2025 in Extreme Guitar Music

Objectively best, what else?

Nex, Zach Lucia, Hugh Puddle, and 3 others

Dec 31, 2025

Twenty years from now, someone is going to blow the whistle on 2025 having been in cahoots with Big Therapy. This year was a wake-up call on multiple levels and in the most depressing of ways, but hey, at least the music was good!

What you’ll find below is a rather comprehensive chronicle of metal and grindcore releases I rated highly over the course of the past twelve months. Hopefully, you didn’t come here to get a quick numbers fix because the only ones you’ll find are the release dates. Don’t you worry though – all of these come highly recommended to fans of the respective tags.

In an attempt to spare you our ramblings, we left no stone unturned to get in touch with even the most elusive of mystery-shrouded artists. Waiting to compile the list until the last (announced) heavyweights had dropped meant that many bands were already in holidays mode. For some, the notice proved too short by the time they had managed to escape Santa’s tight clutches, others are yet to return to their screens, so we filled in the blanks where necessary, keeping our thoughts as brief as possible.

That’s a lot of setup for something you’ll try to hastily scroll over before coming to the sobering realization that your phone won’t let you because it’s too weak to handle the CHONK. Let’s get to it.

JANUARY

Type: Armor Unit - Revolutions in Saecula

Jan 9th // Belgium // Grindcore/Mathcore // Self

This project is a vehicle for ideas that I couldn’t really express with any of my other projects - mainly things pertaining to science fiction world-building, laser guitar fx, and grindcore with a slightly more technical edge than I usually play. The debut is very much a concept album that tells a story from beginning to end; which I’m planning to elaborate on with the vinyl release and an accompanying short story. It’s told from the perspective of Kasa, a freedom fighter who is sent on a mission to an unknown planet, where a technofascist posthuman society (the Ys) is preparing for expansion. Whilst it’s an exercise on blending sociology, hard science and lyrical poetry, it’s also a reflection of things going on in my personal life at the time. Musically, I wrote and recorded the songs on drums first over two days, then fleshed out riffs to put over that. All of it is self-produced, making it easy to spread out the recordings and take my time with it. Most of the guitar effects you hear come from a little pedal by Banana FX, called the Mandala. I’ve come to fall in love with pitch-shifting as well, especially going through an expression pedal. There are plans to work out visual aspects as well (video, concept art, etc.); the focus will remain on making frantic grind first and foremost though. To close off, the cover art depicts Kasa on her way to implant a digital virus bomb into the Technarch’s neural network that connects to the rest of the Ysian society. Keep an eye out on the Ampwall page or follow me on instagram (@owen_frequencyeater) for updates on future releases and the likes!
- Owen

Dripped - Utopia of Euphoric Envisionment

Jan 17th // Australia // BDM/Tech // Self

UoEE was written as both a tribute to the bands that shaped us and a reflection of where we are now, drawing influence from the brutality and technicality of Suffocation, Deeds of Flesh, Relics of Humanity, and Defeated Sanity. The EP represents a significant step forward in Dripped’s evolution, refining our songwriting and intensity while pushing our sound into heavier, more dynamic territory. Despite the progression, UoEE stays rooted in the relentless pace and groove that originally established Dripped, striking a balance between progression and preservation.
- Ewan Lambert

Insalubrity / Excrescence / Anal Stabwound / Theurgy - Sheol

Jan 23rd // Ecuador/USA/International // BDM // New Standard Elite

Sheol marked the beginning of what would eventually turn out to be another great year for the omnipresent, ever-expanding bulwark that is New Standard Elite. Featuring a variegated spray of names from the label’s roster, this was an early favorite of mine – a splinter hinting at where both NSE-core and, when viewed through a wider lens, brutal death metal stand today.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Discordant Meditation - Tragic Creature

Jan 24th // USA // Technical DM // Self

I guess the secret behind the album is the amount of unnecessary exertion that was put into it. It was an unhealthy obsession. I wasted quite a bit of money trying to get the right production and ended up doing it myself. I also attempted to get help from others to do vocals but ended up doing them myself. At the time I was so fixated on the production and was not nearly satisfied when it was done. Turns out listeners really enjoy it. In the end the amount of my life that I put into it was way out of proportion to the results. Not that I'm dissatisfied with the reception but it could've been way less burdening. So I think the title "Tragic Creature" suits the process of the album's creation.
- Discordant Meditation

Exterior Palnet - Haragma II

Jan 24th // Croatia // Dissonant/Avant-garde BM // Self

Three little grey fellas drifted into Earth’s orbit in a ship that had clearly seen better days. They came from the Dorsia system, a place so distant that even their own maps marked it with a shrug. This was supposed to be a routine stop: refuel, observe, don’t get emotionally involved and wait for further instructions.
Out of boredom, they imported Earth’s data.
Most of it was discarded immediately. Politics, motivational podcasts, articles like “5 natural ways to overcome erectile dysfunction”. Useless.
But buried deep in the noise, they found something interesting. Humans had made a kind of music that sounded broken on purpose. A lot of humans called it “unpleasant”, which confused the visitors greatly, because to them it felt warm, logical, almost comforting.
So they decided to make their own version, mostly to pass the time before the next mission showed up on their screens.
They translated mild confusion, long-distance travel fatigue, and a few poorly aligned star maps into sound. After a few thousand iterations and who knows how many arguments about tempo, guitar levels and amount of delay on vocals, Haragma II was finished.
Sending it back to Earth seemed like the right thing to do. Still, they agreed it would be easier if humans thought it came from other humans. So they generated a photo: three random dudes at a house party. Nice drinks on the table. A PS5 in the background. They looked random enough that you could believe they were drinking to Iron Maiden’s X Factor in full, followed by Madonna’s La Isla Bonita and Arizmenda’s Agents Of Transformation.
That seemed convincing enough.
Satisfied, the grey fellas left Earth’s orbit without ceremony, and moved onto the next Palnet…
- Bruno

Honorable mention

Pyre - Where Obscurity Sways

FEBRUARY

Purging - Purging

Feb 5th // USA // DM // Self

The self-titled release took shape in the space where black and death metal blur together—ritualistic, unfinished and untethered. It was never meant to mark a beginning or an ending, but to act as a signal sent outward, unanswered. What follows is not growth or retreat, only a slow drift into areas where meaning erodes and structure loosens.
Purging moves forward by subtracting, tightening its shape as density increases. What comes next will feel heavier through immobility, closer to termination not as an event, but as an ongoing state.
No narrative.
No release.
Only continued collapse.
- Purging

Storm Death - Chaos Will Reign!

Feb 6th // Chile // DM/Thrash // Suicide

On their sophomore LP, Storm Death set out to top 2019’s Ancient Premonitions of the Gods – and succeeded. Still primarily rooted in Azagthothian and Sandersian craft (with some welcome Kisser nods during its thrashier expressions), Chaos Will Reign! dials up literally everything from production to riff variety to atmo.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Extinguished - Foul Stench Adoration

Feb 7th // Finland // OSDM // Caligari

While I had hoped Extinguished would peel off the Mental Funeral epidermis for the follow-up to their lauded 2022 demo, Foul Stench Adoration still convincingly mixes the filthiness of Autopsy’s looming shadow with a healthy helping of Scandi-brand OSDM. It’s a logical continuation of their sound, refining the formula to the point where this can only be considered an unequivocal step-up.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Omnicidal Instinct - Catharsis in Blight

Feb 7th // Germany // BDM // P2

Catharsis in Blight is the culmination of years of work, on and off, with some of the material dating back to 2016. In its final state, it turned out a love letter to the 2000s brutal death metal scene all band members and contributors are very passionate about. We put in a lot of effort and attention to detail, and it is great to be part of a mini resurgence of this particular style and aural aesthetic.
Two remarkable brutal death metal releases of this past year were Shivering’s 2025 Promo (new band with veterans of the greek BDM scene) and Heinous Acts of Terror by Anhedonia, who are among a number of young bands bringing back the NYDM style.
- Erinç

Phrenelith - Ashen Womb

Feb 7th // Denmark // DM/Death Doom // Me Saco un Ojo/Dark Descent

Thank you for picking Ashen Womb for the end-of-year list!
The reception for our third album has been overwhelming. We want to thank everyone who listened this year and continues to support the band! We are grateful people appreciate all the hard work and raw emotion we poured into the album.
The year closes out, the eternal wheel makes another turn and a new chapter for the band begins, as we prepare for another foray into new musical territory next year.
As for favourite releases this year – and I’m sure it’s already on many of your readers’ radar – I quite enjoyed Malignant Worthlessness by our brothers in Pissgrave, or enjoyed is probably the wrong word since they made an absolute heinous hellscape of a record, that drags you down into a spiralling void.
The first tour we ever did with Phrenelith was with Pissgrave back in 2016, so even though it brings a certain melancholy, it’s fantastic to have been along on the journey from the start, and it’s nice to see them finish up the planned trilogy and ending the band on a high note.
- Simon

Continuum of Xul - Voratore

Feb 9th // Italy // DM/Tech // Self

You’ll want to keep an eye on this outfit cuz they’re stomping out of the gates with a debut worth screaming about; Voratore is a veritable feast of ungodly death metal grooves, pugnacious vocals and blistering solos. Sounds like: a tarantula being chased around the fretboard with a blowtorch by a furious man with a very deep voice.

- Ben (gatekeep!)

Chaos Inception - Vengeance Evangel

Feb 14th // USA // DM // Lavadome

Vengeance Evangel would have already been remarkable by virtue of its staggeringly high density of quality riffs, or for being as riff-centric as it is in the first place, but to drop this after a ten-plus-year hiatus as if neither the band itself nor the scene had undergone several major facelifts since, and to make it sound like Florida was still the beating heart of the DM body system? This isn’t chaos at its inception, but in full swing.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Grotesque Ceremonium - Beyond the Masters

Feb 18th // Turkey // OSDM // Self

Under-radar and underrated, this third full-length by Grotesque Ceremonium, fronted by none other than the legendary Batu Çetin, presents a rather puristic take on 90s worship elevated by some very catchy leads and harmonies. The songs themselves can feel a bit patchy and some are more equal than others, but when the writing hits, it hits.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Forced Starvation - Forced Starvation

Feb 28th // New Zealand // Grindcore // Self

‘Twas a fruitful year for grind, with a healthy selection of quality releases across all strains, but in the conversation around old-fashioned grindcore, there was one release to dwarf the rest. Forced Starvation’s self-titled debut draws from a grotesquely wide array of influences and incorporates many a genre nod, but in the end translates it all into the only language powermongers understand: insurgency.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Human Shield - Sullen Population

Feb 28th // USA // Powerviolence/Grindcore // Self

A ten minute venom injection that feels like the sonic equivalent of watching two pit vipers go at it, this relentlessly violent record will feed you through the wringer like chaff through a thresher. It’s over in the blink of an eye, but damn if that blink doesn’t scrape like the coarsest sandpaper - punishing, nihilistic, and home to some of the muckiest instrument tones I’ve ever heard.

- Ben (gatekeep!)

