Posted in Whathaveyou on March 5th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Stacked lineup for Esbjerg Fuzztival 2026 in Denmark, which is expanding beyond its two-dayer presentation with a pre-party on Thursday, May 28 that will be overseen by the fest’s house band, the instrumentalists Vestjysk Ørken, whose third LP will be out by the time they hit the stage. Yawning Man and Fuzz Sagrado headline, with Howling Giant, Craneium, Child, SoftSun, Deville and others providing strong backing for the fest-proper, for which the lineup is now fully announced. That’s as opposed to the pre-show, which still has question marks on the poster below for two more bands playing.
Whoever they get, the Fuzztival always delivers a sense of vibe and already we see it doing so here while showcasing variety in a heavy underground context. I mean, they have ChildandChildrenn — what more could you want? Kidding aside, even two bands like Craneium and Howling Giant, both of whom I would describe as melodic and progressive heavy rock, are aproaching those ideas from different angles, so while it’s 14 acts for two days, each one is bringing something of their own to the proceedings.
From social media:
ESBJERG FUZZTIVAL – Full Festival Announcement!!
We are PROUD to be hosting the legends of the desert YAWNING MAN as our Saturday night headliner! What an absolute treat that we have been looking forward to for a long time!
Also proud to be adding SoftSun to the poster! The project between Gary Arce (Yawning Man) and Pia Isaksen (Superlynx). We can’t wait!
14 bands over two days – but wait, there’s more! The Fuzztival Pre-Party on Thursday the 28th we will host 3 additional bands TBA. First band on stage will be Vestjysk Ørken – while they have opened the festival for the past 8 editions, the tradition is now coming to an end, and they are moving to the pre-party instead! Don’t miss out, as their third album is releasing in April, so they will have fresh tunes for us!
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 24th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Particularly if you live in this part of the world, you may have heard murmurations in the NYC heavy underground of …In the Key of Doom over the last few months, as Gav’s Heavily Curated has been carefully laying the groundwork for its inaugural two-dayer set for this October. The Meadows, in Brooklyn, will host the event, which brings Greenleaf to NYC for the first time and will feature the likes of Bongripper, Insomniac, Howling Giant, High Desert Queen, Crystal Spiders, as well as Seismic and Grave Bathers from Philly, Leather Lung from Mass, Afghan Haze from CT and maybe you wherever you come from.
Looking ahead on the calendar, Oct. 2 is a Friday (and thus the 3rd is Saturday, duh), and with 11 acts total, I’m assuming it’ll be five one night and six the next, plus the lightshow, and considering the bands involved, that’ll be plenty to make a start. New York is a famously terrible town to do a festival, between the most spoiled audience in the world, the cost of any and everything, and the fact that nothing lasts because sooner or later it’s all going to get turned into investment-condos. I salute Gav’s Heavily Curated for persisting in the face of history and good sense — the truest sign of passion, and no, I’m not being sarcastic — and I hope to be there to see this one play out that early October weekend.
The PR wire brought the announcement and ticket link:
GAV’S HEAVILY CURATED – …In the Key of Doom – Oct 2 & 3
Gav’s Heavily Curated proudly presents the inaugural edition of “…In the Key of Doom” at The Meadows in Brooklyn on October 2nd & 3rd, 2026! Two nights of doom, sludge, stoner, heavy psych and desert rock made by worshippers of the riff for worshippers of the riff! ITKOD will feature headline sets from the legendary Bongripper celebrating 20 years of doom by playing their first northeast show in over 8 years and Sweden’s desert rock icons Greenleaf playing their first ever NYC set in their storied career!
Plus, plenty more heaviness from Insomniac, Howling Giant, Glacier, High Desert Queen, Afghan Haze, Leather Lung, Crystal Spiders, Seismic and Grave Bathers!
