Reviews, Interviews, and Podcasts celebrating the best Extreme Metal music

Justin’s 2025 in Review

Written by:

Justin Corbett

It’s hard to believe 2025 is already over. It’s truly been a blur. Lots of great things happened, but so did lots of truly awful ones. It kind of puts 2025 somewhere near the middle in my rankings of best and worst years of my life. Regardless of how my personal life is going, or how terrible the world has become, I can at least count on one thing to stay consistent – There’s always some great music.

Before I get to the music discussion though, I want to give a heartfelt thanks to everyone on the writing staff for Harsh Vocals. Moldy, Simon, Doc, Bri, Didi, Cary, Mike, and Brent – you all rock! We’ve put out a ton of great content this year, and I feel like next year it’s going to get even better. I especially want to thank Christian for all of his help running the site, promoting everything on social media, and for just being a great friend and podcast partner. There’s nobody else I’d rather do this with.

I’d also like to give a very special thanks to all the bands that took the time to come on the podcast and talk with us about their incredible albums. Thanks to Christian Larson from Necrofier/Hell’s Heroes, Carl Skildam of Skjolden/Inexorum, Kyle, Brandon, and Matt from Tomarum, and Konstantin and Andy of Thormesis! We thoroughly enjoyed getting to know you all, and we absolutely love all of your music. We also have a lot of interviews starting to line up for 2026 so keep an eye out!

Thanks to all the PR companies that have added us to their press lists, and have sent us tons of promos and concert review opportunities! I’m hoping next year we can double the amount of articles we write!

Lastly, thanks to everyone who has listened, commented, or shared our podcast episodes. We have the best audience and have made some great friendships from the show. Thanks to everyone who reads our articles and supports the site as well. Most of us would be doing this anyways, but it’s nice to know that people find value in our work.

I believe that’s everyone I need to thank, so lets move on to what you came here for… My top 100 albums from 2025.

I’ve been doing this for 11 years now, where I listen to nearly every album that gets released within the extreme metal genres, and then working through the year to pare it down to a top 30 list. It’s always a challenge, but a fun one.

This year was arguably more difficult than 2024, as there seemed to be less “great” albums, but considerably more “Good” albums. Out of the total 3,000+ albums that I heard throughout the year, my initial “Best-of” playlist was 697 albums long.

I should note that I only consider LPs for my end of year list.

I use a point system to rank albums. I consider production quality, songwriting, musicality, vocals (harsh and otherwise), and bloat. Anything that made it into that 697 albums scored a 3.5/5 or better. For some perspective, 2024 had 632 albums in that list and 2023 only had 343! There’s a lot more quality output these days.

After I have my end of year 3.5 or better list, I re-listen and re-value every album. Throughout the year, I hear so much music, that unless an album is exceptional, it sometimes doesn’t get as much replay as other releases. For this reason, I like to make sure that my initial rating is re-evaluated at the end.

After two rounds of re-listens, I had the list paired down to 179 albums that were 4.2/5 or better. At this point, sorting out the top 10 and top30 isn’t too difficult. I know what albums I listened to the most, and while there are a few more re-listens that have to occur to figure out what albums get those last few critical spots, it’s honestly the easiest part of the process for me.

Since there is so much good music though, I want to take a larger snapshot of what I enjoyed the most for the year, and that’s why I’ll continue doing a top100 for as long as the site is around. Every single album on this list is excellent, and if you missed ANY of them this year, I highly recommend checking them out. You’re almost guaranteed to find something you’ll love.

Without any further ado, here is my top 100 albums of 2025:

