This is the list.

 View the entire the playlist on Spotify!

1) Genune – Infinite Presence

Coming in at #1 this year is the top Graduation Day Metal™ album of 2025 from Romanian super seniors Genune! I graduated in from college in December personally, so there’s no better time to enjoy some wistful, longing black metal. With kvlt song titles as “Little Fountains”, “Stay a Little Longer”, and “I Want You Here”, you might be scared that you aren’t grim enough to listen to such an offering. But rest assured, the album will grow on you and you’ll be acing your finals in no time. I initially didn’t like this album as much as their previous one, but after repeated listens it became clear that Genune had refined their music composition and put a more concerted effort to make this this album flow together. One thing I like about this album is it has lots of good memorable moments, like the ending of The Sun Will Always Shine. The piano and ending riff really show their versatility. Also they have more clean vocals this time around which is a welcome change that mixes nicely with the graduation-y parts, without focusing on them more than they should like some bands *cough* Agalloch *cough*.

They also prove perfectly capable of dishing out the intensity with songs like “To Not Grow Old”, which, in case you didn’t figure it out, is a nice way of saying to DIE. Each song stands one its own but also sounds like it belongs to the album, which is a really great balance that a band can achieve and for me represents the epoch of songwriting. Genune currently sits at 224 monthly listeners on spotify with most of of the songs clocking in at just above 2k listens. And while I’m sure that this number will skyrocket upon the release of this publication, let it be known that I have the kvltest #1 album of 2025 amongst the nerds on this website, and probably the world. Finding releases like this is why I listen to metal, and more people need to be in on this ASAP!

2) Labyrinthus Stellarum – Rift in Reality

Coming in at #2 is Ukranian electro-black metallers from outer space, LS. What I like about this album is they really seemed to refine their style from an ambient Fear of Eternity style atmospheric black metal to a more intense and concise techno-ish black metal, which I think is unique and enjoyable. This is by far my favorite album of theirs so far and it gives me some Limbonic Art vibes that I don’t get much nowadays. Not necessarily on the epic side that LA is most known for but more their electronic elements. The production is also improved and you really feel the synth throughout the album.

3) Drudkh – Shadow Play

When I saw Drudkh was back and making albums after everything that was going on on in the Ukraine, I was extremely relieved, especially after hearing that their original drummer died earlier this year. There’s usually no news out of the Drudkh camp about anything so all we could do is wait for new music to drop. And drop it has, with Shadow Play, LP number TWELVE. Like most Drudkh albums, it sounds like a Drudkh album, which is kind of the point. I will say that the song listed with this review, the Thirst, is a particularly Drudkhy opus with a really brooding and atmospheric section around the 9 minute mark, proving that they still got it. I’m glad personally and I don’t want them to change. Listen if you like the black metal.

4) Crimson Shadows – Whispers of War

It’s not very often that I put some POWER METAL in my top 10 list, but sometimes an album stands out enough to make it. It’s probably telling that it’s a power metal album where half the vocals happen to be harsh, but there are a lot of other cheesy qualities that hammer home the proper glory and valor. This is Crimson War’s first LP in 11 years and looks like that time was well-spent in the song writing department because the songs are fairly complex along with the traditional cheese and solos. Anyway, if you like stuff like fellow Canadians Unleash the Archers etc give it a listen.

5) Saor – Amidst the Ruins

Now onto the folk metal portion of the top 10. Saor is a scottish folk metal band that’s heavy on the Celtic lore. I’ve enjoyed them but never got super into any of their previous albums, which is strange since the theme is right up my alley. However in this album, the song composition really shines and their use of folk instruments is integrated a little more naturally into the metal this time around, in my opinion. If you like bagpipes and flutes and stuff give it a listen. And That wraps up the top 5, for the rest of the bands I will give a brief overview of the albums cuz it’s not like I’m winning a journalism reward here.

6) Blackbraid – Blackbraid III

Blackbraid is cool Native American inspired folk metal and this is their 3rd offering. They have firmly established themselves as one of the top USBM bands out there. This album is pretty awesome, and more flutes!

7) One of Nine – Dawn of the Iron Shadow

We can’t (presumably) have Summoning anymore so instead we have One of Nine, which it turns out is pretty close! These guys worship Tolkein, and as we’ve seen many times throughout history that leads to good metal. If you like Summoning and/or dungeon synth, you should probably really enjoy this album.

8) Abduction – Existentialismus

Abduction is a dark, disturbing black metal project from the UK. No happy vibes here, be prepared to be launched into despair and confusion when you turn this bad boy on.

9) Aephanemer – Utopie

Aephanemer is a melodic death metal band from France and has a lot of fancy guitar work to go with the quirkiness that is so common in French metal. It’s also comprised heavily of fantasy-based themes and can almost sound like Bodom at times. I don’t like the vocals as much but it’s not enough to keep me away.

10) Nekrodeus – Rauß 

Nekrodeus is punishing black metal. Think of a weirder version of Marduk. They scream a lot.

And that’s it for 2025! There were a TON of albums released this year so it was hard going through them and honestly there was many I didn’t get to. I only have 2 ears after all, but I’m pretty sure this is the best. Now onto the 2026 mayhem \m/

Final country tally:

USA: 2

UK: 2

Ukraine: 2

Canada: 1

Romania: 1

Austria: 1

France: 1