Metaphobic - Deranged Excruciations

Feb 28th // USA // DM/Tech // Everlasting Spew

Hey, thanks so much for including us on the year end list! We’d like to thank Alex Parra at Second Sight Sound for helping us sound as good as possible, Jon Zig for the amazing art, Justin Stubbs for the excellent work on layout, Jeri Mize for the band photos and our label Everlasting Spew for their help in the physical release and promotion of the album. Special thanks to anyone who took the time to check us out considering how much good, new music is available every year. We’ve started working on new material and hopefully we’ll have the next album complete before the world burns down. In the meantime, go check out Arcadea’s new album The Exodus of Gravity. It’s just so damn fun.
- Peter

Toughness - Black Respite of Oblivion

Feb 28th // Poland // Tech/Prog // Godz ov War

Contrary to what the cover art by Turkka Rantanen might suggest, Black Respite of Oblivion is far from a Demilich worship album. Looking beyond the vocals and shared explorative spirit, Toughness are more focused on grooves and splashy phrasings, resulting in one of the year’s most memorable techdeath records.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Void Revenant - Celestial Procession

Feb 28th // Ireland // OSDM/Tech // Self

Void Revenant germinated when Andy (Smyth; guitar), Richie (Farrell; guitar) and Neil (Coburn; Bass) began writing music that would be uncompromisingly their own sound – dissonant yet catchy; atypical but familiar; and expansive if also precise. After recruiting Kev (O’Connor; vocals) and Evan (McGuigan; drums), the band was complete.
For our debut release, Celestial Procession, we set out to record something that was unburdened by the need to adhere to predefined notions of what Metal should or should not be. Is it Death Metal? Sure. What about Black Metal? “I don’t personally listen to it”, says Kev, “and yet some listeners seem to be interpreting it as ‘blackened’; with Andy and Ev being in the band, there are certainly going to be those aspects present, at least passively.” What if you were to categorise it as ‘Technical’ – there are certainly those elements – we all love the likes of Gorguts and Necrophagist. “So”, says Evan, “I think this melting pot is evidenced within the recording, and the feedback – it’s definitely open to interpretation, sonically, and that’s exactly the response we wanted.” Richie continues, “Yeah, the tracks differ structurally, they are each their own thing, with a constant state of ‘flow’ intended.”
This openness is also present within the lyrics – “Whatever inspiration takes me at any moment in time, be it the atmosphere of the track, a thought that occurred to me, a book, it could be anything”, says Kev. “Something that is a consistent inspiration however is the cosmos, humanity’s station (if any) within it, and what bearing that has on our monkey brains, with our need to rationalise something so oppressively beyond us. ‘Abomination’ was written while I was reading the Dune series, which reminded me of the ‘main’ riff as it was arrhythmic, just like the sand walk.”
“We believe the artwork perfectly captured the vibe of recording – we couldn’t be happier with the overall package, and it’s also an indicator of where the band intends to go next”, says Andy.
In terms of our own recommendations this year, local death-dealers, Malthusian’s The Summoning Bell is essential – it is absolutely visceral.
- Void Revenant

Honorable mentions

Corpsing - Viewing the Invisible
Desanguinate - Desanguinate
Sancticide - Ritualistic Homicides Deifying Death
Retromorphosis - Psalmus Mortis
Obnoxious Concoction - Obnoxious Concoction
Necrovision - The Gouging Process
Effluence - Pianistic Dismemberment
Celestial Scourge - Observers of the Inevitable
Light Dweller - The Subjugate
Ruinous Power - Extreme Danger: Prototype Weaponry
Venomous Echoes - Dysmor

MARCH

Intestinal Sodomy - Erotic Exsanguination

Mar 6th // USA // BDM // New Standard Elite

Summary: blast, groove, pinch-pinch, blast, pinch, groove, slam, predator vox. ‘Further listening’ to some, an absorbing gem to real ones, Intestinal Sodomy’s demo is short enough to be considered a risk-free jam for anyone with a passing interest in the non-Nintendo ‘DS-lite’ school of brutality.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Death Pulsation - Demo

Mar 7th // Sweden // OSDM // Caligari

Death Pulsation’s demo doesn’t bring anything inherently new to the table, yet manages to set itself apart by drawing from death metal’s feral beginnings – punky, thrashing attitude and all – and lending what’s condensed from them a more intuitive quality by layering it with almost mellisonant leads. You’d think something this straightforward would wear off quickly and get buried beneath the pile of releases as the year goes on, but far from it: these guys know how to DM, and if this demo is any indication of what’s to come, I can’t wait to hear the full-length.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Terror Corpse - Systems of Apocalypse

Mar 7th // USA // Deathgrind // Self/Dark Descent/Me Saco un Ojo

Brutalising, treacle-thick grindy goodness to shake your brain by the stem until you’re forced to sobbingly surrender. There’s a trembling urgency lurking beneath the dense production that gives the experience more texture than your usual deathgrind fare, and with the release exhibiting some serious songwriting chops on its own terms, it’s just another reason to clock in and take haymakers to the face for 17 delicious minutes.

- Ben (gatekeep!)

Sum Lights - Dissolve | Emerge

Mar 12th // Germany // BM // Self

For this EP we tried two new approaches. Firstly, telling the story of a personified celestial event from two different perspectives and experiences while both suffer the same fatal outcome. For this reason, both songs share similarities in lyrics as well as song structure and riffing.
Secondly, this is our first attempt to record and mix everything by ourselves in our rehearsal space and we are quite satisfied with the result. Only for mastering we went back to FiveLakes Studio for final polishing.
The intention is to become more flexible, independent and faster regarding musical output. Doing so also forces us to interact with and understand our own music in greater depth. Additionally, we gain new understanding and respect for interesting productions from all corners of the world like the last two Monte Penumbra and Haunter releases or the upcoming Gorrch album, just to name a very few highlights. For many years the tiniest niches spawned the most beautiful creativity in different ways to explore and push the boundaries of our understanding of this musical artform to which we can not only hope to add but to contribute.
For the artwork we collaborated for the first time with the great Belial NecroArts. Without any creative directive, other than it shall be black/white, he managed to create a fantastic artwork which perfectly fits our visual idea of our music. This proved once again that the philosophy of giving the artist maximum freedom for their own creativity results in the most interesting art.
Currently we are working full throttle on the next LP. And having the ability to fill the spaces between LPs with releasing singles (a new one to come soon) and EPs in this fashion like Dissolve | Emerge is great to stay connected to fans and to keep ourselves challenged and busy.
- DÅ

Osgraef - Reveries of the Arcane Eye

Mar 20th // USA // DM/BM // Amor Fati

While conducting a post-mortem of the first chapter of Martröð, I revisited a personal archive of poorly labeled demos, riff files, and unfinished ideas dating back to 2014. That retrospective made one thing immediately clear: Martröð was the point of origin for many subsequent projects, Osgraef included. Much of Reveries of the Arcane Eye began as a structural framework intended for Draumsýnir eldsins. Over time, however, it became evident that this material demanded a different form. The decision was made to re-record the songs in a significantly lower tuning and rework large portions of the material, allowing it to continue evolving along its own trajectory. This album insisted on becoming something older, heavier, and more feral, an ancient beast of death, and that is what it ultimately became.
- Alex Poole

Imperial Triumphant - Goldstar

Mar 21st // USA // Dissonant/Avant-garde DM // Century Media

Since 2015’s Abyssal Gods, New York dissodeath outfit Imperial Triumphant have stood at the forefront of the subgenre, melding dissonant death metal with the tonal subtleties and patience of jazz. Their sixth effort, Goldstar, finds the band settling into their identity, crafting in equal parts their most accessible album yet and a perfect blueprint for twenty years of diminishing returns. Very few artists get the opportunity for the breakthrough that Goldstar is, and Imperial Triumphant have taken this opportunity as far as it can go.

- Zach Lucia (gatekeep!)

Rothadás - Töviskert... a kísértés örök érzete... lidércharang

Mar 21st // Hungary // Death Doom // Me Saco un Ojo/Pulverised

A steadfast continuation for the band and a feast for fans of incrusted death doom. Nuff said.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Sarmat - Upgrade

Mar 28th // USA // Avant-garde/Tech DM // I, Voidhanger

Sarmat recorded its follow up to 2023’s Dubious Disk at Gojira’s Silverchord studio. Coming right off of a tour, the band brought a certain attitude to the studio that is hard to generate artificially.
Upgrade itself is a conceptual continuation of Dubious Disk’s themes, imparting an interpretation of the jazz, metal, technical, and improvised influences that are hallmarks of the band’s sound.
The second track “Serum Visions” represents an expansion and exploration of the band’s instrumentation and arrangement with Steve Blanco of Imperial Triumphant playing keytar instead of bass.
This leads to a deranged and otherworldly outcome that contributes substantially to Sarmat’s musical and conceptual world building.
The quality of Silverchord Studio and the post production involvement of Colin Marston helped this installment of the Sarmat universe to sound as massive as its ambitions.
- Sarmat

Catch Sarmat live next year on the following dates:

1/9 - Croton on Hudson NY
1/11 - Clifton NJ
3/13 - Chicago IL
3/14 - Appleton WI
3/15 - Minneapolis MN
6/6 - Brooklyn NY

January dates with Slaughtersun
March dates with Sunless

Pillars of Cacophony - Paralipomena

Mar 28th // Austria // Disso/Tech DM // Self

Paralipomena takes you on a journey from life to death. But not in a spiritual sense. Quite the opposite. Here, we leave the occult and mystical paths behind and embark on a journey that is even more frightening. This is the cold and merciless nature of biology. But instead of fearing the unknown and the cruelty of nature, we explore it and discover the most complex and exciting mechanisms and phenomena that life has to offer. Köhler your microscope and dive in.
My recommendation for you is the latest album, Ruaß, by Nekrodeus, another extremely talented band from Austria. If you’re into black/death/sludge, you shouldn’t miss this album.
- Dominik

Grey Aura - Zwart vierkant: Slotstuk

Mar 28th // Netherlands // Avant/Disso BM/Post // Avantgarde

As you might already know, Zwart Vierkant: Slotstuk (with “Slotstuk” translating to “Finale”) is the second and final part of our Black Square concept.
Musically, we took quite a different approach with this album.
Firstly, its sound is more firmly rooted in metal, punk, and industrial music, as opposed to the more folk- and jazz-based sounds of its 2021 counterpart. This was a deliberate change: we wanted this album to feel considerably harsher and more frantic. Denser guitar parts also caused a more claustrophobic atmosphere, which benefited the concept.
Secondly, Slotstuk features ex-Severe Torture / ex-Centurian / Cthulhuminati drummer Seth van de Loo. Even though his drum parts are experimental and varied, his death metal background helped create a much more aggressive sound. Sylwin Cornielje’s intricate bass lines help cement the rhythm section, ultimately making this a much more rhythm-driven album.
- Ruben

Teitanblood - From the Visceral Abyss

Mar 28th // Spain // DM/War Metal // Norma Evangelium Diaboli

So much has been said about Teitanblood that it would be a thankless task to try and come up with something original to type up here, but on the off chance you’re unfamiliar with them, there’s no getting past these doorkeepers if you like your death-leaning war metal slash bestial death metal long and meticulously composed to the tiniest detail. Expectations for From the Visceral Abyss were rightly fueled with hydrogen, and while detractors still get to bring up the same talking points like production (excellent), track length (try grind), or lack of discernible riff-to-riff structures (plain wrong), this is some of their very best material to date.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Honorable mentions

Hallucivore - Shrouded in Exogaian Petrichor
Chordoma - Chordoma
Helzgate - Tordre la terre
Burning Palace - Elegy
Leucotome - Lumped Cuts of Offal
Decrepisy - Deific Mourning
Labyrinthine Heirs - Labyrinthine Heirs
Bidirna Dhamani - Ojash

APRIL

Palegrave - Demo 2025

Apr 4th // Germany // Progressive/Technical DM // Self

With menacing atmospherics, white-hot solos and a pleasant lean toward osdm staples, if this demo’s anything to go by the future’s looking very bright for Palegrave. Its blend of tightly orchestrated carnage and technical dexterity creates a pleasing sense of organised chaos that stimulates both the mind and the smoothbrain, and with production that allows all instrumental aspects actual breathing room while retaining the ferocity, this is a truly satisfying time (even for a demo).

- Ben (gatekeep!)

Diabolizer - Murderous Revelations

Apr 11th // Turkey // DM // Dark Descent/Me Saco un Ojo

Thank you for including our recent album to your best metal releases of the year list, we’re really honored to be a part of it.
I would have to say, this album has been remarkable for us all, one of the first reasons that comes to my mind is that the recording process was quite shorter in comparison with our debut, which had to be delayed several times due to lots of trouble, including the pandemic.
As always, everything was recorded in separate locations, in three different professional studios. The album was complete by the end of 2024 and the actual release didn’t take too much time either.
I believe we have managed to keep our essence in all its purity while incorporating new ideas into our music, which is the result of our ongoing improvement thanks to our musical careers. All of us are/have been members of other Turkish and international Death and Black Metal bands for over twenty years and it really shows on our albums.
Personally I believe Murderous Revelations has been the Magnum Opus in my musical life so far, yet I’m still looking forward to future Diabolizer albums to come.
Last but not least, this album helped us tour Europe as Diabolizer for the first time, along with Ashen Tomb from Finland (Hailz!) and it has been a great experience for us.
Cheers to Gatekeep, our fans and all the bands we have had the pleasure of sharing the stage with across ten countries and fourteen cities. Have a metal-filled 2026 y’all!
- Abomination

Flagelo - Insaciable

Apr 14th // Colombia // DM/BM/Doom/Disso // Self/Night Terrors/Nuclear Winter

Chunk, chunk and more chunk — this is some unapologetically beefy death metal that deeps more than a toe into the murky waters of black metal and thick, sludgy doom. Musically teetering between controlled stomps and full-tilt gallops, Flagelo craft a neatly unpredictable slice of death metal that captures traditionalist aspects while being unafraid to saturate it with some wantonly dissonant passages. Also it sounds absolutely enormous, which is always a plus.

- Ben (gatekeep!)

Ancient Death - Ego Dissolution

Apr 18th // USA // DM/Prog // Profound Lore

You tend to see a lot of throwback releases in death metal, bands whose entire direction is informed by the perspective that the genre peaked with Autopsy in the late 80s/early 90s and we should all just pay homage to that until the end of time. And sure, meat and potatoes riffage is a good time, but surely there’s more interesting paths that nostalgia can take. Well, Ancient Death certainly seem to argue that point with their ode to the more progressive side of 90s death metal, taking more influence from the likes of Timeghoul than your standard modern revivalist act. And doing so exceptionally well, I might add, managing a nice balance of complexity and atmosphere. A very solid debut full-length all things considered, and worth keeping an eye on where this band may go next.

