photo by Kassandra Carmona
(One of the perennial highlights of our year-end LISTMANIA series are the articles Neill Jameson (of Krieg) has contributed, and we’re very happy that he’s doing so again this year.)
If you’ve paid any attention over the last few years the first thing you’ll notice is my hair looks fucking wonderful, thank you. You’ll also notice this is my only list for the site this year. It’s actually my only list for any site besides my Substack, where the entirety of my list is, for better or worse. Since you asked, I’ve spent the better part of the year trying to carve that out as my main place where I drop the shit that falls out of my head. And what a year it’s been. Jesus Christ.
I don’t need to really tell the readers of this site why this year has been a motherfucker because I’m pretty sure the bulk of you didn’t vote for it. But it just seems like 2025, more than most, will not make too many “best years of my/your life” lists, whenever those get posted, April probably.
If we want to focus on whatever “positives” came out of this year, the main theme has been a massive flow of quality music, regardless of what genre you’re into. I don’t really remember a year starting so strongly and finishing with the same gusto, or zest if you will. I could have had a top 40 by fucking May. But the subtheme (minor to this year’s major? I haven’t slept in two days) is the amount of outsider records that came through the gates, artists who really stopped giving a fuck about convention and decided that rules were merely a suggestion, which can either be intoxicating or infuriating, especially if you have no patience for whimsy like me.
So for my contribution to the grand tradition of No Clean Singing lists which, frankly, are always outsider to the norms of the metal journalistic masses anyway, I wanted to focus on bands who colored outside the lines, either in their forms or in what expectations people may have had for them.
And with that, let’s get cracking.
Heritage “Blood and Tears” (Youth Attack Records)
https://youthattack.bandcamp.com/album/blood-and-tears
So, members of Grinning Death’s Head with various other Youth Attack vets came together and made a record. What do you think that would sound like? Figure Mark McCoy’s last few recorded outputs have largely been caustic black metal and the label itself is known for a certain barbaric sound. Remember what I said about expectations? Here’s the rub: it doesn’t sound like any of that.
Heritage is a fucking rock n’roll record that sounds like the first New York Dolls record with Dexter Holland at the helm. Danny Katz, lawyer to the US underground, put it best when we were talking about it: “it sounds like the fucking Offspring!” And yeah, that’s a very good comparison. I’d also add The Misfits “Walk Among Us” to that concoction as well. It was a very surprising record and you know what? It fucking rules. It makes me feel like I’m a sophomore in high school, just discovering punk beyond whatever MTV was playing at the time (Offspring notwithstanding) while taking trips to the first local indie record store that I frequented. This is the sound of veteran musicians who do not give a fuck about what you want from them and created a record for the love of it.
Calvary “White Ruins” (Into Endless Chaos Records)
https://calvary-iec.bandcamp.com/album/white-ruins
Another record featuring J. Wood (Grinning Death’s Head, the above mentioned Heritage, etc) coming after their exceptional split with Brånd (more on them later). Calvary have always had, to me, the feel of Americana spirituality pre WWI, and that’s still a prevalent feeling here. But there’s much more to it. Ildjarn with Ian Curtis, Circle of Ouroborus, the music brewing in the UK in the late 1970s. It’s all here, wrapped together in one of the best records of 2025. Calvary have been one of the most original voices in American black metal the last decade and White Ruins takes no time to prove why.
Brånd/Absolute Key “Collaboration” (Into Endless Chaos Records)
https://brndabsolutekey-iec.bandcamp.com/album/collaboration
When you hear of these sorts of things you expect either a split (which I’d have been more than fine with) or a collaboration that is merely the sum of its parts (see: the first Twilight record). But when you join Brånd with Antti Klemi (Circle of Ouroborus)’s Absolute Key project you get neither of these things.
