(Andy Synn finishes off “List Week” with a bunch of his personal favourites)
Here we are again folks, at the end of the road (for now, at least… I’ll probably still sneak in a few more reviews, including another “Best of British” and a “Things You May Have Missed”, before the end of the year).
And, as always, I’m finishing off “List Week” with my “Personal Top Ten”, i.e. the ten albums that have hit me the hardest, or stayed with me the longest, or otherwise just spent the most time on my regular playlist during 2025.
They aren’t necessarily the biggest names (several of them, in fact, are brand new bands making their first steps onto the wider stage this year), or even the “best” albums (some of them didn’t even make the cut for my “Great” list), but they’re definitely the ones (including some which came as a surprise to me) which had the biggest impact on my listening habits in 2025.
Of course there are lots of other artists/albums I wish I could have included here – honourable mentions go out to the likes of Tombs, Monolith, Crossed, Abigail Williams, and Terzij de Horde, all of whom were very much in the running for a place in my “Personal Top Ten” (the latter coming close to making the “Critical Top Ten” too) – but it should still give you some good insight into how my tastes have developed/regressed/mutated over the course of the year!
10. LÁSTIMA – A PAIN BLOOMED FROM MY LUNGS
As it turns out, every album featured here today is one I’ve written about before this year, so I’m going to be able to defer to my own words to explain just why each of them ended up here.
Case in point, Lástima really connected with me this year – the passion they put into their music is just something you can’t fake – and led me to write the following:
“Blending aspects of Post-Black Metal and Post-Hardcore, with an added touch of classical melody courtesy of string-smith Thuy Nguyen, Lástima‘s sound definitely shares certain sonic similarities with both their Spanish siblings in Tenue (one of my favourites of last year) and their Canadian cousins Respire, while some of the more moody and introspective moments even recall Panopticon at their most sublime and subdued.
Lástima, however, are still very much their own band (even if they’re not quite the finished article), with tracks like “The Shallow Drowned Lose Less Than We” and the undulating Post-Black-Punk-Screamo-Core of “Al Cerro Ancón” running the gamut from vivid, violin-driven melodies and limber, brooding bass lines to breath-taking blastbeats and heart-wrenching screams (interspersed with passages of crooning, clean-sung contemplation), providing an eloquent, yet also extreme, study in both contrast and contradiction.
I’ll grant you that there’s probably a few places where the songwriting could still be tightened up a little, but high points like “Sin Sol” (equal parts seething rage and sombre restraint) and cathartic closer “Septiembre” (which really demonstrates both the scope and depth of the group’s sound) definitely suggest that this is one band who are destined for bigger things down the line.“
Read the full review of A Pain Bloomed From My Lungs here.
09. VICTIM OF FIRE – THE OLD LIE
Look, in some ways I’m a simple man, really, and sometimes all I need are some big, catchy, take-no-prisoners riffs to get my blood pumping and my body moving of its own volition.
And, make no mistake about it, Victim of Fire are all about the power of riff, and their self-described brand of “Stadium Crust” (think At The Gates/Darkest Hour meets Martyrdöd/Iskra) is packed to the proverbial gills with enough compulsively catchy guitar work and electrifying energy to power a small city.
“It’s not just the riffs that make this one so fun though, it’s the overall and unashamed hookiness of the music, from the neck-wrecking barrage of blastbeats and d-beats which propels “Apocalyptic Inclination” to the showboating lead-guitar licks of “Wayward Light” to the glass-chewing vocals of “Nightmares of Ceasefire” (whose title you’ll likely be screaming along to, if only in your head, every single time).
That doesn’t mean, however, that the band have “sold out” (the aforementioned “Wayward Light” offsets its more melodic touches with an apoplexy-inducing level of aggression, while the fantastically-named “Front Towards Enemy” is two minutes and forty seconds of pure spite and savagery) it’s more that they’ve refined and streamlined their songwriting skills just that little bit more this time around in order to find a little extra room for more introspective moments like the moody mid-section of “Apocalyptic Inclination” or the sombre acoustic outro of “Soldiers Dream”.