- Tom Read (gatekeep!)

Dormant Ordeal - Tooth and Nail

Apr 18th // Poland // Tech/Disso/BM // Willowtip

Tooth and Nail is Dormant Ordeal unapologetically forging its own identity. The album thrives on simplicity of message, which only amplifies its power. It is a brutal, precision-driven machine combining death metal aggression with black metal atmosphere and post-rock emotional weight. Maciej Nieścioruk’s dense riffs and Maciej Proficz’s characteristic vocals cement the band’s signature sound while Chason Westmoreland’s guest session drumming provides primal yet meticulous ferocity. No random notes, no fillers. A pure synergy of rage and sincerity.
This is a record about struggle and resistance. About moving forward while fighting those who want to take away your rights and corrupt your mental stability with their own chaos. And about not winning that fight sometimes.
Tooth and Nail unquestionably solidifies the band’s position within the death metal landscape.
- Dormant Ordeal

Gaffed - I Can Feel Myself Rot

Apr 20th // USA // BDM // CDN

One thing Bob and I always did when it came to creating song titles and concepts is to keep it somewhat comical, grotesquely comical. As horror movie fans we just wanted to keep the content entertaining; as Ritual Torment our song Unclean Spirit is a monologue of the Exorcist. When we finished our last demo in 94 as Gaffed, I chose to name it “It Hurts to Be Dead” from Return of the Living Dead, my intentions were to name our first signed album “I Can Feel Myself Rot” as it is the next line in the flick. Unfortunately we never got picked up and we called it quits.
After reforming in 2022 and CDN records showed an interest in us we decided to write new material with Senen as the new drummer. Our first album Die Already was all new material with the exception of “Plagued With Misery”, an old Ritual Torment song. After the release we received a ton of input asking us to put out the old demos again; we had 5 demos as Ritual Torment and Gaffed combined. Instead I chose to rewrite and completely rerecord our top 8 favorite demo songs that never made it to professional print. As we were in the studio recording, I recalled my hopes of the “I can feel myself rot” concept to follow up. Senen and I wrote a new song in a week and titled it using the title for the song as well as the album. The album consists of 2 Ritual Torment and 6 Gaffed Demo songs. “I Can Feel Myself Rot” is the only new song on the album and we wrote it in 3 practice sessions.
Many bands never get the chance to reproduce the demo songs, we were lucky enough to do it 30 years later. With the engineering help of Matt McGrath the recording was huge and we are psyched over the finished product. Our next album is nearly fully written; hoping for a late 2026 release with a single being recorded in January.
- Mike

Ataudes - Tempus edax rerum

Apr 21st // Argentina // DM/BM/Death Doom // Memento Mori

On Tempus edax rerum, Argentinian warlocks Ataudes conjure up an atmosphere so thick you could cut it with rolling paper. This often reminded me of a slightly blackened rendition of Krypts’ Cadaver Circulation – albeit with more blasts – which should be all the praise you need to hear to give this a spin, stat.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Caustic Wound - Grinding Mechanism of Torment

Apr 25th // USA // Deathgrind // Profound Lore

After 2020’s punishing Death Posture, ascendent deathgrind act Caustic Wound only had to live up to expectations to release a suitable sequel. Grinding Mechanism of Torment is exactly that sequel, filled to the brim with the exact sort of riffs one would expect from an ascendent deathgrind act becoming themselves. Horns up, neanderthal face on, lfggg.

- Zach Lucia (gatekeep!)

Felgrave - Otherlike Darknesses

Apr 25th // Norway // Prog/DM/BM // Transcending Obscurity

Otherlike Darknesses is an attempt to create something that I had been wanting to hear in metal but hadn’t found anything that matches - deeply intricate, interwoven, thick, dynamic & darkly colourful metal with a surreal fantasy sort of feel. Stylistically it’s already been well described by other publications as an inscrutable blending of a whole bunch of metal styles, the foremost being death, black, and doom, with very heavy influences from 70s prog rock and 20th century classical music, along with some other things chucked in the mix. This is certainly not for everyone, but for those that it clicks with, there awaits a captivating journey through mysterious nocturnal realms that will reveal more and more for countless subsequent listens.
- MLJ

Honorable mentions

Imperious Mortality - Eon of Ungodly Entities
Roots of Deception - Heinous Disfigurement
Corpseification - Enthralling Euphoric Putrefaction
Cadaver - Hymns of Misanthropy
Martoriator - Bloodpainted Visions of Perpetual Conflict

MAY

Escarnium - Inexorable Entropy

May 9th // Brazil // OSDM/Death Doom // Everlasting Spew

We are really honored and proud to see Inexorable Entropy being mentioned on so many lists of best releases of 2025. Inexorable Entropy was our first release on Everlasting Spew Records (Fossilization, Pneuma Hagion, and many others) and we counted on Sergej Dukart from Walzwerk Studio for the production, mix and master.
Inexorable Entropy does not have the intention of creating something completely new or out of the box, but certainly shows Escarnium’s way to make extreme dark death metal.
In my personal view, it is just a natural step forward after Dysthymia.
Lyrically, we stay on the concept of speaking about reality and our way to see the world, mankind and the unavoidable decay and collapse of the so-called civilization we are in.
Thanks for supporting underground music!
- Victor

Victor recommends: Kamra - Unending Confluence

Mazuku - Erosive Peristaltic Atrocity

May 13th // Croatia // BDM // New Standard Elite

MAZUKU was formed by Tino Šantek and Vincenzo Saiu with the goal to create the most uncompromising and savage form of brutal death metal possible. Soon after, the lineup was completed with Filip Kušnjer and Vedran Koluder, establishing the foundation of the band’s sound.
The Erosive Peristaltic Atrocity demo was conceived as a pure expression of brutality, without compromise or restraint. From the earliest writing stages, we focused on density, physical impact, and violent momentum, aiming for music that feels suffocating and oppressive rather than polished or accessible. Every riff, tempo shift, and slam section was written to function as a blunt weapon.
Our main influences came from bands that embody extremity at its core, including Putridity, Disgorge, Defeated Sanity, Gorgasm, and other pillars of brutal death metal. These inspirations shaped our approach to songwriting, emphasizing percussive riffing, warped rhythms, and an obsession with sheer heaviness.
Vocals on the demo were performed by Karlo Begović, whose inhuman delivery helped define the release’s character. Since then, Ivan Osrečak has taken over vocal duties in the live lineup, maintaining the original intensity while pushing the aggression further on stage.
This demo stands as a documentation of our origins, a festering statement of intent devoted to violence, extremity, and total dedication to brutal death metal.
- Mazuku

Blood Monolith - The Calling of Fire

May 16th // USA // DM/Deathgrind // Profound Lore

Some seriously bludgeoning shit with a deceptively groovy undercurrent, all accompanied by some of the most stomach-churning retching imaginable. Straddling borders between multiple extreme genres with surprising finesse, it feels unusually broad for a deathgrind record, able to maintain intensity, barbarity and sheer insanity with surprising structural finesse.

- Ben (gatekeep!)

Dead Chasm - Spectral Tyranny

May 16th // Italy // OSDM/Death Doom // Transcending Obscurity

Dynamic and atmospheric, with a gargantuan sound that emphasises the apoplectic songwriting in all the right places, Spectral Tyranny is a concise 3-track collection that’ll leave you crying out for more. With no shortage of surging brutality or crushing riffs, Dead Chasm hand you a length of razor wire and respectfully bid you floss between your ears.

- Ben (gatekeep!)

Desekryptor - Sarcophagal Corridors

May 16th // USA // OSDM // Nuclear Winter

Following the completion of Curse of the Execrated, we set out to somewhat deconstruct our songwriting process. Instead of riffs first, DRUMS CAME FIRST!!! P.A. recorded drum parts that E.S. then manipulated and crafted to his liking, writing riffs to suffocate the rhythms into submission. One might think this method would render batshit crazy results, but it actually led to Sarcophagal Corridors sounding more refined and structurally sound than previous efforts. Not a method we are likely to repeat, but a worthwhile experiment in the blind leading the evil.
- Desekryptor

Unbirth - Asomatous Besmirchment

May 17th // Italy // BDM/Tech // New Standard Elite

The process of making this album was quite complicated. We were recovering from a major loss, our drummer Mirko, and then the lockdown slowed down and complicated the process.
Despite everything, we had the will to make it happen. We had the help of our friend, the drummer Davide Farabegoli, whom we thank, and we managed to create something while maintaining our style. We’re looking for songs with a solid rhythm but with a unique riffing, which sticks in your head and makes you move as fiercely as possible. The lyrics are refined, as we attach a concept to each song.
We don’t follow passing trends; we know exactly what we like and we stick to that principle.
We thank everyone who takes the time to listen and support us.
- Alberto Baroni

Ossuary - Abhorrent Worship

May 23rd // USA // DM/Death Doom // Me Saco un Ojo

It’s grimacing and gleefully downbeat but always an absolutely pummelling experience, extolling the virtues of death metal via some seriously despairing doomy riffs and soul-scraping cement-mixer vocals. Scratching a very specific itch that caters both to sparsity and brutality, this is a mature, cohesive and satisfyingly crushing listen that never feels overbearing for the sake of it.

- Ben (gatekeep!)

Unmerciful - Devouring Darkness

May 23rd // USA // BDM/Tech // Willowtip

In approaching Devouring Darkness, we wanted to do two things differently than our past albums. First, put an emphasis on revisiting songs after we had written them to take a second pass at refining and arranging parts. The second was to get the best production value we could for the recording. For this, we invested in strategic pieces of audio gear to get fatter, more polished tones while keeping a raw edge to the overall mix. This was also our first time working with Alan Douches for mastering, who did a fantastic job and understood what we were going for.
- Clint

We approached the writing for this pretty much as we always have, but we wanted to concentrate on the heavier, darker parts of what we have done in the past. We also concentrated on heavier palm muting, which I felt we strayed from a little since the first album. We’re also exploring more 2 guitar part material. We want brutal, violent and heavy as fuck! And when recording, we wanted to get the most distorted but intelligible guitar sound we could get.
- Jeremy

Album that we’re enjoying right now is Malefic Throne - The Conquering Darkness.

For US merchandise orders, get directly from the band at: www.unmercifulmusic.com

Sectarian Defacement - Chaotic Demiurge

May 24th // Ukraine // BDM/Deathgrind // Deepswarming Bloodmagik

On behalf of the band, we would like to thank all our listeners, and especially the people with whom we had the pleasure of collaborating.
Regarding our debut EP, the main goal was to create music that would purely combine all the aspects of extreme music that we love.
Of course, the overwhelming part of the influence on us is Brutal Death Metal, such bands as: Deeds of Flesh, Defeated Sanity, Devourment and all of the rest of “pillars” of this genre.
However, we tried not to be tied to a specific genre, so as not to put our music into certain genre frames, and to be able to experiment to find something new.
That’s why on the debut EP, you can also hear elements of Grindcore or even Goregrind.
We also want to note that the process of recording and mixing the music was entirely our own, so everything you will hear on this EP is an expression of the vision that was created from beginning to end by the musicians themselves.
- Nazar

Darkside Ritual - Chamber of Deathlessness

May 30th // Mexico // OSDM/BM // Chaos

Chamber of Deathlessness is an album that was written during the pandemic and during a short hiatus of the band. It’s really wonderful to see the positive response it has received this year. The concept of the album dwells from an interior dimension every human possesses by simply being alive to ancient knowledge withheld to access this state of mind. Musical influences include The Chasm, Selbst, Dissection, Execration, Malthusian and Virus. The album was mixed and mastered by Juan Mondragon and Hugo Alvarez. It is a closing chapter in a conceptual trilogy of albums, starting with our debut. We are excited for the future to now focus on a different path/concept.
- Juan

Honorable mentions

Lunar Blood - Anor
Vauruvã - Mar da deriva
Anatomize - Systematic Torture
Weeping Sores - The Convalescence Agonies

JUNE

Imipolex - Acts of Vulgar Piety

June 1st // USA // Avant DM/BM // Self/Fiadh

All of us in Imipolex appreciate being included in this list of 2025 releases. We are already back to recording so keep an eye out for us in 2026.
- Imipolex

Psudoku - Psudoktrination

Jun 6th // Norway // Avant-Grinde // Selfmadegod

I'm sure you're as tired of hacks like me spouting cartoonist debasement in honour of grindcore’s more batshit frontiers, but hold my beer for this one: Psudoktrination is exactly the ZAP-ZAP-BLAM! illustration of why metal objects or small animals do not belong in your goddamned microwave — and if the jagged edges, popcorn rhythms and screwball yelps are every bit as entertaining as hammering the most inappropriate settings possible into that fucker, then who's to complain? I also enjoy the band's use of caps lock.

- Hugh Puddle (gatekeep!)

