Welcome back to my annual music countdown! As is tradition here on IC2S, I go back through the albums I’ve listened to this year and then rank them from worst to best. Hopefully this list encourages you to check out some new music you may or may not have heard of before now!
First of all, a… mention. Not honourable or dishonourable, just a “mention”:
Nevertake, Anberlin
Anberlin have been on a strange and uncertain journey. After breaking up in 2014, the band unexpectedly reformed in 2020, put out a couple EPs, and started touring again. It seemed like one of my all-time favourite bands was back in action, but then vocalist Stephen Christian suddenly announced that he was no longer up for the touring life and would be being replaced by Matty Mullins when on tour. However, in the couple years that have passed, it seems that Matty has transitioned into being the band’s new, full-time vocalist… and I’m sad about that. Stephen had a very distinctive voice that helped make Anberlin stand out for me, and this re-recording of Never Take Friendship Personal to celebrate the album’s twenty-year anniversary just cements my feelings on the matter. As far as the instrumentation goes, it’s a bit heavier and cleaner (“A Heavy Hearted Work of Staggering Genius” has also been expanded and is MUCH better for it). Matty’s vocals are perfectly fine, and they “feel” more like the vocals you’d expect from an alternative/punk-lite band… but it’s just not the same, which is a problem since Never Take Friendship Personal is the popular, fan-favourite Anberlin album. Stephen’s voice had this gentle sorrow to it which brought the emotions out in a way that really resonated with me, and which Matty’s not able to replicate… If you have never listened to Anberlin before or only have a passing knowledge of them, then you’ll probably enjoy Nevertake: it’s a re-recording of an enduring alt-rock classic. Maybe Matty will grow on me as Anberlin continue putting out new music and puts some distance between the past and present, but for now it feels like one of my favourite bands is gone again.
Okay, with that out of the way, let’s get into the ranking proper…
18) Towards the Light EP, Impending Doom (Bandcamp, although this EP is not listed there)
Impending Doom are up to their usual brutal Christian metal once again. They are usually good at creating some catchy hooks that you can’t help but headbang along to, but Towards the Light is incredibly slight – five tracks, all under three minutes. They don’t really leave any time to stick with you, the whole thing is over almost before it begins. The title track is probably the best of the bunch, but I probably won’t choose to listen to Towards the Light in future unless I’m doing a big Impending Doom binge.
Also, that AI art album cover looks like shit. This is far from the worst lowest-ranked albums of the year on IC2S, but for that alone I am fine with it taking that ignoble title in 2025.
17) The Thunderfist Chronicles, Alestorm (Bandcamp)
Alestorm and I have had a very contentious relationship over the years. Their pirate metal sound has always been silly, but they leaned a bit too far into the joke to the point of obnoxiousness. However, Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum and their Dead Marauder EP did seem to suggest that they were righting the ship by dialing the silliness and crassness back a bit, so I was curious to see how The Thunderfist Chronicles would fare. Weirdly enough, The Thunderfist Chronicles leans harder into epic pirate metal and silliness, producing an album that’s… unique. Tracks like “Hyperion Omniriff” and “Frozen Piss 2” are legitimately epic pirate tracks, while also featuring lines about drinking until you puke and punching your enemies in the balls. Meanwhile, “Mountains of the Deep” might just be the stupidest/funniest song Alestorm have ever put out:
With her long flowing locks / And her eyes of emerald green / She’s the fiercest looking lassie / You have likely ever seen / But it’s not just her demeanor / Or the passion in hеr eyes / It’s the trеasure in her chest/ That’ll make your heart capsize
She’s got giant boobs / Like the mountains of the deep / Her curves are like the waves / Crashing on shore with every beat / She’s a siren of the sea / With a heart that’s pure and mild / But it’s her giant boobs / That make us all go wild / Woo yeah
Unfortunately, then there’s “Banana” and “Goblins Ahoy!”, where the silliness goes too far without being funny, making these tracks practically unlistenable (“Mountains of the Deep” could arguably fit here too, but I was laughing too hard to care).
Then the album closes on a seventeen-minute epic, “Mega-Supreme Treasure of the Eternal Thunderfist”. Alestorm aren’t exactly known for their long songs, but have occasionally dabbled with it: “Sunset On the Golden Age” was their last great, fully-serious song, and the three part “Wooden Leg” trilogy make for a very fun and silly listen. As a result, I was very curious to see how Alestorm would handle their longest song ever. “Mega-Supreme Treasure of the Eternal Thunderfist” feels like a classic rock opera. While that format lends it some inherent campiness, it’s much more serious than any other track on the album, taking you on a lengthy quest for treasure with the titular Thunderfist. The band really get to show off their chops here, with some awesome guitar solos, death metal blast beats, and lots of vocalists singing out the various parts. It’s a very good album closer, and will likely be remembered as one of Alestorm’s all-time best tracks… which is good, because this album sorely needed something like this to keep it from being a disastrous mess. I’m not really a fan of the direction Alestorm have taken on this album, but hopefully “Mega-Supreme Treasure of the Eternal Thunderfist” can provide a guiding light for the future when they inevitably scrape the barrel once more.
