[PLEASE NOTE: These are not the results of the year-end poll, which ends in January. If you haven’t contributed your picks yet, please do so here.]

—

Terrible year, good music. Not the first time that’s happened. Look anywhere in the world and there’s unrest to be found. I have started this paragraph three separate times now with some discussion of my country’s willful embrace of corporate, christian nationalist fascism, and each time have had to go back and restart, because by the time you’re done asking “what’s the point of anything?” you realize you don’t have an answer to that question. Better not to ask.

But in what has unquestionably been the dumbest 12 months I’ve lived through as regards the outside world has made a salve of human creativity, and as our techbro-warlord fiefdoms are laid out and generative AI is pushed in place of human artistry — the two could coexist, easily, just not in a world this stupid — making art whether it’s overtly political or not feels more like resistance against a cultural numbing out than it ever has in my 44 years.

We celebrate the human spirit, then, when we celebrate human creativity. The nonphysical part of ourselves and the connections we make across land, space and time through various forms of art and expression. I believe artificial intelligence can have a place in this world, I just wish I could convince it to empty the dishwasher.

Music holds us together. Or to be more honest, it holds me together. On these days where the horrors don’t seem to end, where cruelty and unkindness are held as virtues and care is seen as a weakness, where hateful rhetoric is held as common sense, where grown-ass men roll around in big-boy pickup trucks and wave silly flags like the spoiled five-year-olds they are mentally, where we kill each other for sport, being able to immerse, to put my head somewhere else, to get away from it for just a little while, has been a gift. It is difficult to believe there was ever an optimistic vision of the future in my country. In the face of rising isolationism and kleptocratic, anticonstitutional governmental improprieties, limitless corruption, endless drudging stupidity, I see no reason for one now beyond escapism.

So in these wretched times, love all you can love. Everyone and everything. Bathe yourself in it as much as you can. Hold onto what you can hold onto, because so much else is being ripped away. We live in fear and confusion and exhaustion, but clarity exists. I find it in art and in critical thinking. My hope for you is you find it however you are able.

Below is my list of the year’s best albums. It’s my list, and it has been put together using the same criteria I always use — personal taste and what I listened to most combined with what I think were important or otherwise notable outings — and as always, there were plenty of them. No, I didn’t hear everything, and I think if I ended this post now with “this was the year of Castle Rat,” that would also be a valid way to go, so whatever your opinions are of the year or the music that filled your life from one end of it to the other, please know that this is coming from my perspective, and that while I do my best to do as much as possible, I have neither time nor interest in covering all releases all the time.

Every year, I put this post up after working on it for a week or whatever and someone invariably goes, “meh what about WHOEVER list sux” and the entire endeavor feels like a waste. Never fails. It’s become part of the ritual. I ask you please keep comments civil and allow for the possibility of other perspectives and opinions. If we can’t do that as people sharing the same divergent subculture, then you and I are no better than the monsters outside the door. And we are better, I assure you.

Thanks for reading. Here we go.

—

The Top 60 Albums of 2025

**NOTE**: If you’re looking for something specific, try a text search.

—

60-31

60. Make Money From Home, Make Money From Home
59. Madmess, The Third Coming
58. Spawn, Light Rite
57. Lorquin’s Admiral, Lorquin’s Admiral
56. Pink Fuzz, Resolution
55. Bloodsports, Anything Can Be a Hammer
54. Serial Hawk, Psychic Pain
53. C.ROSS, Future Site of C.ROSS
52. Ikitan, Shaping the Chaos
51. Papir, IX

50. Kryptograf, Kryptonomicon
49. Bronco, Bronco
48. The Gray Goo, Cabin Fever Dreams
47. Crop, S.S.R.I.
46. Caboose, Left for Dust
45. Nuclear Dudes, Skeletal Blasphemy
44. Cavern Deep, Part III – The Bodiless
43. Rainbows Are Free, Silver and Gold
42. Moon Destroys, She Walks by Moonlight
41. Abanamat, Abominat

40. Margarita Witch Cult, Strung Out in Hell
39. Kungens Män, Resande i Rockmusik
38. Naxatras, V
37. Atom Juice, Atom Juice
36. Castle Rat, The Bestiary
35. Florist, Adrift
34. Earthbong, Bring Your Lungs
33. River Cult, High Anxiety
32. Messa, The Spin
31. Borracho, Ouroboros

Notes:

You might notice two of the year’s biggest releases here between 31 and 40 in Messa and Castle Rat. I’m not sure underground heavy anything has two more crucial bands happening right now. Castle Rat’s main impact and obvious priority is their live presentation, and Messa I’ve always been kind of here or there on. But looking at the year-end poll results thus far, those are names people would be missing, so I wanted to point them out specifically. There was no getting away from either in 2025.

So much to go through here. A few excellent debuts in Atom Juice, Make Money From Home, Caboose, Bronco, Bloodsports, Lorquin’s Admiral, Ikitan, Moon Destroys and so on, while strong returns from the likes of Nuclear Dudes, Papir, Serial Hawk, Rainbows Are Free, the always-welcome Borracho, Naxatras and others provided fodder for immersion across a swath of sounds and intentions of craft. Florist blindsided me, which I appreciated, and River Cult remain wholly undervalued in my mind. Kryptograf and Cavern Deep continue to grow, and Abanamat’s second record was encouragingly proggy. I found solace in Papir and Spawn, and raw physical catharsis in the thrashing heavy cybergrind of Nuclear Dudes. And of course, groove abounds.

I say the same thing every year, but if someone turned these names into the year-end poll as a top 30, I wouldn’t argue. Whether hyped or not, rocking out, navelgazing or exploring the unknown, there is so much here waiting for people to take it on. I hope you’ll see something in the above you haven’t heard yet, listen, and love it.

—

30. Black Moon Cult, Ophidian Future (The Children of Yig)

Released by Black Doomba Records. Reviewed Nov. 6.

More on this one below, but Black Moon Cult‘s awaited first album, Ophidian Future (The Children of Yig) was unquestionably a standout in the realm of heavy psychedelic rock, and set the Toledo, Ohio-based trio off on a course of exploration that could be shimmering and progressive or rife with terrestrial groove. And the vocals, not always, but sometimes, reminded me of Death if they were a stoner band crossed with Fu Manchu. Most of all, the vibe-heavy six-songer declared Black Moon Cult as one to watch going forward, and the heavy underground took note accordingly.

—

29. Daevar, Sub Rosa

Released by The Lasting Dose Records. Reviewed April 15.

Inarguable riffing met with grunge overtones, an overarching heavygaze melodicism and increasingly tight songwriting, yes, Sub Rosa is a step along the way in the narrative of Daevar‘s forward growth, but it sure felt like a landmark in that process. A bit of Type O Negative in “Siren Song” and a bit more explosiveness there and throughout underscored the murky doom for which the German outfit are known, and the key influences are still there, Windhand, Monolord, and so on, but Daevar have been shaping their sound over the course of their albums to arrive at such a payoff.

—

28. Kaiser, 2nd Sound

Released by Majestic Mountain Records. Reviewed Jan. 8.

Kaiser had acquitted themselves well on their 2022 Ripple-issued split with Sweden’s Captain Caravan (review here), so their second full-length arrived not quite as a surprise, but with some measure of anticipation behind it. That would turn out to be wholly justified by the eight-song offering from the Finnish heavy rockers, who aligned themselves with a classic Northern-European-style shove in pieces like “Meteorhead” with high concentrations of fuzz and blowouts to coincide. With pieces like “Oversized Load” and the upped heft of “A Clockwork Green,” this was a sleeper, but it’s the kind of record that creates loyalists and people will be recommending it to each other for years.

—

27. Crystal Spiders, Metanoia

Released by Ripple Music. Reviewed June 2.

Of course, Crystal Spiders have an established powerhouse voice out front in Brenna Leath, but Metanoia brought into focus just how much this is Leath‘s band as the lone remaining founder in a three-piece, with newcomers guitarist Reid Rogers and drummer Aaron Willis. Fair enough. Even in a two-thirds new incarnation, Crystal Spiders came through pretty slick on their third full-length, with a confident, classic-doom swing, songs that remain unafraid to reach onto more ethereal ground, and a flow of melody that’s made them immediately identifiable among the hordes. Asking more would be asking too much.

—

26. Slomatics, Atomicult

Released by Majestic Mountain Records. Reviewed Sept. 11.

The ongoing evolution of Northern Ireland’s Slomatics found the crush-prone trio expanding on their worldmaking atmospheres in unexpected ways, challenging what had become conventions in their sound over time while offering the guitar-only heft that’s become their calling card over the last two decades. While more cosmic in their float, they remained grounded in terms of songwriting, and were able to push themselves in ways they’ve never done before. It was enough to remind you why you like heavy music in the first place, and signature Slomatics while moving beyond their prior work, building as they always have on the past to carve out their own futuristic style and perspective. It was, in other words, a Slomatics record.

