Best Music of 2025

2025 was a year where I continued to "retirement" trend of listening to more music, but buying fewer albums. Almost everything I bought this year ended up on this list, either in a numbered spot or in the honorable mentions. I continued to solicit listening suggestions on Mastodon to make sure I don't miss anything.

As always, being relegated to the honorable mentions list does not mean the album wasn't great; it just didn't have that little extra bit that pushed the few albums over the top of wanting to be called out with my thoughts. Everything on both lists is definitely worth listening to, especially if your tastes lean the same way as mine: progressive and heavy.

Listen and enjoy!

Top 7 albums of the year

#7: The Overview by Steven Wilson

Steven Wilson has been featured on these "top album" lists many times: as a solo artist, as the leader of Porcupine Tree, and with Israeli prog master Aviv Geffen. He seems to spend all his spare time remixing and remastering classic progressive rock albums from decades past, putting his fine ear to great effort for bands like Yes and Jethro Tull.

His solo albums tend to be the more personal of his career, and frequently they will create rifts in the community regarding his constant re-invention. His previous two albums ("The Harmony Codex" and "The Future Bites") couldn't be more different from one another, not to mention drifting often far afield of his "classic" progressive rock home base.

Although it took a few listens to appreciate it in its entirety, it does seem like "The Overview" is a homecoming. It doesn't displace "Hand. Cannot. Erase." as my favorite of his solo efforts, but it belongs in the same conversations. The album is presented two songs, clocking in at 23 minutes and 18 minutes respectively, intended to be listened to like sides of a classic vinyl album. He also offers a version where the songs are split into movements; picking just one of these movements for the sample song is challenging, because the music definitely deserves to be enjoyed in its long form.

#6: Tsunami Sea by Spiritbox

Spiritbox are a relatively new metalcore band, formed in Victoria, BC, Canada in late 2017. Like their contemporary Jinjer (who have an album in the honorable mentions this year), the highlight of Spiritbox is most definitely the lead vocalist. Courtney LaPlante is capable of extremely beautiful clean vocals, as well as the deep guttural growls common to metalcore. Like Tatiana from Jinjer, Courtney is impressively adept at these transitions, and she also puts up "one take vocal performance" videos of her singing along to Spiritbox songs on YouTube.

Spiritbox almost immediately released a seven song self-titled EP, and spend much of the intervening years writing and refining material for their first full length album "Eternal Blue", which was released in 2021. "Tsunami Sea" is only their second full length release, and it feels like the band has an outsized influence on the metal world by way of comparison. A lot of that is due to Courtney being an extremely personable and likable face to the band.

They've been nominated for 3 Grammy awards, including in 2026 for "Soft Spine" from "Tsunami Sea".

#5: Skeletá by Ghost

Ghost is a Swedish theatrical rock band that started life as a tongue-in-cheek satanic band, fronted by an anti-Pope style figure known as "Papa Emeritus". The band started initially anonymous, with the other musicians in the band known simply as "nameless ghouls". The first three albums were heavily grounded in a '70's inspired doom rock/metal style, and for each album, the previous singer would be "replaced" with a new Papa Emeritus, giving the singer and band mates an opportunity to rotate their visual style.

The third album "Meliora" was a bit of a break out for the band, with the song Cirice gathering a lot of attention for its darkly humorous video take on the song showing a version of the band being played by children, dressed in the Ghost makeup and outfits. Cirice ended up winning a Grammy in 2016, which really cemented their popularity.

Starting with their fourth album "Prequelle", the band shifted to a more '80's-inspired style that continues today. "Skeletá" is their sixth full length studio album, fronted by Papa V Perpetua. Even the music videos are presented in 4:3 aspect ratio as though they were recorded in the '80's. While there is as always a level of cheese that comes with being a band built on satire, they're also performing some absolutely fantastic pop-infused hard rock in a style that hasn't really been popular for decades. Although all the singles come from the front half of the album, I feel like it's the back half where everything really hits its grooves and keeps you coming back for more.

#4: Rivers of Nihil by Rivers of Nihil

Hailing from Pennsylvania, Rivers of Nihil are a melodic death metal band best known for 2018's "Where Owls Know My Name". The music video for that song is a psychedelic experience which mixes growled and harmonized clean vocals, a robust jazz-influenced groove, and even a saxophone solo. If you're a fan of bands like Baroness or Mastodon, you'll be right at home listening to Rivers.

At times, the band has rebelled against the idea of only being known as "the band with the saxophone", though I'm not sure really why they were reluctant to embrace the non-traditional instruments in their songs. Their self-titled album (their fifth full length) really brings back the non-traditional instrumentation, including the saxophone, and in my opinion uses it to even better effect than they did with Owls. In another year, this album could've easily slid up into my top spot.

#3: Dissonance Theory by Coroner

Coroner is a Swiss thrash metal band that was around during the heyday of thrash, releasing their first album in 1987, then four more albums across the late '80's and early '90's. The first album "R.I.P." is a rough listen: mediocre production quality and simplistic song writing make it somewhat forgettable. As they continue through the late '80's and early '90's, they not only improve the quality of the the production, but they start to mix in progressive elements. By the time they ship their fifth album "Grin" in 1993, they've really started to hone their craft.

Unfortunately, the lack of commercial success meant that Coroner would eventually break up in 1996.

The band decided to get back together in the early 2010's, and 2025's "Dissonance Theory" represents their first new album in 32 years. In my mind, this album is what you'd get if you wanted to blend Slayer and Voivod, with melodic and progressive hooks that a Tool fan would appreciate. I am normally a front-to-back album listener, and the songs here flow extremely well into one another. The final track, "Prolonging", is an auditory treat that as often as not makes me want to just loop back and start the album over again.

#2: Blue Nowhere by Between the Buried and Me

Between the Buried and Me are a legendary progressive metal band from North Carolina. Their first album was released in 2002, but it was really 2007's "Colors" that many fans would call their favorite from the band. It offered their now signature blend of melodic progressive metal and death metal/metalcore vocals. The 13 minute epic "Ants of the Sky" is a highly recommended sample of their genius.

Their latest album "Blue Nowhere" is their 11th full length studio offering, and it starts right off the jump with "Things We Tell Ourselves in the Dark", in a progressive rock style you'd be forgiven for misidentifying as something more akin to Spock's Beard than metalcore. For me, this really locked me in right away, and while some may consider this to be the "least heavy" album in their discography (and certainly more straightforward than "Colors"), it also shows their growth as songwriters and evolution as musicians. It's really quite and incredible package they've put together here, and now easily sits atop the list as my favorite album of theirs.

#1: Even in Arcadia by Sleep Token

Well, here we are again. Sleep Token released my favorite album of 2023 in "Take Me Back to Eden", and they have returned with their fourth studio album "Even in Arcadia".

The album still focuses on the common themes from the previous with relationships taking a front and center placement, especially in my hands-down favorite track "Gethsemane", where Vessel describes the breaking of a relationship with lyrics like "Thought I was waiting for you, when all along it was you with the countdown kill switch", presented in absolutely heartbreaking form. But Vessel's thoughts aren't just on his personal relationships here: he's mapped out how the fame from their last album (and people trying to unmask their anonymity) affected him in songs like "Damocles".

As always, there is some unnecessary "controversy" about whether Sleep Token are a metal band. I find their ability to meld together pop, rock, metal, jazz, R&B, and even hip hop elements makes them almost un-categorizable. For some, that will make it very difficult to appreciate the band; for me, it is a magical mix that apparently just won't miss. It wouldn't be surprising to me to discover that I'd already listened to this album 100 times this year, and much like Eden, it will continue to be in regular rotation for a long time to come.