1914 - Viribus Unitis

1914 is World War I metal. Viribus Unitis is blackened death, with a healthy dose of doom and misery. The songs follow a story in WWI and start in 1914 with an atmosphere of aggression and outright chaos, then gradually move through to 1918 and 1919 when the overall feeling has numbed and become despair. This album is an incredible piece of art, which is intended to be digested in full. It's brilliant, but heavy going in both senses of the word. Elsewhere in this list I criticise Sabaton's music for feeling like propaganda, which is because they sing about war but their cheery demeanour makes it sound like war is just a tool to allow honourable people to achieve glory and brilliance in heroic battles. 1914 is all about war too, and they make it sound terrible. This album is the polar opposite of Sabaton's.

Agriculture - The Spiritual Sound

The first phrase that comes to mind when listening is 'total mess', by which I mean the sound is intentionally chaotic and all over the place. Agriculture call themselves black metal, but I don't see any black metal at all in this. It's more post-metal, in a similar vein to Deafheaven. It's well made and is worth checking out if you're into post-metal, but I'm not.

Arch Enemy - Blood Dynasty

Arch Enemy cemented themselves in metal history with their first few albums. Everything up to and including Wages Of Sin was brilliant. Since then they've struggled a bit and have felt at times like a band going through the motions of making music. Can Blood Dynasty break the curse and mark a return to form? The answer is no. It's very generic and boring album. It's bordering on being music for people who don't listen to music, which is a strange area to occupy for a melodeath band. I had hoped that Jeff Loomis would inject some life into Arch Enemy, but it seems he wasn't given much any song writing duties. Alyssa White-Gluz has left the band since this album was released so it is feasible a new singer will reinvigorate them, but, as Loomis didn't, I'm sceptical. Overall: not recommended.

Amorphis - Borderland

Borderland is pretty much what anyone familiar with Amorphis will have come to expect, which is to say that the name Amorphis has become a huge irony. There are a few very strong tracks (Bones, Dancing Shadow, The Strange), and Tomi Joutsen has a great voice which is always a pleasure to listen to. But overall it's kind of the same thing that Amorphis have been releasing for a good few years now. Very listenable but not much to excite.

Blackbraid - Blackbraid III

Blackbraid III is nominally black metal but also drifts into blackened death quite often. There's a native American angle to it too, but this mainly appears during acoustic sections and isn't really obvious in the main flow of the music. The production is clean and the sound is big, aggressive and, in places, unrelenting. I think Blackbraid III should have been edited down a bit to make it a bit punchier, but it's a pretty strong album. Generally recommended.

Castle Rat - The Bestiary

Doom is a funny genre. Before this year, my only real exposure to Doom was way back in about 2008 trying to figure out what anyone saw in Sunn O))). Spoiler: I never did work it out, but they're still going, so good for them. Well, it turns out Sunn O))) are a pretty specific form of Doom. Castle Rat are at the much more accessible end, and the much more accessible end is not dissimilar to 70s and 80s rock and metal, just with messier guitar tones. In fact, it's hard to listen to the opening of WIZARD and not expect Ronnie Dio to start singing 16th Century Greensleeves. But, instead, Riley Pinkerton starts with a highly reverberated and ethereal vocal line. The vocals are strongly performed, but they are mostly used to add a layer to the sound rather than exploring more interesting melodies and as such are a bit repetitive, which is probably the weak point of the album for me, though having said that, they can be catchy in places. Overall the album is probably a bit too long and weakens its attack because of it, but it's generally strong. WIZARD is a great track. Recommended.

Coroner - Dissonance Theory

I haven't heard Coroner's older work before listening to this so I didn't know what to expect. Dissonance Theory is a surgically precise piece of thrash metal. It sounds to my ears a lot like Gojira, but that's probably due to Gojira being influenced by Coroner's previous work rather than vice versa. It also draws from Death's Symbolic in a few places. It's very technical and very exact, but also has a kind of spacey feel to it through ambience and chord choice; I think there's a bit of 7th intervals and lydian mode going on, which is unusual for metal. The ambient melodies are really well done and add an extra layer of subtlety. It's definitely thrash, but a very unique approach to thrash.

