Heavy phucking \m/etal, Radium Boulevard, Radium Hot Springs, BC (2026)

04/25/2026

ONLY HUMAN - Planned Obsolescence

Existential progressive metal. Released March 27, 2026.

01/03/2026

Top 25 Heavy Albums of 2025 curated by
The Real Mister Terrific's Rock 'n' Roll Smokehouse

Link to the full post is in the comments.

Here is our FIFTH annual year end wrap-up curated by The Real Mister Terrific. We listened to more than 180 new albums in 2025 and went through the painstaking process of ranking our top 25. Get ready to crush your skull with 25 of the best heavy albums from 2025! The list will include only full-length albums of new material - no live albums, compilations, EPs, or reissues.

Leave a comment and tell us what albums were your favorites in 2025!

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ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Band: PUPIL SLICER
Album: FLESHWORK
2 Favorite Tracks: Innocence / Cenote
Release Date: November 7, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

Why it's my AotY: These brutalitarians from London, England have been developing their atmosphere-dense brand of dissonant heaviness for almost a decade and absolutely nailed the formula on third album FLESHWORK. This is a pulverizing set of songs which ebb and flow together brilliantly. Every track stands out with numerous little earworms emerging from the swamp and crawling into your head. Vocalist / band leader KATE DAVIES keeps her growls and screams up front while her dissonant cleans often haunt the atmosphere to great effect. The title track and SACROSANCT veer into sludge territory as GORDIAN and BLACK SCRAWL keep the beatdown going. FLESHWORK is the best work from PUPIL SLICER to date, and no other album in 2025 captivated me so entirely. 9 songs, each of them essential.

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RUNNER-UP
Band: RIVERS OF NIHIL
Album: RIVERS OF NIHIL
2 Favorite Tracks: Water & Time / House of Light
Release Date: May 30, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

Founding vocalist JAKE DIEFFENBACH is out while ANDY THOMAS of BLACK CROWN INITIATE joins the permanent roster (he's been a touring member since 2022). RIVERS OF NIHIL return with their most cohesive album since WHERE OWLS KNOW MY NAME, and some of their best songwriting yet. We are treated to a healthy mix of long-form progressive death metal (THE SUB-ORBITAL BLUES, HOUSE OF LIGHT, WATER & TIME) and violent, aggressive bangers (EVIDENCE, AMERICAN DEATH).

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3
Band: ALIEN WEAPONRY
Album: TE RĀ
2 Favorite Tracks: Mau Moko / Tama-nui-te-rā
Release Date: March 28, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

This is the album I've been waiting for ALIEN WEAPONRY to make! The song arrangements are tighter, the hooks are catchier, and their blend of modern groove meets old-school thrash is perfected here. Plenty of gang vocals to shout along with, riffs that never let up, and a rhythm section perfectly locked-in. TANIWHA (featuring Randy Blythe) has an almost timeless sound to it with a song structure influenced by epic ‘80s thrash, guitar riffs of ’90s melodeath, and rhythm grooves of modern death metal. BLACKENED SKY and TE RIRI O TAWHIRIMATEA are augmented by some punk attitude and guitar heroics. With TE RĀ, ALIEN WEAPONRY have released the best album of their career so far.

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4
Band: ORBIT CULTURE
Album: DEATH ABOVE LIFE
2 Favorite Tracks: The Tales of War / The Storm
Release Date: October 3, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD [Japan Edition]

One of the most anticipated releases of 2025 and Sweden's modern melodeath darlings ORBIT CULTURE continue to scratch an itch that almost no one else can. Everything you love about their sound and songwriting style is well-represented on DEATH ABOVE LIFE as they continue to improve on production and arrangements. One of my favorite song progressions of the year is THE TALES OF WAR, HYDRA, and NERVE for 16 minutes of heavy metal perfection while BLOODHOUND is pure moshpit fodder. Oh, do yourself a favor and buy the Japan Edition CD, bonus track NUCLEAR GOD is worth the price of admission.

