Top 25 Albums of 2025
Here it is. My Top 25 Albums of 2025.
It looks like this year was really good for both punk and hardcore music but it was still a pretty diverse year for me musically. I listened to a lot less this year all around as I’ve had two residencies and have been working on the novel a lot and have needed a lot more ambience.
Something I did different this year—which I may carry over to next year—is I added a “favorited tracks” to the end of each entry. These would be tracks that I favorited throughout the year within the Apple Music app as they came on.
Standard yearly reminder: I only include albums in which I found the entirety of the release to be excellent and as such, I don’t include anything on the basis of just a single, and I don’t include rereleases, reissues, or remasters. Anything that isn’t a full original LP release, EP’s and remixes for example, are also excluded, though much to my own chagrin (only because my list is always already so large).
NOTES:
Ranked alphabetically by artist name.
The top 25 is followed by 5 honorable mentions.
I skipped it last year but I’ve once again included a copy of my work-list at the end with a bunch of other awesome releases that didn’t make the list.
Top most image links to my playlist on Apple Music and each subsequent entry’s album art links to a related Youtube video. I always try to use official channel videos wherever possible.
Regarding Jesse Welles: Bro, you released four albums in 2025 and between the anxiety and autism, I couldn’t make it work. Love you. Love them. I just had to exclude them for my own well being.
My Top 25
1
16
Guides For The Misguided
Released February 7th
This is one of those bands for me that makes the list every year in which they release an album. Guides was one of my favorite metal albums of the year and 16 never fails to deliver something new without being inconsistent. They have a clear understanding of their sonic foundation and always find cool ways to build new structures off of that.
Favorited Tracks:
Blood Atonement Blues
Fire and Brimstone Inc
Give Thanks And Praises
Kick Out The Chair
2
Bartees Strange
Horror
Released February 14th
Bartees Strange remains unclassifiable to me. He is one of those rare musicians that makes me wish I had some musical talent so I could try, and inevitably fail, at reaching this level of creativity. He’s another artist that makes my list every year in which he releases an album. His Say Goodbye To Pretty Boy made the list last year and Farm to Table made the list in 2022.
Favorited Tracks:
Too Much
Sober
Baltimore
Lie 95
Doomsday Buttercup
Backseat Banton
3
Bask
The Turning
Released August 22nd
The world seems strangely devoid of new psychedelic rock the last several years and thankfully we have a good roster of reliable bands to keep our mania from spinning us off into the void.*
Favorited Tracks:
In The Heat Of The Dying Sun
The Traveler
Dig My Heels
Long Lost Light
The Turning
*edibles not required but def recommended (where legal).
4
Between the Buried and Me
The Blue Nowhere
Released September 12
If you know me this shouldn’t come as surprise as they’re one of my favorite technical metal bands of all time. Over the years they’ve gotten better at moving between musical genres, eras, and instrumental experimentation much more seamlessly and this album is no different. It’s groovy, beautiful, heavy, and ethereal. One thing I appreciate that seems to be getting overlooked is their return to their weirder tendencies in a way that we haven’t seen since 2009’s The Great Misdirect.
Favorited Tracks:
Things We Tell Ourselves in the Dark
God Terror
Absent Thereafter
Door #3
Slow Paranoia
Beautifully Human
5
Clipse
Let God Sort Em Out
Released July 11th
It’s incredible how hot and steady the Clipse fire has burned in their time away. Brothers Pusha T and Malice sucked all the air out of the hip-hop room when they dropped this album. It’s insanely good. It’ll be studied and deconstructed for decades.
This is culturally inappropriate.
Favorited Tracks:
The Birds Don’t Sing
Chains & Whips
So Be It
Ace Trumpets
Inglorious Bastards
So Far Ahead
6
Deafheaven
Lonely People With Power
Released March 28th
Let me first preface this by saying that—unlike most of the metal community—I actually liked 2021’s Infinite Granite. It was my most listened to album of both that year and of 2022. Deafheaven is more than just screeching death metal vocals and that album proved it with a more ethereal and melodic approach sans them.
That being said, this album takes a step back and ruminates on 2018’s Ordinary Corrupt Human Love—one of my favorite albums, in any genre, of all time—and pulls in some of 2013’s Sunbather. Deafheaven really has a talent for finding new approaches to old things, because they still manage to find some really nice places to fit in the progressiveness of Infinite Granite. You can love that, and the more black-metal focus of the rest of their catalogue equally. You don’t have to, but it couldn’t hurt.