Cryptopsy - An Insatiable Violence

Cryptopsy have had a funny history, where they released one of the defining death metal albums of all time, and then alienated a lot of fans by moving into deathcore. This album is not deathcore. It is absolute chaos, in the best sense. I don't listen to much brutal death, but this is awesome. The vocals are thick, the riffs are chonky and the rhythm is relentless. I don't have much else to say about this album other than if you like death metal then check this out.

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

I've never quite appreciated blackgaze or post-black metal. I like black metal, but I'm not convinced that mixing it with non-metal genres entirely works. For me, post black metal was Allagoch and everyone else has taken a wrong turn. So I've never quite got into Deafheaven, although I like bits of what they do. Lonely People With Power is much more at the black end of the spectrum rather than the gaze end, and I like it more than their previous work. Magnolia is an absolutely fantastic track that might just be my favourite individual track of 2025. But overall the album wanders off away from black metal too often to keep my attention for the full duration. It's good, well written and well produced, but it's not all for me.

Equilibrium - Equinox

I remember when Equilibrium seemed like a band to watch when they released their debut Turis Fratyr, which was a promising but slightly understated blackened folk sort of affair, and then blew my socks off with Sagas in 2008, which was not understated at all. I didn't take my own advice and I haven't kept up with them, until now. What happened?! Equinox's sound is totally unrecognisable from those first two albums. There are still hints of folk metal, but they've incorporated a more metalcore sound. I don't like metalcore. To me it sounds sterile, commercial, very American, and, somehow, not very metal. I can't recommend this at all.

Faetooth - Labarynthe

Another doom metal release! Faetooth are a trio with one she and two theys, which is an unusual makeup for a metal band and they have an unusual sound for a metal band too. Compared to Castle Rat, this is more what I expect when I hear the phrase 'doom metal'. It's plodding, deliberate and thick, but despite feeling slow, it does feel like it gradually picks up momentum and keeps things interesting. There is a kind of rhythm flowing through it. Personally I prefer Castle Rat's more up-tempo approach, but that's just personal preference. Hole and White Noise are great songs.

Grenadier - Wolves Of The Trench

I hadn't heard of Grenadier before. Wolves Of The Trench is a mix of sub-genres, but it's mostly melodeath with emphasis on the melo- to such an extent that the leads sometimes venture into power metal, while also wandering towards blackened territory every so often. It's a very strong album with the exception of the clean vocals, which, fortunately, only appear on two tracks. The last track features cleans most prominently and feels very out of place on the album. I hope that in future they'll tone that down. Other than that, it's a very good album. Recommended.

Hedonist - Scapulimancy

This is Hedonist's first full length release and they've really come out blasting. This is straightforward old school death metal, with a very obvious Bolt Thrower influence, which feeds into the lead melodies and the groove. The vocals significantly diverge from Bolt Thrower, as they are much, much deeper and more guttural and performed by a woman? Not that you'd know it it listen to her! With a fairly short runtime of 36 minutes it feels like the music jumps in, gets to the point, then gets out before it can overstay its welcome. I think a criticism of a lot of albums on this list is they are a bit too long and should have been cut down, and Hedonist are one of the few bands that get this right. Recommended, especially if you like Bolt Thrower.

Hooded Menace - Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration

I hadn't heard these guys before so I didn't know what to expect. Wikipedia describes them as "death-doom", but I am not so easily fooled - this is just classic 80s metal with harsh vocals. I love the overall sound of this album. The bright, sparkly lead guitar reminds me of the guitar tones on Iron Maiden's Somewhere In Time, the spacey, pseudo-futuristic sound of which I always loved. The riffing is fantastic. The overall sound is spacey and echoey, but with a lot of bite in the guitars. The vocals could be more varied, but they work. It's a very fun album. I'm going to listen to it a lot more, and maybe the vocals will grow on me a bit. Recommended.

