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The Year In Review – Top 10 Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Albums of 2025

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“Who the fuck is Justin Bieber?” – Ozzy Osbourne

There’s not much to celebrate in rock and metal music in the same year when we lost the one and only John Michael “Ozzy” Osbourne. Nothing will ever be the same without the Prince of Darkness, the Madman, The Wizard of Ozz. There isn’t a single artist or band reviewed in the history of The Headbanging Moose that wasn’t influenced in several ways by Ozzy and, of course, by Black Sabbath. It is a very sad year indeed. However, Ozzy was always in a great mood, always happy, and I’m sure that, wherever he is now, he wants to see us all smiling and laughing, because that’s what life is all about. He also wants us to keep attending rock and metal concerts to have a good time with our loved ones, with our closest friends, just like Keith Ibbitson of Metal Paparazzi and I did so many times this year, covering incredible bands the likes of Blackbraid, Ne Obliviscaris, Cattle Decapitation, Blind Guardian, and so on. I’ve also had the utmost pleasure of seeing the mighty Judas Priest in Dalhalla, Sweden, a dream come true for this fanboy here, and I can’t wait to “run for my life” in 2026. Having said all that, let’s honor the life of Ozzy with The Headbanging Moose’s Top 10 Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Albums of 2025, excluding EP’s, best of’s and live albums, and keep on rockin’ like the Madman until our very last breath!

1. Blackbraid – Blackbraid III (REVIEW)
Behold the stunning next chapter in the musical and spiritual journey of the witch hawk of Black Metal hailing from the Adirondack Mountains.
Best song of the album: Wardrums At Dawn On The Day Of My Death

2. Werewolves – The Ugliest of All (REVIEW)
The torchbearers of “Caveman Death Metal” continuing to annihilate intellects with an unlistenable barrage of truly hideous music.
Best song of the album: The Ugliest of All

3. Testament – Para Bellum (REVIEW)
Let’s prepare for war to the sound of the breathtaking fourteenth studio album by California’s own masters of old school Thrash Metal.
Best song of the album: Para Bellum

4. Helloween – Giants & Monsters (REVIEW)
These German giants of Heavy Metal and monsters of Rock N’ Roll are back with their ass-kicking seventeenth studio album.
Best song of the album: Majestic

5. An Abstract Illusion – The Sleeping City (REVIEW)
This incredible Swedish Progressive Death and Black Metal entity returns with their heaviest and most atmospheric work to date.
Best song of the album: Like a Geyser Ever Erupting

6. Allegaeon – The Ossuary Lens (REVIEW)
World domination awaits to the sound of the striking new beast by one of the must-see bands of the current tech death scene worldwide.
Best song of the album: The Swarm

7. 1914 – Viribus Unitis (REVIEW)
Trench warfare meets blackened death and doom in 1914’s fourth onslaught of war-torn fury.
Best song of the album: 1918 Pt 3: ADE (A Duty to Escape)

8. Cryptopsy – An Insatiable Violence (REVIEW)
Canada’s own Death Metal machine returns with their ruthless ninth studio album.
Best song of the album: Until There’s Nothing Left

9. Baest – Colossal (REVIEW)
Back from the fires of Denmark, this unstoppable creature will crush you with their fourth studio album.
Best song of the album: Colossus

10. Diabolizer – Murderous Revelations (REVIEW)
The torchbearers of diabolical abomination unite once again to drag us down into the fiery abysses of Turkish Death Metal without warning.
Best song of the album: Deathmarch of the Murderous Tyrant

And here we have the runner-ups, completing the top 20 for the year:

11. Lorna Shore – I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me (REVIEW)
12. Impureza – Alcázares (REVIEW)
13. Crimson Shadows – Whispers of War (REVIEW)
14. Primal Fear – Domination (REVIEW)
15. Serenity In Murder – Timeless Reverie (REVIEW)
16. Khôra – Ananke (REVIEW)
17. Panzerchrist – Maleficium – Part 2 (REVIEW)
18. Ominous Ruin – Requiem (REVIEW)
19. Wrath of Belial – Embers of Dead Empires (REVIEW)
20. Grima – Nightside (REVIEW)

Not only that, here’s once again our Top 10 EP’s of 2025, proving once and for all that the duration of an album is not that important in the end. As long as the music is great, the whole thing can be only one second long, like the classic “You Suffer” by Napalm Death!