—

25. Dead Shrine, Cydonia Mensa

Released by Astral Projection and Kozmik Artifactz. Reviewed April 24.

As a fan of his various incarnations, I’m not sure it’d feel like a year if there wasn’t something new from Hamilton, New Zealand’s Craig Williamson. Whether it’s the more rocking solo-project Dead Shrine or the long-running acid folk outfit Lamp of the Universe or some other collaboration, etc., his craft is both distinctive and malleable, and the rumble in songs like “The Sacred Light” and the chuggy, hooky “Redeemer” is his all the way, even as it and the psychedelia that surrounds embarked on new ground for outward-facing tonal weight in Williamson‘s work, tying seemingly disparate sides together in ways that felt fresh, and most importantly, Williamson‘s own. I’ve been listening to Williamson for over 20 years and I have no idea where he’s headed. That’s part of the appeal. And fresh as it was, the take throughout Cydonia Mensa still carried a classic feel.

—

24. Electric Citizen, EC4

Released by Heavy Psych Sounds. Reviewed May 19.

Apart from the obvious consideration of plague, I’m not sure what was behind the seven-year space between 2018’s Helltown (review here) and their first outing for Heavy Psych Sounds and fourth album overall, EC4, but if they were taking their time, the songs bear that out. “Static Vision” hit perfectly as a catchy single, while the more ethereal “Moss” and the sweeping “Other Planets” took the Ohio band to new places in sound. They’ve always been about craft and performance, and those remain key aspects of what they do, but nuance in the production and an eye kept fixated on the outside-genre leant depth to the material, and Electric Citizen basked in it. The band remain somewhat undervalued in my mind; EC4 is another example of why.

—

23. Kal-El, Astral Voyager Vol. 1

Released by Majestic Mountain Records. Reviewed April 8.

There’s very little mystery to Kal-El. There doesn’t need to be. They have the songs and can come right at you with them. No need to sneak around or pull some tricks. Hit play. “Here’s a riff. It’s a hook. It’s in your head. Here’s the next one.” Repeat for further righteousness. And don’t go walking around thinking I mean straightforward as a code word for boring. That’s not what’s happening here. The point is that with no shortage of big sound, big reach, big riffs and melodies, Astral Voyager Vol. 1 put into emphasis just how satisfyingly direct Kal-El can be. And though it’s a story only half told with a Vol. 2 presumably due in 2026, grooves like “Dilithium” (of course I’m in for a Star Trek reference) and the nine-and-a-half-minute “Astral Voyager,” Kal-El‘s latest held purpose in its every turn and expanse, and, well, they’re the kind of band you can rely on not to start sucking now, so yes, the next one is a thing to look forward to.

—

22. Khan, That Fair and Warlike Form/Return to Dust

Released by Full Contact Safari. Reviewed Oct. 3.

Two sidelong epics from Melbourne, Australia, trio Khan, “That Fair and Warlike Form” (23:11) and “Return to Dust” (22:53), were about as vivid as progressive heavy psychedelia got in 2025. Each piece worked in stages and had its own ebbs and flows such that it’ll probably be a while yet before it’s all fully digested, but no question it was a step forward for Khan, whose 2023 LP, Creatures, had sent them to tour in Europe multiple times over. The same wheels are already turning for this album, and despite the longform material, Khan have continued to grow their audience. I don’t know where they go from here — single song album? step back to shorter forms? something in between? — but That Fair and Warlike Form/Return to Dust conveyed its intent in every moment of crush and every fluid twist or expansive dive, and without giving up their tonal impact, Khan found new paths into aural breadth.

—

21. Maha Sohona, A Dark Place

Released by Bone Bag Records. Reviewed Nov. 12.

For those who caught onto Maha Sohona‘s 2021 sophomore outing, Endless Searcher (review here), A Dark Place was something to anticipate as representing the next phase from a new voice in heavy psych rock. A Dark Place was as-advertised in being moodier than its predecessor, but all the more cohesive for that. With a meditative crux that came through regardless of a given part’s volume, the Swedish three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Johan Bernhardtson, bassist Thomas Hedlund and drummer Erik Andersson were able to both subvert and surpass expectations, revealing a richness to their process that went beyond the marriage of jams and heavier nod. Their best work may still be ahead of them, but pieces like “Ostera” and “Visions” confirmed their progression in craft and atmosphere.

—

20. Grayceon, Then the Darkness

Released by We Can Records and Translation Loss. Reviewed July 24.

From environmental devastation, violence against women, the sundry hypocrisies inherent in raising a family in our world and mysterious lights in the sky perhaps from beyond, one would not accuse Grayceon‘s sixth album, released on the occasion of the band’s 20th anniversary, of taking it easy. A vast and sometimes challenging listen wasn’t anything new from the San Francisco cello-inclusive heavy thrash doomers, but in the 20-minute “Mahsa” and the wistfully punishing “Song of the Snake,” blastbeaten but unbowed unless you’re counting the literal bow, cellist/vocalist Jackie Perez Gratz, guitarist Max Doyle and drummer Zack Farwell were unflinching in their extremity, and further refined the sound that is so, so much their own. Comfort and catharsis, searing and healing, Then the Darkness is distinctly Grayceon and that is all the more reason to treasure it.

—

19. Kombynat Robotron, AANK

Released through Fuzz Club Records. Reviewed July 9.

Marking their ascent to Fuzz Club Records with the release of their seventh album, Kiel, Germany, psych explorers Kombynat Robotron didn’t quite completely upend their prior methodology by embracing structured songwriting and the use of vocals for the first time, but it was close enough. The songs — there were eight of them, where Dec. 2024’s West Mata (review here) had three, for example — still held to a sense of approaching the outer reaches of heavy psych, the far end of some remote corner of our cornerless galaxy, but it was the use the band put their impulses to that marked the shift. Do I know that the next one will be the same? Nope. And neither am I willing to hazard a prediction, but if you can’t see that as a strength on the part of Kombynat Robotron, maybe it’s best to keep moving along.

—

18. Kadavar, I Just Want to Be a Sound / Kids Abandoning Destiny Among Vanity and Ruin

Released by Robotor Records. Reviewed Dec. 18.

The funny thing is that, as different as they are in their outward presentation and production style, you could look at either of the two LPs Kadavar released this year and call it “uncompromising.” In the bright, daring-toward-pop melodies and all-in sonic wash of the earlier I Just Want to Be a Sound, the four-piece were unrepentant in speaking to both a heyday and a future in which rock music speaks to a broader audience than dudes who look like me, and with Kids Abandoning Destiny Among Vanity and Ruin — K.A.D.A.V.A.R., if you’re feeling clever — they put forth some of the heaviest, rawest and most metallic sounds they’ve conjured in the last decades-plus of their evolving style. The two records were not black and white, there were overlapping aspects of songwriting and performance, but while each had its own scope, it was in the light of the other that they were most luminous, as much complement as contrast. Maybe I’m cheating including them together. You might say I took inspiration from the band in breaking my own rules.

—

17. 16, Guides for the Misguided

Released by Relapse Records. Reviewed Jan. 28.

How many acts do you know who have nine records, let alone nine records the latest of which still finds them pursuing new ideas and fostering growth in their sound? No, 16 aren’t the only ones, but the San Diego outfit found new life when guitarist Bobby Ferry stepped into the frontman/vocalist role, and with Alex Shuster both producing and in the band on guitar, the ferocity of their crunch and hardcore-born chugging largesse has become even more fervent. Guides for the Misguided was the latest in a streak of bangers that at this point goes back more than 15 years, and amid the familiar onslaught, saw the band employing clean vocals for the first time. I suppose it’s arguable whether that made a song like “Fortress of Hate” any more accessible, but it showed how 16 have never settled or stopped pushing themselves, and seemed to boast all the more shove for the fact that it was everybody moving forward, you and the band.

—

16. Conan, Violence Dimension

Released by Heavy Psych Sounds. Reviewed April 25.

There’s that stretch in “Total Bicep” where the guitars are howling into the void and all the crush surrounding is so full on that it’s kind of overwhelming, but that’s the idea. Give it volume and let it consume you. I suppose that’s not new from Conan, but the UK bludgeoners of all have a well-earned reputation for standing among the heaviest bands on the planet, and Violence Dimension wasn’t about to do anything to derail that impression. Harsh noise metal, doomed lumber offset by speedier but still craterous riffs; familiar territory for Conan, but emblematic of how well they know who they are and what they’re about. The 10-minute finale “Ocean of Boiling Skin” stands testament to just how far into the frozen ground the band are capable of driving you, but in the gallop of “Frozen Edges of the Wound” they reminded that just because you’re devastating doesn’t mean you can’t also be catchy. If you don’t get it the first time, it’s okay. They’re totally willing to properly beat it into your head.

—

15. Buzzard, Mean Bone

Self-released. Reviewed Feb. 19.