Putrescent - Darkness Embraced

Jun 6th // USA // OSDM // Rotted Life

Old School Death Metal isn’t a genre anyone goes to for forward-thinking music; much better to find some nasty variation of a riff you’ve heard a thousand times before than to upset the delicate combination of blast beats, chunky guitars, and guttural vocals honed by thirty years of OSDM. Putrecent’s debut album, Darkness Embraced, lives (and dies) by this standard, providing every thrill a metalhead could ask for from an OSDM album without ever upsetting the teetering balance of trvth.

- Zach Lucia (gatekeep!)

Noth - Inhomogeneities

Jun 9th // Turkey/Switzerland // BDM // Lord of the Sick

In idea, Noth reflects the inhomogeneity between physics and metaphysics, and between body and mind.
Right and left guitar notes composed separately to catch an unmixed and unharmonized feeling.
When writing the musical phrases, exotic sounds that could be produced from a guitar were used.
Mental evolution is the main research topic of Noth.
The rhythm patterns used are inspired by the structures of everyday dialogue sentences.
- Baran from Noth

ByoNoiseGenerator - Subnormal Dives

Jun 13th // Russia // BDM/Avant/Grind // Transcending Obscurity

If you like your grind off-the-wall and heavily inspired by the sound of the interior of a malfunctioning computer, you could do a lot worse than this thoroughly entertaining crash-course in abject insanity. It flits along like a bluebottle with the runs, peddling riffs and chunky grooves that’ll both get in your bones and kick you in the head — have you ever wanted anything more from a grind record. Adrenalised, electrifying, absolutely nuts.

- Ben (gatekeep!)

Patristic - Catechesis

Jun 20th // Italy // BM/DM/Disso // Willowtip

While we are aware that Catechèsis marks the beginning of Patristic’s journey rather than the achievement of anything, we can’t but be grateful for the astonishing number of positive reviews our album gathered since its release in June this year.
Once again we salute and say thanks to Willowtip Records and Death Over Rome for their hard work, to Stefano Morabito, Michael Zech and Manuel Scapinello for the mastery they put at our service.
- Patristic

Raw Addict - Swarm Decomposition

Jun 20th // Canada // Goregrind/Deathgrind // Blast Addict/Selfmadegod

The kind of white-knuckle violence that likely leaps to your parent’s mind at the mere mention of ‘metal’, Swarm Deconposition takes no prisoners and does very little beside throttle you with one hand while twatting you with the other…. but damn, does it ever do those things well. Don’t be fooled by the digestible track lengths; this is some genuinely savage stuff that’ll undoubtedly satisfy those with a penchant for morbid content and heavy af instrumentals.

- Ben (gatekeep!)

Sulfuric Cautery - Killing Spree

Jun 23rd // USA // Goregrind // Blast Addict

Simultaneously the rawest, most unhinged, and technical Sulfuric Cautery album yet. Drawing more influence from the song writing insanity of the greatest grindcore band of all time (figure it out) and sheer barbarity of noisecore while still being hypergoregrind at its core, this record will kill you.
Boundary pushing raw grind for life.
- Sulfuric Cautery

Drawn and Quartered - Lord of Two Horns

Jun 27th // USA // DM // Nuclear Winter

Lord of Two Horns was conceived during an end of the year break in 2017. I created the music for an album all at once in a weekend.
I brought the songs to the band in the form of click tracks and a guitar track on a CD. Herb and Simon really liked the songs and we started working on them right away.
I was experiencing a flow of creativity spurred on by the enthusiasm for the new music, and went on to write four newer songs. These were in DROP A tuning from B Standard. I thought an EP or split was going to be made first. Then we’d dig into the 8 new songs I’d written previously.
During all of this we’d released The One Who Lurks, played shows, toured in Canada and Japan, re-formed and performed as PLAGUE BEARER. The following years saw more shows, fests, travelling, releases by both bands. In early 2020 we were finally at a point to record those 4 newer Drop A tuning songs. Since it had been 3 years since the last record, we decided to re-record some songs from our 2015 demo to make the full length Congregation Pestilence.
This was 2021. In 2022 we started performing live again, in 2023 we did some touring and the debut PLAGUE BEARER record came out, I recorded and performed in SERPENT RIDER and DRAGHKAR for a few years as well. We did some focused work on the music for Lord of Two Horns for 2 years before we started tracking in 2023 and 2024. We had a final mix by the end of that year and in early 2025 we made an agreement with NUCLEAR WINTER RECORDS to release the CD/LP/Tape.
My musical inspiration comes from old horror movie music. The riffs were designed to be played at max speed. The tempos kept creeping up as we developed the songs in rehearsal. Writing additional guitar parts, leads, solos and vocals to complete the music was quite challenging, to match the intensity. It was a lot of work and took a few years to get made, but we’ve created the best album we could possibly make at that point. Amazing artwork from Gabriel T. Byrne, he’s done all the art for our 9 full length studio records. We are looking forward to playing the album live in the coming years.
- Kelly

Noise Trail Immersion - Tutta la morte in un solo punto

Jun 27th // Italy // Disso BM // I, Voidhanger

This apoplectic little record showcases some towering yet still gratifyingly intricate songwriting, breaking the listener down through extended instrumental abrasion and some seriously raw production. Cavernous is the word of the day, but it’s also surprisingly listenable and makes use of some infectious grooves amidst all the furious white noise. If you like your metal more about feeling than about form, this one’s for you.

- Ben (gatekeep!)

Putridity - Morbid Ataraxia

Jun 27th // Italy // BDM/Tech // Willwotip

We came back with this new album after 10 years since the last release. Nothing major changed about our view. We’re still here to purvey the sick smell of death in music.
- Ciccio

Beyond Mortal Dreams - Devastation Hymns

Jun 28th // Australia // DM // Lavadome

The mindset I was in during the creation and release of our second album, Abomination of the Flames, was to pursue more of a darker and atmospheric musical direction, which started with the Dreaming Death EP. It was when I was working on the remaster of the first album, From Hell, for Nuclear Winter Records, back in 2018, that I was struck by the reminder of how brutal those songs were. It had been some time since I’d gone back to that era of our history, and the reminder hit me like a refreshing hammer! I thought to myself, man, it would be killer to recapture that side of us again on another recording, and so set to work on the material that would eventually become Devastation Hymns. The inclusion of the Forbidden cover took some by surprise, I’ve observed, but that was something that Jamie (2nd Guitar) and I had talked about doing for a long time, and we felt the time was right with this release. Looking back and comparing this release to From Hell, I’d say that in trying to recapture that era, it ended up becoming a beast all of its own. Recruiting some fresh blood behind the drum kit in Henry (Plague), from Christ Dismembered, really helped give it some extra fire as well. Personally, I think it’s probably some of our best work to date, so the challenge is on to surpass it with the next one!
- Pahl

Incinerated - The Epitome of Transgression

Jun 30th // Indonesia // BM/DM/Disso // BlackSeed

We worked with one of the most talented experimental musicians from our city, Algo Yus Pratama, who left this world in November. His spirit lives on eternally. He built his instrument himself and recorded it exclusively in his chamber. “Confronting and Unfolding Fana” is not merely a title, but an expression of spiritual and emotional limits of being (fana), to confront wahdat al-wujud—or der absolute Geist, to use a Hegelian term—and unfold it through the art. The lyrics can be existential; they represent failure of man as inheritors of the earth. (The past is no longer alive, the future prior to reflection; knowing the present is a desolation in peace.)
We’d also like to mention the mastering by The Empty Hall Studio—they are masters of their craft; their dedication and passion are glorious—as well as the mixing by Deathevocation Studio.
The lyrics depict an inner conflict. Like I say in every interview, it’s a spiritual warfare against oneself. My main inspirations are writers like Rilke, Bataille, Hegel, Nietzsche, Ibn Arabi, Jung, Evola, and Guenon, and of course the biblical and abrahamic stories.
- Y.F

Honorable mentions

Evil Deceiver - Hymns to Death
Cthonica - Bone Altars of the Vanished Sun
Witherer - Shadow Without a Horizon
Devilpriest - Where I Am the Chalice, Be Thou the Blood
Imprecation - Vomitum tempestas

JULY

Putrescent - Butchery of Disembowelment

Jul 2nd // Indonesia // BDM // Trading the Cadavers

Wake up baby, another Putrescent made it onto the list! Unlike their Murican namesake (but not unlike their Chilean and Dutch namesakes; on that note, check how many DM bands are named Ossuary), these lads purvey the brutal kind of dee-em – a time-honored tradition in Indonesia. A noticeable uptick in tempo shifts when compared to other recent releases their country’s restless scene has yielded, and their drummer’s love of triplets are what earn them a spot on this 123-meter-wide podium. Did the math.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Mortual - Altar of Brutality

Jul 4th // Costa Rica // OSDM // Nuclear Winter

Here’s a fun fact about the album: our bassist left in August 2024, so since there wasn’t much time, Juan and I, both guitarists, recorded the bass ourselves. We each played 3.5 songs hahaha!
Furthermore, it was recorded on the night of December 24th, on Christmas Eve.
- Justin

Décryptal - Simulacre

Jul 11th // Canada // OSDM // Me Saco un Ojo/Rotted Life

Due to my predilection for growls in French, this was always going to make the list. It does help that the instrumental portion, with the guitars confidently following in grand master Vigna’s footsteps, is several cuts above your typical OSDM murkfest – with regard to both structure and progressions.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Hell - Submersus

Jul 11th // USA // Sludge/Doom // Sentient Ruin

M.S.W. has been releasing apocalyptic albums under the Hell moniker over the last decade and a half now, refining a signature combination of sludge and drone into sonic inferno that is all Hell’s own. While I still think I prefer The Trilogy, Submersus is another fantastic Hell album playing in metal’s most convincing hellscape.

- Zach Lucia (gatekeep!)

Kakothanasy - Metagonism

Jul 11th // Switzerland // BDM/Tech // Amputated Vein

What really are death and suffering ? Pretty naive and cringe question, but since most death metal releases are about that, maybe it’s worth wondering.
From a reductionist and physicalist perspective, they are nothing but a certain occurrence of a certain organisation of matter at a given time, and that’s what Metagonism is about. From an artistic point of view, suffering is definitely the enormous amount of death metal releases in the last years that have the most quantized and plastic production you can imagine, when brutality actually comes from grit, dirtyness, and raw energy. That’s also what Metagonism is about. Six years after Dystomorph, we’re proudly back with an album we wrote with all our love for raging blast beats, spastic riffs, absurdly twisted structures, and overall, brutal death metal that is actually brutal.
Special shoutouts to 3 relases from this year we enjoyed a lot:
Anal Stabwound - Enshrouning the Many-Fingered Grasp
Dead and Dripping - Nefarious Scintilliations
Brutalism - Solace in Absurdity (released in 2024, but since it’s so underrated we wanted to mention it)
- Kakothanasy

Clairvoyance - Chasm of Immurement

Jul 18th // Poland // OSDM // Carbonized

For us, Chasm of Immurement is the result of the past several years spent roaming through the cavernous and rotten spaces between old-school death metal worship and our own internal chaos. When we started the band back in 2019, the goal was simple: to create death metal that feels like a weight on your chest. But as these six tracks took their shape, the record became a more personal reflection of mental isolation and the chasms we build around ourselves.
Recording was a hands-on process that we planned far ahead of the actual studio sessions. Having our guitarist Kacper Pawluk doing the engineering on this LP allowed us to capture the specific, suffocating atmosphere we’ve been chasing since our first demo. We didn’t want a sterile and modern production, we wanted the listener to feel the grit and the cavernous humidity of the rehearsal room.
From the frantic opening of “Eternal Blaze” to the culmination in the final track, this LP represents our transition into a unit with a singular, grim vision. We’ve always believed that death metal should be visceral and honest. With the help of Carbonized Records and the haunting visual world created by Paolo Girardi, we’ve finally pinned that feeling down. This is our descent and we hope you find something to connect with in the dark.
- Clairvoyance

Eternal Darkness - Eternal Darkness

Jul 18th // Sweden // Death Doom // Pulverised

More doomy goodness with a slightly dissonant modern death metal bent, Eternal Darkness is a resonant, rich project that crafts effortlessly vivid imagery through its use of earworm riffs and trundling grooves. It has a rumbling, foreboding quality to its knuckle-dragging production that manages to preserve the more technical aspects with startling clarity, and the sparsity of its more discordant sections (reminiscent of Scorn-era Primitive Man), gets under the skin with their dusty, nasty bass n’ beats. You don’t want to miss this one.

- Ben (gatekeep!)

Arkhaaik - Uihtis

Jul 25th // Switzerland // BM/Death Doom // Eisenwald

This release took several years of intense work on our end to finally be realized. Looking back, we can definitely say we are pleased with how everything turned out. Uihtis sounds how we had envisioned it to, and that for us is quite satisfactory.
- K.

