9. Havukruunu - "Tavastland"

Luscious, epic black metal from Finland. This is a stunningly evocative album because of its wide-screen sensibilities. It feels big and cinematic, full of rousing choruses and soaring, pronounced guitar solos. It is expansive and dynamic, fueling an atmosphere of striking landscapes and heroic escapades. However, it is not all chest beating and plastic swords. There is an organic realism to this album; it explores Finnish pagan tradition with a level of authenticity. They are not romanticising the past; they are using the harsh bravado of black metal to enhance simultaneously its brutal aspects and its attractive camaraderie. Absolutely astonishing in its scope and scale. A euphoric joy to listen to.

2025 TOP 100Author : Stewart Lucas24 November 2025Havukruunu, Tavastland, 01-20, 20-01Comment

8. ZÉRO ABSOLU - "La Saignée"

This is an album that shines because of its brevity. There are just two tracks here, ‘La Saignee’ and ‘Le Temps Detruit Tout’ and the run time is a brief 33 minutes. Yet what they manage to conjure up in that short time is nothing short of astonishing. Formerly known as Glaciation, these ambitious French men rebranded in 2024 with a manifesto to create intricate post black metal that is full of emotion and introspection.

This is fundamentally a beautiful, soulful album. There are traces and passages of harshness and brutality, but it is measured and exists purely to provide a juxtaposition to the fragile beauty. The sound is lush and enveloping. It is soothing and embracing, with wave after wave of gorgeous instrumentation. In the end, this is a thoroughly uplifting album, sometimes minimal and reserved but, in the main, euphoric and transcendental. Absolutely wonderful.

2025 TOP 100Author : Stewart Lucas24 November 2025Zero Absolu, La Saignee, 01-20, 20-01Comment

7. Deafheaven - "Lonely People With Power"

I may have felt that with 2021’s “Infinite Granite”, Blackgaze pioneers Deafheaven had left the metal behind and fully embraced the post-punk shoegaze sound. However, “Lonely People with Power” proves that they were merely on hiatus from our world and that they still have the stirring brutality flowing through their veins. This is a deliciously variable album that stretches their sound much further than before. Yes, some tracks take us back to their majestic second album, “Sunbather”, but there are others that push their trajectory firmly into post-metal and even metalcore.

In many ways, this is their heaviest and most aggressive album yet. The restraint they have shown on previous releases has gone, and instead, there are moments of real unrepressed anger. All the constituent parts that make up their sound are pushed to their extremes; the black metal is more brittle and more jagged than before, but when engaged, the shoegaze elements are fragrantly more beautiful and enticing. An absolute triumph of an album that shows that Deafheaven are now an unstoppable force in our world.

2025 TOP 100Author : Stewart Lucas24 November 2025Deafheaven, Lonely People with Power, 01-20, 20-01Comment

6. ...And Oceans - "The Regeneration Itinerary"

It seems this year the albums that I have loved most have been those that display variance and eclecticism in the combinations and mergence of sound. This is yet another one that takes distinct genres and combines them to create a new cohesive whole. “The Regeneration Itinerary” is a highly ambitious and astonishingly diverse record. It successfully blends extreme black metal with symphonic, electronic, techno, and even folk elements. It refuses to sit still, and instead, it’s a hyperactive maelstrom of differing sounds that slam chaotically into each other. It is a highly immersive album, pulling the listener into an ever-shifting soundscape of fluctuating velocity and ferocity. The vocals also shape-shift randomly, moving from harsh to smooth without prior notification. It all builds into a simply extraordinary listener. A metal album unafraid to step out of metal's confines and unafraid to meddle with its constructs. Utterly incredible.

2025 TOP 100Author : Stewart Lucas24 November 2025...And Oceans, The Regeneration Itinerary, 01-20, 20-01Comment

5. Obscura - "A Sonication"

Sometimes all you need is simplicity. A straightforward album that does what it does well. This is German technical death metal specialists' first album since their lineup settled down after a period of upheaval. It sees them dial down the technicality and dial up the melodic splendour. Technical death metal can sometimes feel cold and detached. But there is a real warmth to this album; it concentrates less on how many notes it can fit in and more on creating exquisite soundscapes with rousing choruses and divine instrumentation. The songs are allowed to breathe, and in doing so, they instigate a magnificently rounded listen that revels in its clear direction. A decisive advert for less is more!