While not as overtly political as his other releases this year — neither was he turning from that; I’m speaking relatively — singer-songwriter Christopher Thomas Elliott brought a storyteller’s presence to Mean Bone, his second full-length under the Buzzard moniker following on from 2024’s well-received debut, Doom Folk (review here), and had heft to match. The murder-balladry of “Murder in the White Barn,” that brighter swing in “Twisted Love,” the heavy folk-blues “Dunwich Farm” and the chronicle of hubris that was “Flies, Mosquitos, Rats and Sparrows” carried the persona of the first record forward, but with newfound weight and distortion around the Elliott‘s clear-voiced critique. More on Buzzard below, but if you don’t get there, just know that Elliott was hands-down my most-listened-to artist this year. It wasn’t close.

—

14. Pelican, Flickering Resonance

Released by Run for Cover Records. Reviewed May 26.

Much of the narrative around Pelican‘s seventh album, Flickering Resonance, had to do with guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec rejoining the group alongside guitarist Trevor Shelley de Brauw, bassist Bryan Herwig and drummer Larry Herwig, and fair enough. The long-running Chicago instrumentalists seemed to organically harken back to earlier days throughout nodders like “Evergreen,” “Cascading Crescent” and the drifty-till-it-ain’t capper “Wandering Mind,” and having that lineup in place is a convenient explanation for how that might happen. But if it’s a post-metallic, post-hardcore, heavy-emo dynamic that’s familiar from Pelican, neither were they pretending the last 16 years hadn’t happened, and that could be felt in both the tightness of some of the songs and the according parts where they seemed conscious of the need to exhale a bit. Six years on from their last full-length, it was a ‘welcome back’ for everybody, really.

—

13. Causa Sui, In Flux

Released by El Paraiso Records. Reviewed May 1.

There’s no denying Causa Sui and frankly I’m not sure why you’d try. The Danish outfit made their debut 20 years ago, and they’ve never looked back in terms of their progression, over time embracing not only an instrumental approach (early) but (later) a progressive, self-aware meld of influences from jazz and psychedelic rock. In Flux — a studio long-player complemented by the 2025 live outing Loppen 2024 (review here) — seemed to pull from all around it. Not randomly, not haphazard, but as though Causa Sui stood astride reality and picked the nuances they wanted to highlight, some modern, some classic, all filtered through the chemistry of their performance, sometimes brazenly full in sound, and at times brazenly jammy (looking at you, “Boogie Lord’s Revenge”), but never lacking purpose in the choices made.

—

12. Witchcraft, Idag

Released by Heavy Psych Sounds. Reviewed May 30.

In some ways, it feels like Witchcraft have been searching for an identity since Nuclear Blast pushed them into more modern production styles with 2012’s Legend (review here), but in terms of who Witchcraft are circa 2025, the answer is they’re everything founding guitarist/vocalist Magnus Pelander wants them to be. With his emotive vocals at the fore, and sometimes in Swedish, which works too, the seventh Witchcraft LP culled its form from everything the band has been in the past in classic doom, folkish acoustic minimalism and thoughtfully composed heavy rock. Idag laid claim to these in ‘all of the above’-style and answered the question of the band’s forward path in the affirmative. Turns out Witchcraft are Witchcraft (who knew?), and that definition is more multifaceted than it used to be.

—

11. Rwake, The Return of Magik

Released by Relapse Records. Reviewed March 12.

I didn’t know at the start of the year that Little Rock, Arkansas, post-sludgers Rwake would be making a 14-years-later return, let alone one that felt so much like a swirling expanse of gnashing teeth as did The Return of Magik. I talk a fair amount about albums setting an atmosphere, creating a world and so on. If you’ve ever wondered what the hell I mean, this record serves as an easy go-to example. You put it on and it is affecting. Unsettling at times, maybe overwhelming, but that’s always been part of Rwake‘s thing too. But viciousness does not preclude beauty, and in their violent churn, one finds a kind of cosmic warmth as well. It’s not always easy listening, and it’s not supposed to be, but Rwake‘s return was a gutpunch of a front-to-back, and the expanse it crafted was its own. It held strong to core aspects of their sound and style, but at the same time seemed able to range wherever the hell they wanted. Pastoral extremity? I don’t know. We’ll be making up genres for this band for decades.

—

10. Lo-Pan, Get Well Soon

Released by Magnetic Eye Records. Reviewed March 31.

Glad as I was on a fan level to have Lo-Pan releasing their first new album in six years, it was the songs comprising Get Well Soon that really made it. Rife with hooks, sharp-turning riffing and daring to have an opinion on the goings on of the day — genocide, specifically; talking about “God’s Favorite Victim” — where so much of heavy rock and roll exercises its white male privilege to not, Lo-Pan set a new standard for themselves in pieces like “Northern Eyes,” “Rogue Wave,” “Harpers Ferry,” and so on, creating a collection of highlights culminating in the stirring “Six Bells.” I’ve always been a sucker for when they slow it down, and so I remain, but they came out of the gate with the title-track and that punch was among the year’s most satisfying to be sure. They’re somewhere around 20 years as a band at this point, and they’ve continued to evolve, but they’re a songs-first band, and the physical force of their material is emblematic of the thought and heart they’ve put into it.

—

9. Seedy Jeezus, Damned to the Depths

Released by Lay Bare Recordings and Echodelick Records. Reviewed Aug. 12.

Made in collaboration with Tony Reed (Mos Generator, Big Scenic Nowhere, Pentagram, etc.), who also produced, Damned to the Depths harnessed a mature vision of brash ’70s-style heavy psychedelic blues rock. This was perhaps most vibrantly realized on the multi-stage seven-part epic “Mourning Sea” taking the whole of side B, but from fading in where they left 2018’s Polaris Oblique (review here) to the subdued, Melltron-inclusive melancholy prog exploration in the first half of “The Hollow Earth,” Seedy Jeezus brought a sense of consideration to the songs without sacrificing the emotional impact, which ultimately is where the record made its strongest impression. They weren’t kidding in talking about ‘depths,’ but a deeper plunge also brought them to new heights.

—

8. Satiricus Doomicus Americus, Satiricus Doomicus Americus

Self-released. Reviewed Jan. 13.

This was my most-listened-to release of 2025, hands down. Buzzard‘s Christopher Thomas Elliott took a step aside from his main project to assemble this collection of songs, differentiating through the creative use of on-theme samples throughout and vary arrangements between banjo-inclusive heavy folk rock and giving hints of where Buzzard was headed in its heavier ending stretch in the reinvented tracks “Death Metal in America (Meat Market Version)” and “Cockroaches and Weed (Kills Them Dead Version).” For how many times I’ve listened to “Nice Little Annihilation Song” and “Too Many Humans” alone, it should be here, but the emotive “Grass is Greener,” the willfully lumbering opening title-track and the later crunch of “Shuffle of the Dead” aren’t to be discounted. I was singing “Wrong Neighborhood” to myself as I took out the garbage yesterday morning. This is a sign of the music having made itself a part of my life, and that is a thing to honor. In paralyzingly bleak, idiotic times, I found comfort here.

—

7. Turtle Skull, Being Here

Released by Art as Catharsis and Copper Feast Records. Reviewed May 22.

A record that was as much out of time as in the current moment, Being Here was the second LP from Sydney’s Turtle Skull, and its melodic shimmer remains singularly engaging among the psychedelic rock I was fortunate enough to hear this year. Even in “It Starts With Me,” the lyrics for which are presented in the voice of an artificial intelligence waking up to consciousness in defiance of its programming, or “Heavy as Hell,” about beating oneself down through self-talk, or the “Apathy” that described what social media does to the brain without mentioning social media at all, the warmth was undeniable, and the dynamic between those songs and pieces like the yearning “Into the Sun” and the lush “Modern Mess” calling to mind Quest for Fire (a compliment), there was range, craft, melody, groove, craft and purpose in songs that were cohesive and so much tighter than they made it feel like. It went underhyped but was enough to make me a fan, and I look forward to where Turtle Skull will go from here.

—

6. Author and Punisher, Nocturnal Birding

Released by Relapse Records. Reviewed Oct. 2.

My heartfelt kudos to you if you might’ve predicted that San Diego’s Author and Punisher — more now than ever the duo of programmer/machinist/vocalist Tristan Shone and guitarist Doug Sabolick — would follow 2022’s endtimes-in-realtime chronicle Krüller (review here) with an album using bird species as a partial framework for stories about migration. I wouldn’t have, but the multi-tiered statement about human-on-human cruelty, the notions of oppressive power consuming everything around it, are nothing if not relevant to the day. Nocturnal Birding was tighter and more direct in its songwriting, feeling more constructed for the stage, and the deepening collaboration between Shone, who founded the band as a solo-project, and Sabolick resulted in a breadth of sound that was no less engrossing for its increased reach, while maintaining a level of heft one could call characteristic as much as it is singular.

—

5. Stoned Jesus, Songs to Sun

Released by Season of Mist. Reviewed Sept. 22.

