Here we are, already back in Album of the Year season. And what a year it was! For heavy music at least, I shouldn’t have to tell you about everything else. Yet again I am not simply putting the next set of albums that would follow my main list but albums that have not been covered elsewhere here at Nine Circles. Also in case you missed it, check out my mid-year recap as that might as well be part one of this list. Let’s dive in and examine some of the many hidden gems this year had to offer.
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting over the music I listen to. My habits have slowly gone from seasonal to more lengthy epochs of archeological excavation and examination. This year was a massive deep dive into the Grateful Dead: it was the favorite band of a friend who died suddenly and tragically, way too young. As I grieved I listened, and I could feel creaky shift of the gear, turning and creaking as the jazzy improvisation led back to familiar and comfortable haunts. Corners where smoke and fuzz united in a hazy trip to the stars. Hallucinogenic assistance encouraged but not required, I took solace and settled in.
All of which is to say once again before we get to the more formal end of year lists, I want to put the focus on my favorite style of heavy music: the hard, progressive, psychedelic rock some call stoner and some call desert. I call it home, and like last year I have a dozen examples to celebrate below the jump.
You KNEW this wasn’t going to be close to nine entries…fair warning!
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.
Well 2025 has certainly been one of the years of all time thus far. The miserable summer heat coming full force (at least it’ll be the coolest summer for the rest of our lives!), economic uncertainty, and nonstop horrors at home and abroad streamed directly to our phones 24/7 if we’re not already living them ourselves. I had been thinking recently that the year was kinda lacking in bangers thus far, but going back through everything I’ve listened to made me completely reevaluate that assessment. Releases from Wardruna, Havukruunu, and Deafheaven are easy highlights in their respective discographies, and Felgrave’s Otherlike Darknesses remains my AOTY thus far (see my review that was totally an exercise in brevity). Along with these heavy hitters there’s been a plethora of great releases we haven’t highlighted elsewhere (with some minor exceptions), so let’s dive in and see what else 2025 has brought us so far.
What a goddamn year it has been so far. To call what I’ve been doing for the past six months struggling doesn’t feel like justice at all, and I’m convinced I’ve listened to less music this year than I ever have. I know that’s probably not true, considering I have ten (actually, eleven, but you have to scroll all the way down to see why) offerings released this year to talk about with you and, for the most part, I have been keeping up with my personal review quota, but I feel like I have been having to go more out of my way to keep the music I’ve been listening to in my head. Therefore, it should be an extra set of kudos to these albums that I have managed to remember them at the turning point into the back half of this year (and hopefully a turning point towards better things). These are the albums that have carried me so far through this year, and you can expect more than a few of them to show up again when December rears its head. But because I need to save some surprises for proper list season, this’ll be a mix of favorites, current runners up, nonmetal and metal-adjacent. Without further ado, let’s dive in.
