Welcome back to MetalBite's Top 10 Albums of the Month! Yes this is several months late. There's no big reason why - shit just gets busy. Anyways, here's July, and we'll get caught up real soon for ya.

-Nate

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Abigail Williams - A Void Within Existence
Agonia Records

I remember, back in 08, when I heard Into The Ashes, I immediately loved it, the mix of symphonic black and metalcore, it was super original, at that time at least. Nowadays, not so much, let's say, with the many Lorna Shores of the world. Anyway, I must admit that I have not followed the band since, so I went in with an open mind. With an entirely new line up, except the main man, Ken Sorceron, they now have a sound closer to melodic black with a good dose of atmosphere. But I could still hear remnants of the "core" sound, mainly in the main riff of the song "Talk To Your Sleep", with its almost djent sound. But the song still contains cool atmospheric passages. There are also plenty of cool solos, great orchestration, furious blastbeats and a great vocal performance. They do not do anything new and for fans of black, they will probably be turned off by the polished production and the clean vocals of the last song but all in all, this was a pleasant experience, I probably won't listen to it a lot for the rest of the year but still, it's a good album.
-Raphael

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Crimson Shadows - Whispers Of War
Independent

Well ain't this more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Crimson Shadows has some fairly high pedigree attached to their name - they won the Wacken Metal Battle in 2013 which got them on Napalm Records, their blend of uptempo melodeath mixed with exuberant leads and clean singing choruses has just enough crossover appeal to appease extreme metal nerds and power metal dorks alike, they've toured with some high-profile bands and they share members with Lutharo, who are becoming a more known band in their own right that's blown up enough to get on the Big Band Tour Circuit in Europe. But Whispers Of War marks a new, daring frontier for the band in the sense they've opted to go the independent route and DIY several aspects of the album release. It's a tough path, but perhaps because they've grown through more traditional channels over the years, they figured they'd get more money in their pocket with this option.

If this album isn't a success, it's not based on a lack of musical merit. There's an overwhelming amount of STUFF that flies out at you, with dueling solos and leads, a versatile vocal performances that balances wailing vocals, mid-ranges growls and high rasps well, overlapping them at various points so you never fully expect what's next, and brisk rhythms full of double-bass that underscore and amplify music that's already overflowing with energy. I can't say this is my go-to style of metal, but it's got enough intensity to satisfy my extremophile tendencies and it's a ton of fun. Worth a look.
-Nate

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Recorruptor - Sorrow Will Drown Us All
Time To Kill

Recorruptor provides an answer to the perpetually confounding question: how many kick drum hits can you fit on a single album? Good gracious the amount of foot-tappin' frenzies on this thing is overwhelming (but ultimately satisfying for us speedfreaks).

Sorrow Will Drown Us All sits in an interesting middle ground, sandwiched between death metal styles in a way that is not experimental, but avoids categorization nonetheless. There's crushing, midpaced sections that resemble breakdowns, but this isn't deathcore or slam. There's an ominous, atmospheric touch, and some nasty, snarling high rasps, but to attribute a "blackened" tag to this would be erroneous. There's enough stripped-down intensity that you can't really consider this tech, but it's just too pulverizing and intense to land in the realms melodeath either.

At the end of the day, this is just punishing, startlingly effective death metal that will appeal to you, no matter what specific flavour you usually prefer.
-Nate

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Imperial Crystalline Entombment - Abominable Astral Summoning
Debemur Morti

Furious, apocalyptic, and undoubtedly frosty black metal. Mid-90s Immortal is a good comparable, albeit with less sloppy charm and more calculated precision. Perhaps a strange thing to listen to in summertime, but it might trick you into feeling a chill if your A/C is broken.
-Nate

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METALBITE'S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE MONTH

 

10: Disembodiment - Spiral Crypts
Everlasting Spew Records

My small hometown has a pretty good metal scene and has produced, what is maybe the greatest death metal band, ever, the mighty Gorguts, the pride of Sherbrooke! So, here comes Disembodiment, created in 2020 with guys from another great death metal band from Sherbrooke, Oath Div. 666, but here they opted to go with a filthier brand of death metal, flirting with goregrind and groovy death/doom, they create a truly disgusting and raw experience that still feels fresh while melting your face with heaviness. Plus, the truly disgustingly beautiful cover art by Slimeweaver is the gore cherry on top.
-Raphael