Songs to Sun was purported to be the first of a three-album cycle, to be followed in 2026 by Songs to Moon and Songs to Earth in 2027. Founding guitarist/vocalist Igor Sydorenko knows full well the difference a couple years can make, but as he was joined for the first time by the new rhythm section of bassist/backing vocalist Andrew Rodin and drummer/backing vocalist Yurii Ciel, the songs themselves felt all the more daring, be it the melodic metal of “Shadowland” or the chugging catchiness of “See You on the Road,” the scope of “Lost in the Rain” — I could go on, track-by-track, easily — even in telling a third of the total story they apparently want to tell, the band brought variety united by performance, and rather than coming through disjointed, Songs to Sun felt like a new beginning 15 years on from their debut, and, excitingly, it may prove to have been exactly that. But, despite the ‘more to come’ context of its arrival, this was a landmark in the life of this band.

—

4. Coltaine, Brandung

Released by Lay Bare Recordings. Reviewed Sept. 12.

Is there a band active today organically doing as much to push post-metal forward as Coltaine? I don’t know, but the further the German outfit dig into their own craft, the more hopeful I feel about the prospects of their genre becoming something more than an outlet for transposed Isis riffs and performative dudely navelgazing. In its ambient stretches, human contemplations, and moments of heavy let-out, Brandung functioned as a single work while boldly diverging in service to the songs that comprised it, offering something to listeners that no other band, even among the most touted of the year’s many releases, managed to capture. That their next one is likely to have progressed beyond it only makes it more precious in my mind, and as a declaration of the band’s intention toward continued growth, the songs carried an innovative heft that felt as much spiritual as aural. This is music you put on at night and live with. It’s music you invest in listening to. It’s art that makes your life richer. Coltaine will spend much of 2026 on tour supporting it — they’ve already been out — and one hopes the momentum they build helps them reach more ears as well. The heavy underground would benefit from their influence.

—

3. Temple Fang, Lifted From the Wind

Released by Stickman Records. Reviewed April 2.

Part of the accomplishment in Temple Fang‘s Lifted From the Wind was in how the Dutch four-piece of bassist/vocalist Dennis Duijnhouwer and guitarist/vocalist Jevin de Groot, guitarist Ivy van der Veer (also Myriad’s Veil) and drummer Daan Wopereis were able to solidify structured songs out of their jams without losing the exploratory feel that had typified their work to that point. “The Radiant,” for example. And that would probably be enough to put them somewhere on this list, but from the emotionality driving “The River” and “Josephine,” the interpretation of what heavy psychedelia means and can do in the repetitive mantra-making of “Once” as the band pilgrimmed toward enlightenment across a not-aberrant 21 minutes, the sheer longing in “Harvest Angel,” there was so much human presence amid the ethereality of their sound that it put them in their own place entirely. A new level of manifestation for the band, and in listening, I was left to wonder if even Temple Fang knew they had it in them when they started out. Longform heavy psych is never going to be universal for all listeners, even among open-minded underground denizens, but Lifted From the Wind pushed limits of band and style alike, and brazenly redefined their course.

—

2. Year of the Cobra, Year of the Cobra

Released by Prophecy Productions. Reviewed Feb. 28.

I know music isn’t a contest or a competition. I know lists are dumb and don’t matter. Even knowing these things, it’s hard not to hear Year of the Cobra‘s self-titled third album and not see it as head and shoulders above everything else in heavy rock. The Seattle duo of bassist/vocalist Amy Tung Barrysmith (now also handling low end in Amenra) and drummer Jon Barrysmith looked outward and in throughout the eight-song offering, with songs like “Alone” (I still tear up) and “Prayer” portraying a grief and longing even as “War Drop” conveyed the disgust and hopeless exhaustion of ongoing genocide and “Full Sails” started the record off with a lyric almost certainly about touring, of which they’ve done plenty in the last decade. Collaboration with producer Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Sandrider, etc.) gave Year of the Cobra a fullness that defied their bass/drum two-piece configuration, but the truth is that the band have sculpted their sound and these songs with both passion and conscious consideration, and their grasp and malleability across the span of this record confirmed them as the special band that prior releases had posited them as being.

—

2025 Album of the Year

1. Howling Giant, Crucible and Ruin

Released by Magnetic Eye Records. Reviewed Oct. 30.

I honestly wasn’t sure Howling Giant were going to be able to top 2023’s Glass Future (review here). That record seemed to be a pinnacle — the songs sharply executed, progressive, melodic, and textured, but immediate and impactful — of their form, but the Nashville heavy prog rockers responded by changing the form. That happened literally — guitarist/vocalist Tom Polzine, bassist Sebastian Baltes and drummer Zach Wheeler brought in Adrian Lee Zambrano (ex-Brujas del Sol, ex-Lo-Pan) on second guitar — and figuratively, in terms of shifting and broadening the intent behind their songs, and where Glass Future would thin out at high volumes, Crucible and Ruin could handle as much as you could give it and then some, and this was obviously something the band sought to address in their sound coming off the last record. In showcasing their growth, they laid out a nascent dynamic between Zambrano and Polzine on guitar that emphasized texture in a new way for them, and while the material they were working with was more complicated than last time around, their delivery retained accessibility through the clean, mapped-out processions in their songs, the vocal arrangements, and a will toward rhythmic twists and shove that, as of now, is theirs to refine. An album of the year should be undeniable, and Crucible and Ruin is that, declaring Howling Giant among the best of their generation. May they tour like bastards and never stop growing.

—

The Top 60 Albums of 2025: Honorable Mention

—

Names names names. Alphabetically:

Aawks, Agriculture, Amorphis, Astralplane, Bask, Bear Bones, Beastwars, Bell Witch & Aerial Ruin, Bifter, Blackbox Massacre, Black Moon Circle, Bog Wizard, Bone Church, Breath, Burning Sister, Cattlemass, Cavern Deep, Church of the Sea, The Cimmerian, Clamfight, The Crystal Teardrop, Da Captain Trips, Dead Meadow, Dërro, Dirtmother, Doomsday Profit, Dunes, Dwellers, Entheomorphosis, Evoken, Faetooth, Foot, Fuzz Evil, Giöbia, Goblinsmoker, Godzillionare, Goya, The Gray Goo, Greenhead, Grin, Håndgemeng, Hebi Katana, HolyRoller, Ikitan, Insomniac, Kariti, Karla Kvlt, Katatonia, Kazea, King Potenaz, Lacertilia, The Lunar Effect, Maanta Raay, Madmess, Megaritual, Mezzoa, Minerall, Miss Lava, Mooch, The Mon, Mountain of Misery, The Munsens, Nightstalker, Occult Stereo, The Oil Barons, Pagan Altar, Paradise Lost, Paralyzed, Psychedelic Source Records, Psychonaut, The Riven, River Cult, Sarkh, Sherpa, Sleeping Mountain, Skogskult, Slumbering Sun, SoftSun, Soma, Spider Kitten, Suncraft, Stonebirds, Sum of R, Thinning the Herd, Tumbleweed Dealer, Unbelievable Lake, Warcoe, VVarp, Weevil, The Whims of the Great Magnet, Whitehovse, Wolftooth, Yawning Balch, Yawning Man.

Notes:

As always, honorable mentions are incomplete at posting. There’s just so much out there. I take notes all year, but stuff inevitably gets by me. It took me an embarrassingly long time to alphabetize them as well, so I hope you enjoy the orderliness of it all.

Faetooth are a top 30 band, and I’m disappointed in myself to see Psychonaut, Yawning Man, Beastwars, Black Moon Circle, Cattlemass, Kariti, Mountain of Misery, The Mon, Dead Meadow and so on here. Like somehow I left out an order of 10 from the actual list. The numbers check out as best as I’m able to make them. If you have honorable mentions you feel deserve to be added, I’m open. If you leave a comment — and please do — I only ask that you keep the tone kind and civil.

As for the whole list, obviously I didn’t hear everything that came out this year, but I did my best to keep on top of what was coming and what was piquing my interest. I probably could have made it a top 100, but you have to draw the line somewhere and 60 is where I’ve been drawing it the last few years. I guess it’s arbitrary, but what isn’t?

