Favorite 2025 Music Albums

 

Those who've followed me for years know I don't usually make "best of the year" lists. I'm lucky enough to listen to a lot of music, read many books, and watch many movies. But sometimes I listen to what many don't listen to, read what few read, and watch the movies that not everyone likes. "Best of" lists are almost always divisive and polarizing. I think lists shouldn't be about the best that everyone listened to, but about the best that we listened to over and over again in our headphones. Lists should be an opportunity to let others enter our world, or our head, and listen to, read, or watch what we were able to enjoy. When all the "best of" lists are the same, something's wrong. A little bit of everything for everyone. 

This isn't your typical mainstream list. It's my personal selection of 2025 albums that have destroyed me, obsessed me, and kept me on infinite loop. Albums that sound like the dystopian future, the emotional abyss, and pure rage. If you're looking for something to shake your soul, put on headphones, turn up the volume, and let these 20 sonic monsters devour you.

1. Ho99o9 – Tomorrow We Escape  

Industrial, trip hop, progressive hip hop. Music to destroy an entire civilization. The sound of the future. Guitars that would drive Al Jourgensen crazy. Goodbye Death Grips! This punk rap duo explodes with uncontrollable fury and brutal maturity.

2. Wiccans – Phase IV

Yes, punk rock can be weird and beautiful at the same time. That's the lesson here. Texas punk inspired by Black Flag and Circle Jerks. Wild and weird, as it always should be.

3. Scalp – Not Worthy of Human Compassion

Pure devastation. Prepare to be eaten alive. One of my favorite albums of 2025. A horrifying glimpse into the void. Grindcore and death metal that crushes you without mercy.

4. Nghtcrwlr – Oz  

Easily one of my favorite albums of 2025. Pure electronic mayhem at light speed. A bleak and futuristic vision of hypertrophied music. Menacing and scary as hell. Kris Esfandiari transforms breakcore into a nocturnal weapon.

5. Hedonist – Scapulimancy  

Long live old school death metal. That's what Scapulimancy growls in every note. An album that reminds you that great death metal is alive, well, and far from obsolescence.

6. They Are Gutting a Body of Water – Lotto

Slint meets shoegaze. What more could I ask for? The future of shoegaze. Not gloomy, but super bright. Maybe the kind of music we always secretly wanted Billy Corgan to make.

7. Rainy Miller – Joseph, What Have You Done?  

It takes time to enter Rainy Miller's world of white electronic noise, but it's worth every effort. A dissonant nightmare and a disaster waiting to happen. Late night, cold night, rainy night. Perfect!

8. Lathe of Heaven – Aurora

This is how goth rock should sound nowadays. Dark and intense. Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, and The Cure rolled into one single cosmic dark piece. My favorite goth album of the year.

9. Gawthrop – Kuboa  

Raw, dirty, obscure and heavy music from South Korea. Heaviness taken to the absolute extreme in slow motion. My favorite sludge album of the year. A monolith of feedback and nihilism that crushes you.

10. Die Spitz – Something to Consume 

Brutal punk with thrash tinges from Austin, Texas. Heavy riffing and high energy. Dangerous girls with loud guitars. Part Motörhead, part Nirvana.

11. Aya – Hexed!

The perfect antithesis to hyperpop. Razor sharp crazed electronic anti dance music. Music turned into a weapon. It might sound pop at moments, but it never stops being dangerous. Grotesque, arty, and adventurous.

12. Baest – Colossal

An amazing mix of modern and classic metal sounds. Rock 'n' roll riffs embedded in brutal death metal atmosphere. Baest brings their memorable Danish brutal metal to the forefront.

13. Puffer – Street Hassle  

A Lou Reed album title for one of the most exciting punk albums of the year. Motörhead like energy. Straight forward and unstoppable. A juggernaut of an album. Green Day should listen more to Puffer.

14. Patriarchy – Manual For Dying  

Totally devastating electronic music. The kind of stuff that really messes with your mind. Brutal and sharp like no other. Really heavy dance music, the way I like it. Unique and sexy.

15. Pink Siifu – Black Antique

Industrial heavy hip hop. Cosmic hip hop. Noise music. A very heavy trip of an album. Exciting music from beginning to end. Black Music. Sun Ra meets DJ Screw meets Parliament.

16. Hell – Submersus

What an amazing album these guys from Oregon have made. Towering vibrating fuzz guitars at unbearable volumes. Pure deadly atmosphere. Prepare to suffocate in the heaviest and densest album of the year.

17. Nisemono – Nisemono  

Brutal and intense abrasive hardcore. Compact and lethal. Power duo from NY. A band that refuses to stand still and prefers to unleash brutal and brief bursts of pure energy.

18. Innumerable Forms – Pain Effulgence  

If you ask me for the best doom/death metal album of the year, look no further: Pain Effulgence by Innumerable Forms. A totally effective piece of an album. Nothing more than straight malevolent death metal direct from the grave.

19. Habak – Mil Orquídeas en Medio del Desierto 

In a world gone crazy over Deafheaven, I'm glad to have Mexico's Habak. A fascinating mix of post-rock and black metal like little we've heard before. Brutal beauty. Beautiful brutality. Call it what you want.

20. Spiritual Cramp – Rude  

Heirs to Ramones and The Clash on the throne of one of the best punk rock bands today. Anarchy anthems you can dance to. Pure punk rock joy, done in a marvelous way.