On the surface, this is just another slab of filthy, primitive, death metal - which is, of course, not a bad thing on its own - but a bit of careful listening reveals surprises within the oddly labyrinthine arrangements, howling shrieks that pierce through the murk, and additional layers of complexity and artistic refinement that gives Disembodiment an edge among the Human Centipede-esque line of Bolt Thrower clones that recycle the riffs, but somehow miss the essence that makes them so enduring. In staunch opposition to modern trends, there's very little direct hardcore influence here, so this also isn't another deathcore band doing OSDM cosplay either. Nonetheless, there's still plenty of obscenely heavy grooves here so you can get your freak on in the pit.
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 8/10

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9: Shadecrown - 0
Inverse Records

Finnish melodic death/doom. The end. Ok, I'll go a bit more in detail then that: get ready to be enveloped in melancholic melodies that will pull on your heart strings, for fans of Swallow The Sun, Insomnium or Officium Triste. This particular brand of Finnish metal perfectly encapsulates feelings of sadness and grief and 0 does it so well, mid paced melodic death metal that is often sad but in the most beautiful way, sometimes hopeful, sometimes dense, dark and heavy but never forgetting the melody. Often using strings to accentuate the beautiful melancholy, solos are always filled with purpose and Jari "Jarska" Hokka's vocal performance is the perfect low guttural growls intertwined with higher raspy growls, making the vocals not suffer from being one note and boring. Add in occasional cleans, both male and female, and you have the perfect mix of varied vocals typical for the genre. This is an album enjoyable from beginning to end, best enjoyed in a complete listen.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8/10

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8: Dephosphorus - Planetoktonos
Selfmadegod

More people need to know about this buried Greek treasure. Heaps of blackened intensity within a grindcore base, underscored with d-beats, a delicious shrieky vocal performance, and a tinge of esoteric emotion. Best enjoyed with a medium dose of shrooms and walk through the midnight stars. Early Oathbreaker is a decent comparison, but there's no underlying delicate beauty within Dephosphorus - once you peel back the decadent layers, there's nothing but unrelenting terror. Perhaps it's a metaphor for the infinite horrors of our massive cosmos? Maybe I'm just reading into it too much. Anyways, this bangs.
-Nate

Dephosphorus calls their unique musical style "astrogrind" and it gives a pretty good idea of how they sound. Inspired by The Expanse novel series by James S.A. Corey, they create "a vision of a sustainable future where humanity not only survives but thrives in harmony with its biosphere—and even with AI". And to tie these cool lyrics, they play a savage mix of death, black and grindcore coupled with a few screeching electronic sounds, made by an EBow, that gives a great cybernetic feel to the music. Overall, it's a record that feels fresh and has a great feel of urgency, plus the cover is so sick, courtesy of Graphic No Jutsu.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8/10

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7: As The Sea Parts - Psychosis
Independent

Hailing from the small town of Woodbridge Virginia, As The Sea Parts released a demo in 1995, playing the genre newly created by In Flames, At The Gates, Dark Tranquility and Carcass, then, pretty much nothing, until this year, as they released their first full length album. Psychosis is a true early Gothenburg worship, with meaty riffs, super melodic leads and solos and a funky bass that pops out in the mix. Sometimes approaching doom territories, without going full death/doom, they expertly craft a raw and heavy sound, yet still full of gorgeous melodies. The cover art by the legendary Mark Riddick was the first thing that drew my attention and I'm so glad I judged a book by its cover!
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.3/10

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6: Temptress - Catch The Endless Dawn
Dying Victims Productions

Temptress is a heavy metal band from Italy, composed of three veterans of the Italian metal scene and for their first full length they crafted an album that is the epitome of what great heavy metal should be. Good headbanging riffs, infectious chorus, great solos, all of that with a perfect sounding production! It sounds organic, the cymbals are crisp, the bass is fat, the guitars are bright, and the vocals are full of reverb for that extra epic feeling. An overall perfect heavy metal album.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.3/10

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5: Ba'al - The Fine Line Between Heaven And Here
Road To Masochist Record

