The Nicsperiment's Top Nine Albums of 2025
Well, that certainly was...something. 2025 was, objectively, by circumstance, the worst year of my life. Thankfully, I had some enjoyable music to keep me company. Of all the albums I heard, and I heard a lot this year, these nine were my favorite. Last year, I couldn't even get to nine, so this music is something to be thankful for!
9. Messa -- The Spin
Progressive, sometimes heavy rock music that rides a sort of stoner rock line, but also feels rooted in classic rock. Sooty female vocals give the band a cool edge, and that's before the noir-like saxophone touches and sophisticated, tasteful guitar solos come in.
8. Bleed -- bleed
This year saw plenty of retro rock, where the retro sound is a sort of angsty, atmospheric, uptempo nu-metal. I don't care about musical snob brownie points and will without hesitation or irony say that I love nu-metal, and think it is an unfairly maligned genre. Of the two throwback nu-metal albums on this list, bleed has the weaker songwriting, but the focus here is more texture than songwriting, so that the listener feels like they are spacing out during an early 00s college winter break.
7. Abigail Williams -- A Void Within Existence
I can't deny that black metal veterans, Abigail Williams, put out a more epic album in 2019's Walk Beyond the Dark, which employed strings to attain a cinematic, mind-blowing sound. This year's A Void Within Existence is happy to keep things more down to Earth, featuring more nasty guitar harmonics than strings, but there are still some brutally epic moments, and thelengthy closer, "No Less Than Death," might be the most exhilarating and cathartic song this band have ever recorded.
6. Faetooth -- Labyrinthine
Doomy, sludgy, slow and atmospheric music that just makes me feel good.
5. Split Chain -- motionblur
The other nu-metal throwback album on this list, motionblur still sounds like an early 00s winter break, but focuses a little less on period-perfect textures, and more on songwriting, ensuring Split Chain spin out many memorable, highly replayable tracks on this, their debut.
4. Moving Mountains -- Pruning of the Lower Limbs
I've definitely liked some Moving Mountains tracks in the past, but after more than a decade-long hiatus, the band return with something that, at least on an album level, feels head and shoulders above their previous work. Pruning of the Lower Limbs sounds like the album The Appleseed Cast would have recorded after Two Conversations, if they'd honed more into catchy songwriting instead of more complex instrumentation. That's not to say the emo-tinged rock here on Pruning of the Lower Limbs has weak instrumentation, but the focus is more on tight songwriting, to the band and listener's benefit.
3. The Armed -- The Future Is Here and Everything Needs to Be Destroyed
I needed an arty punk rock album this year and The Armed more than delivered here. The borderline insane, noisy collective are known for chaotically tracking their songs, and I've liked spots in their previous albums, but The Future Is Here and Everything Needs to Be Destroyed is a huge artistic leap forward for The Armed, and may be the album I listened to the most in 2025, between late night drives and runs where I needed an energy boost. And the feeling...the feeling is just right.
2. Spiritbox -- Tsunami Sea
As Spiritbox got a little less dark and a bit catchier over the years, even though they've lost none of their heaviness, it's become cool to dismiss them. Cool, but exceedingly stupid. Tsunami Sea takes everything Spiritbox have done before, fusing brutal, djent-influenced metal with prettier textures, and fittingly, vocalist, Courtney LaPlante's alternating throat-shredding screams and soaring singing, to an even higher level. That sentence felt too complicated for its own good, but I remain excited about where this band goes next.
1. Greet Death -- Die In Love
As I get older, I become more set in my ways and more and more different from the average person in a rock band. I think my life is very different from that of most of the member's of most of the band's I've posted in this piece. And yet, music is the universal language, and I connected to 2025's Die in Love more than any other album I've heard this year, perhaps due to its focus on mortality, perhaps simply because it is unbelievably good. Featuring two very different, yet stunningly complementary singer/songwriters who go together like oil and more oil, the perfectly sequenced Die in Love flows between the two of them so smoothly, the album feels like a classic after only a couple listens. This is a candidate for album of the decade.
9. Messa -- The Spin
Progressive, sometimes heavy rock music that rides a sort of stoner rock line, but also feels rooted in classic rock. Sooty female vocals give the band a cool edge, and that's before the noir-like saxophone touches and sophisticated, tasteful guitar solos come in.
8. Bleed -- bleed
This year saw plenty of retro rock, where the retro sound is a sort of angsty, atmospheric, uptempo nu-metal. I don't care about musical snob brownie points and will without hesitation or irony say that I love nu-metal, and think it is an unfairly maligned genre. Of the two throwback nu-metal albums on this list, bleed has the weaker songwriting, but the focus here is more texture than songwriting, so that the listener feels like they are spacing out during an early 00s college winter break.
7. Abigail Williams -- A Void Within Existence
I can't deny that black metal veterans, Abigail Williams, put out a more epic album in 2019's Walk Beyond the Dark, which employed strings to attain a cinematic, mind-blowing sound. This year's A Void Within Existence is happy to keep things more down to Earth, featuring more nasty guitar harmonics than strings, but there are still some brutally epic moments, and thelengthy closer, "No Less Than Death," might be the most exhilarating and cathartic song this band have ever recorded.
6. Faetooth -- Labyrinthine
Doomy, sludgy, slow and atmospheric music that just makes me feel good.
5. Split Chain -- motionblur
The other nu-metal throwback album on this list, motionblur still sounds like an early 00s winter break, but focuses a little less on period-perfect textures, and more on songwriting, ensuring Split Chain spin out many memorable, highly replayable tracks on this, their debut.
4. Moving Mountains -- Pruning of the Lower Limbs
I've definitely liked some Moving Mountains tracks in the past, but after more than a decade-long hiatus, the band return with something that, at least on an album level, feels head and shoulders above their previous work. Pruning of the Lower Limbs sounds like the album The Appleseed Cast would have recorded after Two Conversations, if they'd honed more into catchy songwriting instead of more complex instrumentation. That's not to say the emo-tinged rock here on Pruning of the Lower Limbs has weak instrumentation, but the focus is more on tight songwriting, to the band and listener's benefit.
3. The Armed -- The Future Is Here and Everything Needs to Be Destroyed
I needed an arty punk rock album this year and The Armed more than delivered here. The borderline insane, noisy collective are known for chaotically tracking their songs, and I've liked spots in their previous albums, but The Future Is Here and Everything Needs to Be Destroyed is a huge artistic leap forward for The Armed, and may be the album I listened to the most in 2025, between late night drives and runs where I needed an energy boost. And the feeling...the feeling is just right.
2. Spiritbox -- Tsunami Sea
As Spiritbox got a little less dark and a bit catchier over the years, even though they've lost none of their heaviness, it's become cool to dismiss them. Cool, but exceedingly stupid. Tsunami Sea takes everything Spiritbox have done before, fusing brutal, djent-influenced metal with prettier textures, and fittingly, vocalist, Courtney LaPlante's alternating throat-shredding screams and soaring singing, to an even higher level. That sentence felt too complicated for its own good, but I remain excited about where this band goes next.
1. Greet Death -- Die In Love
As I get older, I become more set in my ways and more and more different from the average person in a rock band. I think my life is very different from that of most of the member's of most of the band's I've posted in this piece. And yet, music is the universal language, and I connected to 2025's Die in Love more than any other album I've heard this year, perhaps due to its focus on mortality, perhaps simply because it is unbelievably good. Featuring two very different, yet stunningly complementary singer/songwriters who go together like oil and more oil, the perfectly sequenced Die in Love flows between the two of them so smoothly, the album feels like a classic after only a couple listens. This is a candidate for album of the decade.
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