More than just an amazing lineup, ITKOD also welcomes NYC’s visual maestro Liquid Light Labs to the GHC family. Liquid Light Labs will be providing mind-melting live visuals with each set over the 2 nights. We can’t wait for you to join us! Two night passes are available now at:https://kyd.to/Rxmi4Pns
🤘💀💨
Artwork by Steven Yoyada Sponsored by Made in Brooklyn Silk Screeners Consulting by Lick of My Spoon Productions
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 5th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
It was clear Nashville’s Howling Giant were going to have a busy 2026 supporting their 2025 album, Crucible and Ruin (review here), which was my pick last year for album of the year and which also won the year-end poll outright. We’re seeing now a bit of what that looks like. The European tour dates below were posted on social media toward the end of last week when I was traveling — the press release below came in yesterday, so I’m almost timely — and I wanted to put the previously-announced West Coast tour with that to give a fuller picture.
They’ll do SXSW, Mojave Experience and headlining club shows for much of March and into April, and then at the start of May, they begin at Desertfest Oslo what I’m pretty sure is their first headlining tour of Europe, with slots at Desertfest London, Gockelscream, Esbjerg Fuzztival and Freak Valley to follow. Add to that rad spots on the UK/Euro circuit like Bannermans in Edinburgh, Neue Zukunft in Berlin and Rare Guitar in Münster and this is a hell of a tour following up a hell of a tour.
I doubt it will be the last they undertake before the end of the year, either, so keep an eye out. I’ll do the same.
From the PR wire:
HOWLING GIANT announce European Headline Tour 2026
The long-term weather forecast for late spring in Europe just changed to bright blues skies and steaming hot! Brilliant stoner metal outfit HOWLING GIANT will journey from Nashville, Tennessee across the Atlantic to delight European audiences by bringing their acclaimed third full-length “Crucible & Ruin” to the stages of the old continent for the first time.
Please see below for all currently confirmed live dates, album details of “Crucible & Ruin”, and biographical information.
HOWLING GIANT comment: “We are excited to partner up with Atonal Music Agency to get back to Europe on the heels of our ‘Crucible & Ruin’ album”, drummer Zach Wheeler writes. “It has been about two and a half years since our last European tour and we’re quite pleased to perform in a ton of cities where we’ve never played before! Looking forward to see you on the road!”
HOWLING GIANT European Headliner Tour 2026 09 MAY 2026 Oslo (NO) Desertfest Oslo 10 MAY 2026 Stockholm (SE) Undergången 11 MAY 2026 Malmö (SE) Plan B 15 MAY 2026 Nottingham (GB) The Mist Rolling Inn 16 MAY 2026 Edinburgh (GB) Bannermans 17 MAY 2026 London (GB) Desertfest London 19 MAY 2026 Coventry (GB) The Tin 20 MAY 2026 Bristol (GB) The Gryphon 21 MAY 2026 Amsterdam (NL) de Tanker 23 MAY 2026 Berlin (DE) Neue Zukunft 24 MAY 2026 Dresden (DE) Gockelscream Fest 27 MAY 2026 Paris (FR) Supersonic Records 28 MAY 2026 Münster (DE) Rare Guitar 29 MAY 2026 Hagen (DE) Werkhof Hohenlimburg 30 MAY 2026 Esbjerg (DK) Fuzztival 31 MAY 2026 Hamburg (DE) Stellwerk 03 JUN 2026 Den Bosch (NL) Willem Twee 04 JUN 2026 Rotterdam (NL) Baroeg 05-07 JUN 2026 Siegen (DE) Freak Valley Festival
Previously announced Spring West Coast US tour: w/ Insomniac 3/11 – Birmingham, AL – Saturn 3/12 – New Orleans, LA – Siberia 3/13 – Austin, TX – HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT 3/14 – Tulsa, OK – Whittier Bar 3/16 – Taos, NM – Goathead Collective 3/17 – Santa Fe, NM – Desert Dogs 3/18 – Tempe, AZ – Yucca Tap Room 3/19 – Las Vegas, NV – The Griffin 3/21 – Joshua Tree, CA – MOJAVE EXPERIENCE 3/22 – Bakersfield, CA – Jerry’s Pizza 3/24 – San Francisco, CA – Bottom Of The Hill 3/25 – Eureka, CA – Siren’s Song Tavern 3/26 – Eugene, OR – John Henry’s 3/27 – Portland, OR – High Water Mark 3/28 – Seattle, WA – The Funhouse 3/29 – Vancouver, BC – Astoria 3/31 – Salt Lake City, UT – Aces High Saloon 4/1 – Denver, CO – HQ 4/2 – Kansas City, MO – Record Bar 4/3 – St Louis, MO – Platypus Bar 4/4 – Nashville, TN – TN Brew Works w/ Black Tusk 4/17 – Wilmington, NC – Reggie’s 42nd Street Tavern 4/18 – Baltimore, MD – Grim Reefer Fest 4/19 – Raleigh, NC – Pour House