There is a fine line between heaven and hell, and we live directly on it. The music of Ba'al also sits directly on that line, full of warm atmospheres and emotional build ups, but at times cold, harsh and even downright hellishly heavy. Think of Agalloch but instead of folk metal elements, it's super low and heavy sludge metal that crushes your soul. Vocally Joe Stamps navigates between piercing shrieks, low growls and tranquil cleans following the many roller coasters of this emotionally charged piece of music.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.4/10

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4: Impureza - Alcázares
Season Of Mist

What do you get when four French metalheads (three of them of Spanish descent) form a metal band? If you said flamenco infused death metal, you are correct! In what is the definitive metal album of the summer, you'll be mesmerized by the warm and captivating melodies of flamenco intertwined by ferocious and highly technical death metal. Honestly, these boys are absolute musical virtuoso, not only playing death metal of the highest quality separated by a few flamenco interludes but actually fusing their riffs with flamenco style scales and often cutting songs with traditional acoustic guitars, bass, percussion and Esteban Martin's magnificent clean vocals. Also, all the lyrics are of course sung in Spanish giving it extra authenticity.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10

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3: Floating - Hesitating Lights
Transcending Obscurity

Death metal merged with post-punk seems like one of those haphazard hybrid projects where a band jams disparate sounds together in a feeble attempt to seem novel, but this avoids that pitfall. It's a bit unnerving how well the catchy deathrock motifs work with an extreme metal backdrop - and that bass! It cuts through the mix like a machete slicing butter, grounding and driving the melodies, even when things get closer to Morbus Chron than the softer moments of Edge of Sanity. In Sweden, where the Entombed clones run rampant, I can only imagine the natives are longing for some freshness to be injected into the style - and Floating does that, not just for their home country, but in the wider realms of death metal as a whole.

Seriously, though, I can't overstate how the bass makes this album. It creates this funky groove you never wanna stop boppin' to.
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10

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2: Mawiza - Ül
Season Of Mist

Ül is the second album by indigenous groove metal band Mawiza and already they are making big waves in the metal scene. Coming from what is present day Chile, they are part of the Mapuche nation, they proudly display their culture, singing exclusively in Mapuzungun, the Mapuche language and it gives the music such a different feeling and matches to perfection with the equally original music. Their style can be generally described as groove metal but done in a completely original way, incorporating different and eclectic sounds that makes it feel truly unique. Honestly, the closest thing that comes to mind would be Magma era Gojira which makes sense giving that the last song features guest vocals from Joe Duplantier. If you want a truly refreshing metal experience do not miss out on Mawiza, a powerful experience, blending modern music with ancestral indigenous sounds for what is a pretty perfect album!
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.6/10

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1: Philosophobia - The Constant Void
Sensory Records

I love progressive metal so much, but I can be a bit picky, it needs to strike the perfect balance between highly technical playing, songwriting, melody, musicality and it needs to touch me emotionally. Philosophobia hits all of those and more! Clearly inspired by the greats of prog, like Dream Theater, this international group of talented musicians pushes prog metal to new highs. They nail pretty much all aspects of prog, it is highly complex music without forgetting to add emotion, with grandiose choruses that explode with emotions and a magnificent vocal performance by Domenic Papaemmanouil. His voice can be soft and vulnerable, soaring high and epic or even harsh with a good dose of extremity. But even their instrumental song follows the same structures and tells an emotional and epic story, no words needed. Another element they put everywhere, is their impeccable sense of atmosphere, with various keyboard sounds, from synth to piano. They finish the album with a 20-minute epic, truly taking their time and incorporating every element of their songwriting in one monumental closer. This is thoughtful music filled with emotive and complex shapes, I can't wait to see where this band goes, it's an essential for all prog fans! Plus, that cover art from Björn Gooßes at Killustrations is visually striking and thought provoking, a perfect representation of their sound.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 9/10

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Thanks for stopping by! We'll get caught up real soon - we haven't missed a month in 4 years of doing this and we're not about to start, despite the backlog. In the meantime, check out our AOTM lists from previous months here:

June 2025
May 2025
April 2025
March 2025
February 2025
January 2025

And, of course, Follow MetalBite on Facebook, Spotify and Instagram so you can be there right when the next Top 10 list drops!

