Top Ten Releases of 2025

It’s that time of year again… the season of lists, reckonings, and rear-view mirrors. Every year I swear I won’t write one of these. Every year I’m wrong. Because the bands who bleed in studios and bust their ass on the road deserve every scrap of light they can get. This playing music for a living ain’t for everybody.

Nine times out of ten, when you see a band sweating it out in some low-lit club, they’ve been living out of vans for weeks, sometimes months. No real beds. No real meals. Just coffee, gas station burritos, and the endlessness of highways. They miss birthdays. They miss weddings. They miss home. And still, they climb onto those stages and tear the roof off in the name of Rock N’ Roll, so fools like me can show up, press a record into my hands, grab a patch or a shirt, and shake the hands of the people who remind me that I’m still alive.

And that’s the tragedy: live music is becoming a dying art in the small scenes. Clubs are closing their doors. The dirty little rooms where your soul got rewired by feedback and fury are disappearing one by one.

This year, my list reflects all of that. Not by design, but by instinct. This isn’t politics. This isn’t favors. This is my truth. These albums grabbed me by the throat, slammed me against the wall, and made me jump, shout, sweat, and believe. Nobody asked for placement. Nobody got special treatment. This was built from whatever rattled my heart and shook my cage the hardest.

I’d be dead wrong if I didn’t give thanks to the people behind the curtains, the firms, the reps, and my small but savage team of brothers who went to war alongside me this year, and to my website manager, Josh, who kept it between the ditches when it got crazy. Lastly, to my darling wife, Renee’, who continuously gives me the space, and the grace needed to write and listen to so much music. I couldn’t do any of this without you, your love and support are the catalysts to everything I do, wrong or right. You are the reason…

So… without further ado, here’s our list of the Top Ten/Twenty Albums of the Year, and some well-deserved honorable mentions.

BLACK ANGEL'S TOP TEN

10. Atomic Witch – Death Etiquette (Redefining Darkness Records)
Thrash metal steeped in Horror, rot, filth, and decay. This is NSFW, NSFL, and definitely not for tourists. Lifers only. No apologies. No survivors.

9. L.A. Guns – Leopard Skin (Cleopatra Records)
The Hollywood vampires keep stalking the overcrowded streets of L.A., making all the old heads feel immortal and dangerous again. I wasn’t cool enough to land a review copy, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t make my list. No grudges here, just respect where it’s due.

8. Savage Master – Dark & Dangerous (Shadow Kingdom Records)
This one didn’t click on the first swing, but after a few spins it caught fire and never let go. Now it lingers like a beautiful, haunting afterglow. Caught them live in ATL and they proved it the hard way, one of the best bands working today. Long live Stacey Savage and her henchmen!

7. Demented Are Go – Psychotic Mutilation (Sunny Bastards Records)
Whoever is responsible for keeping Sparky upright and breathing deserves a standing ovation and a blood offering. This record was worth every agonizing second of the wait. It feels damned good to have a fresh DAG slab in my filthy hands. Psychobilly has been dragged deep underground, but the kings have returned and they’re still swinging blades.

6. Rotgut – 24oz Cantrip (Self-Released)
A disgusting, glorious throwback to when Thrash and Horror ruled the gutters. You can smell the blood, rust, and rot leaking from this thing before you even press play. I swear I needed a tetanus shot after reviewing it. A violent wall of sound from this Pac-West three-piece. I’m begging for a follow-up and something physical that isn’t just a cassette - vinyl, CD, hell, carved in bone, the world needs this noise.

5. Sölicitör – Enemy in Mirrors (Gates of Hell Records)
This band wasn’t even on my radar until this record hit me like a brick wrapped in barbed wire. After one listen, I panic-bought their entire vinyl catalog, including this gem. Pure early ‘80s Speed Metal filth - grit, power, and blades-out shredding. And the vocalist doesn’t sing - she hunts, stalks, and kills. No mercy. No tears. Only steel.

4. Sanhedrin – Heat Lightning (Metal Blade Records)
Another female-fronted powerhouse trio that does not miss. Their sophomore effort for Metal Blade is built for lifers - denim, leather, and Metal pumping through your arteries. This one’s been in weekly rotation since it dropped, and it hasn’t lost a single tooth. This is American Metal history being written in real time.

3. NITE – Cult of the Serpent Sun (Season of Mist Records)
This one was an accident that turned into an obsession. I wasn’t even supposed to review it, the guy who had it passed because it “wasn’t his thing.” Good. It became mine. At first, the vocals live in that snarling, Satyricon-adjacent space, but the real hook is the music, and before you know it, you're snarling right along. This isn’t what they advertised. This is twin-guitar sorcery, razor-sharp songwriting, and disgusting-level musicianship. Imagine Thin Lizzy or Iron Maiden reborn with Black Metal venom in their veins. I beat this record to death all year. Caught them live on their first East Coast run and they were lethal and humble in equal measures. Snagged their first two records at the show, and those are mandatory listening too. Nothing but love for the dudes in NITE.

2. Helstar – The Devil’s Masquerade (Massacre Records)
This was one of the biggest surprises of the year for me. The album hit hard on the very first spin, and I had it pre-ordered before the dust even settled. After all these years, Helstar have delivered something that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with their classic era, and that isn’t nostalgia talking, that’s fact. I’m always on the hunt for releases that drag me back to my childhood, that resurrect that old feeling you can’t fake, and this record has it in spades. It’s been a daily spin since it landed in my hands, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Helstar are still carrying the banner for real American Thrash Metal, and I’ll be standing under that flag until the lights go out.

1. Mean Mistreater – Do Or Die (Dying Victims Productions)
This stamped itself as number one the second it hit my inbox. From the very first spin, nothing else even got close. These Texas maniacs are everything that’s right with Metal - lifelong road dogs grinding it out night after night, loading in, loading out, and murdering every crowd in their path. No gimmicks. No bullshit. No distractions. Just loud guitars, reckless riffs, and faces melting in real time. If you worship old-school Metal, your search ends here. Mean Mistreater aren’t chasing the crown — they’re coming to take it. And if the next release is anywhere near as savage as their last two, it’s over.

Honorable Mentions~

Bronco – Self-Titled (Magnetic Eye Records).

Pagan Altar – Never Quite Dead (Dying Victims Productions).

Bashful Billy – Late For An Early Grave (A Corpse With No Name).

Denial Of Life – Witness The Power (Creator-Destructor Records).

Pentagram – Lightning In A Bottle (Heavy Psych Recordings)

Hot Shot – We’ll Be Right Back EP (Self-Released)

Cradle Of Filth - The Screaming of the Valkyries (Napalm Records)

Stoned Jesus – Songs To Sun (Season Of Mist Records)

Testament – Para Bellum (Nuclear Blast Records)

The Unsatisfied - Real Gone Pale Face Reissue (Self-Released)