Look, I was just as shocked at the final number when I tallied up the albums I fell for so far in 2025. Especially considering the amount of non-metal I’ve been consuming over at my personal site. I was really expecting 2025 to be a year of modest metal enjoyment, something to use in conservative doses as I mainlined the prog and jazz and fusion and classic rock that’s become the succor and comfort that metal was in my younger days.

And then something happened, and I credit the monthly re-caps for this: I started finding fantastic records. That thrill parlayed into opening my ears to bands I previously either moved on from or dismissed outright. Metal became part of my daily routine again, and while I was on vacation I assembled a list of over 50 albums I genuinely enjoyed. Surgical slicing narrowed that down to 30 (well, 32 if you count the two EPs I’m including) and as I poured over it one final time I realized it made no sense to whittle it down any further. I like what I like, love what I love and have zero desire to further restrict myself. With the world a veritable garbage fire why not indulge in celebrating the things we love, right?

I promise to keep it (reasonably) brief, but for this edition of Nine Circles ov… let’s collectively fawn over the metal that kept us sane so far this year.

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In a year of absolutely ripping death metal, Ancient Death is the one I keep coming back to the most, so despite this being alphabetical it’s fitting that Ego Dissolution kicks off the list. OSDM with twisted, progressive passages, crushing low end and bowel-shaking vocals imagine a world where Obituary met Death and decided that they needed some Scandinavian doom in their formula. Read the profile as well as the April 2025 Month That Was.

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Metal can be surgical, but it’s just as effective when wielded as a blunt object. The sound of Bronson Arm is the sound of noise rock coming like a hammer to your temple allowing duo Blake Francis Bickel and Garrett Michael Yates to feed your soul the new religion. Casket Schwagg recalls the best of early Helmet and Jesus Lizard with an acute ear for catchy arrangements that bolster rather than ruin the heaviness of the tunes. Read the review and dance like the devil is coming.

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I wish we didn’t have to keep using terms like “unsung” when it comes to West Virginia’s Byzantine. They were one of the prime bands that brought me back to metal after a long hiatus, and since their own hiatus ended with 2013’s self-titled album they’ve been churning out some of the best modern melodic metal of the 21st century. Harbingers shows OJ Ojeda and the gang in the best shape of their lives, punishing with killer progressive groove. Read the profile and as well as the June 2025 Month That Was.

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If you had told me I would have The Callous Daoboys on my list back in 2022 I would have laughed. And yet, with each release the math metalcore collective keep refining their attack, and I Don’t Want To See You In Heaven brings it all together, swirling in righteous fury and sonic chaos. Every time I hear the disjointed attack of “Full Moon Guidance” and the pummeling of the second half of “Douchebag Safari” I forgive the minor quibbles I have with this gem of a record. Read Ian’s Mid-Year review and the May 2025 Month That Was.

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You knew there was going to be a lot of trad metal on this list, and I love that it starts with the earliest album to come out. If you missed Swedish duo Century and their sophomore full-length Sign Of The Storm when it came out back in January, now’s the time to catch up on some serious 80s gallop with the band channeling everything I love about classic Maiden and Angel Witch. Burn like the sun and read my full review as well as the January 2025 Month That Was.

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I was initially lukewarm on Changeling, the new solo (of sorts) project from Tom Geldschläger, aka Tom Fountainhead, previously of Obscura (a band I cannot stand) and a bunch of other things. But the more I listened to Changeling, the more I came to love the experimentation and instrumentation the man and his bevy of guests bring to the table. Sequencing matters, so those looking for more tec/death stuff will be happy with the opening onslaught, but my itch truly gets scratched from “World, What World?” onwards, with the title track and “Abdication” being particular highlights. Read Ian’s full review and his Mid-Year write up.

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Make no apologies and accept no substitutes. Cradle Of Filth have been on an absolute tear the last decade and their latest, The Screaming Of The Valkyries, might be their best yet. Deftly balancing their classic gothic/symphonic black metal with newer shades of death and thrash, tracks like “White Hellebore” and “When Misery Was A Stranger” show Dani Filth & Co. have no plans to rest on their laurels anytime soon. You can read my full review while you whisper blasphemies to your lover.

