2025 albums

If nothing else, this album has probably my favorite metal cover art of the year.

But it's a really good album, too!

I listen to a lot of death metal and while I mostly enjoy it, a lot of is pretty forgettable. I like it well enough while it is playing, but then can't remember a thing about it the second it ends.

This is one of the albums that is the exception. It checks all the usual death metal boxes, but there's just something about it that makes it stand out for me and keeps my attention. I think it will end up on my year-end favorites list.

I ran across this band via a 20 Buck Spin promotional email, so well done marketing, Marketing Dept., I guess.

I had never heard of Neon Nightmare before. The album is goth-inflected metal, with a bit of a doom/stoner vibe to some of the tracks.

I am enjoying it well enough while I'm listening, but I suspect I may not remember much about it once the album ends.

I want to like this album, but I think I kind of don't.

It's frustrating—there are a lot of great ideas here, and clearly a lot of talent, but it just doesn't hold together for me. This album feels all over the map.

I guess some people like this sort maximalist approach, but it feels too busy and overwrought to me. I should also note that prog metal never really appeals much to me, and there is quite a bit of that here; that's part of what contributes to the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink aspect of this album.

HOLY CRAP WHY HAD NO ONE TOLD ME ABOUT THIS BAND?!

I ran across Timeghoul via an offhand mention in an article I was reading this morning and I am pretty embarrassed to admit that I had never heard of them before. They're an early-90s death metal band from small-town Missouri(!) that self-released a couple of EPs on cassette and then broke up. This collection is the sum-total of their output.

I'm a big fan of the black-metal inspired stuff that all the Florida bands were doing, but I feel like this is on a whole other level. They manage to pull off complex, esoteric death metal without that overly finicky, "Look! We know jazz!" sound that plagues bands like Athiest.

These guys were way ahead of the time. Even if I'm late to the party, I'm glad to have finally arrived.

I found this one on Chris's weekly list of new metal releases, and when I saw the "death/flamenco" descriptor, I knew I had to check it out.

Friends, this album DOES NOT DISAPPOINT. While the band does not go overboard with the flamenco part, it is definitely there and adds a really interesting layer to the songs. I like this one a lot; it is a contender for my list of favorite death metal albums so far this year. Strong recommend.

I had missed that Matt Johnson had put out a new The The record last year.

While I have always appreciated Johnson's albums, I have tended to hold them at a bit of a distance. I don't need to music to always be comfortable and make me feel good, but there is an aspect to his music that feels like someone working through their own mental and emotional issues. While that is obviously pretty common in music, there is something about the way Johnson does it that I find vaguely unsettling.

I really like this new album, though. It feels like a pretty good encapsulation of what it is like to be alive in These Current Times.

This is a solid slab of straight-up mid-1990s industrial-tinged metal/hip-hop, and a band I had not thought about since probably 1998?

I first saw these guys live at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights, back when it was still in its original location on Coventry and it was a pretty killer show. I saw them a year or two later at The Odeon in the Flats; they were opening for Lords Of Acid and KMFDM, and had lost some of their charm.

Honestly, I'm kind of surprised that I still find this album as enjoyable as I do. The Bob Serpentini samples at the beginning of "Green Mind," while odious in content—especially in our current era—are weirdly nostalgic in a very Cleveland sort of way.

I had never heard of this band before today, and I am kind of surprised, as they are awesome. They're a sludgy mix of metal, hardcore, and maybe a bit of goth?

They only out two albums—this is the first one—in the mid-90s, and then apparently broke up when one of members was killed in a car accident. The remaining members went on to other bands, including Crowbar and Goatwhore.

I really like this album and I'm pretty glad to have found it.

It has been a while since I have listened to a full album of straight-up death metal, but this one sits squarely in that category.

I can't say I enjoyed this album, but I feel like that is not the point of this genre. I'm all for the SATANSATANSATAN brand of black metal, but if I were to imagine what the in-store play music would be in hell, it would probably sound something like this.

A common gripe one hears about death metal is that it all sounds the same—Cookie Monster vocals, blast beats, constant tremolo picking—but records like this one prove otherwise. It's not going to be for all tastes, but I would recommend it if you don't mind a harrowing listen.

I think this album might be my favorite metal release so far this year.

I listened to it a bunch of times when it came out last month, and then it dropped off my radar for a bit. Then I was reminded of it again by a list of April metal albums I was reading today and I am once again floored by how great it is.

There are parts of Ego Dissolution that are pretty straight-ahead death metal, but it's got a lot more going on than just that. Lots of shifts in tone and pace, but it all holds together and is quite a journey when you listen to the whole thing.

And that cover art! I have to think it's channeling those HP Lovecraft mass market covers from the 1980s and I love it!

I found this album more or less randomly among last week's new metal releases and was intrigued by the premise of Tunisian black metal.

Friends, this record is good and I recommend it.

I really liked Dark Matter Manifesto upon first listen, and having now listened to it a few more times, I think it holds up quite well. The vocals remind me a bit of Venom, but the playing is a lot better.

The album has a cosmic/eldritch-horror vibe to it. That sort of thing is right up my alley, so I was probably primed to like this album anyway.

I'm not sure quite what I was suspecting from this album, but whatever those expectations were, they were utterly defied once I clicked play.

I will admit that my initial reaction about halfway through the first track was "This sucks, change it." It mostly reminded me of Sleep Token, which I cannot stand (that's just me, and there's no accounting for taste—YMMV).

The more I let this album, though, the more it grew on me. While I ran across it on a list of new metal releases, it is nowhere near the realm of metal. There are maybe a bit of black metal vocals here and there, but they are absolutely buried in the mix. It is tough to pin down genre-wise, with clean vocals, some hip-hop, and drum-and-bass beats scattered throughout.

I'm still not sure what I think, but it's definitely worth a listen. I can imagine returning to this album more than once.

I forget where I heard about this album—someone’s Mastodon post, I’m sure—but it has been on my list to listen to all week. I finely got around to it today.

Holy cannoli! It is great!

I tend not to go in much for stoner/sludge metal, as I find it all sort of blends together for me. This album has a lot of variety to it, and some pretty great (and heavy) grooves. And the tone on the guitars is just about perfect. If I had to pick a stand-out track, it would probably be “Cryptids”, but the whole album is just really good.