Deliquesce - Saviour / Enslaver

Jul 25th // Australia // Tech/BDM // Lacerated Enemy

With Saviour / Enslaver we really wanted to push ourselves in terms of technicality and groove.
Beyond that, we didn’t want to particularly limit ourselves to any specific style or sound, as long as it was brutal and the songs withheld the kind of frantic energy necessary to our taste, we didn’t think too hard about what should follow.
We just started writing and the material flowed out of us pretty organically. One riff led to another, this rhythm to the next, this vocal after that vocal etc...
It’s pretty awesome to see it resonating with so many people considering how dense we managed to make it.
I think combined between all of us having the influences that we do, having such an unconstrained focus on what we wanted the album to sound like is why it sticks out as unique within the whole Brutal / Death Metal sphere.
2025 was a great year for death metal, everyone needs to check out the new Unmerciful, Dead and Dripping, Anal Stabwound, Vile Apparition, Squassation, and Kakothanasy releases!
- Adrian

Honorable mentions

Kaspyx - Kadaver
Disembodiment - Spiral Crypts
Floating - Hesitating Lights
Dephosphorus - Planetoktonos
Malformed - Confinement of Flesh

AUGUST

Cancer Void - First Metastasis

Aug 1st // Czech Republic // OSDM // Me Saco un Ojo/Iron Fortress

Dynamic death metal goodness with a plethora of memorable riffs and excellent drum work. ‘‘Encased in Veins’’ is an especially entertaining moment from this project, employing guitars that simultaneously intimidate and fish hook the listener’s goblin-brain with groovy aplomb, and that’s without mentioning the perfect death metal vocals throughout. It’s meat-and-potatoes dm no doubt, but served in a rich sauce with plenty of juicy accoutrements.

- Ben (gatekeep!)

Hedonist - Scapulimancy

Aug 1st // Canada // DM // Southern Lord

Some honest-to-goodness, battering modern death metal that doesn’t demand attention so much as hold you hostage and force you to endure. Thoroughly diverse for a record of this ilk, it aggressively shepherds through worlds of groove, fury, technicality and hook-laden riffing, making it all stick thanks to tight songwriting and a treacle-thick production style. The release improves on virtually every aspect of Hedonist’s 2021 EP, and sets them on an excitingly brutal track for the future.

- Ben (gatekeep!)

Sallow Moth - Mossbane Lantern

Aug 1st // USA // Prog/Tech DM // I, Voidhanger/Fiadh

This was an immediate writing process following the Vial EP from 2024. I already was in the writing mode of reviving this project after a 2-year hiatus. It was a spontaneous revival but highly invigorating for me creatively to bring it back in a more unique way than the previous incarnation of the project. I approached I, Voidhanger late in 2024 about the prospect of Mossbane Lantern being made and seeing if they’d be interested. I gave a brief synopsis on the project, concept of the album, and influences that I had in mind. I think me mentioning Bark Psychosis among a list of death metal bands sold the idea. Luciano (I, Voidhanger) believed the scope I presented could yield a formidable metal album as long as I didn’t lose sight of death metal being the foundation. That kind of was in the background of my mind as I was working towards the finish line of the album. Still exercise adventurous writing and weaving of non-metal elements, while still maintaining that this is a death metal album.
I think the reception for the album has been quite varied, with it resonating pretty deeply with appreciators of wider varieties of music, while also being a challenging listen to others, good or bad. I completely understand and appreciate that though. It’s been nice seeing many types of responses to it. It’s my most ambitious full length to date.”
- Garry Brents

Malthusian - The Summoning Bell

Aug 8th // Ireland // DM/Death Doom/Disso // Relapse

The Summoning Bell came out exactly like the bad trip it is so thanks to everyone that helped in realising that horror, and we’re always appreciative of anyone that bought it or listened to it. Sláinte.
“You must go on. I can’t go on. I’ll go on” - Beckett
For me, the AOTY is unquestionably Qrixkuor.
- MB

Sewer Haul - Torso Mangled Beyond Repair

Aug 9th // Denmark // Goregrind // Extremely Rotten

Torso Mangled Beyond Repair was released August 8th 2025 via Extremely Rotten Prod. It was recorded at Dead Rat Studio (Jacob Bredahl) and mastered by Audiosiege (Brad Boatright).
Similar to the first EP, this one was also recorded in a one-take. The first song we wrote of this EP was the title track, “Torso Mangled Beyond Repair”. Drawing a heavy influence from the gods, Mortician.
- Sewer Haul

Compulsed - Amalgamated Anguish

Aug 15th // USA // BDM // Self/Hibernation/Iron Fortress/P2

Frantic, brutal dm with all the belched vocals and blastbeats you could ever require. A surprising amount of earworm goodness permeates the record, and with the hardcore, grind and slam influences peppered throughout (peep the slamming outro of ‘‘Phantasmagoria’’ because it absolutely FUCKS), this is a delirious whirlwind of testicular torsion ready to wring out your brain like a sponge.

- Ben (gatekeep!)

Defacement - Doomed

Aug 22nd // Netherlands // Disso DM/Post // Unorthodox Emanations

After three years of being spoiled for choice when it comes to high-caliber dissodeath, 2025 felt like the brakes were finally hit. It would have been easy for a band like Defacement to deliver a ‘merely’ competent album, so I applaud them for not only banging out an absolute skronk screamer, but spiking the IV drip with something genuinely fresh by deepening the genre’s still-underexplored post nook in the process.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Pains - Blistering Wrath

Aug 22nd // USA // Grind/Metalcore // Twelve Gauge

Blistering Wrath was an attempt to try and pack as big of a punch into 3 songs as humanly possible. We knew this release would be a bit of a bridge from past to future so we wanted to make a statement both musically and lyrically. These songs were written almost 2 years ago and it feels good to re-listen and feel as positive about them as we did when we wrote them. Musically, we tried to encompass everything that we had been up to that point but also what we wanted to become. There are a lot of things we tried for the first time in these songs that were a clear intention for the band to continue branching out to new avenues. While we centered everything around an intense and vicious sounding foundation, we felt strongly about adding a bit more melody and dynamism to the songs. Can we do what we want but still keep folks engaged? Can we keep the dynamics fresh and not make things feel predictable? How many different ways can we make it feel like a freight train is hitting you? Lyrically it felt important to match the intensity tenfold, so I tried to funnel the creative aspect of lyrical writing through a more personal lens and the final result feels like a great representation of what we are and what we hope to continue doing.
- Alex Gaspar

Vörnir - Av hädanfärd krönt

Aug 22nd // International // BM // Mystískaos/Amor Fati

Av hädanfärd krönt spent many years in a state of stasis. Originally conceived as the second Esoterica album, under the tentative title Lesser Sun, a few of its tracks were even performed live during the few Esoterica shows in the early to mid-2010s. Over time, however, the project underwent multiple major evolutions. The original foundation was partially dismantled and later merged with unused material written during Martröð’s Transmission of Wounds sessions. Throughout this process, three vocalists took their own approaches to the material, but none of these iterations fully coalesced. The recordings were ultimately shelved, consigned to demo vaults, and largely forgotten as my focus and inspiration moved elsewhere.
Years later, renewed ideas emerged, and I sent the core tracks to Swartadauþuz. He stripped the material down to its essentials and added the pitch-black ambience and vocals, while also arranging for Kevin Paradis to record drums. Once those elements were complete, I began digging through an archive of atmospheric tracks, drawing from a large archive of demos H.V. had recorded to introduce additional movement and texture. R. was also brought in to contribute further guitar work, helping to round out the album’s final form. With all components finally in place, I handled the mixing/mastering myself. It stands as my favorite mix I’ve completed to date. A project defined by patience and torture, Av hädanfärd krönt ultimately reflects the long and punishing effort required to bring it into existence.
- Alex Poole

प्रलय - Beyond the Tattered Curtain of Unspeakable Madness

Aug 23rd // Poland // War Metal // Ancient Dead

First of all, thanks for the proposition and rating my stuff so highly. I would say that it’s quite surprising that Beyond... is getting such high marks around the world, as I would never have expected that the mix of my ideas and skills with hideous, terrible, and repulsive music would find anyone’s interest. In this music, there is no calculation, no begging for attention, nor catchy stuff. It is pure madness that strikes directly from my head, forged into vile and disgusting music, as these kinds of vibes are strictly the closest to my soul. And another important thing is the freedom of doing music on my own. This freedom lets me summon all these nightmares; no chains on the creation process - just me, my ideas, my vocals, my guitar, and great collaboration with the drummer, who completely understands what’s going on and shared this madness. This is why I can call this abomination my wretched child.
- T. aka Demoniac

Ethereal Wound - Defile | Demise

Aug 29th // Portugal // BM/DM // Lowered Head

Ethereal Wound is a musical tribute project to Kentaro Miura’s Berserk. We have released two Eps and our third work is Defile | Demise.
Defile | Demise confronts some of the most harrowing and demanding themes found in Miura’s masterpiece. If reading the manga, or even watching the anime, feels enhanced by our music, then we’ve already achieved everything we set out to do. And if our songs end up being someone’s first doorway into Berserk, that would be beyond rewarding; it would genuinely mean the world to us
Thank you for supporting what we do and go read some Berserk!
- Ethereal Wound

Proscription - Desolate Divine

Aug 29th // Finland // DM/BM // Dark Descent

Desolate Divine was written in slow collapse, where repetition becomes ritual and tension is allowed to rot rather than resolve. The songs move with deliberate weight, circling devotion emptied of transcendence — faith reduced to habit, endurance without promise. Nothing here reaches outward or seeks relief; the “divine” remains distant and unmoved, observed through sound that is rigid, suffocating, and unadorned. This record stands not as a destination, but as a testament to persistence in desolation.
- ChristButcher

Honorable mentions

Ange de la Mort - Bequeathed
Obscenum - In the Depths of Impurity
Atavistic Decay - Immakulate Invokations
Innumerable Forms - Pain Effulgence
Hebephrenique - Decathexis
Hexrot - Formless Ruin of Oblivion

SEPTEMBER

Siege Column - Sulphur Omega

Sep 3rd // USA // DM/War // Nuclear War Now!

Some rousing, thumping death metal with a slightly dissonant slant (particularly with the vocals against the musical canvas), this rip-roaring release is able to boil the blood and bang the head — frequently in the same breath. It has a pleasing two-hander of guttural rage and riff-heavy catchiness, and the two elements merge together to form a record that is able to entertain as well as slap your expression with a wrinkled stankface. That’s a winning combo.

- Ben (gatekeep!)

Hacksaw - The Way, the Truth, the Light

Sep 5th // USA // BDM // Self

Another showcase of subtle hardcore influences adding to a release’s replayability instead of dulling its edge, The Way, the Truth, the Light is a steamroller of a full-length debut. I could drop an ‘old-Cryptopsy energy’ pin on your consideration nav to entice you into checking this out, or you could just take my word that this is some of the most engrossing BDM to have come out in 2025.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Mortal Scepter - Ethereal Dominance

Sep 9th // France // Thrash // Xtreem

Ethereal Dominance is the album we had in mind for a long time but couldn’t fully achieve until now. After our first album Where Light Suffocates, we knew we wanted to push things further—not by changing our identity, but by refining everything: the songwriting, the atmosphere, our technical abilities with our instruments and above all the sound. We took our time, learned from our previous mistakes, and let the album grow naturally without forcing the process.
As always, all four of us were involved in the writing. This time, we focused more on tension, darker moods, and less straightforward structures, while keeping the fast and aggressive core of our music intact. The album is deeply rooted in the first wave of death/thrash—bands like Massacra, Demolition Hammer, Sadus—but also leans toward a more progressive approach inspired by Death, Atheist, or Nocturnus. We never write songs to fit a specific formula; riffs are assembled to serve the song and its overall momentum.
Lyrically, most of the album explores science-fiction themes, existential threats, and distorted realities, which felt like a natural extension of the cold and oppressive atmosphere of the music.
Ethereal Dominance is an album made for listeners who know the codes of real violent thrash metal, who appreciate detail, brutality, and songs that reveal more with each listen.
- Mortal Scepter

Heruvim - Mercator

Sep 12th // Ukraine // OSDM // Redefining Darkness

Overall, we really wanted to leave our album open to interpretation.
I’d say that both the titles and lyrics are already filled with clues about what we wanted to express.
But the real question is — was that truly what we wanted to say? And more importantly — is it what the listener will perceive?
This unique experience — that’s what we want to lead the listener toward. That’s our main goal, despite some of the very direct phrases and statements found in the tracks.
Still, humans possess abstract thinking, and the music itself — the atmosphere — evokes their own associative patterns.
That is our true aim: to guide the listener to their own path, their own unique road — a road most people never even see, because of the nature of our reality.
And reality, as H. P. Lovecraft once said, is “The man of Truth is beyond good and evil. ...The man of Truth has ridden to All-Is-One. The man of Truth has learnt that Illusion is the only reality, and that substance is an impostor.”
All these archetypal and social constructs instilled in us by society — we wish to see them dismantled.
We want the listener to access their own gaze, as much as they possibly can — unbiased, raw, real.
Though that is incredibly difficult.
Our album is one of many keys — for those who are ready to go further,
who aren’t satisfied with answers,
who are willing to question,
to ask the inconvenient,
and who sense that something is not right with reality.
The album is steeped in Gnostic teachings, and we do not hide it.
It also carries an anti-war spirit, running through the entire work.
It reflects how we perceived reality through war, trauma, and lived horror —
a point at which masks, illusions, slogans, ideologies of any kind crumble like plaster — and the true nature of reality is revealed,
which, we believe, is terrifying.
- Heruvim