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Infinite Granite left me with some valid concerns about Deafheaven, but I readily admit they needed to make it to get to Lonely People With Power, the band’s best and most fully realized album to date. A grand summary of all their influences wrapped in a ferocious coating of metal, it’s an album brimming with confidence and deep intimacy. Clarke easily gives his best vocal performance, and Kerry McCoy seamlessly threads together dozens of styles into a tapestry that is wholly and uniquely Deafheaven. This is going to be hard to beat for AOTY. You can read my full review and Ian’s mid-year summary.

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There are three albums on this list you can consider “technical death metal” but make no mistake – this is the one to beat for my money. I never heard of Dessiderium, the one-man solo project of Phoenix, Arizona’s Alex Haddad before our own Zyklonius tuned me in, and now I can’t stop listening to the beauty and grace this decade-in-the-making album exhibits in every note. The kicker of Keys To The Palace is in its optimism and triumph, looking up and beyond instead to the dross and dreck of the current world. Don’t take my word for it; read Zyklonius’s review yourself and revel in Haddad’s universe.

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Another Zykonius recommendation I fell head over heels for, Dormant Ordeal is a Polish duo (I just realized how many bands on this list are duos) that rip some blackened death that veers dangerously close to technical death without falling in. But the thing I take away from Tooth and Nail the most (besides the incredible production) is the songwriting. This thing is catchy, melodic without losing its brutality, and brimming with strong structures and grandiose arrangements that defy what you think a duo can pull off. No official write-ups, but I expect that to change come end of year…

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Remember, I said no apologies. Dream Theater reuniting with Mike Portnoy was huge news, and the resulting Parasomnia delivers on every front. It’s heavy as hell, super catchy and anthemic when it wants to be, and unapologetic in reveling in everything the DT fan wants from the band. No one plays inside the 4/4 pocket like Portnoy can, and James LaBrie sounds positively revitalized throughout. Bonus if you’re a Dolby Atmos fan, because it sounds FANTASTIC in that format. Plus, you know…16-minute song about Slenderman. Read more in the February 2025 Month That Was.

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Being a massive Lovecraft fan (the mythos, not the man himself) it might be surprising that The Great Old Ones were always a tepid at best experience for me. I’m still not sure what exactly changed with album #5, but Kadath brims with a progressive, melodic spirit I haven’t been able to find on previous releases. What was murky and undefined is here on tracks like the gossamer lines of “Those From Ulthar” ethereal and sumptuous, the band using black metal as a springboard for more ambitious musical leanings. Check out Hera’s review for more.

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Black metal might be slightly underrepresented on this list (I expect that to change as I catch up on more releases) but between the lush arrangements of The Great Old Ones, the over-the-top theatrics of Cradle of Filth and the raw, biting frost of Havukruunu do I need any others? Tavastland continues the Finnish band’s embracing of DIY second wave aesthetics mixed with some searing guitar work to create a work at home in the 90s and the 2020s. Just as rich thematically as sonically, few bands can hold aloft the crown of Bathory without sounding like a bland imitation. Check out Colin’s Second Circle review for more.

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Small confession: Imperial Triumphant have always been a band I admired more than liked, despite owning all their albums. The band’s dizzying array of sound collages were just too fatiguing to sit through repeated listens…until Goldstar. Maybe it was the fact that Menegroth was closing, but something clicked and this is the most focused, sharpest set of songs the band have ever tracked, and Colin Marsten’s production captures it in all its uninhibited glory. The jazz feels more integrated and less obtrusive, and every guest from Tomas Hawke to (HOLYSHIT) Yoshiko Ohara is pitch perfect. Read Ian’s full review for more.

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There are bands I want to push the envelop of genre…and there are bands I want to just sit and wade in the primordial soup of a given genre. Inhuman Condition have been doing just that with OSDM, and their latest full length Mind Trap shows they have no equal in chugging groove and d-beat death stomps. Tracks like “Severely Lifeless” and “The Betterment Plan” are so gleeful in their nostalgia I forewent the vinyl and grabbed a cassette. It’s perfect, Inhuman Condition are perfect, and I will listen to this until I die. No formal write up, but that’s because it came out after the last week of June. I’ll rectify that come end of year, I assure you.