Line-up Tom Polzine – guitar, vocals Zach Wheeler – drums, vocals Sebastian Baltes – bass, vocals Adrian Lee Zambrano – guitars, synthesizers
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 15th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
No arguments to make here with the lineup for Grim Reefer Fest 2026. The Baltimorean all-dayer has been a regular feature of East Coast Springtime for the last however-many, and continues to grow its reach each time out. Black Tusk take a headliner position that in past years has gone the likes of Weedeater or Bongzilla, and that feels fair enough for the heft they bring, while Howling Giant provide a rocking counterpart as they support their well-received 2025 album, Crucible and Ruin (review here). They’ll be in Europe in May for Desertfest as well, if you’re in that part of the world and not this one.
Of course there’s more to it than headliners, with New York’s Shadow Witch and Pennsylvania’s Almost Honest representing Argonauta Records, the fest-associated Haze Mage playing a set as the house band, and Seasick Gladiator, Total Maniac, Necromancer and Cemetery Sex included. All told, it’s a nine-band day that starts at 3:30 and goes, well, probably until you’re ready to go to bed. Party hearty.
From the PR wire:
Grim Reefer Fest 2026
We are excited to announce the return of Grim Reefer Fest! Join us once again at the legendary Ottobar in Baltimore, MD for a full day of heavy music, dank vibes, and high spirits! Join us on Saturday April 18th, 2026 as we celebrate the High Holidays with a stacked lineup from start to finish with some of the best bands the scene has to offer! Featuring the heavy sludge sounds of Black Tusk, the heavy harmonized riffs Howling Giant (whose latest album was one of the best of 2025), the rockin sounds of Baltimore favorites Total Maniac, and many more (9 bands total)! Additionally, fest founders Haze Mage are announcing an indefinite hiatus after this year’s festival so all the more reason to come give these local heavy heroes a proper sendoff!
This is the 8th year of Grim Reefer Fest and one of our most ambitious lineups yet! We’re proud of what we’re accomplishing as a DIY grassroots festival. The genres and sounds for this year’s bands range are diverse, rocking, and full of some of our favorite underground bands on the scene today!
The full list of performers at this year’s fest includes:
Black Tusk Howling Giant Total Maniac Haze Mage Shadow Witch Cemetery Sex Almost Honest Seasick Gladiator Necromancer
Doors are at 2:30pm, Music starts at 3:30pm and runs until midnight
Posted in Features on January 5th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Every year is different, and the 2025 year-end poll was a reminder of that. Styles develop over time, bands age out and new ones come in. I look at this results and it feels transitional, but to some degree or other, doesn’t it always? Even when there’s a clear winner from day one — and it was about day three this year; last year as I recall was tighter among the top results; it varies — we see over time the development of styles, the ebbs and flows of trend, and the rise and fall of fortunes.
Thank you to the over 255 people who took part in this year’s poll. The elephant in the room for me is that that number is down from past years, but The Obelisk didn’t have a Facebook page for half of December, so promoting was more difficult than it’s been. Hard to put things in front of eyes, though I still managed. Thanks as well to Blues Funeral Recordings, Howling Giant, Black Moon Cult and others who also shared the link around and helped to promote. That is always greatly appreciated.
