be no other bands like Flummox. Southern Progress is proof of that.
Wode – Uncrossing the Keys
One thing that keeps me coming back to heavy metal is hearing distorted guitars harmonize and play off each other. Wode are masters at this. I’d nominate Uncrossing the Keys as approaching the same eargasmic level of guitar interplay found in Iron Maiden, Sonic Youth or Television. The tones are absolutely killer, building the black chasms of sound Wode strive to achieve. The melodic sensibility and danceable-Mercyful Fate vibes found in tracks like “Under Lanternlight” are irresistible. The production is also terrific. It’s equally cavernous and punchy, ancient yet modern. The best Manchester band since The Stone Roses?
Propagandhi – At Peace
“In spite of endless war, extinction level events, depredation and plague, everyone one of your ancestors survived to reproductive age. The probability that you are even here is next to none… I am at peace these days (give or take a fit of blinding rage).” No albums brought me as much peace through “the horrors” of 2025 as At Peace. It’s Propagandhi, what do you want me to say? They’re better at writing technical riffs than any prog metal band. The lyrics are philosophical and poetic, yet funny and down-to-earth. Every album they release is a treasure. To get a little personal, I worked two jobs for most of this year and it sucked. This album was my solace as I drove to work 6-7 days a week, at 6AM or 8PM, for garbage pay, all the while watching the world turn towards evil. Things seem a little bit more hopeful now? I’m just incredibly thankful we had records like this one.
Paradise Lost – Ascension
Paradise Lost is a band I’ve always respected, but never really loved the way I love Anathema or Sentenced. Of course their contributions to the invention of gothic metal can’t be understated, but albums like Gothic and Icon always felt more like museum pieces to me. All that changed when they put out The Plague Within in 2015, which floored me with its darkly infectious songwriting. It is rare for a band to have been so crucial to the development of a genre and still continually outdo themselves in the succeeding decades. Paradise Lost have done this with their last four albums and Ascension is proof that they may be singular in that. Gregor Mackintosh’s guitar leads are full of so much imagination and grief, playing off the heavy rhythms of Aaron Aedy in gorgeous harmony. When we look back on PL’s catalogue, we will see the albums they made over the past decade as their finest hours, and Ascension, one of their crowning achievements.
Fourth Dominion 