I still can’t stand that cover of “Aces High” though…
Read the full review of The Old Lie here.
08. AZELL – ASTRALIS
I love discovering new bands, don’t you? And while Azell might not strictly be a “new” band (having actually released their debut album, Death Control, last year) they’re still new to me, and that makes it my job to share their music with the rest of you so that they can get more fans and go on making even more music in the future.
And the best way to do that, in my opinion, is just to re-share a few key passages from my review this year:
“Telling the story of two astronauts who, as the last survivors of a planet-killing catastrophe, are cast out into an uncaring universe brimming with unnamable, inhuman horrors, these eleven tracks plumb the darkest, doomiest depths of the sludge-spectrum, their gargantuan, gravity-warping drop-F guitars and super-massive, black hole heavy bass constantly threatening to collapse under their own crushing weight.
And while comparisons to the likes of Primitive Man, Conan, etc, are certainly valid I find my own thoughts turning more to the likes of Lord Mantis and Phantom Winter (especially in the way that the vocals judiciously juxtapose both barbed, blackened howls and grisly, gruesome gutturals), due to the duo’s deployment of morbidly majestic melody at key moments to counterbalance the album’s neutronium-level sonic density.
If you take one thing away from this, it should be the understanding that Astralis is one hell of a heavy album, which takes full advantage of its hefty low-end to really grind you down over the course of just over fifty-five-and-a-half minutes… such that by the time the climactic monologue of synth-and-sax-infused closer “Time Slows to Nothing” breathes its last, bitter gasp you’ll find yourself immediately craving a sequel just so you can find out how the story ends!“
Read the full review of Astralis here.
07. KNIVES – GLITTER
I love a surprise, don’t you? But even I was surprised by how much I loved Glitter, the debut from UK-based sextet Knives… and even more surprised when I realised I had to give it a spot on my “Personal Top Ten”.
On paper, you see, the band’s sound seems like something I might like, but not necessarily love – describing, roughly, as “punchy Post Hardcore meets predatory Post Punk meets jazzy Nu Metal” and making reference to the likes of At The Drive In, Killing Joke, Skindred, and Refused, as potential musical touchstones – but in practice it’s helped them become one of my favourite new discoveries of the year, and one which I’ve been recommending far and wide to anyone who’ll listen.
“The band have tapped directly into the zeitgeist on Glitter, both musically and lyrically, in a way which connects with what so many of us are seeing and feeling right now, with songs like pulse-pounding opener “The Dagger” and the anxiety-inducing “Rhinestone Cowboy” focussing their ire on xenophobic politicians and sociopathic landlords, while “PHD” and “Post Macho” reflect upon the corruption and parasitism still rampant in the music industry)
And while picking out specific highlights isn’t a simple task – Knives prove to be already impressively adept (and intriguingly unpredictable) songwriters, such that each track has something special to recommend it – if pushed I’d have to express, in addition to all the tracks mentioned above, a lot of love for the ominously atmospheric “Chroma” and the menacing slow-burn of “Ultraviolet” (while reserving special mention for the cruelly catchy chorus refrain of “You Think You Know”)… though to be honest I’ve yet to find a song I actually want to skip on any of my multiple re-listens to the record!“
Read the full review of Glitter here.
06. UULLIATA DIGIR – UULLIATA DIGIR
I love discovering new bands, don’t you? Wait, have I already said that? Well, it’s true, especially when those bands totally challenge your expectations by sounding not quite like anything else out there.
Oh, sure, references to the likes of Imperial Triumphant and Hail Spirit Noir, Oranssi Pazuzu and Obscure Sphinx, and even a touch of Ingurgitating Oblivion, might help get you in the right mood, at least, but really the only true way to appreciate Uulliata Digir‘s self-titled album is by listening to it.
If you need more encouragement, just take a quick glance at part of what I originally wrote about it in my review all the way back at the start of the year:
“Bursting out of the blocks with the sort of wilfully unorthodox, genre-blending sound – grounded in the harshness and heaviness of Black and Death Metal, but equally influenced by dark Jazz and doomy drone, while also incorporating passages of post-metallic ambience and abrasively sludgy atmosphere – which defies easy categorisation (“Avant-Garde Extremity” is probably the best way to describe it) the self-titled debut from Uulliata Digir has quickly established itself as the first truly “great” album of 2025.”
