COUNT VLAD'S AOTY 2025

 


When I prepare my lists I always ask myself a few questions. Will I listen to this album in several weeks/months/years? Is there a staying power? Does it really excite me? Can I sing along and/or remember the songs (if the genre allows it, actually). The AOTY lists most of the time are snapshots of a moment in time, and very soon after, all can change... With all this in mind, plus the shortlisted albums and the already published lists of death and black metal, I sat down and developed the final list of 2025 releases. 

2025 marked the death of too many heroes of our scene. You know who they are. Let's not forget them. 

And here's the AOTY list featuring 50 albums. No surprises. It is a mix between MY TOP 50 DEATH METAL ALBUMS OF 2025, MY TOP 60 BLACK METAL ALBUMS OF 2025, and, of course, the rest of the genres/albums that I loved the most during the year. For the sake of consistency. Is it a good list or a bad list? It is a mixed bag. It is my list, though, and I make the rules. I made it in a hurry, but I tried to put everything into some order, considering the number of albums and genres that I listened to. Almost all albums featured on the AOTY list are present in the monthly lists on this blog. 

Album of the year? CORONER! What a return! I have loved the band since 1989. Every album of theirs is a masterpiece; they are unfuckwithable. 
Frightful was leading the list as of February til October when Coroner was out. Naturally, What Lies Ahead now is No.2 with its mind-blowing energy, anger, and barking vocals. The thrash-death vibes remind me of the end of the 80s - beginning of the 90s period. (think of the vibes around early Death, Possessed, etc, when death metal was mixed with tons of thrash.)
Frightfuls is closely followed by Helloween's Giants and Monsters. With their previous album, I made a mistake putting it very low in my list then, while it is still in heavy rotation with me. Best Time is probably my most listened-to song since then. Giants... could have been even No.1 or 2 for nostalgic reasons too, if it wasn't the Coroner masterpiece (plus, the nostalgia for the good old times again). 

And then the rest. There have been some really strong releases in 2025 in between the piles of crap as usual. Do we need so many releases? No. Because everything becomes fast food, and we can't fully drown in, absorb, and enjoy the music. We are always in a hurry to check out that next one in the schedule. And in general, the overall quality is lower, which means very, very few will turn into klassiks, if any. 

So here's the AOTY list. The list of all lists. I hope I captured everything rightfully. Let's hope to see what turns into a klassik in some years! To many more to come!

1. Coroner - Dissonance Theory (Spotify)
2. Frightful - What Lies Ahead (Bandcamp)
3. Helloween - Giants & Monsters (Spotify)
4. Omnium Gatherum - May The Bridges We Burn Light The Way (Spotify)
5. Gruesome - Silent Echoes (Bandcamp)
6. Hooded Menace - Lachrymose Monuments Of Obscuration (Bandcamp)
7. Nightfall - Children of Eve (Bandcamp)
8. Hangman's Chair - Saddiction (Bandcamp)
9. Katatonia - Nightmares as Extensions of the Waking State (Spotify)

10. 1914 - Viribus Unitis (Spotify)
11. Kaevum - Ultra (YouTube)
12. Blut aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons (Bandcamp)
13. Drudkh - Shadow Play  (Spotify)
14. Acherontas - Νekyia - The Necromantic Patterns (Spotify)
15. Bell Witch - Stygian Bough Volume II
16. Heteropsy - Embalming (Bandcamp)
17. Black Soul Horde - Symphony Of Chaos (Spotify)
18. Sallow Moth - Mossbane Lantern (Bandcamp)

19. Cabinet - anhedonia (Bandcamp)
20. Tårfödd - Insikt Och Förfall/Dödsriket 2023-2024 (Bandcamp)
21. Deftones - Private Music (Spotify)
22. RITUAL ASCENSION - Profanation of the Adamic Covenant (Bandcamp)
23. Paradise Lost - Ascension (Bandcamp)
24. Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power (Spotify)
25. Testament - Para Bellum (Spotify)
26. Tribal Gaze - Inveighing Brilliance (Bandcamp)
27. Sacrifice - Volume Six (Spotify)

28. Mörtual - Altar of Brutality (Bandcamp)
29. Malthusian - The Summoning Bell (Bandcamp)
30. Vacuous - In His Blood (Bandcamp)
31. Novembers Doom - Major Arcana (Bandcamp)
32. Sarastus - Agony Eternal (Bandcamp)
33. Sargeist - Flame Within Flame (Spotify)
34. Blood Abscission - I I (Bandcamp)
35. Tenebrae Aeternum - Profana Veritas (Bandcamp)
36. Teitanblood - From the Visceral Abyss (Bandcamp)

37. Esoctrilihum - Ghostigmatah – Spiritual Rites of the Psychopomp Abxulöm (Bandcamp)
38. Nattverd - Tidloes Naadesloes (Bandcamp)
39. Varnheim - Void (Bandcamp)
40. Melancholie - Winterkronieken (Bandcamp)
41. Yellow Eyes - Confusion Gate (Bandcamp)
42. Corrupter - Gloria in Profundis (Bandcamp)
43. Hedonist - SCAPULIMANCY (Bandcamp)
44. Darvaza - We are Him (Bandcamp)
45. Nite - Cult of the Serpent Sun (Spotify)

46. Clairvoyance - Chasm of Immurement (Bandcamp)
47. Der Weg einer Freiheit - Innern (Bandcamp)
48. HEXEKRATION RITES - Misanthropic Path Of Carnal Deliverance (Bandcamp)
49. Wings of Steel - Winds of Time (Spotify)
50. Bleeding Through - NINE (Spotify)



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