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I’m calling it now: Laura Donnelly is the best vocalist in rock/metal. Holy Jesus on a cracker King Witch were really good when their debut came out in 2015, but each successive album shows a growth and maturity that embraces the entire spectrum of heavy rock, and the apt titled III sounds like a masterclass in how to charge forward. The doom has been scaled back for more rock and grunge (I hear a lot of early Soundgarden here), the guitars are exquisite, the bass and drums thunderous, and Donnelly is a god with her voice. Another one that fell through as I was leaving for vacation, but this is in my top five albums right now. Just listen to “Swarming Flies.” Jesus that voice…

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Why is there only 14 minutes of Leather Hearse? Why can’t we have all the nice things? Why only digital? Goddamn I want more of the angular, disjointed death noise thrash attack that is debut EP Burn In Heaven I. Dissonant and angrily insistent on feeding off the electricity from your synapses firing, this construction from Loincloth’s Tannon Penland is one of the best kept secrets of 2025, and that needs to change immediately. Read more in the May 2025 Month That Was.

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Another band I never heard of before, Malevolence are Lamb of God if Lamb of God ripped your face off, threw it in the trash, speared it with a rusty fork and stuck it – with said rusty fork – back on your face…only to punch it off again. Where Only The Truth Is Spoken sports an unseemly amount of groove, breakdowns that can ignite concrete, and a surprising amount of technical flourish. Oh, and Randy Blythe guests on it. I have so much homework to do, and I can’t wait to dive into the catalog and get pummeled. Read more in the June 2025 Month That Was.

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Since discovering Mean Mistreater back in 2024 thanks to the monthly catch-up they’ve rarely left my rotation, and this year’s proper full-length Do Or Die did nothing to change that. Rough and tumble, street-wise and no-nonsense, the band tear through another eight songs in under a half hour driven by the twin guitar attack of Alex Wein and Quinten Lawson and the singular pipes of Janiece Gonzalez. Few albums this year have been as fun to blast at full volume. You can read my full review for more.

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Another band more admired than truly liked, Messa finally made the jump with their fourth full length The Spin. I know I gave their 2018 album Feast For Water proper due, but it soon wore out its welcome and I pretty much ignored 2022’s Close after one or two listens. I’m still working through what’s drawing me to their new one; there’s a pop sheen that really helps to elevate the band’s trippy psychedelic doom above the morass of simple drudgery. It’s also dark without sounding like a wet blanket thanks to some great guitar work. Anyway, wonderful record, and you can read a little more in my April 2025 Month That Was.

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Despite coming out in March, you better believe I’m still over the moon for Nite. There are moments on Cult Of The Serpent Sun that remind me of Dokken – especially the guitars on “Crow (Fear The Night)” but think more if George Lynch wore corpsepaint and used the desiccated corpse of Don for a vocalist. Black and roll with a huge emphasis on anthemic trad metal, this one had most of the senior crew in a tizzy when it came out, and nothing’s changed in the intervening months. You can read more in my full review.

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Another new discovery for me thanks to the promo piles, and one I wasn’t expecting since I’m not the biggest death/doom guy. But there’s something in the way Spain’s Onirophagus weave their riffs for maximum heaviness without moving at a snail’s pace on Revelations From The Void that is hypnotic. The band can move, too: something like “Landsickness” can pickup at a moment’s notice but it always has the eye of doom opened to a dark and deadly cosmos. Sick, lurching rhythms and dynamic solos never sounded so good…or nauseous. Read more in the January 2025 Month That Was.

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Call it the resurrection of Spawn of Possession, call it the missing link between OSDM and tech-death; call Retromorphosis whatever you want, as long as you have Psalmus Mortis in steady rotation on your stereo all will be right in the world…provided your definition of “right” entails crushing technical death metal with hints of groove and riffs that splinter into your flesh refusing to be dug out. Jonas Bryssling sets out to wreck your neck with killer guitar work on every track, and early favorites like “Aunt Christie’s Will” and the eerie “The Tree” will leave you wanting more. Read more in the February 2025 Month That Was.

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The time between Falls of Rauros releases may be excruciating, but Aaron Charles has been using the time to churn out some wicked black metal with more death/doom elements in Rhûn. Writing and performing everything but drums, his second EP Burial Pact sports an evolution in sound similar to how Rauros evolved over time, taking small pieces (fossilized chugs on the title track, dramatic medieval fanfare on “Gleaming Swords Howl”) and incorporating them into a larger whole. I hope this is just a signpost pointing to larger things ahead.

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I don’t know if I was ever expecting Rwake to come back, but 14 years on from the cannon shot of Rest comes The Return of Magik, and truer words never graced an album title. A monster of a record, taking sludge and doom and injecting left field progression that just simply works. I’m still over the moon for the slide guitar on “You Swore We’d Always Be Together,” and the slow majestic buildup on the epic “Distant Constellations and the Psychedelic Incarceration” is an all-timer. Read more in the March 2025 Month That Was.