16) RESENT, DED
DED’s debut, Mis•an•thrope, was a pretty solid new-nu-metal album, so I was pretty disappointed when they took a more generic, lighter metalcore pivot on their follow-up, School of Thought. RESENT turns things around a bit: DED are much angrier and heavier again, but most of the tracks just don’t resonate with me – it just feels like angry, generic metal. This is middling stuff, but at least it’s leagues better than when DED slow things down on tracks like “Dig Deep”, which sounds like something that Trapt would shart out. However, DED borderline-redeem the album with “Rise Above It All” and “Fight Forever (2 Rot)”, a back-to-back slice of new-nu-metal goodness that the album so sorely needed. These two tracks are legitimately good and well worth the listen – hopefully DED can learn from this, because they’re clearly capable of putting out good nu metal music when they’re not chasing a more commercial sound.
15) Woke Moralists, Countless Thousands (Bandcamp)
As much as I’ve loved them, Countless Thousands can be somewhat inconsistent in quality… both from a lyrical and production standpoint. Combine that with the hellscape political climate we’re trapped in, and I was kind of dreading Woke Moralists. Now, to be clear, this album is firmly written from a progressive perspective, so if calling Republicans “casual fascists” turns you off… well, this album ain’t for you. Not to say that this entire album is “political”: there’s also a track jokingly complaining about how Chris Pratt is in goddamn everything without going into a rant about his right-wing affiliations. Woke Moralists is some decent nerdcore punk rock, and there are a few great tracks (“Dig Up the Kills” is an all-timer Countless Thousands banger). That said, I’m so burnt out on Trump-era political discourse that I just can’t see me subjecting myself to this album very often. It’s not like Rage Against the Machine where the music is great even if you’re politically illiterate. I listen to music to submerge myself in depression and anger and then purge those emotions, not to reinforce my political views. If nothing else, in an era where even the mainstream media is normalizing authoritarianism and cementing Trumpism as “the new normal”, seeing anybody willing to take a stand against this is heartening. A worthwhile listen, just not one you’re likely to go back to over and over again.
14) Atlas EP, OCEANS (Bandcamp, although this EP is not listed there)
I was really excited about OCEANS when I discovered them in 2020, but the quality of their output has been pretty inconsistent and their sound hasn’t evolved all that much. The three tracks here on Atlas are more of the same moody, depressing, and emotional nu-metal/deathcore we’ve been getting from OCEANS for the past decade, for better or worse. “Still Not Okay” is probably the most distinct track, but even then it feels like a Happy b-side since it’s also focused on social media-induced depression. “Ghost” is my favourite track here, but it’s still just grappling with depression and anxiety through the medium of heavy metal – it’s enjoyable and cathartic, but very well-trodden ground for OCEANS.
13) Duél, Jinjer (Bandcamp)
I’ve been dabbling with Jinjer’s discography over the past couple years to see if I can get into them. At this point, the verdict is that they’re… decent. I have some tracks that I really like, but I have yet to find that album that really clicks with me and makes me a “fan”. Unfortunately, Duél is not that album I’ve been looking for. There are some decent tracks here (“Dark Bile” and “Fast Draw” stood out the most to me), but I’ve listened through this album a few times over the year and it just doesn’t stick with me. Most of the tracks fail to stand out, with Tatiana Shmayluk’s vocal range continuing to be the band’s big selling point. Maybe I’m just not in a point of my life where I can really appreciate this album, but Duél‘s an album I’m probably not going to come back to very often.
12) Skeletá, Ghost (Bandcamp)
Despite being familiar with Ghost’s sound, I still can’t get over the fact that I’m getting new 80s-style glam rock in 2025. Hell, I bet my dad would like Ghost (aside from, y’know, all the Satanist stuff). I know that fans of the band shit on Impera, but I quite liked it – it had a lot of variety and catchy, well-written tracks to the point where I couldn’t put it down. In comparison, Skeletá is kind of lacking. Whereas Impera was full of bombast, Skeletá generally feels low-key and restrained (by glam metal standards, anyway). There’s not a whole lot of much variety until you get to the last couple tracks, “Umbra” and “Excelsis”. “Umbra” features an extended guitar solo, which is very welcome. “Excelsis”, on the other hand, makes for a sombre album closer.