  1. Thormesis – Nevertheless
  2. In Mourning – The Immortal
  3. Abduction – Existentialismus
  4. Bliss of Flesh – Metempsychosis
  5. Dormant Ordeal – Tooth and Nail
  6. Nattverd – Tidloes Naadesloes
  7. Lamp of Murmuur – The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy
  8. Harakiri for the Sky – Scorched Earth
  9. Noctambulist – Noctambulist II: De Droom
  10. Helheim – Hrabnar/Ad Vesa
  11. Wounds of Recollection – I Found the Love that I Was Looking For
  12. Starer – Ancient Monuments and Modern Sadness
  13. Grab – Kremess
  14. Puteraeon – Mountains of Madness
  15. Enragement – Extinguish All Existence
  16. Tomarum – Beyond Obsidian Euphoria
  17. Mystic Circle – Hexenbrand 1486
  18. Weald & Woe – Far From the Light of Heaven
  19. Impermanence – Anicca
  20. Guts – Nightmare Fuel
  21. Walg – V
  22. Victim of Fire – The Old Lie
  23. Sunvher – Arovmia
  24. Sumerian Tombs – Age of Eternal Night
  25. Krigsgrav – Stormcaller
  26. Jade – Mysteries of a Flowery Dream
  27. The Halo Effect – March of the Unheard
  28. Cryptopsy – An Insatiable Violence
  29. Jours Pales – Resonances
  30. Doomsday – Never Known Peace
  31. Autrest – Burning Embers, Forgotten Wolves
  32. Asunojokei – Think of You
  33. Bloedmaan – Vampyric War in Blood
  34. Sarastus – Agony Eternal
  35. Cogas – Among the Dead: How to Become a Ghost
  36. Besna – Krasno
  37. Havukruunu – Tavastland
  38. Frost – Age of Fading and Doom
  39. Deafheaven – Lonely People with Power
  40. Ondfodt – Dimsvall
  41. Nexion – Sundrung
  42. Endrom – The Last Swordsman
  43. Lord Belial – Unholy Trinity
  44. Labyrinthus Stellarum – Rift in Reality
  45. Faust – Crypts of Eternity
  46. Thron – Vurias
  47. Blackbraid – III
  48. Outlaw – Opus Mortis
  49. Les Batards Du Roi – Les Chemins De L’Exil
  50. Graveripper – From Welkin to Tundra
  51. Coronor – Dissonance Theory
  52. Bore – Feral
  53. Cryptosis – Celestial Death
  54. Torture Machine – Shadowcult
  55. Allegaeon – The Ossuary Lens
  56. Wurmian – Immemorial Shrine
  57. Inpathos – Apparitions
  58. Outergods – Dethroned and Devoured
  59. Heathen Heretic – Whispers from the Abyss
  60. The Infernal Deceit – The True and Harmful Black
  61. Barshasketh – Antinomian Ascetiscism
  62. Sphere – Inferno
  63. Behemoth – The Shit Ov God
  64. Nephylim – Circuition
  65. Svart Vinter – Isvind
  66. Admire the Grim – Resist
  67. Cantu Ignis – The Fathomless Domain
  68. Stygian – Dreadlands
  69. Ophidian Memory – Seraphim
  70. Blood Red Throne – Siltskin
  71. Terzij De Horde -Our Breath is Not Ours Alone
  72. Angrrsth – Zludnia
  73. Zero Degree – What We Become
  74. Proscription – Desolate Divine
  75. Skaldr – Samsr
  76. Ba’Al – The FIne Line Between Heaven and Here
  77. Am I In Trouble – Spectrum
  78. Skjolden – Insouciant Metaphysical Grandeur
  79. Corridore – Abandon
  80. The Great Old Ones – Kadath
  81. Amalekim – Shir Hashiram
  82. Abigail Williams – A Void Within Existance
  83. Revocation – New Gods, New Masters
  84. Scorching Tomb – Ossuary
  85. Uaar – Galger Og Brann
  86. Ovader – Asagrim
  87. One of Nine – Dawn of the Iron Shadow
  88. Ancient Death – Ego Dissolution
  89. Wode – Uncrossing the Keys
  90. Depravity – Bestial Possession
  91. Darah – Holier Than Thou
  92. Atlantic – Timeworn
  93. Lucifer’s Child – The Illuminant
  94. Dispyt – Fran Melankoli Till Meningsloshet
  95. Coffin Feeder – Big Trouble
  96. Malakhim – And In Our Hearts the Devil Sings
  97. Refusal – Venomous Human Concept
  98. Soul Grinder – Frozen Halls
  99. Ashen – Leave the Flesh Behind
  100. Crust – Where Light Fears to Tread

For easy access, if you would like to check out my top30, I made a Spotify playlist:

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