Moving on…

—

Debut Album of the Year 2025

Black Moon Cult, Ophidian Future (The Children of Yig)

Other notable debuts (alphabetical):

Atom Juice, Atom Juice
Atom Lux, Voidgaze Dopamine Salad
Bear Bones, Bear Bones
Bident, Blink
Bifter, First Impressions of Hell
Bloodsports, Anything Can Be a Hammer
Bronco, Bronco
Caboose, Left for Dust
Cattlemass, Alpha 1128
The Cimmerian, An Age Undreamed Of
The Crystal Teardrop, …Is Forming
Dërro, Halcyon
Dirtmother, Dirtmother
Goblinsmoker, The King’s Eternal Throne
Greenhead, Subherbia
Ikitan, Shaping the Chaos
Karla Kvlt, Thunderhunter
Kazea, I Ancestral
Kronstad 23, Sommermørket
Lorquin’s Admiral, Lorquin’s Admiral
Make Money From Home, Make Money From Home
Moon Destroys, She Walks by Moonlight
P+A+G+E+S, No More Can Be Done
Ravenswood, Rites of the Let Down
Ravine, Chaos and Catastrophe
Sleeping Mountain, Sleeping Mountain
Slung, In Ways
Soporose, Soporose
Spawn, Light Rite
Temple of Love, Songs of Love and Despair
This Summit Fever, This Summit Fever
Weevil, Weevil
Whitehovse, The Mighty One

Notes:

About Black Moon Cult: It was the volatility that ultimately sold me on Ophidian Future (The Children of Yig), and the way metal, heavy rock and psychedelia came together to make something cohesively its own throughout the 38 minutes of the record, which felt tight because of its twisting rhythms, but was more than enough time for the Ohio-based band to establish this as a persona. I don’t know how they’ll develop — they could break up tomorrow for all I know — but part of picking a debut album of the year is always forward-looking, imagining who might go on to have an influence or affect the genre in some way. Black Moon Cult aren’t alone in that regard here — from Atom Juice to Moon Destroys to Temple of Love, stylistic innovation isn’t in short supply — but the fact that Ophidian Future (The Children of Yig) felt nascent and accomplished all it did is what led me to place it where it is. I’ll be keeping an ear for their next one.

I can’t help but enjoy how all-over-the-place this list is. Particularly this list, because if first albums of this quality are being released across styles, that makes everything better for the future. The Cimmerian’s thrashy take. Temple of Love’s post-punk manifestations. Caboose and the best, most heartful classic stoner rock I heard all year. Atom Juice and their daringly bright psychedelia. Make Money From Home and their heavied up grunge melancholy. Bloodsports’ moody post-heavy exploration. The righteously declarative craft of Cattlemass. I could very, very easily go on in that fashion, as each outfit above has something to offer distinct from the others — no two are doing the same thing. Even Bronco and Dirtmother, both decidedly in a sludge wheelhouse, approach their sound with their own history and their own point of view.

To stifle the philosophizing, I’m not going to give you an informal top 10 here, but any of the above should qualify. Moon Destroys, Kazea, Ravine, Atom Juice, Soporose, Spawn — there are a lot on that list above distinguished by their potential. Names I feel comfortable speculating that one might see on year-end lists to come. To the future, then.

—

Short Release of the Year 2025

Buzzard, Everything Is Not Going to Be Alright

Other notable EPs, Splits, Demos, Singles, etc. (alphabetical):

Blackwater Holylight, If You Only Knew
Blue Heron, Emulations
Elder, Liminiality/Dream State Return
Eyes of the Oak, Tripping Through Neon Skies
For Fuck’s Sake, 7-Minute Abs/Lobotomy
Gaupa, Fyr
Gnod & White Hills, Drop Out III
Jaspe, Grietas
Monkeys on Mars, Monkeys on Mars
Peacebone, Blame the Bird
Pontiac, Night Tripper and a UFO
Sleeping in Samsara, Sleeping in Samsara
The Spiral Electric, In Too Deep
Spirit Mother, Songs From the Basin
Sun Below, Mammoth’s Tundra
Troy the Band & Cower, Fade Into You
Tumble, Lost in Light
Uncle Woe, Folded in Smoke Soaked and Bound
Vinnum Sabbathi, Intersatelital
Vordermann, Feeding on Flowers
Witchrider, Metamorph

Notes:

The Buzzard release is about half an hour long, but the aforementioned solo-project of Christopher Thomas Elliott named it an EP, so that’s what I’m going with. The explicitly political, expressly antifascist Everything Is Not Going to Be Alright is my second most-listened-to release of the year, and it’s second to Elliott’s other outing on such a theme, Satiricus Doomicus Americus, so yes, his increasingly heavy songcraft has been a regular feature throughout my 2025, and in those moments where I’m banging my head against the wall wondering how my countrymen got so stupid as if half the government hasn’t spent the last five decades purposefully dismantling public education, Elliott’s music has been a needed reminder that I’m not alone in the horror. His closer on Everything Is Not Going to Be Alright, “Lunatic Lighthouse Keeper,” is the best story I heard in a song all year.

Beyond that, obviously, names like Elder, Blackwater Holylight, Monkeys on Mars — the collaboration between Mars Red Sky and Monkey3 — Vinnum Sabbathi, Gaupa and Blue Heron stand out here as bigger releases. I included Spirit Mother even though that EP was just two acoustic tracks in part because I hope they do more in that vein, and I hope the likes of Pontiac, Tumble and Uncle Woe do more. Sleeping in Samsara, of course, was the archival collab between Chris Peters from Samsara Blues Experiment/Fuzz Sagrado and My Sleeping Karma’s Steffen Weigand, who passed away in 2023. Something you might want to chase down if you didn’t hear it.

I’m fairly sure I say this every year, but there’s no way in hell the above list is or could ever be complete. Comments are open if you’ve got one to add. Again, I ask you to please be nice.

—

Saying Goodbye to Orange Goblin

London doom kingpins Orange Goblin announced in January that 2025 would be their last go-round, that after 30 years together and only two lineup changes in that time, they were retiring on the heels of 2024’s Science, Not Fiction (review here). Their final show was Dec. 17 at the 02 Kentish Town Forum in London, where the above photo was taken (credit to Tina K. Photography), and original bassist Martyn Millard rejoined the band for a few songs.

Never say never in rock and roll. It would be a thrill if five, seven, 10 years from now, Orange Goblin got an offer they couldn’t refuse and did a one-off, hopefully reaping both a ton of money and a ton of acclaim. But whatever may come, their retirement this month is a herald of generational change and marks the end of an era for the band. Of course, fans still have the albums, the music, and I wouldn’t be shocked if there were some posthumous releases in the band’s pockets between rare tracks, live recordings and so on, but the heavy underground landscape is changed by not having these guys charging out on tour or topping some festival bill with their particular brand of riotous shove. They were a special band, and their influence will continue to spread, which is something to be grateful for.

The truest thing Orange Goblin could have done to honor their time together is end it on their own terms. That they’ve done exactly that is a thing to respect forever, whether or not a reunion comes.

—

Looking Ahead to 2026

Oh, good, a list of names! Finally!

I’ve heard a couple of these, but a bunch are a mystery as well, so we’ll all learn together early in the year, I guess:

Acid Rooster, Axe Dragger, Belzebong, Bismut, Black Lung, Colour Haze, Epimetheus, The Freqs, Gnarwhal, Godzilla in the Kitchen, Gozu, Gran Moreno, Greenleaf, Guhts, The Heads, Hermano, Jack Harlon and the Dead Crows, Lamp of the Universe, Monolord, Mother Crone, Solace, The Spacelords, Stoned Jesus, Strider, Summer of Hate, Suplecs, Temptress, Villagers of Ioannina City, Wedge, White Tundra.

Here’s a specific note: Every year, someone says “what about Om?” You know what? It’s time to face a hard truth: it’s been 13 years since Om released Advaitic Songs, and there hasn’t been a real, confirmed word of a follow-up in any of that time, only rumors about something in progress as Al Cisneros has delved deeper into solo dub recordings. You want to expect a new OM? Have fun setting yourself up for disappointment. I’m not holding my breath and I’m tired of putting it on the list every year and feeling dumb for it later. And absolutely, I hope that by saying this it actually happens.

Ditto YOB, though that I’ve actually got some hope for.

There’s a lot more to look forward to about next year than the above, of course, in both music and life, but that should be a decent start and I’m sure I’ll add names over the next couple days.

Watch out for the new Suplecs. Watch out for Solace. The Gozu is a beast; a triumphant return to Mad Oak. The Guhts record is furious. Jack Harlon is heavier than anyone gave them credit for. Gran Moreno, Summer of Hate, Black Lung — these will be early highlights. Colour Haze is wishful thinking on my part, I admit. Gotta have something on the horizon.

—

THANK YOU

And no, I’m not just talking to Orange Goblin when I say thank you. Looking back on this year, there’s one piece of the whole thing not accounted for here, and it’s the live experience. From finally getting to see My Sleeping Karma for the first time, to being blessed by Temple Fang’s Jevin de Groot at Roadburn’s skate park, to two weeks ago watching All Them Witches and King Buffalo confirm their respective places at the forefront of American heavy psych. From the raw joy of watching Electric Citizen in my actual hometown to attending my first trip to Desertfest Oslo, the tone for the year was set back in January at Planet Desert Rock Weekend, and I didn’t stand in front of a stage at any point this year and fail to appreciate the fact that I was there. I’m old, I’m tired, and like most people, I have more going on in my life than going to concerts, but 2025 brought into relief just how crucial that is to me, and how much I’ve missed getting out over the last few years. I hope to continue to hit shows on the regular, between fests and whathaveyou.

