#recordsothemonth — Public Fediverse posts

Record’s o’ the Month – October 2025

By Steel Druhm

The holidays are in full swing, turkeys have been stuffed, and thoughts turn to gift-giving, tree trimming, and snow golem building. Into this hectic, Mariah Carey-voiced silly season comes the October Record(s) o’ the Month. Yes, it’s a lot to process this time of year, and yes, it may be the Ho, Ho, HO that breaks your Christmas spirit like a wishbone, but we must endure for the good of the children. Unwrap these generous gifts and be thankful you didn’t get cesspool coal or spoiled pruno, you greedy fooks!

What more can we say about the progressive death metal of An Abstract Illusion? We fanboyed long and hard on their 2020 opus, Woe, and now in 2025, a new reviewer picked up the mantle and fanboyed just as hard over The Sleeping City. It’s almost like they paid us! Loaded with synths and emotional textures, The Sleeping City doesn’t try to replicate the melancholy of Woe, but instead finds its own groove with hints of Blood Incantation in its tasteful ferocity and venom. Violin, cello, and multiple vocalists help round out the scope and tapestry, and everything is played for and with emotion and feelz. Words like “masterpiece” have been thrown around the AMG offices despite my regime of brutal whippings and electro-torture. As a gobsmacked Killjoy gushed, “The Sleeping City is different enough to further expand An Abstract Illusion’s fanbase while retaining the heartfelt compositions that garnered such a large following before.” I guess there must be something special here after all.1

Runner(s) Up:

Aephanemer // Utopie [October 31, 2025 | Napalm Records | Bandcamp] — Number one on my pile of shame is Aephanemer’s brilliant Utopie, which takes the things that make these French neoclassical melodeath dealers great and continues building. Fortunately, while I’ve been trapped in the nether realm—a glass cage of emotion and questionable well-being—I have capable wordsmiths who are willing to climb over my near-corpse to produce brilliant reviews. Grin Reaper waxed poetic and had the added benefit of waxing correctly: “Utopie is the sound of a band with a vision so crisp and vivid that all you need to do is close your eyes to be whisked away to paradise. Aephanemer oozes jubilance and confidence, harnessing the successes of previous albums and honing them to an eager edge,” he gushed, “sallying forth with nary a concern for detractors. In a year when melodeath claimed two of 2025’s Records o’ the Month and saw huge releases from legends and newcomers alike, Utopie claims the top spot in the genre. Aephanemer in 2025 best embodies the spirit and triumph of what symphonic melodeath can do, mustering a celebration of undeniable charm and panache.” I mean, that’s pretty close to what I would’ve said. Just, y’know, late and with unearned confidence. – AMG

Dawnwalker // The Between [October 24th, 2025 | Independent Release | Bandcamp] — U.K.’s Dawnwalker are the kind of band that evolve and mutate from album to album. On The Between, they offer a single 30-plus-minute song showcasing a delicate blend of progressive, post, folk, doom, death metal, and New Age sounds,2 without forfeiting their metal credentials. With a concept centered on death and dying, things won’t exactly be cheery, but the music’s ebbs and flows take you on a real journey. The album’s seamless movement between heaviness and serenity lets it slip beyond strict genre boundaries and into something more cinematic. The Between feels meticulously structured and, because of its grand scale, continues to reveal new layers with each listen. As Twelve exuberantly exclaimed, “Writing a half-hour song in any context is a mighty undertaking, and it’s impressive how well Norgate and Dawnwalker pull it off on The Between.” Dawnwalker walks the walk.3