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Haken have always been one of those bands that straddle the line between progressive rock and metal, but guitarist Charlie Griffiths has in his solo work firmly planted a foot on the metal side. Turning his debut album name into his new band name, Tiktaalika is (if you couldn’t guess) fabulous homage to the titans of old school metal, and Gods of Pangaea sounds like the bastard child of classic Megadeth and Testament. Dan Goldsworthy’s cover art matches the homage, paying ultimate respect to Ed Repka, and the music within is a goldmine of choruses and solos, featuring a who’s who of guest vocalists including Thomas Giles of Between The Buried and Me.

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Another grower for me. I loved the debut from Atlanta, Georgia’s Tómarúm, but in the glut of solid technical death metal this year there was something in the production that initially kept Beyond Obsidian Euphoria at arm’s length. Ian convinced me in our Discord chat to reconsider. I did, and man am I glad. The production woes slipped away with a better pair of headphones (and a lossless copy of the album) and, combined with the dynamics both in the recording and song arrangements show a stratospheric growth in the band’s sound. Read Ian’s full review and mid-year report to be convinced as well.

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Learning Curve Records is having a great year so far, first with Bronson Arm and now with Tonguecutter, the trio out of Muskegon, Michigan whose debut full-length Minnow captures the soul of noise rock, hardcore, punk, and the band’s self described riot girl proclivities into a potent blend of outrage. Guitarist/vocalist Chantal Roeske has a voice that snarls instead of sneers, her anger at the world full of spit and vitriol channeled through her lock-step riffing with bassist Derek Eagle and drummer Cam Polidan. For more check out our May 2025 Month That Was as well as my full review.

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Let There Be Dark, the sophomore album from New York’s Tower, feels like everything their great debut Shock To The System was: a potent blend of classic heavy metal indebted to the MWOBHM as much as the growing speed and thrash scenes on both coasts of the US. But there’s a envelope of darkness laying over tracks like the ripping “Under The Chapel” and the 1-2 devastation of closing tracks “Don’t You Say” and the epic “The Hammer” that brings the band from a great listen to an essential one. Read more in our March 2025 Month That Was.

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This is where I’ll lay out the edict: I don’t care if you think Turnstile doesn’t belong on a list of the best metal of the year. Or any metal list. The truth is Never Enough is probably the 2025 album I listened to the most this year. I connected so strongly to it that it retroactively made me love Glow On, an album I initially couldn’t stand. Songs like “Sole” (I refuse to do the all caps thing – my one complaint with the band), the massive chorus of “Dull” and the straight punk vibe of “Sunshower” are just three reasons this album is a cathartic release for me. I’m sure we’ll have a similar conversation over my lack of TRVE metal cred when the new Dirty Nil comes out and makes its way to my EOY list… Oh, and you can read my full review for more on Turnstile.

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We were already fans of Antoine Scholtes from his excellent black metal project Inherits The Void, but speaking for me, that admiration took a huge leap with Wurmian, his first (of many I hope) foray into melodic death with weighty shades of traditional metal coloring all of Immemorial Shrines. The promo materials note that this sits right in the niche fans of old In Flames would love, and that’s not wrong, but it’s limiting. Anyone who loves powerful, passionate melodic metal will find a great deal here. Colin beat me to the punch with his full review, so I had to go and write my own over here.

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Why do I think -(16)- is the best sludge/doom band going right now? It’s all there on the opening track to their latest release Guides For the Misguided. Listen to that attack on “After All” – the way the guitar pulverizes your bones to dust one minute, then rise up with some searing melody. The way Bobby Ferry seemingly has no equal in the vocal department…the way -(16)- can expertly mesh dank sludge with catchy hooks without sacrificing any brutality. It’s an album so good Josh and I had to tag team the full review. Don’t sleep on this early release – it will definitely be coming back.

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Was 32 albums and approximately 3,800 words overkill for a mid-year review? Would you have preferred me just making a list, something you could glance at for a quick second to justify your own picks or sneer at mine? Is that what these things are for? I prefer to use them as an opportunity to champion the things I love, and as the world turns to shit I found more and more things that lifted me up and gave me something to think about other than the madness. If any of these albums can do the same for you, all the writing was worth it.

Until next time, keep it heavy…keep it safe.

— Chris

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