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5
Band: MOTHERLESS
Album: DO YOU FEEL SAFE?
2 Favorite Tracks: Reptile Dysfunction / Darling, You Don't Look Well
Release Date: September 12, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

Chicago sludge-dealers MOTHERLESS come out the gates full of p**s and vinegar with a suffocating, violent, raw debut album that bludgeons you with no frills no bu****it no mercy. The production is claustrophobic making the band's performance feel like an assault from all directions while the vocals rage and scream desperately from beneath the murk. You will find hooks throughout this aural beatdown but they are sharp and jagged, digging into your ears and ripping flesh on the way out. DO YOU FEEL SAFE? is a journey through despair, fury, violence, and aggression all pushed to the extreme. Fascinating stuff.

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6
Band: CABAL
Album: EVERYTHING ROTS
2 Favorite Tracks: Everything Rots / Still Cursed
Release Date: March 21, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD
EVERYTHING ROTS is my favorite deathcore / hardcore album of the year. Every track is a Certified Beatdown™ and I may or may not have blown a speaker in my truck courtesy of SNAKE TONGUES.

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7
Band: BLEED FROM WITHIN
Album: ZENITH
2 Favorite Tracks: In Place of Your Halo / A Hope in Hell
Release Date: April 4, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

Glasgow's BLEED FROM WITHIN continue their run of metalcore excellence and "drop the noose" with some of the heaviest tunes they've ever recorded.

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8
Band: ALLEGAEON
Album: THE OSSUARY LENS
2 Favorite Tracks: Carried by Delusion / Wake Circling Above
Release Date: April 4, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

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9
Band: DORMANT ORDEAL
Album: TOOTH AND NAIL
2 Favorite Tracks: Halo of Bones / Horse Eater
Release Date: April 18, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

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10
Band: MORAST
Album: FENTANYL
2 Favorite Tracks: Aratron / On Pyre
Release Date: February 7, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

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11
Band: WHITECHAPEL
Album: HYMNS IN DISSONANCE
2 Favorite Tracks: Prisoner 666 / Nothing is Coming for Any of Us
Release Date: March 7, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

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12
Band: COLD STEEL
Album: DISCIPLINE & PUNISH
2 Favorite Tracks: No Escape / Fever Dreaming
Release Date: November 7, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

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13
Band: AN ABSTRACT ILLUSION
Album: THE SLEEPING CITY
2 Favorite Tracks: Blackmurmur / Emmett
Release Date: October 17, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

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14
Band: -(16)-
Album: GUIDES FOR THE MISGUIDED
2 Favorite Tracks: Blood Atonement Blues / Kick Out the Chair
Release Date: February 7, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

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15
Band: LACUNA COIL
Album: SLEEPLESS EMPIRE
2 Favorite Tracks: The Siege / Oxygen
Release Date: February 14, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

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16
Band: CRYPTOSIS
Album: CELESTIAL DEATH
2 Favorite Tracks: Faceless Matter / In Between Realities
Release Date: March 7, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

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17
Band: GRIMA
Album: NIGHTSIDE
2 Favorite Tracks: Beyond the Dark Horizon / Where We Are Lost
Release Date: February 28, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

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18
Band: DEATH W***E
Album: BLOOD WASHES EVERYTHING AWAY
2 Favorite Tracks: Infernal Terror Machine / Motorthroat '79
Release Date: May 16, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

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19
Band: CRYPTOPSY
Album: AN INSATIABLE VIOLENCE
2 Favorite Tracks: Until There's Nothing Left / The Art of Emptiness
Release Date: June 20, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

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20
Band: IGORRR
Album: AMEN
2 Favorite Tracks: Infestis / Pure Disproportionate Black and White Nihilism
Release Date: September 19, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

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21
Band: ANGELMAKER
Album: THIS USED TO BE HEAVEN
2 Favorite Tracks: Silken Hands / This Used To Be Heaven
Release Date: November 20, 2025
Format Reviewed: Digital Album

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22
Band: BYZANTINE
Album: HARBINGERS
2 Favorite Tracks: A Place We Cannot Go / Floating Chrysanthema
Release Date: June 13, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

BYZANTINE provide some of the year's most exquisite guitar tones and melodies throughout HARBINGERS.