Howling Giant // Crucible & Ruin [October 31st, 2025 | Magnetic Eye Records | Bandcamp] — Nashville stoner/psychedelic rockers Howling Giant have a pretty unique sound that references multiple genres and some better-known acts, yet they never lose their own unmistakable identity. Their rock-forward foundation carries traces of sludge and a healthy dose of prog, all wrapped around hooky choruses and riffs built to level small buildings. The new record sharpens that formula: the songwriting feels broader and more ambitious, with layered guitars, soaring vocal harmonies, and psychedelic atmospheres that push them well beyond the usual stoner-rock palette. At the same time, they’ve kept the crushing low-end and riff-driven punch that makes their catalog so replayable, giving the album an immediacy that sticks from the first spin onward. All of it is cloaked in just the right amount of stoner smoke and mirrors, and there’s a rowdy, anthemic groove running through the whole affair—complete with nods to Helmet—so you know fun will be had. As Dear Hollow screamed at unsuspecting readers, “Songwriting prowess on full display, the kitchen sink of riff, solo, melody, and catchiness has never looked so clean!” Howl with the giant pack.

#2025 #AnAbstractIllusion #CrucibleRuin #Dawnwalker #HowlingGiant #RecordSOTheMonth #TheBetween #TheSleepingCity

Record(s) o’ the Month – August 2025

By Angry Metal Guy

I said last month (well, last week, but who’s counting) that everything had been leading to that point. That’s true, because I was so stoked to make Calva Louise the Record o’ the Month for July in a somewhat relevant fashion that I did a mad dash to get that out before they were off to their tour in the USA. And then I was left there, feeling empty. I had worked so hard. I had come so far. But in the end, I wondered if it really even mattered.1 In my malaise, I turned to August releases. And realized something: «No, Doctor Metalero Enojado», me dije, «aún no todo está perdido. Ahora puedes subir el/los Disco(s) del Mes a tiempo. Y así les cierras la boca a todos esos progres llorones de los comentarios para que sepan quién manda.»2 Said differently…

WE DID IT! WE’RE #1! WE’RE #1! USA! USA! USA! USA! BOOORTLES!!!

Angry Metal Guy didn’t yet exist when I got into In Mourning. In 2008, I got caught in the hype machine for a little record called Shrouded Divine. Following its release in 2008, the band went through a period when it felt like they were still establishing an identity, but in recent years, In Mourning has been on a low-key tear. While both 2019’s Garden of Storms and 2021’s The Bleeding Veil were very good records, In Mourning has outdone themselves on The Immortal [Bandcamp], which was released August 29th, 2025, from Supreme Chaos Records. Without mincing words, The Immortal is clearly the band’s best record since its debut, and I would submit that it’s the best melodeath record since Insomnium’s Winter’s Gate.

When faced with an exceptional record, it can sometimes be difficult to explain exactly why it’s exceptional.3 The melodies are beautiful and rich, hitting you right in the feels whether carried by voice (“Silver Crescent”) or on trem-picked guitars (“As Long as the Twilight Stays”). The riffs are punishing with a good balance of chug (“The Sojourner”) and trem (“Staghorn”), resulting in something that alternates between death and black in feel, if not in orthodoxy. These slight evolutions of sound help to keep In Mourning’s approach fresh, but it’s here that the dark matter of composition can be deduced, but not directly observed. None of this is totally novel in the band’s sound. But sometimes shit just works. There’s a lot of work that goes into writing. And no matter how good you are, not every minor key melody you write is going to be a tear-jerker, not every chunky riff is going to be quite as hooky or head-bangable as others, not every closer is going to be a Song o’ the Year candidate like “The Hounding”. But sometimes, you just keep rolling natural 20s.

The Immortal feels like one of those records blessed by the Metal Gods. Things that aren’t so different from what has gone before, but it all just hits a little harder. This makes The Immortal unquestionably one of the best records released in 2025, and everyone around here agrees with Kenstrosity’s eminently reasonable—arguably even understated—take that “with The Immortal, In Mourning further solidifies its status as an elite act in the melodeath pantheon.” The Immortal is on par with the best records in the genre,4 and “you owe it to yourself to hear it.” I think he underrated it.