Messa - The Spin

This is my first experience of Messa, although apparently they've been putting out albums since 2016. Here we have another doom release, this time with highly reverberated clean female vocals and jangly chorus drenched clean-ish guitar leads over a fat, bass heavy rhythm sound, though they do have more traditional highly distorted shred solos too. Their sound is big and somewhat messy. There's also a lot of influence from other genres, with an overall 80s gothic feel, some proggy bits and even a western style guitar. Stylistically it's vast and varied, but also feels quite consistent. If someone described this album to me, I would think "that doesn't really sound like my thing", yet it's actually become one of my favourite albums of the year. Very recommended, even if you are thinking "that doesn't really sound like my thing".

Mutagenic Host - The Diseased Machine

The award for the best cover art on this list definitely goes to Mutagenic Host. This is their first full length release and they're coming out guns blazing with unapologetic old school death metal. I think I detect a bit of an 80s thrash influence too. The overall sound is wonderfully thick. The rhythm guitar tone sizzles such that makes it sound like my speakers are on fire, which is certainly a choice. Actually, every instrument sounds great as a whole and individually, including the vocals which are varied and interesting. The songs in general too are varied. In terms of death, I think that Cryptopsy's offering might, for me, just have the edge over The Diseased Machine, but it is extremely good.

One Of Nine - Dawn Of The Iron Shadow

The award for the best cover art on this list... already went to Mutagenic Host, but Dawn Of The Iron Shadow easily comes in second place with its painting of Glorfindel battling a balrog.

And if you recognised the words Glorfindel or balrog, you will probably have worked out that the 'nine' here refers to the nine rings rather than Seven of Nine's older brother. Maybe it's just me, but I feel that if you're trying to evoke imagery of one franchise you should probably avoid using a name that would more commonly be associated with another franchise. But anyway, this is Tolkein inspired atmospheric black metal, and it's well done. The music weaves fluently from pure black metal to acoustic, which seems fitting for the source literature. Synths add an ethereal layer of atmopshere, and this is the first time I've heard bells used to provide melody in black metal. Other than that it's not really a groundbreaking piece of black metal from a songwriting perspective, but One of Nine have done a fantastic job of creating atmosphere, so it's a very enjoyable listen and I'll be checking out whatever they release in future. Very recommended.

Sabaton - Legends

Sabaton is a confusing band for me. I think their music is well made and sounds great, with catchy melodies and grandiose choruses. It's unique and instantly recognisable (even if they kind of did rip off Avantasia a little bit), and that's a good place for an artist to be. But I find their lyrics superficial and sometimes it feels like I'm listening to propaganda. If they were singing about lord of the rings or norse mythology I wouldn't mind, but they sing about real, modern/recent history where real people actually got killed, and it wasn't as cheerful or glorious as they make it sound.

With that said, this is a decent album. It's loud, fun, fast, upbeat, and, despite not really being anything new, also quite catchy and memorable. I don't think Legends is as strong as some of their older albums, but Sabaton have been putting out albums a long time now and I think they deserve some credit for the fact they haven't let the quality dip much while still keeping their signature sound. If you're new to Sabaton then I'd recommend starting with their back catalogue over Legends, but if not, then you know what to expect and this album delivers it.

Testament - Parra Bellum

Testament isn't really a band I've kept up with but they have quite a few songs in their catalogue I really like. I'd consider them part of the thrash Big 4, over Anthrax, but that's just me. For a band over 40 years into their career, they have really come out swinging with Para Bellum. The first half of the album is modern classic thrash but there's also a noticeable black metal influence in some of the tracks. It switches things up a lot in the middle, with Meant To Be, which is essentially a power ballad, and then by Nature Of The Beast we're into classic rock territory with some Thin Lizzy influence. It's not a remotely cohesive experience and I think the second half of the album is a bit weak, but the first few tracks are brilliant.