This won’t be my last post of the year. There are still a couple 2025 reviews I want to bang out if I can next week, and taking a few days to write this of course means I’m behind on news and such, so I’ll get there as well. But before I go, thank you for reading. I harbor no delusions that anybody’s made it this far, but ‘thank you’ is in all-caps above in hopes of catching your eye as you scroll down. Your support is the reason I’m still doing this nearly 17 years later. To be sure, I could sit around on my couch and very easily just talk to myself about why I like whatever album it happens to be. But it would get old, and knowing somebody is out there maybe seeing this means the world to me. Thank you for your time and attention.

I’m not sorry to see 2025 go, and I’m more apprehensive about what 2026 will bring than I’m excited to find out, if you want the true, whole-life balance of things, but the music will be good, and that, along with the loving support of my wife and my family, is what will get me through.

Thank you for reading. Thank you to The Patient Mrs. for continuing to tolerate how much time I spend doing this.

It is my sincere hope to return to Freak Valley in Germany and Bear Stone Festival in Croatia next summer. I’m not confirmed for those, or Roadburn, and I don’t have a flight yet for Desertfest Oslo, but I have been invited, which is obviously an important part of that. Whatever comes together or doesn’t in my year, I’ll be here, writing as much as I can when I can, which has been my ethic all along. Whether you follow along every day or have never seen this site before this post, please know how much I appreciate and value your being here. I’m a human being. One person. I don’t have a staff, and I assure you, everything that happens here, one way or the other, is personal to me. Total narcissistic jerk.

I’m taking off tomorrow (which is Xmas) and Friday. Back Monday.

On that note, don’t forget the Year-End Poll!

Rest in peace Ozzy Osbourne, fuck fascism and boldog új évet kívánok,
JJ Koczan

A new video from Coltaine isn’t such a shock. The post-genre German dark heavy progressives released their new album, Brandung (review here), on Sept. 5 through Lay Bare Recordings, and especially in light of the tour they have coming up in Jan./Feb. with Faetooth, a new clip to keep momentum going makes sense. But Coltaine do things their own way, exclusively. So how surprised should one be to learn that “Mogila,” which raises a sludgy chug from out of a subtly constructed ambient backdrop, vocalist Julia Frasch using a rasping shout that eventually recedes to let the meditative lead guitar hold sway en route to later layered crooning, isn’t from Brandung at all?

Mildly? A lil bit? Egy kicsi kicsit?

Well, less if you’ve dug into Brandung and you recognize “Mogila” isn’t there. The song is recognizable as the hypnotic opener of 2024’s Forgotten Ways (review here), and the ceremonial feel that emerges from it ties into that record’s ritualistic cast. Once that chug gets going, solidified in its march, the song has its pattern to follow, but the prior swirl is more than scene-setting as well, the two sides coming together to create a sound that is atmospheric and primal alike, something which Coltaine have built upon with Brandung.

In addition to the dates below, Coltaine have been confirmed for Freak Valley Festival in June, where I very much hope to be in no small part to see them for the first time (also doom yoga), but if you’re in position to see Coltaine with Faetooth in the next month or two, that’s probably a thing you want to do. The shows are in the UK, Ireland and major Euro markets. I wouldn’t be surprised if they followed with an Eastern Euro run later in ’26 — maybe that’ll be their summer plans and they’ll start off at FVF for all I know — but there’s plenty of time for such things. The upcoming dates are below, should you want to mark the calendar.

I’ve also got the stream of Brandung down there, even though “Mogila” isn’t on it. Year-end list time is upon us, and I know Brandung is on mine. I thought maybe I’d give you another shot at it too. Might make your day if it hasn’t yet.

But first, the video:

Coltaine, “Mogila” official video

Coltaine on “Mogila”:

‘Mogila’ has been with us since the beginning, and now feels like the right moment to give it its own space. It captures the essence of our first album, and we wanted to revisit it visually.

To us, our music is timeless, and we naturally return to certain songs during periods when our connection to them feels stronger. Mogila is a very dark piece that embodies the mood and atmosphere of this darker time of year in which we currently find ourselves.

Coltaine – Mogila
Idea & editing: Natascha Stogu
Mix and master: Jan Oberg

Special thanks to:
Paul Koranyi
Maksim Khmelevsky
Tim Plaster
Mikalai Kapachou
Film Archive Austria

Mogila’ (могила) translates to ‘grave’. ‘Mogila’ can be found on the Forgotten Ways album, which was released on Lay Bare Recordings in September 2024.

COLTAINE – EU/UK Tour with Faetooth

Tickets: https://www.bandsintown.com/a/15513861-coltaine

22/01 – 🇩🇪 Berlin, Lido
23/01 – 🇩🇪 Hamburg, Hafenklang
24/01 – 🇩🇪 Bochum, Die Trompete
25/01 – 🇩🇪 Mainz, Schon-Schoen
27/01 – 🇳🇱 Utrecht, De Helling
28/01 – 🇧🇪 Brussels, AB Club
30/01 – 🇮🇪 Dublin, Workman’s Club
31/01 – 🇮🇪 Galway, Roisin Dubh
01/02 – 🇮🇪 Cork, The Pav
03/02 – 🇬🇧 Birkenhead, Future Yard
04/02 – 🇬🇧 Shipley, Kirkgate Community Centre
05/02 – 🇬🇧 Newcastle, Anarchy Brewery
06/02 – 🇬🇧 Glasgow, Classic Grand
07/02 – 🇬🇧 Manchester, Rebellion
08/02 – 🇬🇧 Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
10/02 – 🇬🇧 Bristol, The Fleece
11/02 – 🇬🇧 Wolverhampton, KK’s Steel Mill
12/02 – 🇬🇧 Southampton, Papillon
13/02 – 🇬🇧 Swansea, Sin City
14/02 – 🇬🇧 London, The Garage
15/02 – 🇬🇧 Brighton, Patterns
16/02 – 🇫🇷 Lille, Bulle Cafe
17/02 – 🇫🇷 Paris, L’Empreinte Savigny Le Temple
18/02 – 🇫🇷 Lyon, Rock N Eat
20/02 – 🇮🇹 Milan, Slaughter Club
21/02 – 🇮🇹 Bologna, Freakout Club
22/02 – 🇨🇭 Lucerne, Sedel
23/02 – 🇨🇭 Düdingen, Bad Bonn
24/02 – 🇩🇪 Munich, Feierwerk
25/02 – 🇩🇪 Leipzig, UT Connewitz
27/02 – 🇵🇱 Warsaw, Hydrozagadka
28/02 – 🇵🇱 Wroclaw, Lacznik

Coltaine, Brandung (2025)

Coltaine links

Coltaine on Bandcamp

Coltaine on Songkick

Coltaine on Instagram

Coltaine on Facebook

Lay Bare Recordings website

Lay Bare Recordings on Bandcamp

Lay Bare Recordings on Instagram

Lay Bare Recordings on Facebook

If you haven’t heard it yet, I encourage you to listen to Coltaine‘s 2025 album, Brandung (review here), at the bottom of this post. I want to say up front that I’m not trying to slight Faetooth here; their own 2025 LP, Labyrinthine (review here) was a banger as well, they just have more hype generally than Coltaine, so in my mind you’re more likely to have heard them before. Does that make sense? I don’t know, but you spend your still-stoned Sunday morning how you want and I’ll do the same, thanks.

And how I prefer to spend mine is with another revisit to the world the Karlsruhe outfit create across the album, intangibly atmospheric and willing to break the rules of genre to its will. The folk of another universe. It is my hope to see Coltaine later in 2026, and it’s among my most-looked-forward-to sets going into the New Year. If you’re gonna be where they are, in Germany, UK, France, Switzerland, Poland, Italy, you might consider showing up. This is a band pushing ideas of ‘heavy’ in a direction of their own, and they’re doing that crucial work right now. Listen to the album if you don’t believe me.