Runner(s) Up:

Blackbraid // Blackbraid III [August 8th, 2025 | Self-release | Bandcamp] — Black metal is not an easy genre to make vital in the Year of Angry Metal Overlord 2025. But Blackbraid has a sound that feels vital. There’s a no bullshit intensity that Sgah’gahsowáh brings with III’s blast beats, croaks, and the trem-picked wall of sound that brings me back to falling in love with Emperor. Like the very best black metal, however, Blackbraid is not afraid of dropping into groove and synchronized-guitar-swing-friendly riffing that makes the blasts hit harder. There’s also something undeniably slick about Blackbraid. Digging through the potential standout albums from August, I kept coming back to III, because it gives me the things that I love about black metal: the intensity, the feel, the Ulveresque atmosphere without the obvious plagiarism. And it accomplishes this while avoiding the traps of so many modern black metal bands. As Doom_et_al so aptly summed it up: “Blackbraid III is everything a fan of either the band or this style of music could want. Like the land that inspires it, it is infused with violence and beauty and complexity. But it’s the ability to combine these disparate concepts with epic scope and intense vulnerability that sets it apart.” Say what you will, Blackbraid III is a real accomplishment.

Farseer // Portals to Cosmic Womb [August 22nd 2025 | Self-release | Bandcamp] — Farseer has its roots in stoner and sludge, and my eyes just shut of their own accord while I wrote that. So, it should come as no surprise to you that a self-released stoner/sludge release didn’t exactly jump off the page at me when reading about it. But thanks to some fine writing by Tyme and a well-placed bundle of cash in my freezer, I gave Portals to Cosmic Womb another listen. And another listen. And another listen. Turns out, these cats have some riffs in them. When their soupy riffs hit, they hit with the kind of splat that kills. Portals to Cosmic Womb has a drive that adds life to the thick guitar sound and the not-particularly-complex riffs, and for 39 minutes, it holds the listener in its grip without breaking a sweat. Our very own Tyme waxed poetic about Portals to Cosmic Womb, writing, “Farseer basting in their creative juices over the past six years has resulted in a vastly improved product, as Portals to Cosmic Womb shatters any notions of a sophomore slump. As if constructed from a blueprint of Opethic design, Farseer crafted Portals to Cosmic Womb with a near effortless flow. Its six songs—spanning a very manageable forty minutes—find Farseer merging the best parts of meandering instrumentals into rock-solid compositions that, like spring and neap tides, rise and fall with dramatic intensity.” Yeah, he’s saying it’s really good, y’all. Keep up!

Anchorite // Realm of Ruin [August 1st, 2025 | Personal Records | Bandcamp] — Anchorite is one of those bands that I shouldn’t be expected to like. The blues-infused doom roots here are strong, and yet, Realm of Ruin makes a surprisingly convincing case for itself. As is often the case when working with doom metal, the vocalist tends to drive whether a band is good or bad. In this case, Leo Stivala does a great job of balancing the aesthetics of Metal Voice™ and actually being able to sing with power. He’s got a pretty keen sense for melody, and his performance stands out. With that in place, Anchorite’s riffmeisters get to work writing a solid post-Candlemass doom that hits a place in my sadboi soul when I listen to it. And yet, part of what makes Realm of Ruin work is that it’s also surprisingly immediate at times. There’s a vibe like US power metal or thrash metal that suffuses the whole album, and with its unique production—that snare drum actually feels punchy, guys, so that’s weird—and its idiosyncratic songwriting, it all starts to feel special. Serial overrater and all-around softy Steely D put it like this: “Realm of Ruin is one of those albums you enjoy on the first go-through, and with each spin, it reveals more of itself until you’re fully submerged in the band’s craftwork. Anchorite has writing chops, and Realm of Ruin is an immersive stroll through the ruins with moments of genuine brilliance and grandeur.” So, there’s that.

#2025 #Anchorite #Aug25 #Blackbraid #BlackbraidIII #BlogPosts #Farseer #GardenOfStorms #InMourning #Insomnium #PortalsToCosmicWomb #RealmOfRuin #RecordOTheMonth #RecordSOTheMonth #RecordsOfTheMonth #TheBleedingVeil #TheImmortal #WinterSGate