As I have many, many times over, here are the rules cut and pasted. They don’t change:
Anything from Jan. 2025 to whatever’s coming out between now and Dec. 31 is eligible. If something is out digitally now and physical later and you want to include it, do. Two lists are tabulated; one of the raw votes, and one in which a 1-4 ranking is worth five points, 5-8 worth four, 9-12 worth three, 13-16 worth two and 17-20 worth one.
Got it? Cool. Let’s jump in.
—
Top 20 of 2025 — Weighted Results
1. Howling Giant, Crucible & Ruin (380 points)
2. Kal-El, Astral Voyager Vol. 1 (314)
3. Messa, The Spin (242)
4. Khan, That Fair and Warlike Form/Return to Dust (205)
5. Temple Fang, Lifted From the Wind (193)
6. Elder, Liminality/Dream State Return (147)
7. Naxatras, V (129)
8. Castle Rat, The Bestiary (127)
8. Lo-Pan, Get Well Soon (127)
9. Stoned Jesus, Songs to Sun (123)
10. Year of the Cobra, Year of the Cobra (121)
11. Black Moon Cult, Ophidian Future (The Children of Yig) (119)
12. Conan, Violence Dimension (115)
13. Goya, In the Dawn of November (103)
14. Pelican, Flickering Resonance (100)
15. Seedy Jeezus, Damned to the Depths (94)
16. Maha Sohona, A Dark Place (89)
17. Bask, The Turning (88)
17. Faetooth, Labyrinthine (88)
18. Witchcraft, Idag (86)
19. Kryptograf, Kryptonomicon (82)
20. Kaiser, 2nd Sound (77)
Honorable Mention:
The next 10: Kadavar (I Just Want to Be a Sound), Paradise Lost, Margarita Witch Cult, Rwake, Godzillionaire, Slomatics, Psychonaut, Bone Church, Borracho, Yawning Man.
Notes:
I’m not mad about it. I’m not surprised to see Messa and Castle Rat feature prominently here, and I’m not surprised that Howling Giant came out on top. Obviously that’s one I agree with. Kal-El had a strong showing, arguing in favor of accessibility and largesse in heavy rock, and Khan making their presence felt seems appropriate here, pushing the style of progressive heavy rock forward as they are.
Some reliable veteran names in Elder, Lo-Pan, Stoned Jesus, Conan, Pelican, Witchcraft, Bask, and Year of the Cobra, and some upstarts in Black Moon Cult, Kryptograf, Kaiser, Maha Sohona and the aforementioned Messa and Castle Rat, I was glad to see Temple Fang show up big, kind of surprised Witchcraft didn’t get more love, but I guess time marches on. There’s a lot here to like, and accordingly, I like a lot of it. If you were to use this as a listening guide, one way or the other, your life would be improved.
Now to the raw votes.
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Top 20 of 2025 — Raw Votes
1. Howling Giant, Crucible & Ruin (91 votes)
2. Kal-El, Astral Voyager (76)
3. Messa, The Spin (62)
4. Khan, That Fair and Warlike Form/Return to Dust (48)
4. Temple Fang, Lifted From the Wind (48)
5. Year of the Cobra, Year of the Cobra (39)
5. Stoned Jesus, Songs to Sun (39)
6. Elder, Liminality/Dream State Return (38)
7. Conan, Violence Dimension (37)
7. Naxatras, V (37)
8. Black Moon Cult, Ophidian Future (The Children of Yig) (36)
8. Lo-Pan, Get Well Soon (36)
9. Castle Rat, The Bestiary (35)
10. Goya, In the Dawn of November (31)
11. Faetooth, Labyrinthine (29)
12. Kryptograf, Kryptonomicon (26)
13. Margarita Witch Cult, Strung Out in Hell (25)
14. Bask, The Turning (24)
14. Maha Sohona, A Dark Place (24)
14. Seedy Jeezus, Damned to the Depths (24)
15. Kadavar, I Just Want to Be a Sound (23)
16. Godzillionaire, Diminishing Returns (21)
17. Slomatics, Atomicult (20)
17. Yawning Man, Pavement Ends (20)
18. Borracho, Ouroboros (19)
18. Kadavar, K.A.D.A.V.A.R. (19)
18. Winds of Neptune, Winds of Neptune (19)
19. Bone Church, Deliverance (18)
19. Causa Sui, In Flux (18)
19. Dead Meadow, Voyager to Voyager (19)
20. Paradise Lost, Ascension (17)
Notes:
First of all, no honorable mentions for a top 20 that has more than 30 entries on it. Let’s be reasonable.