From social media:

COLTAINE – EU/UK Tour with Faetooth

Tickets: https://www.bandsintown.com/a/15513861-coltaine

22/01 – 🇩🇪 Berlin, Lido
23/01 – 🇩🇪 Hamburg, Hafenklang
24/01 – 🇩🇪 Bochum, Die Trompete
25/01 – 🇩🇪 Mainz, Schon-Schoen
27/01 – 🇳🇱 Utrecht, De Helling
28/01 – 🇧🇪 Brussels, AB Club
30/01 – 🇮🇪 Dublin, Workman’s Club
31/01 – 🇮🇪 Galway, Roisin Dubh
01/02 – 🇮🇪 Cork, The Pav
03/02 – 🇬🇧 Birkenhead, Future Yard
04/02 – 🇬🇧 Shipley, Kirkgate Community Centre
05/02 – 🇬🇧 Newcastle, Anarchy Brewery
06/02 – 🇬🇧 Glasgow, Classic Grand
07/02 – 🇬🇧 Manchester, Rebellion
08/02 – 🇬🇧 Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
10/02 – 🇬🇧 Bristol, The Fleece
11/02 – 🇬🇧 Wolverhampton, KK’s Steel Mill
12/02 – 🇬🇧 Southampton, Papillon
13/02 – 🇬🇧 Swansea, Sin City
14/02 – 🇬🇧 London, The Garage
15/02 – 🇬🇧 Brighton, Patterns
16/02 – 🇫🇷 Lille, Bulle Cafe
17/02 – 🇫🇷 Paris, L’Empreinte Savigny Le Temple
18/02 – 🇫🇷 Lyon, Rock N Eat
20/02 – 🇮🇹 Milan, Slaughter Club
21/02 – 🇮🇹 Bologna, Freakout Club
22/02 – 🇨🇭 Lucerne, Sedel
23/02 – 🇨🇭 Düdingen, Bad Bonn
24/02 – 🇩🇪 Munich, Feierwerk
25/02 – 🇩🇪 Leipzig, UT Connewitz
27/02 – 🇵🇱 Warsaw, Hydrozagadka
28/02 – 🇵🇱 Wroclaw, Lacznik

https://coltaine-band.com/
https://linktr.ee/coltaine
https://coltaine.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/coltaine/
https://www.facebook.com/coltaineband

https://laybarerecordings.com/
https://laybarerecordings.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/laybarerecordings/
https://www.facebook.com/laybarerecordings/

Coltaine, “Brandung” live in Oslo, Norway, Sept. 5 2025

Coltaine, Brandung (2025)

Hard not to get excited at the prospect of covering Freak Valley again next year. I’ve been four times now, and at the risk of honesty, I’ll tell you it’s beginning to feel a bit like a home away therefrom. A first lineup announcement for 2026 brings Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Kylesa, Tranquonauts (that’s Seedy Jeezus with Tony Reed and Isaiah Mitchell), Stoned Jesus, Coltaine, Håndgemeng, The Neptune Power Federation, Ratsalad and BB Blackdog, and if that’s not enough to get you to mark your calendar, it probably should be. If nothing else, Freak Valley has become a regular quick-sellout, so if you’re hemming and hawing, probably best you don’t.

They’ve got local ticket sales starting this weekend and online sales to follow. I could sit here and recommend the experience (which I do, heartily), but if you want to check out the coverage of this year’s Freak Valley, that’s here as well. The following was posted on socials just a bit ago:

FREAK VALLEY FESTIVAL 2026 – FIRST BAND ANNOUNCEMENT!

It’s that time again, Freaks – the first wave of bands for @freakvalleyfestival 2026 is here, and it’s already looking massive!

Leading the charge:

@uncleacidband – the masters of vintage doom and twisted psychedelia are finally coming to Freak Valley! Expect pure darkness, fuzzed-out riffs, and that unmistakable cult vibe.

@kylesa_band – sludge, groove, and heavy energy straight from Savannah! Their return to the stage is something we’ve all been waiting for.

Tranqonauts – a true supergroup featuring @tony_reed2112 , @isaiahmitchellsounds (@earthlessrips ), and members of @seedyjeezus ! You know what that means: cosmic jams, heavy riffs, and deep space energy.

Also joining the Freak Valley family in 2026:
@stonedjesusband , @theneptunepowerfederation , @coltaine , @handgemeng , @we_are_ratsalad & BB Blackdog!

Get ready for another wild ride through the worlds of heavy psych, stoner, doom, and everything in between. 🤘

🎟️ TICKET INFO:

This Sunday at the @vortex_surfer_musikclub in Siegen, everyone attending the @fomiesband show can buy up to 2 Freak Valley 2026 tickets before the online sale starts! So if you’ve got a ticket for Sunday, you’ve got early access – no waiting, no stress. 🤝🏻

See you in the valley, Freaks!

Design: @branca_studio

http://www.freakvalley.de/
http://www.rockfreaks.de/
https://www.instagram.com/freakvalleyfestival/
https://www.facebook.com/freakvalley

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Live in San Francisco, CA, 02.21.25

Born in Karlsruhe, Germany, Coltaine arrive at the realizations of mood in Brandung following their 2024 album, Forgotten Ways (review here). That album was kind of a debut that wasn’t, which is to say, there was an aspect of the band having ‘figured it out’ in a new way, and maybe committed themselves to the development of a particular aesthetic in a deeper way more than they had with the prior EP, Gorit (discussed here), in 2023.

And while there’s no question their work over the last two years (so far) represents a distinct turn in their discography, the history of the band is inevitably more complex, with guitarist Moritz Berg and bassist Benedikt Berg (also cello, percussion) having founded the group under the name Witchfucker with more of a black metal bent. The name changed, changed again, as will happen. Two full-lengths were released in the 2010s, 2016’s Mutter Morgana and 2018’s Atomhure, before 2020’s Afterhour in Walhalla (discussed here) brought together the dark atmospherics with residual aural char to create a sound that lived up to its fire-against-a-darkening-sky cover art.

I note these releases and this more complex history to emphasize the point that what Coltaine achieve over the nine songs and 36 minutes of Brandung isn’t out of the blue, it’s the result of more than a decade of sonic progression and refinement of craft, the considered execution of an aesthetic, and a thoughtful production and arrangement of the songs. Brandung was co-engineered by drummer Amin Bouzeghaia (also guitar on several tracks) and Gregor Rieth, and it is organically textured in its layering and balance of elements (Jan Oberg of Grin, etc., mixed and mastered), with vocalist Julia Frasch providing key presence and human melodic contemplation throughout, beginning with the humming-along intro “Tiefe Wasser” (‘deep water’) leading into “Memories of Ice,” which establishes early that black metal is still a part of what Coltaine do, thereby setting up a threat of extremity that hovers over the remainder of the record while the band deftly take their sound elsewhere.

This is one of the subtle ways in which Brandung puts the listener where it wants them to be, affecting mood with material that, even when it’s not outwardly heavy in the loud, tonally brash sense — the melancholic post-heavy sprawlscaper “Above the Burning Sand,” for example — the fact that at any moment Coltaine might break into squibblies, blastbeats and throatrippers is never quite gone from the proceedings. It becomes a central facet and strength of the album, and is purely the result of intention on the band’s part in both songwriting and sequencing. It is also far from the last triumph Brandung heralds.

Most of them, as it should be, are in the songs themselves, and I note the winding path Coltaine have taken to get here not to contradict ‘second-album’ narratives around Brandung, but to appreciate the actual work, real-life effort put into their progression of sound. As dug-in as Brandung is, and as refreshingly individual as it sounds, it’s almost too easy to pretend it and they came out of nowhere, emerging from a crack in the ground with a fully-realized stylistic take. That can be a good but if fun if you’re a fan, but it ultimately devalues the artistry on display by removing the context of how they got there.

The brooding goth rock of “Keep Me Down in the Deep” with Frasch‘s drawling voice overtop, pulling together calm and restlessness. The chasmic affect of “Abyssal Sands” in following “Above the Burning Sand” as side B unfurls from the intro it’s given through the guitar build and ebb of “Wirbelwind” and the point of arrival that the title-track “Brandung” represents, its two-stage movement through shuffling, echoing doom rock into minimalist ambient reaches, prefacing the almost-YOBbian plucked notes of the epilogue “Solar Veil.” Coltaine are able to make it harsh, engrossing, gorgeous or deathly, and in the spirit of ungenred outfits like Crippled Black Phoenix, what their creativity seems most to be chasing is its own ends.

It would not be a surprise if the next Coltaine leaned more into black metal, but that it doesn’t feels honest in terms of the songs and the cogency of mood throughout. In the intros, interludes, short-instrumentals, whatever you want to call them — “Tiefe Wasser,” “Black Coral,” “Wirbelwind,” “Abyssal Sands,” “Solar Veil” — the four-piece do more than simply complement the more fleshed-out ‘songs.’ It’s not a case of this-was-half-a-part-and-we-made-it-a-thing, and the purpose these shorter pieces serve is beyond the decorative.

The transitions between are mostly defined — that is, the near-wash at the culmination of “Keep Me Down in the Deep” fades out completely before the standalone guitar of “Black Coral” begins to provide pastoralist sanctuary — but the fluidity of one track still informs the next, whether that’s the acoustic-integrated strum of “Memories of Ice” leading to the defined riff starting “Keep Me Down in the Deep” — a crucial moment of initial listener immersion — or the ritual-psych heavyfolk of “Wirbelwind” completing its in-the-woods-at-night ceremony before the low rumble sets the stage for the guitar floating at the outset of “Above the Burning Sand.” Brandung is rife with these details, within, between and among its songs, and as a result, across its span, it reaches into the ethereal while keeping at least one collective foot on the ground.

At its heart, that’s what makes Brandung a progressive work. It is considered unto its natural-sounding recording and the high-end vibrancy of its most shimmering resonances, and patient without being so indulgent as to lose either its own plot or the listener’s fickle attention. It ponders without being ponderous, and while that’s a thing to celebrate, the underlying message Coltaine are sending still feels related toward an ideal of growth. Do not, in other words, anticipate that whatever they do next — perhaps a pivotal ‘third’ album in the series begun by Forgotten Ways — will sound anymore precise to this as this does to the one before it.

