At last, I have assembled my album of the year list for 2025! I had a lot of fun picking out albums I was really excited about, and then a really hard time sorting them from there. So don’t put toooo much stock in any album’s relative position: I wholeheartedly recommend all of these. To that end, I also opted to consolidate everything into this single list this year (no differentiation for high/low profile bands or EPs). With no further ado:

  1. Fallujah - Xenotaph (USA-CA)
  2. Recorruptor - Sorrow Will Drown Us All (USA-MI)
  3. Demon King - Death Knell (USA-TN)
  4. Cryptopsy - An Insatiable Violence (CAN-QC)
  5. Revocation - New Gods, New Masters (USA-MA)
  6. Exterminatus - Echoes From A Distant Star, Pt. 1 (CAN-BC)
  7. Sandvvitch - Sandvvitch (USA-NV)
  8. Ben’s Raincoat - Radiant Cliffs [EP] (USA-NE)
  9. Wrath of Belial - Embers of Dead Empires (Denmark)
  10. Retromorphosis - Psalmus Mortis (Sweden)
  11. Pathogenic - Crowned in Corpses (USA-MA)
  12. Synaptic - Enter the Void (Germany)
  13. Fleshbore - Painted Paradise (USA-IN)
  14. Celestial Scourge - Observers of the Inevitable (Norway)
  15. Hypermass - Apparition Day [EP] (Norway)
  16. Avatar of Hate - Necrotic Awakening (Romania)
  17. Pravitas - The Parasitic Divine (UK-ENG)
  18. Rivers of Nihil - Rivers of Nihil (USA-PA)
  19. Unaligned - A Form Beyond (USA-FL)
  20. Human Time - Цена совершенства ([The] Price of Perfection) (Russia)
  21. Eschaton - Techtalitarian (USA-CT/MA)
  22. Allodium - Dream Labyrinth (USA-CA)
  23. Nightbearer - Defiance (Germany)
  24. Unknown Subject - Democracies Die! [EP] (Finland)
  25. Wretched - Decay (USA-NC)

Honorable mention: I’d definitely classify this as some sort of deathcore, but this year I absolutely could not stop listening to Shadow of Intent - Imperium Delirium (USA-CT/RI)

Let me know what you feel I’ve left out, including the zanier stuff (looking at you, Frogg). I know I’ve scaled back my posting to just weekly roundups, but I’m still voraciously consuming as much as I can, so I’m eager to discover any more gems that managed to escape my notice - there are always inevitably some!