Favorited Tracks:
Doberman
Magnolia
The Garden Route
Heathen
Amethyst
The Marvelous Orange Tree
7
Doja Cat
Vie
Released September 26th
Doja never fails. Full stop. With every album she outdoes herself. One thing that catches me with this album is that each track feels like she’s a time traveler, just bouncing around through the last forty years of Billboard’s top 20. I favorited every track because they’re all fucking bops and I will not apologize but I’ll try to list just my favorite five.
Favorited Tracks:
Cards
Jealous Type
Stranger
Silly! Fun!
One More Time
8
Dominic Fike
Rocket
Released August 22nd
Fike’s 2023 album Sunburn is one of my favorites of all time. Everything about it is perfect and I never skip a track.
Is Rocket comparable?
No, but why does it need to be?
The aswer is it doesn’t. To even try, Fike would be setting himself up for failure. Rocket is exactly what it needs to be. It’s chill and brazen in equal measure.
It’s exactly what I would expect.
Favorited Tracks:
All Hands on Deck
Smile
Great Pretender
Quite the Opposite
Upset & Aggressive
9
Dropkick Murphys
For The People
Released November 7th
As an old school punk, looking up the road at 2026, I’m so glad this album came out when it did. Now I can watch all the MAGA shitheads whine about how they’re disappointed in Dropkick Murpheys for going Woke. Like these dumb fucks haven’t been singing along to these songs for decades only to not understand a single word.
You can’t be a fan of DKM and ICE. Pick a side.
Fuck DJT. Fuck ICE.
Favorited Tracks:
Who’ll Stand With Us?
Longshot
Chesterfields and Aftershave
Bury the Bones
Sooner Kill ‘Em First
Streetlights
10
End It
Wrong Side of Heaven
Released August 29th
Like I said at the outset, it was a good year for punk music. I wonder what environmental conditions could cause angry and direct forms of dissent to become more prevalent in music.
Punks never die, we just grow up and have kids who are also punks.
Favorited Tracks:
Wrong Side of Heaven
Pale Horse
Billion Dollar Question
Cloutbusting
Life Sublime
Optical Delusions
I, Lament
Anti-Colonial
Future Without A Past
Hookworm
11
FKA Twigs
EUSEXUA
Released January 24th
She’s very good at what she does. This is an excellent record to for just vibing, but in a strangely cathartic way.
Favorited Tracks:
Eusexua
Perfect Stranger
Drums of Death
Room of Fools
24hr Dog
Wanderlust
12
Great American Ghost
Tragedy of The Commons
Released January 31st
One of my favorite hardcore bands. Punishing but not without poignancy. If you’re looking for something to break shit to, this’ll definitely do the trick.
Favorited Tracks:
Kerosene
Echoes of War
Lost in the Outline
Forsaken
Ghost in Flesh
Hymn of Decay
Chapel Paralysis
God Is A Loaded Gun
13
Harakiri for the Sky
Scortched Earth
Released January 24th
My favorite melodic metal band. If there was a musical equivalent of the literary usages of catharsis and hamartia, it would be Harakiri for the Sky. I love the emotional resonance that moves through their music. They convey feeling in a way that I think escapes most of their peers—save maybe Svalbard, who makes an appearance here.
A fantastic band with another fantastic edition to the catalogue.
Favorited Tracks:
Heal Me
Keep Me Longing
No Graves but the Sea
With Autumn I’ll Surrender
Too Late for Goodbyes
14
L.S. Dunes
Violet
January 31st
Quiet, compulsive, and ethereal.
A whole made perfect by its individual parts. There’s something really beautiful about Anthony Green screaming over Stever’s guitar work.
I love Circa and I’m an old school Coheed fan (you’ll notice that Father of Make Believe didn’t make my list) but I might actually like L.S. Dunes better than both.
I felt dirty typing that but, it is what it is.
Favorited Tracks:
Like Magick
Violet
Machines
You Deserve to be Haunted
Holograms
Paper Tigers
15
Lorde
Virgin
Released June 27
Lore drop: I remember the first time I head my then young daughter singing and dancing to Royals. It was the first time she ever really connected to a song enough to try and learn the words.
I’ve been on this train ever since. Ride or die.
Favorited Tracks:
Hammer
What Was That?
Shapeshifter
Man Of The Year
Current Affairs
Broken Glass
16
Ludovico Einaudi
The Summer Portaits
Released January 31st
Ludovico is probably my favorite contemporary/classical crossover artist working. His 2022 album Underwater is in rotation a lot when I need to focus on writing, or calming my nerves, or sleeping. This is just another entry in his expansive and incredible body of work.
