Best of 2025

I spent this entire year telling my buddy not to lose hope in music this year, that the next big release was right around the corner. Surely with all the darkness in the world right now metal bands wouldn't be able to help themselves from making the next big genre defining record that turns the absurdity we're witnessing into a transcendent work of clarity, a feat only really great metal can pull off. 

But, the months wore on, and on, and there wasn't much of anything. I'd check the usual blogs, the reviews, the continuous feeds of new music and nothing. I should be clear, there were so many releases this year, many from very well known bands, bands with pedigrees of talent, but everything felt disengaged, safe, going through the motions. Good music isn't something that just shows up and lurks in the corner of the room, it's the 600lb gorilla that won't leave the room until he says he wants to. It's a spectacle, a new way to see existence, one that imparts wisdom and maturity through intensity, and often destruction that winds up cleansing our soul of the buildup of angst.

I don't want to spend my entire preamble belly aching, I still made a list this year. A lot of handwringing was done, a lot of sifting through the mid, a lot of last ditch efforts to find the buried veins of gold everyone else missed.

I remember a year like this not so long ago, a drought. I claimed the world was holding its breath, planning strategies of attack, laying in wait. This year doesn't feel like that. This year feels like people are wounded, treading sewage, trying to stay afloat, just trying to survive. Trump, Epstein, fear of the future of AI, transparent corruption, back room deals that are now proudly spoken of in the front rooms. These things, save AI, were always there, but it's now all in the forefront, unburdened by the necessity of secretism. In a way this is an improvement, it's all laid bare. We now know all of the world's leaders, taste makers, tech moguls are fucking predators, grifters, and opportunists. There is no one at the top fighting the good fight, no one is speaking up for the little guy, no one is planning for a future beyond their own self-interest.

This was a bad year in so many ways. The wind was knocked out of us. We need to catch our breath, tend our wounds, and prepare for war. Mind you, I'm a pacifist, so when I say war I mean, words, and riffs, and passion. It's coming. I believe in 2026, or rather I'll pretend I do and keep lying to my buddy.