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23
Band: UPON A BURNING BODY
Album: BLOOD OF THE BULL
2 Favorite Tracks: Hand of God / Dragged Through Glass
Release Date: December 5, 2025
Format Reviewed: Digital Album

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24
Band: FROSTHYMN
Album: FROSTHYMN
2 Favorite Tracks: That's How the Circle Closes / Arangas
Release Date: March 27, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

Frigid black metal transplanted from Siberia to Canada, FROSTHYMN are here to crack spines and brutalize moshpits.

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25
Band: GUILTLESS
Album: TEETH TO SKY
2 Favorite Tracks: In Starless Reign / Teeth To Sky
Release Date: March 7, 2025
Format Reviewed: CD

Members of A STORM OF LIGHT, INTRONAUT, GENERATION OF VIPERS, and BATTLE OF MICE do what they do best - crush us all under the weight of oppressive, ugly, dense noise-sludge-doom with an apocalyptic atmosphere smothering the whole thing. On TEETH TO SKY, their debut full-length, GUILTLESS will remind you why you fell in love with sludge in the first place.

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What do you think of our selection for top 25 albums of 2025?

12/17/2025

Before we dig into our annual list of heavy albums, here are the top 50 heavy songs of 2025 curated by Tyler Terrific. Tell us in the comments below, what were your favorite songs of the year?

Full article at this link: https://robotlegion.net/hpm-blog/blog/7678161/2025-top-50-heavy-songs

50. BLINDFOLDED AND LED TO THE WOODS - COMPULSION

49. BURY TOMORROW - VILLAIN ARC

48. AS THE WORLD DIES - VOICES OF ANGELS

47. UPON A BURNING BODY - DRAGGED THROUGH GLASS

46. THE HALO EFFECT - WHAT WE BECOME

45. CRADLE OF FILTH - TO LIVE DELICIOUSLY

44. DESERTED FEAR - AT THE END OF OUR REIGN

43. RWAKE - YOU SWORE WE'D ALWAYS BE TOGETHER

42. K L P S (KOLLAPS/E) - AUREOLA

41. DESPISED ICON - OVER MY DEAD BODY

40. CRYPTOPSY - UNTIL THERE'S NOTHING LEFT

39. IGORRR - INFESTIS

38. WOLVENNEST - DECHARNE

37. DEATH W***E - INFERNAL TERROR MACHINE

36. DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT - MARTER

35. -(16)- - KICK OUT THE CHAIR

34. FALLUJAH - XENOTAPH

33. GRIMA - WHERE WE ARE LOST

32. DORMANT ORDEAL - HORSE EATER
Delicious and nutritious. The song, that is.

31. SPITE - LOOKING GLASS

30. ORBIT CULTURE - HYDRA

29. -(16)- - BLOOD ATONEMENT BLUES

28. CRYPTOSIS - ASCENDING

27. GAEREA - SUBMERGED

26. FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY - IT COMES FOR YOU

25. FACE YOURSELF - SIDERATION

24. FROSTHYMN - THAT'S HOW THE CIRCLE CLOSES

23. HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY - KEEP ME LONGING

22. LACUNA COIL - OXYGEN
Sounding meaner and more focused that they have in years, LACUNA COIL return with their best album since COMALIES. I love this band at their heaviest, and OXYGEN is right up there.

21. RIVERS OF NIHIL - HOUSE OF LIGHT
More progressive death metal excellence from a band that can do very little wrong. The addition of ANDY THOMAS' presence is felt as immensely as JAKE's departure, and the band continues to be greater than the sum of its parts.

20. MALEVOLENCE - TRENCHES

19. SIGNS OF THE SWARM - SARKAZEIN

18. AN ABSTRACT ILLUSION - EMMETT

17. ALIEN WEAPONRY - MAU MOKO
Gang vocals or G**O.

16. ANGELMAKER - THIS USED TO BE HEAVEN

15. AFI - BEHIND THE CLOCK
AFI go full retro and deliver one of the best goth club tracks this side of 1990 with BEHIND THE CLOCK.