Entered: 10/17/2025 4:37:42 AM

Previous Post Digging Through Past	Next Post South Of Heaven

Welcome back to MetalBite's Top 10 albums of the month! November is a chaotic time of the year for releases and it's easy to miss great stuff in the midst of putting together your year-end lists right before the music industry goes into a brief hibernation. Or maybe there weren't enough good albums for you to fill your list out. You're empirically wrong, but either way - this should help you catch up. Happy holidays!

-Nate

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Glorious Depravity - Death Never Sleeps
Transcending Obscurity Records

Prepare for a nice slice of New York death metal, the kind influenced ever so slightly by hardcore, that is brutal but still has something to say and can be truly funny! Take the opening track for example, "Slaughter The Gerontocrats", with an impeccable instrumentation of fast thrashing riffs coupled with fast blastbeats you hear those lyrics: "Slaughter the gerontocrats Rip their ancient guts out Our hordes descending on the Hamptons and Florida, We hunt them down at the golf courses and country clubs". It's a "creative" way to deal with the gerontocracy… Moving on, Death metal can be funny but also thoughtful. I give you "Carnage At The Margins": "Hails, gentlemen, I bear the board's congratulations, We've shipped the product, Despite our resource limitations, Our end users, Typically retain their limbs, And what's a little, Carnage at the margins?" illustrating the cold and detached nature of the military industrial complex, it's only numbers, more wars = line goes up = good, who cares about a few dead children. Musically you have a typical death metal that sounds old school but with a super modern production. Everything sounds crystal clear and crisp, beware for your neck because there are a lot of headbangable moments!
-Raphael

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Suffering - Things Seen But Always Hiddens
Apocalyptic Witchcraft Recordings

Since the release of their first, difficult to procure, album 11, Suffering have been slowly percolating in the British underground, with members coming and going, seemingly waiting for the perfect moment to strike once more. And as UK black metal continuing to thrive, with festivals such as Fortress and Cosmic Void attracting both bands and fans from all over the world, now is as good a time as any to release Things Seen But Always Hidden. Of course, none of the advantageous timing would count for anything if the record was not as fiercely magnificent as it is, but thankfully Suffering have used the past decade well, creating something that is surely likely to see them substantially increase their audience, both at home and abroad. Suffering's brand of black metal has clearly graduated from the Darkthrone / Marduk school of ascetic and monochromatic intensity, but they avoid falling into the trap marked 'generic Norsecore' via an array of individual touches that demonstrate the many-stringed bow that they wield so menacingly, as well as the truly unhinged vocals of Sturmgeist Fornicator Insultus. The pitch-black doom of 'Behind The Green Door' shows a mastery of slower tempos to rival Dragged Into Sunlight, and the elements of post-rock and progressive metal that adorn 'Enthralled' and 'The Chamber Of Breathtaking Delights' suggest a band that could even follow in Akercocke's footsteps, with some of the virtuoso technicality replaced by a devotion to conjuring fearful atmosphere. One senses that Suffering are only likely to get better from here, but this is still a highly impressive milestone on a journey that is only just beginning.
-Benjamin

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Dead And Dripping - Nefarious Scintillations
Transcending Obscurity

This band is establishing themselves as one of extreme metal's more prolific acts, this being their fourth album in six years. That's common for one-man bands, but often there's a lower bar for quality when the volume of content is higher which is not the case here. This is one of the best Demilich worship acts running, mostly because they keep it weird. I can't fully embrace bands like Morbific and Cryptworm because while they have the riff style down, they lose the atmosphere in the process of streamlining their songwriting to make it punchier. Dead And Dripping bring some of their own color to the process, which helps it to stand as its own product. Nefarious Scintillations has a guitar tone with a glistening sheen, like it was recorded in a steel container - mixed with the warped, alien phrasing and snakelike structuring, it sounds like a cyborg struggling to break free from its robotic limitations in a quest to regain a fully human form.
-Nate

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Voidceremony - Abditum
20 Buck Spin

I feel like this didn't get talked about a ton despite it once again being another masterful mix of old-school death metal, prog and nasty Damon good basslines from this star-studded band. Maybe everyone's just used to it and it's par for the course at this point?
-Nate

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Phobocosm - Gateway
Dark Descent Records