Not a ton of surprises here after the weighted results above, but some interesting shuffling of place in the top 10, with Year of the Cobra faring better on the vote tally than the points, and Khan and Temple Fang tying here. Given Khan’s proggy expanse and Temple Fang’s longform meditative serenity, I imagine them in league, like, “same team” for dudes pushing heavy forward. As will happen, there were more ties this time around, Khan and Temple Fang being the first, and I wanted to include those too since, I don’t know, it seemed fair and when you believe in things like basic process transparency you end up making a list that includes its own honorable mentions. I do, anyhow.
I am not unaware that someone voted for Black Moon Cult 20 or however many times, and it’s not that I don’t care, it’s that I know that the people who read this site are intelligent enough to look at what they see with a critical eye. I count the votes as they come in, and as I’ve said in years past, I respect the hustle. If someone else’s work means enough to you to vote for it 20 times, the least I can do is honor that. If it’s someone from the band willing to put themselves out there when all the lists are published, well, isn’t that also something to honor? “I wish I was old enough to feel ways about stuff,” as Fry once said.
Bottom line, it’s a good list, and years from now when I look back at it (and yes, I assume I’m the only person who will), I’ll be glad for the shape it took in representing 2025 in underground heavy, and I guarantee you I’ll still be discovering things from all the lists included below. Because it’s infinite, so far as my feeble people-brain can process, and every year brings more than you could ever hope to enjoy in such a limited amount of time.
—
The same is true of life, at least in some ways.
It’s 2026 now, so we leave 2025 behind what feels like not a moment too soon in order to face the same terrible and stupid times, just with a different number attached. The happy news is the music is good, which is fortunate because if the last 12 months were anything to judge by, it’s going to need to be.
I leave you with everybody’s list. Note I forgot to include my own. Literally didn’t think of it until after the poll was closed. Idiota vagyok, one might say in Hungarian.
Always next year I guess.
Thanks for reading and click/push ‘read more’ to enjoy the lists.
Posted in Features on December 24th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
[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.]
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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.
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The Top 60 Albums of 2025
**NOTE**: If you’re looking for something specific, try a text search.
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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.
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30. Black Moon Cult, Ophidian Future (The Children of Yig)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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22. Khan, That Fair and Warlike Form/Return to Dust
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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18. Kadavar, I Just Want to Be a Sound / Kids Abandoning Destiny Among Vanity and Ruin
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Futurewould 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.
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The Top 60 Albums of 2025: Honorable Mention
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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…
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 2nd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Who’s up for a potentially-life-changing weekend in the desert? Well, me, for one. Barring a magic invite, I don’t imagine I’ll be there to see the inaugural Mojave Experience Festival when it takes place over two days next March, but looking at the lineup I fail to see how you wouldn’t want to. Look at that Friday bill. They call it a pre-party. Look at that Saturday bill! How many nights in your life are you going to be treated to a succession of acts like that?
It was pretty clear out of the gate — Dead Meadow and Earthless were the first two bands announced — that Mojave Experience meant business this first time out. I don’t know if this is a one-time thing or if there are intentions toward an annual happening, but either way, the assembled lineup crosses generations and stylistic borders, fostering an immediate sense of identity that’s tied to the history of the Californian desert underground with the likes of Mario Lalli, John Garcia, Gary Arce, Nick Oliveri and The Freeks involved, but that is already looking to reach beyond those geographic and aesthetic confines as well, whether that’s the doom of L.A.’s Early Moods or the acidblasting psych of Philly’s Ecstatic Vision. SoftSun and Borracho. Acid King and Hippie Death Cult. I could just go on saying names until I’ve said them all. None of them suck.