Favorited Tracks:
Rose Bay
Sequence
Pathos
Jay
Oil on Wood
Santiago
17
The Mars Volta
Lucro sucio; Los ojos del vacío
Released April 11th
IYKYK
Favorited Tracks:
Reina tormenta
Enlazan las tinieblas
The Iron Rose
Poseedora de mi sombra
Mito de los treces cielos
Detras de la puerta dorada
Morgana
18
Mogwai
The Bad Fire
Released January 24th
Mogwai has the distinction of being one of my earliest experiences with modern instrumental rock bands and a staple in my instrumental writing playlist. My love of Red Sparrows actually grew from Mogwai. I adore this album. It’s beautiful and quirky and make for a really solid relaxation experience.
Favorited Tracks:
God Gets You Back
Hi Chaos
Fanzine Made of Flesh
If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others
Hammer Room
Fact Boy
19
Propagandhi
At Peace
Released May 2nd
One of my favorite punk bands of all time and this is probably one of their most cohesive and consistent albums in their catalogue. The genre icons point their ire directly at fascism and don’t hold anything back.
It’s perfect timing for a perfect album.
“Hedge every bet, lick every boot, make every appeal
Prostrate yourself to the killing machine to spare yourself from its wheels
"Better them than me" rolls so seductively off your tongue
Your reckoning has begunMotherfucker I'm resourceful, resilient, I power through the waves of disappointment
Maybe not quite thriving but I'm buoyant
I am at peace these days
(Give or take a fit of blinding rage)
I can't seem to shake the belief
That there's a liminal state between
Death and rebirth in which you and me
Reconvene”
Fuck DJT. Fuck ICE.
I favorited the whole album so I’ll pick my top five:
Favorited Tracks:
Guiding Lights
At Peace
Stargazing
God of Avarice
Benito’s Earlier Work
20
Pupil Slicer
Fleshwork
November 7th
One of my favorites of the new generation of mathcore metal. Tackling the nature of oppressive systems, Fleshwork is an expansion of the fantastic work they did on 2023’s Blossom.
Also, Kate Davies is one of the best metal vocalists working and if anyone tells you otherwise, they’re liars and covering for their misogyny.
Favorited Tracks:
Gordian
Innocence
Black Scrawl
Fleshwork
Cenote
21
Revocation
New Gods, New Masters
Released September 28th
This is Dave Davidson’s ninth album as Revocation and he has yet to slow the fuck down and let the rest the world even catch up. He sets the tone for this collection of vignettes from the outset and points directly at AI. It’s a science fiction masterpiece of tech-death metal proportions.
Have fun. Don’t die.
Favorited Tracks:
New Gods, New Masters
Sarcophagi of the Soul
Dystopian Vermin
The All Seeing
Data Corpse
22
Rivers of Nihil
Self-Titled
Released May 30th
This was a huge shock for me. Where Owls Know My Name is one of my favorite metal albums, and while I liked it’s follow up, The Work, it didn’t really live up for me. When two members exited the band in 2022 and this new album was announced I decided to just wait and see what would happen.
After all “Owls” wasn’t going anywhere.
I could listen to it any time.
But is this album full of fucking bangers. It’s the whole package, including some wicked fucking saxophone work.
Favorited Tracks:
The Sub-Orbital Blues
Dustman
Criminals
Despair Church
Water & Time
House of Light
Evidence
23
Turnstile
NEVER ENOUGH
Released June 6th
We can argue, back forth all we want, about whether or not Turnstile is actually a hardcore punk band. But I’d really rather not because it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, I’m a huge proponent of getting out of the way and letting the next generation use their voice and enact the change they want to see. We had our chance, let them do what they do. One of the things I like about this album, is there’s a little bit of 80’s sprinkled in it. And as a huge Police fan—the band not the cops—and a Synchronicity apologist, there’s a lot to appreciate here.
Favorited Tracks:
SOLE
I CARE
DREAMING
LIGHT DESIGN
SUNSHOWER
LOOK OUT FOR ME
BIRDS
SLOWDIVE
24
The Weeknd
Hurry Up Tomorrow
Released January 31st
You knew I was going to do it, right? You had to have.
Do you even know me? Ugh. I will not apologize.
It’s important to note that I’ve been on this ride all the way back to Kiss Land in 2013—and Starboy is one of my favorite banger packed albums—so I’ve watched Abel Tesfaye blow up in real-time. I might even be glad he’s putting the moniker away. I’m stoked to see whatever it is he does next, as long as it’s not acting—at least work on it a bit first, yeah?