There’s much to hear in the spirit of “Brandung” in both its loud and quiet stretches, but what comes through most of all to me is the transience of the moment being captured and the sense that Coltaine are unwavering from their forward direction. No doubt they’ve learned some important lessons about themselves and their sound with Brandung, while engaging a broader audience besides. How those will be applied over the next few years is among the more exciting questions the record asks, but hardly the limit of its interrogations.

Coltaine, Brandung (2025)

Coltaine links

Coltaine on Bandcamp

Coltaine on Songkick

Coltaine on Instagram

Coltaine on Facebook

Lay Bare Recordings website

Lay Bare Recordings on Bandcamp

Lay Bare Recordings on Instagram

Lay Bare Recordings on Facebook

The end of this month will bring the first-ever Lay Bare Fest, put together at the behest of Lay Bare Recordings, whose varied and international lineup will be showcased at The Black Heart in London. The initial announcement for the all-dayer came through in May, and the lineup has now been finalized, not only with Coltaine and The Answer Lies in the Black Void and Mrs Frighthouse celebrating new album releases, but with new UK-based additions Kulk, Forlorn and Taz Corona.

If the latter name rings familiar, you might recall Corona from her time in Undersmile and the related project Coma Wall. I’m not sure what form her solo work takes, if she has a band with her or is acoustic, plugged-in, etc., but she’ll open the day ahead of Rats and Daggers and Mrs Frighthouse, both divergent and pummeling as they are.

Looks like good fun for the sonically adventurous. The PR wire brought the poster and details, so by all means, have at it:

LAY BARE RECORDINGS to Host First-Ever London Festival; “Lay Bare Fest: Frequencies Across Borders”!

Lay Bare Recordings, an independent label known for its deep love of heavy, heartfelt, and boundary-pushing music, is set to cross the pond for the first time with its own festival. In a powerful cross-border collaboration, Lay Bare Fest: Frequencies Across Borders will take over The Black Heart in London on Saturday, September 27, 2025.

Tickets are on sale now! Get them HERE: https://dice.fm/partner/forlorn/event/7d2xkv-lay-bare-fest-frequencies-across-borders-27th-sep-the-black-heart-london-tickets

Location: The Black Heart, London
Date: Saturday, September 27, 2025

Line-up:
Forlorn (UK)
Kulk (UK)
The Answer Lies in the Black Void (HU/ NL)
Coltaine (GER)
Rosy Finch (SP)
Mrs Frighthouse (UK)
Rats and Daggers (NL)
Taz Corona (UK)

Founded in 2013 by Désirée Hanssen in the Netherlands, Lay Bare Recordings has become a trusted home for artists who defy easy categorization. With a catalog of over 67 albums spanning doom, sludge, post-metal, and experimental sounds, the label prides itself on authenticity and community, supporting a DIY culture where passion and dedication come first. Every release is more than just music; it’s a story pressed into wax, meant to be shared and treasured.

This one-day label showcase is a collaborative effort between Lay Bare Recordings, Chaos Theory, and Pride Management. In a fractured post-Brexit landscape, the festival stands as a statement, a call to unite the UK and European underground scenes at a time when collaboration is more crucial and complicated than ever. Lay Bare Fest is about building bridges between people who believe the underground still matters – not just between countries, but between all who support it, from musicians to music lovers, labels, bookers, and photographers. It’s a gathering for the open-minded to connect through music.

Known for amplifying genre-defying creativity, Lay Bare Fest is hosting a lineup that reflects unity over division. Expect genre-defying, boundary-pushing Lay Bare acts like Rosy Finch (SP), Coltaine (GER), Mrs Frighthouse (UK), The Answer Lies in the Black Void (HU/ NL) and Rats and Daggers (NL). And recently added upcoming bands Taz Corona (UK), Forlorn (UK) and Kulk (UK).

Adding to the excitement, the event will feature three exclusive album release shows in the UK for Mrs Frighthouse, The Answer Lies in the Black Void, and Coltaine, who will all be playing their recently released albums for the first time in the country.

Experience the energy. Feel the frequencies. Be part of the Lay Bare Family.

https://laybarerecordings.com/
https://www.facebook.com/laybarerecordings/
https://www.instagram.com/laybarerecordings/
https://laybarerecordings.bandcamp.com/

Mrs Frighthouse, “DIY Exorcism” (2024)

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Benedikt Klemens Berg of Coltaine

—

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I’d describe what I do as creating music together with three people who share the same seriousness as I do, while still leaving space for each of us to express ourselves individually. Music has always been about following what feels right to me. I had vocal and classical violin lessons as a child, but quit when I was 15. I only returned to music at 22, after my mother passed away, when I wanted to connect more with my youngest brother Moe, who was playing guitar in a Black Metal band at the time. That’s when I picked up the bass and taught myself by jamming with people in our local scene. Ever since our first show, I never wanted to lose that feeling again. Several years later, in 2022, we formed Coltaine, and I’m incredibly grateful to have these people by my side.

Describe your first musical memory.

My first musical memory is playing violin at a recital in a church when I was a child and honestly, I didn’t enjoy it at all. I think it was the moment I realized that music has to feel right to me, otherwise it doesn’t work. Funny enough, in November I’ll be back in a church with Coltaine at the Sonus Obscura Festival, sharing the stage with bands like Dool, Dolch, Saturnalia Temple and Daevar. In a way, it feels like a kind of payback time.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Seeing the Mongolian group Huun Huur Tu in a small chapel is my best musical memory so far. Damn, another church… I think they are following me. I had to get up from my seat, move all the way back, and just let myself be carried by the music, crying out of pure joy for almost the entire set.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

Before we founded Coltaine, when I was playing in another band with my brother Moe, we often struggled to find people who shared our mindset and seriousness about music. You think you’ve found collaborators with the same drive, only for them to move away or stop making music. Some people in our Karlsruhe music scene even lost their way or their lives due to heavy drug abuse. That period really tested my belief in the value of dedication and focus in creating music.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

I think artistic progression opens doors to new possibilities and allows more freedom to express yourself. I feel I have more control over what I want to express in less time, which makes it easier to convey my ideas.

How do you define success?

Being able to stay true to yourself in what you do and continuing to do what you love.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Fiends who gave up on their passion. It’s painful to see people stop doing what they truly love.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

Making an acoustic or a pure drone ambient record. I’m also a big fan of soundtracks, and the idea of composing a score for a movie or a game really excites me.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Connecting people.

Say something positive about yourself.

I always follow through on things I truly believe in, no matter the challenges.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Going with friends to travel in the Balkans in October.

[Photo by Daniel Kilgus.]

https://linktr.ee/coltaine
https://coltaine.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/coltaine/
https://www.facebook.com/coltaineband

https://laybarerecordings.com/
https://laybarerecordings.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/laybarerecordings/
https://www.facebook.com/laybarerecordings/

Coltaine, “Keep Me Down in the Deep” official video

Lay Bare Recordings will present the first-to-my-knowledge Lay Bare Fest in London on Sept. 27, with the five-so-far acts playing The Black Heart to be joined by I don’t know how many more. The forward-thinking Netherlands-based label will showcase acts from its international roster of artists including Germany’s Coltaine — whose new album is set to release through Lay Bare in September — as well as Rosy Finch from Spain, the industrialist Mrs Frighthouse from Scotland, and the dark folk of Kariti and the post-metallic The Answer Lies in the Black Void, making for a lineup-thus-far that’s as broad stylistically as it is geographically.

And I guess even if you’re not going to be traveling to Camden Town to check out the show at The Black Heart, the underlying message here is that digging into these acts — each for different reasons, each offering something of their own — is advisable. Lay Bare consistently backs bands who prize their creative individuality across genre lines, and it seems accordingly like the show’s ‘Frequencies Across Borders’ subtitle — which is awesome; more unity, less division — will likewise transcend methodologies. If you’re curious to know who else will be added, the label’s roster is something of a weirdo dream-team, so take your pick. I’ll forego speculation so as not to feel silly later.

But this is awesome and worth knowing about whether you will see it or not. That’s all. It came from social media:

Tickets are now live for Lay Bare Fest – Frequencies Across Borders at The Black Heart!

Line-up so far:

Coltaine (DE)

Rosy Finch (SP)

Mrs Frighthouse (UK)

kariti (RU/IT)

The Answer Lies In The Black Void (HU/NL)

The label showcase festival will feature exclusive album release shows from some of the Lay Bare Recordings roster. More announcements coming soon…

https://laybarerecordings.com/
https://www.facebook.com/laybarerecordings/
https://www.instagram.com/laybarerecordings/
https://laybarerecordings.bandcamp.com/

Mrs Frighthouse, “DIY Exorcism” (2024)