2025 IN REVIEW
The Great Hall is loud, the mead is flowing, and the year 2025 lies vanquished behind us—a battlefield strewn with the glory of heavy metal. But even the Allfather needs his mighty warriors to separate the worthy from the unworthy. As we count down the final days of the year, the talented and hard-working contributors here at Allfather-Metal have taken the king of Asgard’s throne one by one to present their personal trophies of war. Raise your horns to celebrate the best of 2025 with us!
VINI WANDERER
Blackbraid‘s third full-length emerged from an old-growth forest, sealing the project’s place as a guiding flame for modern Indigenous Black Metal. This was not merely an album, but a living season. The Adirondack wilderness breathed through every month of the year. This is my top pick for 2025: a work steeped in emotion and atmosphere, where frostbitten riffs and ancestral memory intertwine. It balances untamed earth with immaculate production, sounding both ancient and immediate. Spiritual and unyielding, it carries the weight of land, history, and fury, standing alone in its clearing, towering and uncompromised.
1. Blackbraid – Blackbraid III
2. Aephanemer – Utopie
3. Necrodeath – Arimortis
4. Sodom – The Arsonist
5. Alestorm – The Thunderfist Chronicles
6. 1914 – Viribus Unitis
7. Manegarm – Edsvuren
8. Gaahl’s Wyrd – Braiding The Stories
9. Onslaught – Origins Of Aggression
10. Paradise Lost – Ascension
11. Avantasia – Here Be Dragons
12. Soulfly – Chama
13. Equilibrium – Equinox
14. Vintersorg – Vattenkrafternas Spel
15. Volbeat – God Of Angels Trust
CONCERTS OF THE YEAR
Iron Maiden – London Stadium, London, UK
Manowar – Pirita Klooster, Tallin, Estonia
Slayer – Finsbury Park, London, UK
Sabaton – 02 Arena London, UK
Obituary – 02 Arena London, UK