14. POTHAMUS - ZHIKARTA
Wonderfully hypnotic.

13. PSYCHONAUT - ENDLESS CURRENTS

12. MORAST - ARATRON

11. PUPIL SLICER - INNOCENCE

10. MOTHERLESS - DARLING, YOU DON'T LOOK WELL
Absolutely S U F F O C A T I N G sludge from Chicago.

9. DORMANT ORDEAL - HALO OF BONES
Death metal from Kraków, Poland. You already know it's going to kick your ass.

8. CABAL - STILL CURSED (feat. ten56)
Guitars go chunka-chunka. Snare drum goes ponggggg. Vocals snarl and squee. P***k yeah this song goes hard. Sometimes the perfect song is the one that makes you thump your chest and smash through the pit. STILL CURSED is that song.

7. LORNA SHORE - GLENWOOD
Heavy in sound as much as subject matter. The emotion of WILL RAMOS' vocal performance on GLENWOOD takes an excellent song into greatness. Guitar heroics aplenty, matched with soaring melodies and dense atmosphere. Read the backstory and watch the full video… it's ok if you got something in your eye.

6. RIVERS OF NIHIL - WATER & TIME
The perfect mix of melody and brutality, atmosphere and aggression. Epic progressive death metal meets mature songcraft. “So if you see me drown, let me go… / Don't wanna drag you to the shallows…” RIVERS OF NIHIL continue to perfect a style that sounds like no one else.

5. ORBIT CULTURE - THE TALES OF WAR
One of the most anticipated album releases of the year, and THE TALES OF WAR is a standout track that serves up a little bit of everything you love about ORBIT CULTURE.

4. ALLEGAEON - WAKE CIRCLING ABOVE
Welcome back, Ezra Haynes! WAKE CIRCLING ABOVE has an incredibly memorable chorus, thoughtful lyrics, excellent song arrangement, and atmospheric guitar parts that combine into one of ALLEGAEON's very best songs. The breakdown halfway through is completely devastating which gives way to a stellar guitar solo and a double run-through of that amazing clean vocal line (in TWO different keys!) before ending in epic fashion. Chorus of the year “All I'd need again collapsed / Letting go, a fog without end / Pale and buried hands writing here forever / Vultures to see my end.” Try not to sing along. “No you can't Mr. Simpson. No one can.”

3. IGORRR - PURE DISPROPORTIONATE BLACK AND WHITE NIHILISM
I usually find songs by IGORRR a little too weird and obnoxious for my taste, however they really managed to scratch an itch or two with a few songs on 2025 album AMEN. First of all, nothing says “metal as phuck” like smashing a giant anvil with a sledgehammer to augment the snare drum. Once you hear it in the mix, you can't unhear it. And your ears will NEED it. Brilliant. IGORRR craft a superbly catchy song, eschewing much of the weirdness for weirdness' sake and blessing us with one of 2025's best tracks.

2. BLEED FROM WITHIN - IN PLACE OF YOUR HALO
Not since NEUROSIS in 1996 has a bagpipes solo been so crushingly heavy. IN PLACE OF YOUR HALO has it all: neck-snapping breakdowns, beefy riffs, hooks for days, and a delicious rock-out at the end with the aforementioned bagpipes. In a very impressive lineup of songs, IN PLACE OF YOUR HALO is the best one by BLEED FROM WITHIN so far.

1. Whitechapel - PRISONER 666
With a damn-near flawless mix, PRISONER 666 is definitely one of the best sounding songs of the year. Crank this in your headphones at the gym and instantly double your max lift; run 2 miles in 5 minutes; bench press the bench while the biggest dude in the room is using it. Be a man. My wife listened to it once and became impregnated with twins. I've been listening to it every day and my balls have increased 50% in size, 200% in weight. My future grandchildren will be born with full chest hair. God damned, this is modern metal at its very finest and PRISONER 666 is my 2025 song of the year.