This is a strange trip of a record, blending both musicians’ signature taste for the weird in a bundle of noise rock, power electronics, and ritualistic bliss. Think Thurston Moore if he came up with the Throbbing Gristle circle instead of in New York. This isn’t a “fun” listen by any stretch, but a challenge from the artists to experience their world for a spell. Finally unleashed after a few years of teasers, this might be the most fucked up thing you’ll hear this year. Glorious.
Gabestok “Alle Dør I Fremtiden” (Crypt of the Wizard Records)
https://cryptofthewizard.bandcamp.com/album/alle-d-r-i-fremtiden
Gabestok have never been a very conventional black metal band, especially when viewed through the lens of their contemporaries in the Korpsand Circle. They’ve injected their black metal with MC5/Stooges street punk and occasional moments of Mercyful Fate but this time around on Alle Dør I Fremtiden they’ve taken those ingredients and created a fucking epic of a record, the sort of soaring metal that bands from the ’80s dreamed of and the oddballs of the 1970s like the aforementioned two as well as Blue Cheer imagined in their most drug induced moments. In a way they’ve taken the streets to the arena and drenched it in sweat, blood, and piss. A modern Hawkwind for the black metal punk? That’s pretty fucking close to it.
Vaurien “Mystique rudimentaire” (self released)
https://vaurien.bandcamp.com/album/mystique-rudimentaire
I’ve become pretty obsessed with the bands that run in the Croux Records circle (we’ll get to that) as the label only seems to release the fucking strangest of the strange black metal and noise projects. I was set to crown Vaurien’s Merveilleux décombres in this list until a few weeks ago when Mystique rudimentaire surprised everyone with its unexpected release. Take the early Killing Joke eps recorded with Ildjarn’s equipment, sprinkle it with Warning (the one Pungent Stench covered) but make it aggressively French and you start to have an idea.
This record is absolute fucking genius, one of my favorite things released this year and the best thing the project has ever done, which is saying a lot because everything Vaurien has released is fucking brilliant. But this? Fuck. FUCK. Fucking brilliant.
Somatic Anxiety “Glass Prison” (Croux Records)
https://crouxrecords.bandcamp.com/album/glass-prison
Stomping black metal punk ala Rudimentary Peni’s Death Church with the self-titled Ildjarn. Somatic Anxiety take the black metal punk subgenre by the throat. They have a cleaner approach to their sound but that doesn’t take any of the teeth from it. You could have told me this was recorded in 1981 and I’d believe you but be shocked I’d never heard it before as this has all the makings of a classic. Definitely deserves a vinyl press.
Gates of Dawn “III” (Death Hymns)
https://gatesofdawn.bandcamp.com/album/iii
The award for most outside of the outside record of 2025 goes to III. There is simply nothing like this record out there, either this year or any previous. For as many bands over the years who have claimed to be “psychedelic black metal” this absolutely assassinates them. At least two of you will get that.
Mixing traditional second wave black metal with The Grateful Dead/Allman Brothers into easily the most original record of the year, there is no fucking reason Gates of Dawn aren’t much bigger than they are other than the fact a great many black metal fans (none of you reading this, of course) are fucking morons who don’t understand this sort of record because it goes so far out of their comfort zones nor does it feature a cover with three inch thick drawn borders and some asshole in a cloak. III is black metal taken further beyond its boundaries than anyone has taken it before, while still retaining the cold and dark core of the genre.
Ginger Wizard “The Curious Flora and Fauna of the Ancient World”
https://cryptofthewizard.bandcamp.com/album/the-curious-flora-and-fauna-of-the-ancient-world
Wrapping up this list is a record that defies categorization. Is it dungeon synth? Prog? Psych rock? It’s all of these things, sometimes all at once. Ginger Wizard have injected life into a genre that, with the excess of new projects and ease of recording, feels stagnant and bloated. This is a soothing yet invigorating journey of a record, perfect for the end of the night when your tired mind begins to wander into itself.
So, as with every year, I hope this list introduces you to something you hadn’t had the chance to hear, something that will stick with you for some time. Because I don’t think 2026 is going to get any better unless we all wake up to that obituary we asked Santa for.