Anal Stabwound - Enshrining the Many-Fingered Grasp

Sep 14th // USA // BDM/Tech // New Standard Elite

You can tell Nikhil poured all his heart into his one-man show’s long-teased latest, stunning listeners in every sense of the word with this snapshot of his uncanny creativity reflected in the blend of predominantly uncommon brutech phrasings and refreshing progressive interspersals. With the number of projects our favorite prodigy has his many-fingered hands in having recently grown to roughly 481, let’s hope the next full-length comes out before 2028. This EP, meanwhile, is nothing less than one of this year’s quintessential BDM listens.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Volahn - Popol Vuh

Sep 15th // USA // BM // Crepúsculo Negro

You’re going to be hard-pressed to find another 2025 album merging the belligerent with the pulchritudinous this effortlessly. FFO: Mesoamerican-lore-infused, villainous, and psychotic BM.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Antiversum - De nemesis omnes et omnia

Sep 19th // Switzerland // Disso BM // Amor Fati

With De Nemesis Omnes et Omnia, Antiversum compress collapse into a singularity. Five vast, dissonant chapters orbit through chaos, cosmic emptiness and terminal hostility.
Riffs spiral without resolution. Drums ritualize entropy. Voices echo as signals from a dissolving system.
This is not transcendence, but negation rendered sound.
Silence inverted • existence dissected • void devouring void.
- Antiversum

Hadopelagyal - Haematophoryktos

Sep 19th // Germany // BM/DM // Amor Fati

Look, I’ve already talked about this deeply unsettling record twice now, but here’s one last attempt at selling it to you: Haematophoryktos, in short, epitomizes a near-perfect symbiosis of hyperviolent death metal and direful, tar-steeped black metal.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Kamra - Unending Confluence

Sep 19th // Slovenia // BM // Avantgarde

It is not easy to put into words that which was created and seeped in spontaneity. With each passing month from the release our perception changes, Kamra is such an alive project that its process always feels very certain in its instability. And it feels surreal now to reflect on the fact that merely a year ago we were finishing the writing process and doing some demos. Of course, the ideas for Unending Confluence were an ongoing story for years, but once we start wrapping the whole, it just becomes an unstoppable force. From February it just cascaded. The recording, writing the vocals, the bass, recording again, the artwork, the design, the release date and the release show at the festival. It just falls into place, down to the date. And it still feels right - there were no compromises, as it is exactly what it needs to be.
The Unending influence of the writing process:
Thantifaxath - Hive Mind Narcosis
Reveal! - Scissorgod
Current 93 - Thunder Perfect Mind
Bathory - Blood Fire Death
Obliteration - Black Death Horizon
- Kamra

Species - Changelings

Sep 19th // Tech Thrash/Prog // Poland // 20 Buck Spin

Writing for Changelings started shortly after our debut album To Find Deliverance came out and from the very beginning it seemed that the new record would be more progressive and dynamic but, at the same time, catchier and heavier. Some songs, like “Waves of Time” or “Biological Masterpiece”, took us two years to complete, while others, like “The Essence”, (which we shot a video for) were pretty much written during a single practice session. Musically, Changelings is a mix of inspirations from a variety of genres we listen to, while the lyrical content focuses on change, progress, bodily alteration and time, which is why we thought the title would fit perfectly. The album features guest synthesizers by Krzysztof Buffi on Side A closer “Voyager” and cover art painted by Aleksandra Pawłowska, who also did the artwork for our first record. Drum recording took place at Studio Nebula with Tomasz Stołowski, while other instruments and vocals were recorded at No Stress Studio by Filip Pągowski, who also did the mixing. Damian Herring mastered the album at Subterranean Watchtower Studios, shaping its final sound.
- Michał

Honorable mentions

Haemalharia - Vast Roar Okkulus
Esoctrilihum - Ghostigmatah - Spiritual Rites of the Psychopomp Abxulöm
Septic Fumes - Mucilaginous Sewage
Demiurgon - Miasmatic Deathless Chamber
Last Retch - Abject Cruelty

OCTOBER

Umulamahri - Learning the Secrets of Acid

Oct 1st // USA // Disso DM // Ordovician

Take every breakdown you’ve ever heard, stretch them out, pile on distortion, and break them up with some crazy drum/ bass work and you’re 90% of the way there. This is in no way meant as a reductive take: the combination works like a dream, the pounding dissonance and unrelenting severity of the musical landscape consistently holding attention even when it becomes borderline overwhelming. Also, check out that artwork. That’s some sick ass artwork.

- Ben (gatekeep!)

Fermented Mess - Fermented Mess

Oct 3rd // USA // Grind // Self

This is how you strain your carpus without exacting the ‘technical’ tag. Replete with eminently traditional riffs, blistering blasts, and vitriolic vocals, Fermented Mess’ no-nonsense grind flies by like few other records on this list and will make you hit the ‘repeat all’ button for the first time in years.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Skin Tension - Inaugurate Renaissance

Oct 3rd // USA // Avant/Brutal Prog // Self

Do you like drums? No chance you like drums nearly as much as Skin Tension. Their brand new, drum-forward, pocket-improvised, quote unquote bestial prog album is an absolute experience. Somewhere in between attention deficit hyperactivity and calculated intensity, Inaugurate Renaissance is every bit as intriguing as its creature adorning the cover art. Horns? Wings? Maybe, but there's definitely drums and riffs. Lots of them, consecutively and at once.

- Jesper (gatekeep!)

Suffering Hour - Impelling Rebirth

Oct 3rd // USA // Disso DM/BM // Profound Lore

Impelling Rebirth is more or less the result of our couple year hiatus due to Jason’s cancer diagnosis. As soon as he recovered we felt like we needed to create something fresh, short and to the point. It needed to be as spontaneous as possible in its conception and execution. We had it completely written and released all in under a year which for us is quite a change of pace. It’s also obviously very left field for us because of the short song format too. Musically we dug back into some of our thrash metal roots and lyrically it’s mostly inspired from the experiences of the last couple of years. The concept of fate, frustrations, and the fragility of life.
- DgS

DEATHFUCKINGWOUND - Void MMXXV

Oct 7th // Finland // Deathgrind // Iron Corpse

To engage with life is to take part in a hedonistic and violent affair that’s both unwelcome and unasked for by anyone who undergoes it. There are various ways to battle this unforgiving and brutal conundrum, and while some take the less benevolent route, we alongside many others chose to attack this precedent with aural art that’s equally visceral, blunt, and merciless as the starting point itself. While statistics say that humanity as an entirety is advancing somewhere – somewhere more positive by many standards – the cruel fist of everyday layman life seems to ravage each and every orifice of ours to the exact opposite degree. As is apparent, we aren’t idealists.
What we are, instead, is a vessel for creative catharsis conveyed through the hand and mind, the latter of which is seemingly fucked to no avail. We have no mission other than to realise our instincts in a palpable concrete manner that translates itself to our audience in as piercing and caustic manner as possible. We don’t let ourselves off the hook, and don’t intend to provide that privilege to anyone else either. There is no comfort in anything we do, only raw punishment via auditory assault.
Our debut/demo/whatever you want to call it has reached people far and wide to our pleasant surprise, and it goes without saying that it fuels the fire within our furnace to take the final steps in arranging our first full-length and recording it in very early 2026, in addition to playing a handful of shows in the spring, with more projected for the latter half of the year. It seems that the engine got running even before it was fully built, and that left us with various, extremely interesting artistic nooks and crannies to discover. We are exceedingly passionate about what we do, and are glad to witness resonance to it from around the globe.
We take nothing for granted. We are the end to your beginning. The thing that doesn’t leave you when everyone else does. The act that you couldn’t commit and the instigator to the one you do. The err of your ways and the exclamation mark to your failures.The tube which allows you to breathe free. We are but two nobodies from near the Arctic circle and the land of one season spitting out nonsense through a lens of irony and depravity.We are DEATHFUCKINGWOUND.
- DEATHFUCKINGWOUND

DEATHFUCKINGWOUND recommend:
Teitanblood – From The Visceral Abyss
Caustic Wound – Grinding Mechanism of Torment

Blindfolded and Led to the Woods - The Hardest Thing About Being God Is That No One Believes Me

Oct 10th // New Zealand // Tech/Disso DM // Prosthetic

We would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who has supported us and listened to our new album. If this list is the catalyst for you checking it out then thank you also!
This is our first concept album and we recommend reading the lyrics along with the music. See you in 2026!
- Stuart Henley-Minchington

Light Dweller / Aoecist / Sleep Paralysis - Illusory Dissolvents

Oct 10th // USA // Disso/Avant DM // Self/Hauntology

Multi-artist LPs have their strengths and weaknesses; at their best they emphasize an artist's talents while providing individualized glimpses into the specific qualities of each coalesced artist. Illusory Dissolvents emphasizes these exact qualities I want from a collaborative EP, allowing each artist to stand out as their own selves, utilizing the banner of dissodeath to really isolate and present what each band does well.

- Zach Lucia (gatekeep!)

Squassation - Decorated With Feculent Appurtenances

Oct 10th // USA // BDM // New Standard Elite

First off, we’re very honored to be a part of this list! So many sick bands, and it’s always good to be mentioned alongside our brothers in Putridity...
Squassation was formed in 2024 and is made up Brad Cole, Nate Wheeler, and ex members of Embalmer (Tim Powell), Bloodchurn, and Perceptions of Torment (Charlie Hart). Our main goal was to create something fresh while maintaining the raw ferocity from the glory days of BDM, and pay homage to the golden era bands. Some of our influences of course are Deeds of Flesh, Severe Torture, Inveracity, Pyemia…
From the beginning of the band’s inception, we had hoped to become part of the New Standard Elite roster, and with our 2024 demo release we achieved that. After the positive feedback we received with our demo, we knew that we had to really put everything into making this full-length. Drums for the album were tracked and mixed by Stephen Powell at Preserved Sounds Studios. All other instruments and vocals were tracked by Squassation and sent to Stephen for the amazing mix that he was able to give us. He was also the mix engineer for the demo, and he did a killer job on that as well! We sent the album to be mastered by the legendary Colin Davis.
Some of mine and Charlie’s personal favorite tracks are “Self-Confessed Necrophile”, “Perversion for the Eschaton”, and “Subterranean Anthropophagy”. Nate’s Favorite is “WHORETOPOTTY”. Brad’s is “Subterranean Anthropophagy”.
Most of the lyrics for the full-length were written by Brad Cole, with the rest of the members helping out for various songs. “Perversion of the Eschaton”’s lyrics were written solely by Tim Powell. Samples come from movies such as Mandy, FrankenHooker, and Human Centipede...
- Tim

Undersave - Merged in Abstract Perdition

Oct 10th // Portugal // DM/Disso // Transcending Obscurity

Merged in Abstract Perdition is our third full length and can be seen as a natural evolution/regression of our previous works. For those who don’t know us from the past, you can expect death metal with dissonance, anxiety, structures and riffs that won’t be pleasant on first listenings.
Just look at the cover and let the music play!
- Undersave

Vile Apparition - Malignity

Oct 10th // Australia // BDM // Dark Descent/Me Saco un Ojo

Malignity was easily the hardest record I’ve ever been a part of making and it quickly led to us referring to something we affectionately dubbed “The VA Curse”.
From studios malfunctioning in mysterious ways and derailing recording sessions, Salmonella poisoning striking midway through making the album, a near housing eviction scenario, and a lineup change mid production, Malignity was an uphill battle for most of its production.
Needless to say, the battle is over and we are happy to finally have it out in the world and moving onto album 3!
- Jamie / VA

Vulnificus - Inclination

Oct 10th // USA // BDM // Comatose

After four years and three EPs, it is finally time for the full-length debut album from VULNIFICUS to be unleashed and for the true extent of their power and pestilential sickness to be revealed - and Inclination is a trip to the outer limits of brutal death metal’s most disturbed and distorted regions. Battering, bludgeoning, violent, claustrophobic, disturbing and dramatically different, Inclination is a work of supreme heaviness that stands apart from the pack.
Inclination tells a story of a medical provider who infiltrates the system through medical malpractice and imposes his will on other doctors and nurses through blackmail to keep them silent. He over-medicates patients to become addicted to opioids himself and then receives the penalty of death once convicted in court. Each song goes through each of these stages individually and from different perspectives.
- Vulnificus

Evoken - Mendacium

Oct 17th // USA // Funeral/Death Doom // Profound Lore

Having built an awe-inspiring legacy for more than a quarter century, Evoken are a household name synonymous with soul-pulverizing funeral death doom. There’s not a single misstep in their discography, which is incredibly rare for a band going at it this long, and they clearly had zero intention of ending that eerily consistent streak on album number seven.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Depurated - Demo

Oct 24th // USA/Poland // BDM // Self

Across the two tracks/five and a half minutes of material offered up by brutal death metal act Depurated on their first demo you get pretty much what you expect from that description. This genre has seen quite the uptick in popularity the last couple of years and this certainly has the sauce needed to satisfy any cravings one might hold. However, whilst this certainly doesn’t do anything particularly revolutionary, there is a technical edge to both of these compositions that you don’t particularly see from newer bands. Ones to watch for the future.

