We’ve finally reached the end of our 2025 content! …Actually, I’m pretty sure we haven’t, but I think we’ve waited long enough for this post.
2025 was another doozy, and 2026 already looks like it’s going to level up from there in the worst kind of ways. Has my tonality become slightly less optimistic with each passing year? Maybe! But, hey, at least we have aggressive music to talk about. Indeed, another year of Nine Circles is officially in books. Year… 11 I believe? How we’ve managed to keep this project consistent for this long is beyond me, but I sure am grateful for it. No sarcasm there whatsoever. The bands we love continue to push the boundaries of the genres we love, so we’re going to keep celebrating them. As is tradition, we once again determined our nine favorite albums as a team. Here’s how it went down…
Each member of the Nine Circles staff chose their nine favorite albums (inclusive of EPs) listed in order, and up to nine honorable mentions. Branding matters! Our scoring system works as follows: A first place album received 10 points, the second received 9, and so on and so forth. All honorable mentions received a single point each. Then, combining the scores across everyone’s lists, we have ourselves a collective Nine Circles ov 2025! Tiebreakers come down to whatever the Top Brass likes more. It’s a very democratic process.
So! The 2025 results are immediately below. We start with number 9 because we like making you scroll. We also determined the Label of the Year again, using the same scoring process as above. A title that is clearly unmatched across the entire internet. Sensing you impatience from here, it’s time to wrap this up and send you on your way. Have fun!
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9. Deftones – Private Music
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8. Arkhaaik – Uihtis
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7. Nite – Cult of the Serpent Sun
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6. Rwake – The Return of Magik
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5. Der weg einer Freiheit – Innern
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4. Weft – The Splintered Oar
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3. Yellow Eyes – Confusion Gate
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2. Agriculture – The Spiritual Sound
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1. Deafheaven – Lonely People With Power
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This was a weird exercise this year. Let me break some of the stats down for you…
- 130 different albums ended up in a “Best of 2025” list across our team, up three from last year. We’re still consistent!
- 98 of those albums appeared in only a single list, just below last year’s 100. The team continues to disagree on stuff! And we’re consistently inconsistent!
- Deafheaven appeared on the most lists (7), followed by Agriculture (6), Yellow Eyes, Weft, and Nite (4). Top heavy results in 2025.
- 10 different participants picked 7 different albums as their #1, with only Deafheaven topping multiple lists.
- Speaking of Deafheaven, they absolutely ran away with it this year, finishing with 60 points. Nobody else was close. Agriculture landed at 25, Yellow Eyes 23, and Weft at 20. Der weg einer Freiheit won a tiebreaker with Rwake because I said so, and Deftones won a tiebreaker with Asunojokei because Josh and Chris said so. Fair and balanced!
- Those 127 albums were released through 61 different labels…
…Which brings us to the Label of the Year announcement. The award of awards. The trophy of trophies.* (*There is no trophy.) It belongs to: Roadrunner Records! Zero surprise whatsoever. It was all Deafheaven. Oh, and apparently Turnstile? Cool. As far as scoring goes, they ended up with a score of 70. Season of Mist, a Nine Circles favorite for a few years now, followed at 58 and had the most representation with 10 albums (Der weg einer Freiheit, Nite, Saor, Cryptopsy, and Hooded Menace among others). So while Roadrunner wins the gold, Season of Mist once again wins our hearts.
Time to wrap up. With gratitude, above all else. Nine Circles wouldn’t be what it is without… all of you! Thank you to the bands, labels, PR folks, fellow bloggers, readers, commenters, social media-ers (meteors?), and anyone else that we’ve connected with in 2025. Everyone that made the bold choice to read our thoughts and words at least one time, thank you. And, of course, thank you to the entire Nine Circles team. Year after year, this Nine Circles journey continues to evolve and get better with time. The friendship and culture you have all created makes every single moment special. It’s a privilege and an honor to share this project with you all.
Peace out 2025. Let’s see what we can do with 2026. See you out there.