11) Blood Dynasty, Arch Enemy (Bandcamp)
Arch Enemy’s Deceivers was one of my favourite albums of 2024 and was my first real foray into their discography. Naturally, I was curious to see what their follow-up album would be like (especially with this death metal as fuck album art). Blood Dynasty doesn’t deviate too far from the sound of Deceivers, with Alissa White-Gluz’s iconic, harsh vocals helping make their melodic death metal stand out. There are a couple tracks here which are kind of unusual for Arch Enemy: first is “Paper Tiger”, which kind of like an 80s glam metal track, and second is “Vivre Libre”, which is a straight-up power ballad (with clean vocals to boot)! Not really what I was expecting out of an Arch Enemy album, but I appreciated the variety!
10) Legends, Sabaton (Bandcamp)
Sabaton have completed their extended tour of duty in the trenches of World War I, and they’re back to doing an anthology of historical figures and events. This time the loose theme is “legends” from history, describing military figures and groups who’ve stood out throughout the ages. Musically, it’s exactly what you’d expect from Sabaton – it’s the same sort of history-obsessed power metal they’ve been putting out for the past twenty years. While this can feel a bit tired at times (particularly on “The Duelist”), this formula has stuck for a reason, and there’s plenty of tracks here to still get you pumped up.
That said, putting out a track celebrating the Knights Templar in 2025 is not a great look and is likely to appeal to all the wrong people… then again, it’s followed up by tracks about Genghis Khan and Vlad the Impaler, so I guess it’s up to you to decide whether Sabaton are merely celebrating the richness of history rather than intending to make any modern parallels. It’s kind of unfortunately, because “Templars” is easily one of the most hype tracks on the album, but I probably won’t be able to enjoy it until the modern political climate eases up…
9) God of Angels Trust, Volbeat
Volbeat’s last album, Servant of the Mind, has gone on to be possibly my favourite album of theirs, so I’ve been excited to see what they would cook up next. Part of what made Servant of the Mind so good was that they took a heavy turn, incorporating more overt metal elements into their signature hard rockabilly, crafting an album which hit harder than anything they’d released before. I was hoping that they’d refine this further but, unfortunately, Volbeat have chosen to drop most of the metal elements and return to the band’s more “traditional” sound. Considering the album’s interest in the occult, this is a bit of a strange move to me. God of Angels Trust ends up reminding me of Rewind, Replay, Rebound, an album where Volbeat seemed to be resting on their laurels and not really doing anything to test themselves. Funnily enough, I’ve come around on Rewind, Replay, Rebound over the years and I kind of like it now, so the fact that I like God of Angels Trust more than I did that album on release is somewhat heartening – this is still a decent and enjoyable album, it just feels disappointing because I hold Volbeat in very high esteem. The highlight of the album is easily “In the Barn of the Goat Giving Birth to Satan’s Spawn in a Dying World of Doom”, which leans hard into the band’s rockabilly sound.
Also… as if this is the album they named the goddamn G.O.A.T.
8) There Was a Light Here, Demon Hunter (Bandcamp)
Demon Hunter has had a pretty rough journey here on IC2S over the years. While we had the decent True Defiance and Outlive early on in the life of the blog, things have gone down steadily since War and Peace. It just feels like Demon Hunter’s heart isn’t in the game anymore, so you can probably see why I had low expectations for There Was a Light Here. However, There Was a Light Here kind of surprised me: it’s nowhere near their hey-day, but it’s easily the best album they’ve put out since Outlive. The reasons for this become clear early on when you listen to the lyrics of “Sorrow Light the Way”:
Every door is painted black / I feel my fate collapse / Drag me down and seal my fate / Drown me in your loving hate / I just watched my mother die / So, forgive me if I haven’t the want for this weight
Yeah, Ryan Clark’s grappling with the death of his mother, and there are some very raw emotions on display here, which makes There Was a Light Here hit harder than Demon Hunter have in a long time. The title track in particular is very raw and sad, easily one of the hardest-hitting tracks of the year for me; it’s been leaving me bawling every time I listen to it. There’s a palpable melancholy to the entire album, which helps it to resonate more than Demon Hunter have in nearly a decade. Unfortunately, this is still latter-day Demon Hunter, so it’s nowhere near as hard-hitting as their early albums and it can start to drag towards the end, but it’s nice to see Demon Hunter putting out a legitimately good album once again.
7) Zenith, Bleed From Within
Since discovering them in 2020, Bleed From Within have gone on to be one of my go-to bands when I’m looking for something fast, heavy, and aggressive. Zenith is quite similar to their last couple albums, with their signature fast and aggressive metalcore sound on full display, so it’ll slot into my musical rotation nicely whenever I’m in a foul mood and need an outlet. Highlights worth checking out include “In Place of Your Halo”, “A Hope in Hell”, and “Known By No Name”.
