(written by Islander)
Last Friday I posted the final installment in our list of 2025’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs, the one part of our year-end LISTMANIA series that I alone am responsible for. In compiling that list I wound up with 64 songs before forcing myself to stop. That compares to 69 songs on the 2024 list.
As always, putting together the list was both fun and stressful — fun to re-listen to lots of good music and get reminded of what a good year it was for metal, stressful because list-making of any kind is so difficult for me. Also as usual, my list didn’t cover the entire waterfront of metal genres, given the limitations of my own (still very expansive) tastes,
And of course, as is true every year, I really wasn’t finished when I stopped. A lot of candidates just as worthy as the 64 I chose were left by the wayside when I hit the February wall. Maybe some others will be honored by other writers (last year, for example, both DGR and Andy Synn added addenda to the list), but I don’t know if or when that might happen this year, so I’m doing this wrap-up post now.
Below you will find links to Parts 1 through 22 of my list as they appeared over time before I called a halt at the end of January, and of course the names of all 64 songs. Every year I briefly think about figuring out how to make a streamable playlist of all the songs, but I don’t use Spotify and I don’t know how else to do it and I doubt I would have the time even if I did. So people who might want to listen or re-listen to these picks can go where the links lead you and do that there.
I do want to thank everyone who suggested songs for the list, including the readers who left so many good recommendations in the Comments on this post last November and a couple of my NCS colleagues.
Part 1
Coroner – Symmetry
Nite – Crow (Fear the Night
Piece – Demigod
Part 2
Dormant Ordeal – Halo of Bones
Ancient Death – Breaking the Barriers of Hope
Asidhara – March of the Bastard Reich
Part 3
IGORRR – Headbutt
Floating – Cough Choir
Gorleben – Menetekel
Part 4
Mastiff – Decimated Graves
Imperial Triumphant – Lexington Delirium
Kostnateni – Samotář
Part 5
Kanonenfieber – Z-Vor!
One of Nine – Dreadful Leap
Ordeals – Suffer Cursed Ordeals
Part 6
Gaahls WYRD – Time and Timeless Timeline
Beastwars – Levitate
Chamber Mage – Blades on the Rampart
Part 7
Cryptopsy – Malicious Needs
LIK – War Praise
Synaptic – The Lost Continent
Part 8
Themata – Colossus
Victim of Fire – Apocalyptic Inclination
Hvrt – The Wait, The Weep, the Woe
Part 9
In Mourning – North Star
Cytotoxin – Condemnesia
Jordsjuk – Skreddersøm
Part 10
Puteraeon – The Nameless City
Anges de la Mort – Le Feu Sous la Grace
Nattverd – Med Knieven I Oeyet
Part 11
Rivers of Nihil – House of Light
Fimbul Winter – Mounds of Stone
Gravetaker – Bacchic Enthusiasm
Part 12
Tombs – Feral Darkness
Vacuous – Contraband
Clairvoyance – Eternal Blaze
Part 13
Hooded Menace – Portrait Without A Face
Grand Cadaver – Darkened Apathy
Doomsday – Pain Dweller
Part 14
The Ominous Circle – Through Tunnels Ablaze
Venus Star – Pebbles
Havukruunu – Kuolematon Laulunhenki
Part 15
Abduction – Razors of Occam
Black Rabbit – Initium Finis
Anzv – Shamash
Part 16
Valletta – Cold Death
Lacabra – Enemy
Mantar – Rex Perverso
Part 17
Umbrío – Envueltos en signos errantes
Death Obvious – The Great Gate Theory
Infernal Thorns – Black Flesh
Part 18
Messa – Reveal
Matalobos – Below the Dam
Amorphis – Dancing Shadow
Part 19
Yellow Eyes – The Thought of Death
Trivax – Operation Ramadan
Teitanblood – And Darkness Was All
Part 20
Psychonaut – Endless Currents
Yarostan – Godot
Fluisteraars – Sediment Der Impressies
Part 21
Pelican – Cascading Crescent
Demonic Death Judge – 90’s Violence
Beware the Gods – Temple of Thieves
Dawn of A Dark Age – Il Rito Della Consacrazione