1. When Plagues Collide – Kingmaker (REVIEW)
2. De Profundis – The Gospel Of Rot (REVIEW)
3. Fimbul Winter – What Once Was (REVIEW)
4. NecroticGoreBeast – Brute (REVIEW)
5. Serpent Corpse – Retaliate (REVIEW)
6. Akouphenom – Connections To The Erebus (REVIEW)
7. Necht – The Inevitable Suffering (REVIEW)
8. Discovery Through Torment – Telesynthetic Rebirth (REVIEW)
9. Der Rote Milan – Verlust (REVIEW)
10. Eleine – We Stand United (REVIEW)

Do you agree with our list? What are your top 10 albums of 2025? Also, don’t forget to tune in every Tuesday at 10pm BRT on Rádio Coringão to enjoy the best of classic and underground metal with Jorge Diaz and his Timão Metal, and every Thursday at 8pm UTC+2 on Midnight Madness Metal e-Radio for the best of underground metal with The Headbanging Moose Show!

Metal Xmas and a Headbanging New Year! See you in 2026!

And of course, as we really don’t like those boring Christmas songs here on The Headbanging Moose, we’ll leave you with what’s perhaps the most emotional and strongest metal hymn of the year, the charity version of “War Pigs”, by Black Sabbath, recorded by Judas Priest and with Ozzy himself sharing the vocal duties with the Metal God Rob Halford! This is the epitome of rock and metal music!

Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses…

Concert Review – Lorna Shore (Great Canadian Toronto, Mississauga, ON, 10/27/2025)

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Fans from all over Ontario and the rest of Canada felt the everblack festering within them in one of the heaviest and most emotional performances of the year in the entire country.

OPENING ACTS: Shadow of Intent and The Black Dahlia Murder

I don’t think there’s another way to start this review without stating my profound disappointment (and I’m sure everyone else who attended the show also feels the same) for not having PEELINGFLESH as one of the opening bands for LORNA SHORE this Monday night at Great Canadian Toronto during their North American Tour 2025. I mean, SHADOW OF INTENT and THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER were both phenomenal guests, but I strongly believe the raw energy emanating from the Brutal Death Metal blasted by PeelingFlesh would have been beyond welcomed by the crowd. We should have had the pleasure of witnessing the unstoppable Damonteal Harris and his henchmen mercilessly kicking our asses onstage like when they opened for Aborted a few months ago in Toronto, and although I don’t want to start with any politics bullshit, I’ll never understand why a band that simply wants to play their music in any city in Canada during their US and Canadian tours has their entry denied into the country. I wish I could say more about it, but I’ll try to remain calm, and blast some of PeelingFlesh’s sickest tunes on Spotify to lighten up my mood. Well, at least before the other bands started I was able to try Slayer Burger’s new creation In Darkness, and I must say it’s by far their best burger to date. Hopefully they’ll get a lot of positive feedback from fans and keep it as part of their regular menu for a while, because that burger is indeed absurdly tasty.

Keith Ibbitson of Metal Paparazzi was also pissed off he wasn’t going to take some crazy photos of PeelingFlesh, but of course he was more than ready to fire his camera during the brutal performance by Connecticut, United States-based Symphonic Deathcore beast SHADOW OF INTENT. The second “low point” of the night was the fact their frontman Ben Duerr didn’t make it to the show in Toronto as he went back to the US to join his wife for the birth of his second child (congratulations to both!), but his replacement Adam Mercer, former vocalist of the also killer Deathcore entity A Wake in Providence, did a superb job and inspired all fans at the venue for some wild headbanging and mosh pit action. Having recently released the pulverizing Imperium Delirium, available on BandCamp and on Spotify, the band put on a demonic concert, with their heaviness, breakdowns, and the gruesome guttural by Adam making the entire venue tremble like in the best song of the night, the demented hymn Vehement Draconian Vengeance. I can’t wait for Shadow of Intent to visit Canada again, but of course next time I want to see them with Ben Duerr on vocals (despite having enjoyed Adam on the mic a lot). So please, Ben, no more babies during your next Canadian shows, alright?