- Tom Read (gatekeep!)

Distaste - Agoniepositur

Oct 24th // Austria // Deathgrind // FDA

Our new album Agoniepositur came very naturally; we didn’t even plan on releasing a follow up to Der Ertraeger und das Fleisch in SUCH a swift manner, but we just kept on popping out song after song til we had an album’s worth of material. I can only guess that’s because we kinda found our niche since Deibel and are since then working on perfecting it. Knowing more and more what we are after while still keeping it interesting for ourselves.
- Lukas

Sunken - Lykke

Oct 24th // Denmark // Atmo-Black // Eisenwald

Thinking about the album now, two months after Lykke was released, after playing 3 release shows and then 27 shows in 10 countries on our release tour, and after reading all the reviews.. It feels strange. Different. Like I’ve said in interviews, since our music is so personal and emotional, we (or at least I) don’t fully understand it ourselves until it’s been processed by other people. The songs are much more meaningful now that they belong to the people as much as they belong to us. The overall theme and the cathartic power of the album is more apparent now that we’ve experienced the music through the minds, thoughts and words of others. And that is something I will always cherish.
It’s been 5 years since our second album dropped, but we wrote this album in 6 months. Everything just clicked. We got to work with more incredible artists, collaborate with new faces in the business, and prove that we have more to offer. Working with this album has really been a time of happiness for us.
- Martin Skyum Thomasen

Torture Hammer - Torture Hammer

Oct 24th // USA // BDM // Creator Destructor

This year saw a huge resurgence of hardcore-informed DM spanning basically all subgenres. I settled on Torture Hammer as my favorite among the candidates, simply on the basis that it was the most fun. Clocking in at a total runtime of barely 14 minutes, the EP offers all the pinch harmonics you could possibly ask for, beatdown parts with a certain melodic edge, and a seriously moist production.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Sallow Moth - Arcane Benthic Umbilicus

Oct 30th // USA // Tech/BDM // Self

Most of this material was conceived in April (2025) as it’s essentially demo material for the next full length, which will be titled Hydrophilous Brood. In March I had just wrapped up Mossbane Lantern and submitted everything to I, Voidhanger for release preparation, but I still felt compelled to write new material for the follow-up. I got pretty attached to the idea of ramping up technicality just a bit more, but coupled with the direction to lean more into the brutal death metal side here. It’s a strong sign of what this next full length will sound like. Intentionally not as ambitious with genre-blending as Mossbane Lantern, but it is certainly a continuation of it. I tend to zigzag with my releases and projects. Lot of my influences are condensed here to stuff like Deeds of Flesh, Mortal Decay, Wormed, and early Cryptopsy, with a little bit of the Atheist and Cynic flavor still floating around.
- Garry Brents

Abysmal Descent - Dismal Thoughts

Oct 31st // Belgium // OSDM // Nuclear Winter

An album emerging from the depths. The recording process was precise and well managed. The band is made up of easygoing people—no egos, just efficient, experienced musicians.
- Rafael

100% Brussels-bred death metal. Like a solitary walk through Brussels after midnight, the album unfolds as a dense inner monologue shaped by concrete streets, damp air, and unshakable thoughts that linger long after the sound fades.
- Laye

Inspired by the masters of 1990s death metal, with a modern twist that makes it truly distinctive. An otherworldly atmosphere, unfolding in a swampy forest where vines coil around your arms and steal your breath—like a mute, suffering soul trying to scream in terror.
- Adrien

Rafael recommends: Cult Burial - Collapse of Pattern, Reverence of Dust
Laye recommends: Sanguisugabogg - Hideous Aftermath
Adrien recommends: Solfatare - Asservis par l’espoir

Barren Path - Grieving

Oct 31st // International // Tech Grind // Willowtip

A smidge under 15 minutes isn’t an awful lot of time in which to have a lasting impact, but when you’re a techgrind supergroup it’s more than enough to pummel your weak and easily bruisable face in. Basically consisting of ex-Gridlink members with new vocalist Mitchell Luna, the result here is altogether what you’d expect from that premise and then some, trading the former band’s mathier tendencies for more of a punishing death metal influence and working it oh so well. Perfect for those short hangover-tainted commutes where you dream about going postal on your stupid fucking coworkers.

- Tom Read (gatekeep!)

Binah - Ónkos

Oct 31st // UK // DM/Tech/Prog/Death Doom // Osmose

Ónkos was not conceived as a reaction to momentum or expectation. Aort had pre-produced most of the music by early 2022, yet the album remained unfinished for a long time—not for creative reasons, but because life intervened in ways that made articulation difficult. During that period, illness and death became an inescapable presence, with my father’s long struggle with cancer and his passing, followed closely by further losses within my family and circle. Surrounded by mortality, I found myself unable to write at all, despite the material being ready and, in my opinion, highly potent. Eventually, it became clear that the only way forward was total honesty—or abandonment.
The album takes its title from the broader Greek meaning of “ónkos,” encompassing burden, mass, and weight. Grief, in that sense, became not just personal confession but a universal condition. Once I accepted this, the blockage vanished, lyrics were finished in a week, and vocals recorded in a single session.
Ónkos is divided into two movements. “Mount Morphine” follows the experience of cancer from within—diagnosis, treatment, deterioration, death—while “The After Evermath” inhabits the unstable mental terrain of the survivor. Rather than a linear arc, the second piece is deliberately erratic, through-composed and disorienting, mirroring the way grief actually unfolds.
Although the music predates the lyrics, the alignment between both proved almost uncanny. Riffs, textures, and ambient sections were treated as narrative devices, not atmosphere. The electronics, choirs, field recordings, and samples—many of them deeply personal—are integral to the album’s emotional logic. Every sound is intentional.
Ónkos exists because it had to—nothing more, nothing less. We hope it provides enjoyment, perhaps even comfort where it needs to.
- I.R.G. / Binah

I.R.G.’s most played 2025 releases:
Coroner - Dissonance Theory
John Maus - Later Than You Think
The Tubs - Cotton Crown
Voices From the Lake - II
Necromaniac - Sciomancy, Malediction & Rites Abominable
Steröid - Chainmail Commandos
Hateful Abandon - Threat
Pagan Altar - Never Quite Dead
Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film
Corpsing - Viewing the Invisible
ASC - Echoes in Space Pt. II
Molly Nilsson - Amateur

Heteropsy - Embalming

Oct 31st // Japan // Death Doom // Caligari

If you’ve been shunning death doom for its formulaicity and resulting homogeneity, put on Embalming and see if the combination of testudinal-paced buzzsaw underpinnings and bursts of chipper melo-Swedeath can change your mind. The proposition may sound peculiar on paper, and, to be fair, it’s more of a superficial simplification of what’s actually happening throughout the record for the sake of keeping it brief, but the blend feels wholly organic and makes this one of the genre’s more characterful offerings in recent memory.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Lugubrious Garment - Demo MMXXV

Oct 31st // Italy // DM // Nuclear Winter

Apparently, 2025 seemed to be a very stagnant year for me. My last album released with my main project Cosmic Putrefaction out in early October 2024 completely drained me, leaving me in total creative burnout for several months. Around April, however, a little spark:
Why not try to strip away some of the frills and try to get back to the essence a bit?
So here’s the idea: to channel my creative efforts into a more primordial, direct moniker, which I then called Lugubrious Garment.
Initially, I intended to draw inspiration mainly from bands like Black Curse and Teitanblood, but then the project took a slightly different turn, incorporating different influences, while still remaining more primitive than my other projects.
Above all, I also felt less pressure working on it than usual.
Anyway, in October, I had another creative peak, and right now I’m finishing the debut album, which will expand the range of influences even further in directions I had not explored much before with any other outputs, including black/thrash and heavy metal veins.
I intend to make this incarnation something important to me and develop it with care; it won’t be a side project just to waste some time.
Thanks for having me on your list.
Further news will come soon!
- GG

Primitive Man - Observance

Oct 31st // USA // Sludge/Doom // Relapse

Primitive Man do one thing: write crushing sludge metal. Observance does almost nothing to alter this formula, adding yet another dalliance with death and destruction to a discography you’ve probably already decided your feelings on. If Primitive Man are your sort of band, Observance will surely be your sort of album.

- Zach Lucia (gatekeep!)

Yellow Eyes - Confusion Gate

Oct 31st // USA // Atmo-Black // Gilead

We write music chaotically, based almost entirely on impulse. We usually don’t enter the writing stage with prescriptions or checkboxes. But with Confusion Gate, there were a few things we knew early on. We wanted it to be sad, medieval, and psychedelic, with simple melodies and repetition. We knew it had to be long, almost too long, to feel like a proper journey. We knew there had to be plenty of space for the ear to rest. Most of all, we wanted this album to feel complete—this time, instead of just seeing the mountain, we wanted to actually climb it and be forced to reckon with what was at the top.
- Sam

Honorable mentions

Dispossessed - Dêmocide
Perishing - Malicious Acropolis Unveiled
Thaumaturgy - Pestilential Hymns
Conjurer - Unself
Deterioration - Prepare for the Worst
Devastrosity - Eviscerating Desolation
Venus Torment - Coldness of Absence

NOVEMBER

Bloodtied - Dismantling Neuroanatomy

Nov 7th // USA // BDM/Tech // New Standard Elite

One could easily be fooled into thinking that Dismantling Neuroanatomy was the result of Bloodtied shaping and maturing their sonic assault for many years, when in reality it’s their first LP. There was no shortage of [insert hyperbolic metal journo lingo here] BDM releases in 2025, but this one stood out as a particularly varied, riff-heavy brutech specimen.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Kostnatění - Přílišnost (Excess)

Nov 7th // USA // Disso/Avant BM // Willowtip

After our first two albums, which were both a series of intricate and interconnected songs with multiple movements, we saw the signs of Kostnatění falling into a comfortable pattern that we felt obligated to break. Přílišnost (Excess) is our rebuttal: self-contained, violently straightforward pieces that put an entirely different spin on the band’s signature sound. Drawing from primary songwriter D.L.’s musical interests in his early teens, we set out to build an album that shamelessly blurs the line between the underground and the mainstream. Thematically, the songs reflect the constant pressure for us to excel above all others in society, to our undoing.
We aimed to create something unique enough to force a response, and to be honest, the public reaction to the more hair-raising moments on the album (like the opening track) has surprised even us. Post-release, we feel confident in our assessment that no metal album has ever sounded like this one does - mission accomplished.
Two recommendations for readers: I don’t listen to much new music, but Haragma II by Exterior Palnet (sic) was my favorite album released in 2025, and I’d highly recommend it to anybody who enjoys Kostnatění. Expanding the criteria to any music I discovered in 2025, the overall highlight has been Bocanada (1999) by Gustavo Cerati.
- D.L.

Qrixkuor - The Womb of the World

Nov 7th // UK // DM/BM // Invictus/Dark Descent

My humble wish is that The Womb of the World leaves the listener as exhausted, ecstatic, aghast and genuinely affected as I myself was in my formative years when first listening to Slayer or Mayhem, or when seeing Morbid Angel for the first time as a teen. That is the air of horrified wonder to the point of speechlessness - of feeling that you had seen something of the beyond than could never be unseen - that appears all too occasionally these days, and that we hope to encapsulate within QRIXKUOR. It was overwhelming and genuinely affecting - the polar opposite of much of the drastically over-saturated metal and wider music landscape that cannot ever act as anything more than background noise. I don’t mind at all if you want to put Stained Class on the turntable after The Womb of the World – in fact, I’d encourage it - but I’d hope that one would at least require a period of quiet contemplation first.
- S

Ch’ahom - Covered in the Priests Black Shit

Nov 9th // Germany // War Metal // Self

If you’re coming to this from the visionary Knots of Abhorrence, you’re in for a cold shower: long gone are the excursions into proggy spheres, the breathing pauses abandoned. It’s hard to justify calling this a pivot considering Ch'ahom have been using their short-form releases to focus on their sound’s misanthropic facets for a good while, but surely this is them at their most destructive yet.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Strigiform - Aconite

Nov 14th // Italy // DM/Disso BM // I, Voidhanger

Aconite is our first, greatly suffered, effort and it was composed thoroughly with uttermost attention to every single aspect. It took us around five years to shape every detail, slowly building it, those which comprise our interpretation of extreme metal in the most personal way.
The album allowed us both musically - by trying to push some boundaries - and conceptually to give shape to our own surreal and traumatic experiences.
There are some sections we’d like to highlight:
Saprovore would like to mention the one featured in Prismatic Delirium after the atmospheric break, where two tempos collide to create ambiguity and controlled chaos.
As for Morte Rossa, the second half of Scorched and Hostile is very dear to him, it is a slow and long cinematic-esque urban soundscape painting the background for the many nights he spent roaming the streets, reminding years long gone and a very different version of himself.
Lastly, Aiakos feels a special connection with the long build-up in Hypnagogic Allure and how all the instruments are in a continuous dialogue, setting up the scene for the monolithic intensity of the second half of the song.
- Strigiform

VoidCeremony - Abditum

Nov 14th // USA // Tech/Prog DM // 20 Buck Spin

Voidceremony have been around the block a few times by this point and Abditum is another choice cut of unrelenting tech-y frenzy. Balancing intricate riff-weaving and tantalisingly brutal chugga-chugga, the record takes their established proggy sound and further expands it with even more kinetic helter-skeltering — and that’s all any of us wanted.

