2024 turned into a hotbed of severely blackened and razor-sharp metal shards. So much so that we had to ruthlessly curtail the number of smelly items on the malevolent list for that year. Now, 2025 looks a tad lighter, but there is still enough material to torment the minions of Satan for eternity. So, bear with us. To project all pitch-black abominations we got onto one single list would last us for another year. Bad choices must be made, and terrible taste will inevitably destroy good intentions. Welcome to this year’s list from hell.
And as always, this isn’t our top 10 list yet. And with that said, let’s begin sticking that sizzling trident into the rotten flesh of the damned.
Alukta, who? The RMR crew grew a bit confused once Merok hit our review pipe. An unknown project bubbling up to us lightbringers from the lowest recesses of the metal underground. Besides, RMR and her minions are hardly fans of blackened atmospheric doom. But somehow, the frugal yet powerful airs of shaman lore and brutally tuned down, sludgy Atmospheric Black Metal finally sold us. It is a complex piece brought to us by a duo from the boonies of the French countryside, true. But the more you delve into its murky and dangerous depths, the more you will uncover. So, let ‘er roar a few times over.
If you look for 50 shades of unease, Jade‘s Mysteries of a Flowery Dream will do it for you. The level of angst will rise already once you check out the spider-infested album art. Yet, the merciless delivery of melancholy and brutal, barebones metal power will keep you in its terrible grip until the latest unhinged riff has petered out. Finally. Because this is heavy fare that will descend on you without abandon and mercy. And it will inevitably start to grate along your bones. So, prepare to be brutalized; there are no flowers here. Ferociously good metal is straight ahead, and you should try some.
But let’s take stock with one of the most amazing and unusual Black Metal albums 2025 coughed up. Zéro Absolu, they call themselves, and La Saignée (the bleeding) is their astonishingly sick concoction. French Black Metal to the core, the band blatantly draws from the big names in this country’s rich BM community. But the Post Black component truly blew us away. At times, this sounds like a dead Alcest calling from the grave to mess up the soundscape here. It is a wild ride, and you need to be up for it. Patience will get you there, and once you reach full immersion, the piece will keep on giving. But have a care with that soul of yours. It might be doomed the moment you hit play.
Behold, the fiend is about – and it is furious. Lord Belial set a thunderously malevolent marker in 2025 with Unholy Trinity. Close to their French brethren, they forgot about the kitchen sink but threw the whole fucking hell’s kitchen at the audience. Sporting whiffs of armageddon, the band ran an angry, grimy, bone-crunching, and totally vile attack straight at the audience. You’ll find total mayhem, where The Whore and the Antichrist are left roaming without restraint. It is this primordial and bottomless soup of horrors that you will be wallowing in for a very long and never-ending 50 minutes of torment. Don’t fire it up without your little book of spells and your very own circle of salt. It won’t end well, else.
So far, nobody ever challenged the supremacy of French Black Metal over at the RMR Review desk. Until early in 2025, that is. Enter Christ Dismembered from down under. And they brought us Ov Vampiricy, a story of a bunch of succubi on steroids. Deliciously oldish in structure and pretty ‘modern’ in approach, the band delivered a succulent, refreshingly brutal piece of the traditional blackened arts, with a Scandinavian flavor to boot. So far, we haven’t heard of any churches on fire down in the other hemisphere. But who knows? With that level of malevolence on display, you’ll never know what’s lurking around the corner. Right?
If anyone was able to paint a sonic picture of desolation and unease in 2025, it is, for sure, Khôra and their sharply bladed piece, Ananke. And they got there by offering a potpourri of styles, highly technical dissonance, and a lot of negative emotion that might have bubbled up straight from Lovecraft’s ghost. A ghostly yet cosmic rage that will ravage your eardrums without mercy or remorse. So, take your pills before you go there. You might not get out of your straitjacket, else.
If you listen to Ghörnt, visions of them old, brutal legends native to the narrow Swiss alpine valleys appear in your mind. Bluetgraf reaches far into this black box containing all those equally blackened gems, a well-woven Extreme Metal piece is made of. But, strangely enough, this here tale speaks about the impaler of Transylvania, not some ancient account of devilish acts. So, it appears that all them stories are basically similar all across the geography. And that might lead us to unspeakable conclusions that should never be said aloud. Be afraid, be very afraid, as they like to tell us.