And if you’re still not convinced, go and read the full review, and give the full album a listen, and prepare to have your mind changed… whether you want it to be or not!
05. SUBTERRANEAN LAVA DRAGON – THE GREAT ARCHITECT
Way back in the February edition of “Things You May Have Missed” I called The Great Architect, the debut album by Subterranean Lava Dragon (whose line-up features former members of Black Crown Initiate and Minarchist), “one of the best debuts of the year so far… which puts just as much emphasis on expressive emotion as it does on impressive instrumentation.”
Well, now we’re deep into December I think it’s ok to remove the “too far” from that statement and just accept that it’s one of the best debut albums of the year, full stop.
Why? Well, I’ll let my previous words speak for themselves in that regard:
“Landing somewhere between Allegaeon and The Human Abstract, songs like “The Silent Kin” (seven and a half minutes of shamelessly proggy synths and captivating cleans married to a metallic undercurrent of twitchy, technical riffs and lithe, coiled bass lines) and the exotically heavy “A Question of Eris” (which juxtaposes some of the densest grooves and darkest growls on the album with passages of pseudo-cosmic keys and flickering electronica) showcase the band at their very best, equally capable of luring you in with their hefty hooks as they are keeping you on your toes with every clever compositional twist and turn.
And while some of the group’s attempt to push their sound even further sometimes demand a little more patience from the listener, the vast majority of The Great Architect – which includes the fantastic title track (one of the album’s many highlights) and “A Dream of Drowning” (which showcases a little more of that instantly recognisable Black Crown Initiate melodic magic) – features more than enough vibrant vocal variety and intricate instrumental intensity (the fleet-fingered bass work in particular deserves a lot of praise) to potentially make Subterranean Lava Dragon major players in the years to come!“
Read the full review of The Great Architect here.
04. HVRT – CANCERBLOOM
This is Hvrt‘s second time in a row taking a spot on my “Personal Top Ten” list, and while it may have taken them five long years to repeat this performance, I’m happy to report that they deserve it for Cancerbloom just as much as they did for The Grief That Feeds the Night.
Partially this is because they group, smartly, haven’t changed their sound – a morbidly hooky (and heavy) hybrid of Black Metal, Sludge, Doom, and Hardcore whose closest comparison/companion would be the likes of Goatwhore and Tombs (the latter of which, as it happens, were also very much in the running for this list) without exactly sounding like either of them – all that much (if anything they’ve just doubled down on everything that made it work so well the first time around) but instead have updated and shifted their conceptual and lyrical focus to better meet the current moment.
And meet it they most certainly do, head-on, teeth bared, and with eyes wide open. Like I said in my review:
“Perhaps the biggest difference between Cancerbloom and The Grief… is in the overall mood of the music, as whereas the latter felt like more of an existential meditation on matters of loss and anguish, the new album can’t help but deal with more essential, brutally tangible matters – as epitomised by the brutish, punky anthem that is “I Don’t Wanna Die In America” – provoked by the band’s growing disillusionment with a society that no longer seems to care what it has to give up, or who it has to sacrifice, to keep the gears of the great capitalist machine turning for another day.“
Read the full review of Cancerbloom here.
03. TIBERIUS – SINGING FOR COMPANY
It’s a real pleasure to see/hear a band you already liked (and I definitely liked A Peaceful Annihilation, the debut album from Scottish Prog-princes Tiberius) go from simply “good” to downright “great”, and that’s exactly what happened with the release of Singing for Company earlier this year.