Setlist
Prepare to Die
Flying the Black Flag
Mechanical Chaos
Vehement Draconian Vengeance
Infinity of Horrors
Feeding the Meat Grinder
The Heretic Prevails

Band members
Adam Mercer – vocals
Chris Wiseman – guitars, samples, backing vocals
Andrew Monias – bass
Bryce Butler – drums

I guess each band on the bill had at least two or three massive walls of death with mosh pits right after during their shows, and of course Detroit, Michigan’s own Melodic Death Metal masters THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER made sure their fans had a great time while inside such a unique experience only available at extreme music concerts, one of them offered as a “birthday gift” to one of their guitarists, by the way. The band now spearheaded by the charismatic Brian Eschbach was also on fire from start to finish, blending songs from their entire career with their latest album Servitude, released in 2024 (all also available on BandCamp and on Spotify), inspiring everyone who still had enough stamina left to slam like a maniac inside the pit. The gorilla with a giant inflatable banana during Statutory Ape was a nice touch to their already incendiary show, and I just wish their sound, in special the vocals, was a little bit better as it sounded muffled at times. Anyway, those guys put on a tremendous warmup for Lorna Shore, and I’m sure they’ll keep blasting their undisputed blend of melodeath for many years to come, always in honor of our beloved Trevor Strnad (RIP).

Setlist
What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse
Everything Went Black
Nightbringers
A Vulgar Picture
Warborn
Statutory Ape
Cursed Creator
Unhallowed
Funeral Thirst
Deathmask Divine

Band members
Brian Eschbach – vocals
Ryan Knight – guitars
Wes Hauch – guitars
Max Lavelle – bass
Alan Cassidy – drums

LORNA SHORE

Finally after a short break it was time for New Jersey’s own Deathcore behemoth LORNA SHORE to kick off one of the heaviest performances of the year in Canadian lands. Blending songs from their three releases with Will Ramos on vocals, those being their 2021 EP …and I Return to Nothingness, their 2022 masterpiece Pain Remains, and their recently released beast I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me, all available on BandCamp and on Spotify, the band was on absolute fire from start to finish, already hypnotizing the entire crowd from the very first notes in Oblivion. They made sure their show was not only a lecture in Deathcore, but also visually appealing, with the big background screen and the lights adding an extra touch of electricity to their already insane performance.

Songs like Unbreakable, Sun//Eater, Cursed to Die, Into the Earth, and the extremely emotional Glenwood reached deep inside our hearts and souls, but I must say as a fan of really heavy music I had a total blast with Prison of Flesh and To the Hellfire. Those breakdowns were demented, plus of course the inhumane guttural by Will and the crushing blast beats by Austin Archey, igniting some of the wildest mosh pits of the entire night. Everyone was having a great time, including our lord and savior Jesus Christ, leaving the doors open for another concert by those guys in Canadian lands in a not-so-distant future. The highlight of the night was obviously their three-part masterpiece Pain Remains during the encore, and until today I can’t decide which one is my favorite. Sometimes it’s Pain Remains I: Dancing Like Flames, sometimes Pain Remains II: After All I’ve Done, I’ll Disappear, and sometimes Pain Remains III: In a Sea of Fire, like this Monday night. Those were flawless, and I bet several fans were crying of joy during such an intense part of their set.

On a side note, a few minutes before the first band hit the stage, when I was eating the In Darkness Burger at the Slayer Burger food truck, I met a very young and cool guy (and I’m so sorry, I forgot his name just because I’m terrible with names) who flew from Saskatoon to Toronto only for the show, and if you know the geography of Canada you have a very good idea of how lengthy and exhausting that journey can be. He said he was beyond excited to see his favorite band of all time live for the first time ever, and I bet he was on cloud 9 after the show was over. Furthermore, that’s a good indication of how big Lorna Shore are getting to the point people are going out of their way to see them live, just like Iron Maiden and Metallica fans do all the time. Another guy, for instance, was flying to Montreal the next morning to see Lorna Shore again. Because Lorna Shore are simply awesome, and as long as they’re around, heavy music will remain.

Setlist
Oblivion
Unbreakable
Of the Abyss
Sun//Eater
Cursed to Die
Into the Earth
Glenwood
Prison of Flesh
To the Hellfire

Encore:
Pain Remains I: Dancing Like Flames
Pain Remains II: After All I’ve Done, I’ll Disappear
Pain Remains III: In a Sea of Fire

Band members
Will Ramos – vocals
Adam De Micco – guitar
Andrew O’Connor – guitar
Michael Yager – bass
Austin Archey – drums

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Album Review – Lorna Shore / I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me (2025)

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Call them heroes or hell-bringers, the torchbearers of modern-day Deathcore are inviting us all to be part of their own movie to the sound of their the declarative and breathtaking fifth album.