Favorited Tracks:
Wake Me Up
Cry For Me
Sao paulo
Open Hearts
Reflections Laughing
Enjoy The Show
Timeless
Red Terror
Without Warning
25
The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die
Dreams of Being Dust
Released August 22nd
Not gonna lie. This one caught me off guard. I know I listen to bands in their circle and I’ve heard them before but I guess nothing really clicked.
Enter Dreams of Being Dust.
What an absolute magnificent blend of everything I like to listen to. I don’t know what else to say. Give it a spin.
Favorited Tracks:
Dimmed Sun
Se Surfre Pero Se Goza
No Pilgrim
Beware the Centrist
Oubliette
Dissolving
Auguries of Guilt
For Those Who Will Outlive Us
Honorable Mentions
Basically while I’m working through the top 25, I make a separate list of the albums I really want on the list but can’t find room for, and then from that list I pick my five favorites.
As I’ve said, this whole process is extremely difficult for me and involves something they used to call Aspergers.
Below are those 5.
1
Chevelle
Bright as Blasphemy
Released August 15th
I’ve had a soft spot for Chevelle since Point #1 in 1999. It’s going to hurt me to type this out but—I was in high school at the time and if you’d have told me they’d still be kicking around pretty consistently a quarter of a century later, I guarantee you, I was too distracted to think about it.
Other than a few missteps (La Gargola and Hats Off to the Bull), I’ve really liked most of their releases. They’re consistent enough to know what to expect but you can also find some cool little surprises in each release.
Vena Sera and NARATIAS are my favorites but this is up there. I really dig this record and Lofler’s willingness to put the cryptic language aside for a change and draw a line in the sand.
Favorited Tracks:
Pale Horse
Rabbit Hole (Cowards, Pt. 1)
Jim Jones (Cowards, Pt. 2
Wolves (Love & Light)
Blood Out In the Fields
AI Phobias
2
Earl Sweatshirt
Live Laugh Love
Released August 22nd
One day, a few decades from now, I’m going to be telling my grandkids that I always knew this album would be a classic. My memory will be mostly gone, so I won’t know whether or not I’m bullshitting them, but if they’re anything like my kids—they’ll just assume I’m always bullshitting.
This was a welcome record this year and I recommend sitting with it when you have nothing else to do. Just relax and enjoy it.
Favorited Tracks:
FORGE
INFATUATION
Live
TOURMALINE
Heavy Metal aka ejecto seato!
exhaust
3
Fallujah
Xenotaph
Released June 13th
For those unaware, Fallujah is a melodic metal band with a very distinct sound and, if the new Rivers of Nihil album hadn’t been so surprisingly good, this one would have been in its spot. They’re pretty consistent and always deliver, as long as we pretend 2019’s Undying Light never happened.
Favorited Tracks:
In Stars We Drown
Kaleidoscopic Waves
Labyrinth of Stone
The Obsidian Architect
Xenotaph
4
Heaven Shall Burn
Heimat
Released June 27th
I had a tough time with this one. I love Heaven Shall Burn. They’re one of my favorite melodic death-metal bands and I figured that going into this new year it’d be really important to keep the German antifascists handy. This album is spectacular but I struggled to find a place for it in the Top 25. Like… I got pretty emotionally worked up about it. But in the end that’s what the Honorable Mentions are for.
Here’s to another ferocious record.
Favorited Tracks:
Ad Arma
War Is the Father of All
My Revocation of Compliance
Confounder
Empowerment
Imminence
Those Left Behind
A Silent Guard
Inter Arma
Destroy Fascism
5
Tyler, The Creator
DON’T TAP THE GLASS
Released July 21st
Second year in a row he made my list. I’m not surprised, and if I’m completely honest, I’d keep my distance from anyone that didn’t put him on theirs because that’s suspicious as fuck. Anyway, he deserves all the accolades all the time.
Favorited Tracks:
Big Pope
Sugar on My Tongue
Mommanem
Don’t Tap That Glass / Tweakin’
Don’t You Worry Baby
I’ll Take Care of You
My 2026 AotY Apple Music Playlist
Follow as next year progresses.
The Rest
Below is a screenshot of my worklist from Numbers. These are all the other cool albums from throughout the year that got left out of the Twenty-five and Five. I know I’ve mentioned this before but this process is actually quite exhausting for me. I like a lot of music, and it’s really hard to distill it down to just 25. Years ago when I started this on my old Wordpress site, I tired to do a Top 10 but that was way too much for my brain. Anyway, I’ve added them here for posterity.
Note: Both Jesse Welles and Silverstein released more than one album this year, hence the odd gaps.