I honestly don’t think I have much more to add that I didn’t already say in my review – barring, perhaps, that my tentative fear that first-half highlights like “Tip of the Spear” (an obvious “Song of the Year” candidate) and “Mosaic” would end up overshadowing the rest of the album in the long run ended up being unfounded, as my appreciation for the likes of “Juggernaut” and “Touch the Past” has only grown over the months since the record’s release – so I’ll just quote from it here and leave it to you to check the album out (or not) at your leisure:
“It’s not that they’ve drastically changed their sound – though they definitely lean a little more towards Evergrey than Protest the Hero this time around – it’s that they showcase a newfound confidence, a willingness to push themselves that little bit harder when necessary, but also a sense of when and where to pull back and let things breathe a little more, so that each song is now made up of fewer, but better (and more fully fleshed out) ideas, re-balancing the punchy, proggy intricacy of the guitar and bass work and the bombastic, synthy symphonics to allow room for more restrained moments such as the occasional splash of scintillating Spanish guitar or delicate, poignant piano.
Of course, no review of Singing for Company would be complete without giving vocalist Grant Barclay – whose vivacious voice combines many of the best bits of Tom Englund and Rody Walker, while also possessing its own distinct nuances and eccentricities – his flowers, as if there’s one member of the band who truly shows off how much more confident and capable they’ve become in the intervening years since A Peaceful Annihilation it’s him.“
Read the full review of Singing for Company here.
02. HOPE DEFERRED – DARKNESS REMAINS
Hope Deferred may not be reinventing the wheel, but the band – which features several former members of Embodyment/The Famine – have hit upon a sound here (largely due to ex-The Famine mainman Andrew Godwin’s instantly recognisable riffing style) which fills a hole in my heart for a particular brand of “techy Death Metal” meets “aggro Metalcore” that I don’t get to hear very often.
Hell, I said as much in my own review:
“Marrying the punishingly precise, pneumatically-driven power of Death Metal with the visceral aggression and venomous grooves of early/classic Metalcore, Darkness Remains obviously builds off the sound that The Famine established on The Architects of Guilt (the backbone of a track like “Commanded to Kill” should be pretty familiar to anyone who was a fan of said album) while also incorporating some of the hefty, hammering hooks of Living Sacrifice (“Absent Souls”) and the vicious intensity of Peace Was Never An Option era Man Must Die (“Brethren of Blood”).
As a result there’s no question that this is one album that is tailor-made for me specifically, but I have to think that – even if you’re not familiar with/a fan of any of the above-mentioned bands – you’re still going to find a lot to love here, if you just give Hope Deferred a chance.“
And not only do I still stand by that, I’m going to take this as another opportunity to urge you all to check them out once again, as I’d love to see them get more support from our readers!
Read the full review of Darkness Remains here.
01. ERYN NON DAE. – DISUNITED STATES OF ANIMA
Ultimately the easiest choice to make on this list was what album was going to take my #1 spot.
It’s not just that it’s the band’s final album, or that it features the final recordings of their sadly deceased vocalist Mathieu Boisgard (RIP), it’s that the band – knowing that this would be their swansong – decided to push themselves harder, and further, than ever, breaking down genre boundaries and exceeding expectations with impunity, to create a piece of uncompromising musical art that stands as a powerful epitaph not only for Eryn Non Dae.‘s career but for their fallen brother as well.
“Whether that’s in the form of the claustrophobic weight and pulsing atmospheric pressure of “Zugzwang” – which, despite the decision to strip back the guitars this time around, still manages to be one of the heaviest tracks of their career in many ways – or the strobing, subliminal synths and hypnotically repetetive rhythmic hooks of “Get Away”, it’s clear that the group have left no stone unturned, no idea off the table… while the more unorthodox soundscapes of a song like “Eidiya” (sound it out) serve primarily as a sort of unfolding sonic canvas for Boisgard’s distinctive existential and socio-political meditations.
And when the album does eventually reach its end, with the cinematic sonic chaos and pulsating, post-apocalyptic ambience of “Shut All Down”, it does so in a way which leaves all the tension built up over the previous forty-two-ish minutes cruelly unresolved, its many questions unanswered and incomplete, and the group’s story ultimately unfinished… which, paradoxically, feels like the only ending that was ever possible.“
Read the full review of Disunited States of Anima here.
And there you have it folks… that’s pretty much (but not quit) it for me for 2025. Thank you for sticking with me this week (and this year), and thank you to all the bands featured in my “Good“, “Great“, and “Critical” lists for all the music!