2025 TOP 100Author : Stewart Lucas24 November 2025Obscura, A Sonication, 01-20, 20-01Comment

4. Kardashev - "Alunea"

So if Deafheaven are Blackgaze, then this is Deathgaze, the unholy matrimony of ethereal beauty and raw aggression. Hailing from Arizona, “Alunea” finally sees their conceptual vision realised. It is a highly ambitious album that deftly combines the harsh with true euphoric beauty. These two competing entities twist around each other in the vibrant quest for dominance. It is an astonishingly vivid dance, the opposing sounds folding in and out of each other, creating a quivering movement of continual aural motion. There is a sense that the sound is contracting and expanding simultaneously, a furious flurry of experimentation that is rich in brutal provocation but also empowered by melodic splendour. An astonishing listen that is staggeringly ambitious but also smart enough to know when it should rein it in. Just splendid.

2025 TOP 100Author : Stewart Lucas24 November 2025Kardashev, Alunea, 01-20, 20-01Comment

3. Coroner - "Dissonance Theory"

Thrash spoke to those of us who wanted more extremity and righteous anger in our metal but refused to be enticed by the nihilism and unruliness of punk. It was a movement at the right time and right place that rejuvenated metal and forged its modern playbook. Beyond the big fours in America and Germany thrash implanted its unrelenting ethos across the global. In Switzerland, three roadies for Celtic Frost were inspired to form a band that took that unstoppable gallop of thrash but pushed its technicality and its spirit of invention forward. Coroner was born, and over thirteen years and five albums, they explored thrash’s avant-garde side, pushing its boundaries and reinventing its rules.

They called it a day in 1996 but were tempted back into circulation in 2011. Since then, rumours of new material have regularly appeared, but nothing concrete has transpired. Until now. For the first time in 32 years, we have a new Coroner album, and it is an absolute beauty. This is a continuation rather than a reinvention of their sound. However, what is extraordinary is how contemporary it sounds. It is a fresh, invigorating album that is inventive and supremely intelligent. It is dense and dexterous, using keys and samples not to dilute the aggressive temperament but to enhance and augment. It is a stunningly clever record that builds huge cathedrals of caustic but cohesive sound. There is always a nervousness when a revered entity makes an album after such a long layoff, but this quite simply is lightning caught in a jam jar. Brilliant.

2025 TOP 100Author : Stewart Lucas24 November 2025Coroner, Dissonance Theory, 01-20, 20-01Comment

2. In the woods… - "Otra"

An astonishingly mature prog rock from the Norwegian many stays. Even back in Black Metal’s heyday In the Woods… were trying to do different things with the art form. Long before the term black prog was coined, they were exactly that, taking their influences from the avant-garde tones of Celtic Frost as opposed to the usual sources of Venom and Bathory. This is an extraordinary, deep and textured record that almost divorces itself completely from its creator's musical origins. The vocals are deep, clean and lush and full of astonishing storytelling. The music operates as part of the narrative, creating a rich atmosphere that just builds as the music progresses. Astonishingly adept and lusciously vivid.

2025 TOP 100Author : Stewart Lucas24 November 2025In The Woods..., Otra, 01-20, 20-01Comment

1. Orbit Culture - "Death Above Life"

This is without doubt the most significant metal album since Gojira unveiled “Magma” nine years ago. It takes the template of metal and moves it all forward. Orbit Culture has long promised to do something, and here (five albums in) it is. It is deliciously heavy and delectably harsh, but it realises a good album isn’t made on screamed lyrics and pulsating riffs alone. This is a groundbreaking release that embraces the intensity and the claustrophobic nihilism but opens it all up in a way that lets light and air in. It challenges convention and presents metal that is simultaneously harsh and harmonious.

Whilst it is by far not a minimalistic or slight release, it does boil Metal down to its core function, and that is to be an explosion of euphoric energy. Every song is a hedonistic display of power. Proudly proficient in its intensity and in its anthemic quality. The tracks course with kinetic energy and bristle with hyperactive brilliance. It's meticulously crafted, and every single number is big in scope and ambition,

Its uniqueness and specialness do not come in its content (we have all heard high-tempo melodic death metal before); it is in the way it is sculpted. This is metal, uncompromisingly intense and accessible. It achieves accessibility not by dumbing down or watering down the aggression but by making every single song feel like it is a big number. An astonishing piece of work.

2025 TOP 100Author : Stewart Lucas24 November 2025Orbit Culture, Death Above life, 01-20, 20-01Comment