Call them heroes or hell-bringers, it doesn’t matter to the  men of New Jersey, United States-based Symphonic Deathcore beast Lorna Shore. Produced and engineered by Josh Schroeder, and displaying a sinister artwork by Zac Shiffer, I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me, the declarative fifth album in their career, and the follow-up to their 2022 masterpiece Pain Remains, sees the band currently formed of Will Ramos on vocals, Adam De Micco and Andrew O’Connor on the guitars, Michael Yager on bass, and Austin Archey on drums putting all of metal’s subgenres on notice. Because after one listen, you’ll wonder what motivates them and what took metal so long to evolve. You also might wonder whose truck may have hit you while you were listening to the album.

Like the soundtrack to a horror movie, the opening track Prison of Flesh grows in intensity until all hell breaks loose to the visceral beats and fills by Austin in a demented display of brutal and vile Deathcore, while Oblivion follows a similar pattern, with Will’s deep, inhumane growls and screeches sounding like a creature form the abyss, being therefore perfect for some insane action inside the circle pit to the wicked riffs by Adam and Andrew. In the infuriated In Darkness, the background orchestrations and choir elevate the song’s epicness to a whole new level, with once again Will growling manically while the sound of their guitars exhales harmony and electricity; and they continue to fill every single space in the air with their striking fusion of Deathcore and symphonic elements in Unbreakable, leaning towards the sound from Pain Remains. Then a serene start ignites Glenwood, another epic and atmospheric creation by the band overflowing melancholy and darkness, albeit a bit generic in the end.

Will keeps roaring like a true lion in Lionheart, where Austin makes sure his beats and fills are not only heavy-as-hell, but also complex enough to keep the music as vibrant and fresh as possible, followed by Death Can Take Me, another pulverizing display of Symphonic Deathcore where the crushing drums by Austin walk hand in hand with Will’s desperate screams. Then presenting elements from traditional metal styles like Heavy and Thrash Metal we have War Machine, with its background keys elevating its punch, not to mention the excellent job done by Adam and Andrew armed with their axes. Their second to last metallic attack is offered in the form of A Nameless Hymn, with Michael and Austin sounding ruthless with their heavy-as-hell kitchen; and last but definitely not least, Lorna Shore bring forth a masterpiece of darkness entitled Forevermore, starting in an almost Atmospheric Black Metal manner before morphing into a grandiose feast of symphonic elements intertwined with the sheer heaviness of Deathcore, or in other words, it’s definitely a beautiful conclusion to such an epic album.

Lorna Shore are neither dire misery goats, nor flower-picking pollyannas and definitely not lapdogs currying favor from those who would exalt the ordinary, inviting us all to embrace I Feel The Everblack Festering Inside Of Me and, therefore, become part of the band’s own movie. “I think a lot of bands – especially in deathcore – they write stuff that they think is cool, but they’re not necessarily writing stuff that’s true to them,” commented Will Ramos. “I think between everything that we’ve been through over the last couple years, those things have helped push the band to think bigger. We’re putting our heart and soul into it. I think it’s those little experiences that we’ve been through that help shape that. It doesn’t necessarily work for everybody, but it works for us.” Furthermore, you can get in touch with one of the torchbearers of modern-day Deathcore via Facebook and Instagram, stream their vicious, down-tempo creations on Spotify, and of course grab your copy of the poetically titled I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me by clicking HERE or HERE. When heroes are hard to find, try looking inside yourself first. and when good heavy music is hard to find, simply enjoy the phenomenal new album by Lorna Shore.

Best moments of the album: Prison of Flesh, Unbreakable, Lionheart and Forevermore.

Worst moments of the album: Glenwood.

Released in 2025 Century Media Records

Track listing
1. Prison of Flesh 7:00
2. Oblivion 8:19
3. In Darkness 6:43
4. Unbreakable 4:49
5. Glenwood 6:43
6. Lionheart 5:44
7. Death Can Take Me 7:16
8. War Machine 4:53
9. A Nameless Hymn 5:14
10. Forevermore 9:47

Band members
Will Ramos – vocals
Adam De Micco – guitar
Andrew O’Connor – guitar
Michael Yager – bass
Austin Archey – drums