- Ben (gatekeep!)

Warp Chamber / Benothing - Warp Chamber / Benothing

Nov 14th // USA/Finland // OSDM // Carbonized

This version of “Warp III” was initially recorded in August ‘24 alongside four other tracks intended for our second LP in a barn in rural Western Washington, but the guitars and vocals ended up being re-recorded at a later date. It is the last recording to feature our original lead guitar player. This song previews a stylistic shift in our music that is explored in more detail in the upcoming LP.
- Warp Chamber

The first notes of “Deathways” came alive right after the release of the “Temporal Bliss Surrealms” EP, but were left waiting for a bigger picture. The band was about to fall apart because of a lack of motivation, new ideas, and logistical difficulties.
Luckily, Warp Chamber asked about our interest in a split release, so we agreed to record the song in 2023. The writing and arranging process was a little different from the previous release, as the format was set to a 7-inch vinyl. This meant that we had to keep the length appropriate and not go too far with atmospheric parts. It taught us that restricting the composition in the right places can actually support the creative process.
The release schedule was pushed back a few times, so we didn’t rush to finalize the song. When V.V. got back to working on the mix after the hiatus, it was clear that this group still had something worth working on.
Getting the release out and being satisfied with the result gave the spark to move forward with new ideas.
After “Deathways”, Benothing is ready to tear away the drape of old-school death metal and go wherever the path leads musically.
- Benothing

Februus - The Crushing Pressure of Oppressive Thought

Nov 16th // Sweden // Tech/Prog DM // Self

“music should evolve rather than follow a straight path right to the end”.
The EP was created in the beginning more or less as a teaser for the upcoming album but grew apart from this pretty quickly. I wanted to explore something else and fuse death metal with an even more progressive narrative. This isn’t really something new in Death Metal but I think the style is still ever evolving and new things pop up all the time. The recording process was a brief one, I think it was a couple of days of writing the songs from the beginning and then recording them. Most of the time was consumed by playing them to get a feel for the flow. The ideas came in lighting speed.
- Andreas

Andreas recommends: Vulvectomy - Aberrant Vaginal Gestation

Sepulcrum / Blood Oath / Nigromancia / Phantom - Evoking the Abominations

Nov 21st // Chile // OSDM // Chaos

This all-Chilean split unites four younger names off the country’s venerable list of DM torchbearers, and broadly speaking, you’re confronted with exactly the kind of (very good) music you’d expect from taking a brief glance at the cover. The diversity in the shades of ‘old-school’, emphasized by the clever track sequencing, however, makes this a treasure trove for anyone on the lookout for up-and-comers to watch.

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Sulfuric Cautery - Consummate Extirpation

Nov 26th // USA // BDM/Goregrind // Blast Addict

This is the fourth SxCx full length album and the most brutal, dense, and conceptual record we’ve ever made. In CxEx we indulge in our love and appreciation for the most relentless of brutal death metal to push the SxCx sound even more over the top while still maintaining our hypergoregrind foundation. This album harkens back to the early 2000s when goregrind and BDM were more incestuous with the goal of violating and masticating every listener, while fixating on the apocalyptic techno feudalistic hellscape we draw closer to everyday.
- Sulfuric Cautery

Omegavortex - Diabolic Messiah of the New World Order

Nov 27th // Germany // DM/BM // Third Eye Temple

A lunatic frenzy drives Diabolical Messiah of the New World Order, constantly fraying under its delirious instrumentation to provide Omegavortex with a legitimately unhinged identity. A musical flaying by broken strings of sanity.

- Zach Lucia (gatekeep!)

Dead and Dripping - Nefarious Scintillations

Nov 28th // USA // BDM/Tech/Prog // Transcending Obscurity

The making of Nefarious Scintillations was a bit of an ordeal. With some significant life changes happening amidst the recording process, it was fairly stressful and took quite some time to get everything together. I think this tension is noticeably reflected in the guitar performances, though overall I think it compliments the frantic energy of the record. This was also the first time in about ten years that I had tried my hand at illustrating an album cover, which was also a very slow and painstaking process. Creatively, Nefarious Scintillations represents the most realized iteration of this project, and is the sort of album I’ve always been trying to write.
As for a recommendation, I would like to give a shoutout to Anal Stabwound’s EP, Enshrining the Many-Fingered Grasp (released by New Standard Elite).
- Evan

Malefic Throne - The Conquering Darkness

Nov 28th // USA // DM // Agonia

Death Metal supergroup Malefic Throne’s debut masterfully blends the combined sounds of Angelcorpse, Morbid Angel, and Hate Eternal into the sort of album that is both standard and what the standard should be. Throughout The Conquering Darkness, frenetic riffing, turbulent drumming, and Steve Tucker’s signature bark batter the living hell out of you, just how any metalhead would have it.

- Zach Lucia (gatekeep!)

Phobocosm - Gateway

Nov 28th // Canada // Death Doom/DM // Dark Descent

Phobocosm’s latest album, Gateway, is a hearty serving of meat’n’potatoes Death Doom. Simple, effective, and heavy as fuck.

- Zach Lucia (gatekeep!)

Summoning Hellgates - Spear of Conquest

Nov 28th // Spain // DM/BM // Osmose

Spear of Conquest didn’t come out of a few weeks of inspiration or efficient work, it was forged slowly over three years, with plenty of long pauses and frustrations in between. A. García and I have very different musical backgrounds, and we had never worked together before. Our approaches and opinions often clashed over riffs, arrangements, drums, artwork, the logo, lyrics, vocals, the mix... everything. At times it was exhausting trying to agree on how to finish a five-track EP, and honestly, we even hated each other a little. But deep down, we knew this was something special for both of us, and after a few weeks, we’d always get back to it.
The result is a release that feels deeply reflected upon, every step was debated, challenged, and shaped until it was worth keeping. In the end, this became one of the works I’m most satisfied with. It has the rawness and innocence of a debut, where you can still trace where many riffs come from, but it also has soul, great riffs and drums, and a brutal cover and logo. There are many things I “would’ve done differently” if I’d done this alone, but that’s exactly what I love about Summoning Hellgates: A. García pushes me to do things I wouldn’t normally do, and I know he feels the same working with me.
There are also some fun stories behind the recording. We initially considered a couple of vocalists, but nothing clicked. In the end, A. García recorded the vocals himself even though he had never done it before. Packed with a few beers and zero vocal technique, we just hit record and let him destroy his throat until the pain said stop. It sounds anguished and visceral, which is exactly what we needed. No pro technique, just real screaming.
The drums were recorded by session legend Robin Stone. Back in 2022, when we only had basic demos with programmed drums, he ran a contest online where he was going to record a few free tracks for the band he liked the most. I jumped out of bed, sent in our stuff, and he picked us almost immediately. We later made a deal so he could record all five tracks. His performance elevated the whole thing.
- S. Augusto

The Ominous Circle - Cloven Tongues of Fire

Nov 28th // Portugal // DM/Death Doom // Osmose

Expertly managing the balancing act between atmosphere and aggression, Cloven Tongues of Fire is an evolution of The Ominous Circle’s craft as logical as it is formidable. This sublime cross of doomy caverncore and slightly dissonant overtones was one of the passing year’s late culminating points – one you mustn’t miss out on!

- Nex (gatekeep!)

Honorable mentions

Veilburner - Longing for Triumph, Reeking of Tragedy
Terror Corpse - Ash Eclipses Flesh

DECEMBER

Unborn Salivate - Genitalien

Dec 5th // USA // BDM // Self/P2

Brutal Death Metal is a genre for those sorts of sick people who need the highest echelons of extremity to feel anything at all – a quality Genitalien provides with spades. The coherency of Genitalien, along with its teemless brutality, perfectly fulfills every grindy urge I’ve ever felt.

- Zach Lucia (gatekeep!)

Fleshvessel - Obstinacy: Sisyphean Dreams Unfolded

Dec 12th // USA // Avant/Prog DM // I, Voidhanger

Hello, and firstly, thanks so much for including Fleshvessel on your 2025 year end list. It means a lot that our little Avant prog record has turned so many heads. I think our second album, Obstinacy: Sisyphean Dreams Unfolded, for us as a band was a way to prove that we’re not just a one trick pony, and that our first record was not just an anomaly that happened by chance. That this wonderful and weird music we’re creating is a true vision for our art.
The writing process for this album was our most collaborative yet, with Sakda and I arranging the majority of the music together with a good amount of involvement from Troll, who also wrote nearly all the lyrics for the album. Of course, everyone pretty much writes all their own parts as well. When we were writing for Obstinacy… I was thinking “how can we follow our first record in a coherent way? How can we further evolve this music that is already so far out there?” It was a challenge, which I think we rose to meet. The album is somehow more experimental, and more weird, but at the same time heavier, more extreme, and more focused than our previous works.
The title for the record is not only an allegory for the stubbornness of mankind, but is pretty telling of our musical philosophy and modus operandi at this point. Keep going. Keep pushing. Don’t let people tell you “you can’t do that” when it comes to your art. Another musical project I highly recommend in this vein, is Hypomanic Daydream. I think Marie’s music reaches those same heights that we are reaching for in the bizarre and whimsical.
Thanks so much again for listening.
Obstinacy: Sisyphean Dreams Unfolded is out now on I, Voidhanger Records.
- Alex

Martröð - Draumsýnir eldsins

Dec 12th // International // Disso BM // Debemur Morti

The writing process for this record was grueling. Although the album notes list “Music Written and Recorded 2022–2025,” that timeframe applies only to the final incarnation. In truth, we began writing versions of this album as early as 2016. Several complete iterations were composed over the years, and each ultimately failed to meet our standards or capture what we were trying to achieve. At multiple points, I was prepared to abandon the project entirely. By 2022, however, something clicked for us. We finally identified a clear direction, and once that path revealed itself, everything fell into place. That breakthrough became the foundation for Draumsýnir eldsins.
- Alex Poole

Draumsýnir Eldsins translates to “Dream-visions of the fire” and is framed through the medieval tradition of the dream vision, where hidden truths are revealed to the dreamer, often against their will. In this case, the source of revelation is inverted: the eternal is not the one speaking, but the one dreaming, and what we experience as reality becomes the dream itself.
The album moves through the formation of something aberrant, born from a shared, collective unconscious. Across four movements, it traces the emergence, persistence, and eventual awakening from this vision. Meaning is not delivered directly but uncovered through immersion. I would urge the listener to approach the work through its text and imagery, and allow the remaining layers to disclose themselves in time.
- HV

Tempest - Obscure Hallucinations

Dec 12th // Mexico // DM/BM/Thrash // Chaos

Some releases don’t need much commentary. Obscure Hallucinations somehow belies this conclusion by packing in more riffs in fifteen minutes than should be humanly possible, creating a simple, three-track EP to spin into the dirt.

- Zach Lucia (gatekeep!)

Burning Palace - Dark Matter

Dec 18th // USA // Tech/Disso DM // Self

Short and sweet, Burning Palace’s little EP Dark Matter emphasizes every quality one could ask for from tech/disso-death, masterfully combining jaw-tensing brutality with fret-board-exploring riffs into a sub-thirty-minute riffstravaganza.

- Zach Lucia (gatekeep!)

Honorable mentions

Hermit Dreams - Desperate Anomies
Lychgate - Precipice

A weak year for metal, eh? Q.E.D.

None of this would have been possible without the artists, who, besides creating the art in the first place, were generous enough to grant us their ears and time.

My heartfelt thanks to the musicians, as well as Zach, Ben, Tom, Jesper, and Hugh.

Special thanks to the guys in Defeated Sanity, Brendan Sloan, Sam from Artificial Brain, Horrendous (so sorry!), Tom H., Norm, A.J., V.S., Ryan M., and the GK! crew for gifting me a year full of surprises, and to anyone who cared to click on my posts.

Here’s to a prosperous 2026!

Nex out.

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