The dust has settled… and the full lineup is here. Two days !
FRIDAY • Mojave Gold (Pre-Party) Rubber Snake Charmers feat. Sean Wheeler The Freeks Arthur Seay & The RiffKillers Borracho Insomniac SoftSun
SATURDAY • Joshua Tree Lake (Main Event) Earthless Dead Meadow John Garcia Acid King Yawning Man Hippie Death Cult Nick Oliveri’s Death Acoustic Ecstatic Vision Howling Giant Early Moods
Single-day Riff Rider Passes drop Dec 5 — Friday or Saturday, your choice. Two-day bundles already gone.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 25th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Shocking news out of Nashville, Tennessee. No, not that Howling Giant are going on tour to support their new album, Crucible & Ruin (review here). I think we all saw that coming. I mean that bassist Sebastian “Seabass” Baltes has had his flowing locks surgically removed. One wonders if someone from Insomniac won’t put “Friends don’t let friends get haircuts” on a guitar at some point on this tour. In any case, a stunning revelation. I wasn’t ready.
I am ready to watch/hear Howling Giant play these songs on stage, however. It won’t happen this tour, which is mostly West Coast around slated appearances at SXSW in Austin, for Heavy Metal Parking Lot, and their previously announced slot at Mojave Experience in the Californian desert, but this won’t be the last one either. Then you get to Europe and the picture of Howling Giant‘s busy 2026 to come starts to get clearer. Spoiler: they’re going to have one.
Also, note: I’m probably going to put the Insomniac press release for this tour up as well. One, it’s an excuse to put the player stream again. Two, my own archival purposes. Three, I like writing about good tours. Just a heads up.
This is combined PR wire and social media:
HOWLING GIANT announce first North American headlining “Crucible & Ruin Tour” 2026
Nashville, Tennessee’s HOWLING GIANT announce their first headling tour in support of their acclaimed third full-length “Crucible & Ruin”. On the North American road trip this coming spring from March 11 until April 4, 2026, the cosmic stoner metal outfit will be joined by heavy psych rockers INSOMNIAC from Atlanta, Georgia.
Howling Giant comment: “We’re headed out west with our dudes in Insomniac next spring! We’ll play a bunch of new songs from Crucible & Ruin, we’ll have the new hot sauce and new shirt designs, and a brand new short-hair-Seabass. We appreciate everyone’s patience after the cancellation of our June/July run as we got things rebooked. See y’all soon!”
3/11 – Birmingham, AL – Saturn 3/12 – New Orleans, LA – Siberia 3/13 – Austin, TX – HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT 3/14 – Tulsa, OK – Whittier Bar 3/16 – Taos, NM – Goathead Collective 3/17 – Santa Fe, NM – Desert Dogs 3/18 – Tempe, AZ – Yucca Tap Room 3/19 – Las Vegas, NV – The Griffin 3/21 – Joshua Tree, CA – MOJAVE EXPERIENCE 3/22 – Bakersfield, CA – Jerry’s Pizza 3/24 – San Francisco, CA – Bottom Of The Hill 3/25 – Eureka, CA – Savage Henry 3/26 – Eugene, OR – John Henry’s 3/27 – Portland, OR – High Water Mark 3/28 – Seattle, WA – The Funhouse 3/29 – Vancouver, BC – Astoria 3/31 – Salt Lake City, UT – Aces High Saloon 4/1 – Denver, CO – HQ 4/2 – Kansas City, MO – Record Bar 4/3 – St Louis, MO – Platypus Bar 4/4 – Nashville, TN – TN Brew Worksac
Line-up Tom Polzine – guitar, vocals Zach Wheeler – drums, vocals Sebastian Baltes – bass, vocals Adrian Lee Zambrano – guitars, synthesizers