6) The Place After This One, Underoath (Bandcamp)
My first feeling when I listened through The Place After This One was disappointment. Underoath’s previous album, Voyeurist, was fantastic, and is a shoo-in to appear on my inevitable “My Favourite Albums of the 2020s” list in a few years time. The Place After This One doesn’t live up to that level of quality: it’s less raw and emotional, and dips back towards a “safer” metalcore sound. However, as soon as it was done… I started it again and, freed from expectations, I was able to find more to enjoy out of The Place After This One. While it’s not “one of my favourite albums of the decade” good, it’s still a very enjoyable album. I think that my favourite track would have to be “Cannibal”, the closing lines are so cathartic to me: “So tell me that I’m not enough / And you’re happy that I gave up / The deeper and further this goes / The more I realize / The love that I deserve / Love that I deserve / Love that I deserve”.
5) Heretics & Lullabies, Frayle (Bandcamp)
Frayle are one of the more unique bands I’ve gotten into in the past few years, a mixture of ethereal, chill doom metal and witchy, female-fronted vocals that come together to make a sound I’ve never heard before. I enjoyed their previous album, Skin & Sorrow, and so I was excited to see what Frayle would cook up next. Heretics & Lullabies comes out swinging with “Walking Wounded” and “Boo” providing some deliciously heavy doom metal, while “Summertime Sadness” shows what a doom metal cover of a Lana Del Rey track sounds like (the results: pretty damn cool!). Unfortunately, after these three tracks, the album kind of slips back into the more “standard” chill Frayle sound we got in Skin & Sorrow. Now, I liked that album well enough, so that’s not a bad thing, but those first three tracks had a much stronger energy to them which had me really excited that the entire album might be more varied and heavy. If Heretics & Lullabies had sustained that level of variety, it could have had a shot at my album of the year, but as-is it’s still a very solid album that I’m sure I’ll be returning to over and over.
4) The Silver Sea, REMINA (Bandcamp)
The Silver Sea is probably my most-anticipated album of the year – as I’ve said many times in the past, former-Draconian vocalist Heike Langhans is one of my all-time favourite vocalists. Her haunting, melancholic voice is perfect for doom metal, and I’ve gone back to STRATA several times since it released in order to immerse myself in those sorrowful tones. The Silver Sea is not too dissimilar from the atmospheric, emotive, cosmic doom metal of STRATA, which is honestly what I was looking for anyway. There is some more music experimentation compared to their debut, making The Silver Sea a somewhat more varied listen. If you’re in the mood for something sad, but not necessarily depressing, then give The Silver Sea a listen!
3) Bellum Interruptum, Mechina (Bandcamp)
Mechina are back once again with another massive new release, continuing their epic narrative of the cycle of human conflict. This release compiles the two gargantuan singles from the last couple years (“Blessings Upon the Field Where Blades Will Flood” and “The World We Saved”: by themselves, more than thirty-three minutes long!), which were already great, so Bellum Interruptum is off to a strong start right off the bat. I lamented that Cenotaph was a bit too light and diluted for my liking, but thankfully Bellum Interruptum pivots back towards a heavier, more energetic, epic metal sound (similar to Siege or Venator). Particular highlights include “The Plague Pit” (I always love an Anna Hel guest vocal as the tyrant Enyo!), the title track, and “When Honor Meant Something”.
Also, it looks like Mechina are already gearing up for their next project, as 2025 has also blessed us with singles “Theoxenia” and “The Orbital Blood Famine”. As singles, they aren’t really eligible to make this list, but I’m sure I’ll be covering them in some form or another when Mechina inevitably releases their next album in a year or two.
2) Death Above Life, Orbit Culture (Bandcamp)
Orbit Culture have cemented themselves as my go-to band for fast, aggressive, brutal death metal thanks to their surprisingly-catchy songwriting chops. Death Above Life sees them at perhaps their most brutal – the band typically have a good balance between clean and harsh vocals, but the harsher vocals are taking precedence this time around. This makes Death Above Life a particularly heavy listen, one that’s a near relentless assault across its more than fifty-minute runtime. It can get overwhelming at times, and I do kind of wish that there was a bit more balance between the vocal styles to provide some more variety, but Orbit Culture are so good at what they do that I can’t really fault them too much.
1) Even In Arcadia, Sleep Token
Look, I know that Sleep Token is at the center of a lot of “discourse” in the music community, between their obsessive fans and discordant fusion of pop and metal… but I’d be a fucking liar if I didn’t say that this was my #1 album of the year. I’ve listened to this one album over and over and over all year long. In fact, I’ve probably listened to it ten times more than every other album on this ranking combined.
I love my metal: doom, metalcore, death… I just love heavy music so, as an Emotional Boy™, Sleep Token’s take on the genre is fascinating to me. Tracks like “Look to Windward” and “Infinite Baths” scratch that metal itch, with some really heavy sections, while “Gethsemane”, “Emergence”, and “Provider” bring out the emotion in me. It’s not even my favourite Sleep Token album, but Even In Arcadia is absolutely the album that defined 2025 for me, so its ranking on this list was never in question.
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