Montréal's dark death metal crew gives us their fourth full length, and what is dark death metal one might ask? I would describe their sound as existing somewhere at the intersection of death, death/doom and dissonant death, à la Gorguts. The album opens with a slow build up of tremolo picking and slowly incorporates drums and more dissonant chords. The speed picks up a bit, with fast kick drums but overall, the song keeps it slow with heavy chugging riffs. I love the uneasy atmosphere throughout the whole song and album. Vocally, Etienne Bayard has a deep guttural growl and always keeps a slow vocal cadence giving a maximum apocalyptical effect when paired with dissonant guitars. This is a short album, seven tracks and 36 min, that would be perfect, but the thing is, there are three short instrumentals, so you essentially only get four tracks. Nevertheless, they play the perfect style of death metal, dark, heavy and almost meditative, it's a great addition to their discography!
-Raphael

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Wayd - Reinvent
Independent

I really enjoy this band's 2001 album Barriers - they have a take on death metal that is easily enjoyable but still seems to defy all conventions. This is their first album in 17 years and no one seems to have caught on? Damn. Gotta give them a little love here.
-Nate

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Morbikon - Lost Within The Astral Crypts
Tankcrimes

This album is so fun! Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, Morbikon plays that Dissection worship kind of black metal, super melodic with incredibly catchy riffs! You'll definitely want to dance to that main riff on "Flames That Bind And Shadows Cast"! What sets them apart is the thrash infused riffs and rhythms, think of Skeletonwitch. The dueling guitar harmonies and the solos are so satisfying, it's a guitar worship kind of album. But bass lovers fear not, you even get a small solo on "Sworn To The Beheaded King". This is an excellent 43 minutes of pure melodic and thrashing black metal that goes by in an instant.
-Raphael

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Demon King - Death Knell
The Artisan Era

Funny enough, Demon King was part of one of the first pieces I ever wrote for MetalBite about five years ago, so not covering them when they finally drop their debut full-length would be sacrilege - plus, they still obliterate as much as they did back then. They still have incredibly hooky riffs drilled into your head at lightning speed and with surgical precision, but there is additional garnish and restraint to warrant the extra runtime. This is Inferi's blackened brother, and though a lot of tech bands claim to have a fair amount of influence from them, not many of them came up in the same circles - but Demon King did.

Any time you get a chance to hear Jack Blackburn blasturbating (blacksturbating?) on an album, that's a lovely treat as well - although he isn't their live drummer going forward. I do have it on good authority that their current guy (Ethan Schomaker) is like an early 20s Blackburn with even more piss and vinegar. Watch the fuck out.
-Nate

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Speedclaw - Stardust
Dying Victims Productions

Croatia's speed metal warriors offer us their first album and it's a masterclass of pure and raw heavy and speed metal. Everything is fast and melodic built on a strong rhythm section, Silvano Ćosić's bass is center in the mix providing its low rumble accompanied by a superb drum performance by Dorian Perušić, always fast and full of energy. The twin guitars of Luka Jurišić and Luka Hrelja give us plenty of melodic harmonies that pair well with Silvano's powerful yet super melodic voice. Production wise, you can hear every instrument, every note clearly and it sounds crisp and completely organic. I feel I say this all the time, but Dying Victims makes the best sounding records, period.
-Raphael

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METALBITE'S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE MONTH

 

T-10: Ildaruni - Divinum Sanguinem
Black Lion Records

Armenian black metal band Ildaruni shows us their evolution by offering an album that is ferocious, grandiose and atmospheric. Their pagan roots are still present, giving an epic feel to the record, with folky melodies, beautiful choirs singing on "Arcane Sermon" or the bagpipes intro of "Forged With Glaive And Blood". Turns out, Armenian bagpipes are a thing, they're called Parkapzuk and made from sheep or lamb skin, the more you know! The production is insanely good; it makes the atmosphere clean and gives the heavy and aggressive parts that much more weight. This is a black metal gem in 2025, give them a listen and you'll be conquered!
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.4/10

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T-10: Ophidian Memory - Seraphim
Independent

Melodic death metal was my first love, what got me into metal, and I will always love the early 2000's classics, Children of Bodom, Kalmah or the 90's In Flames, Dark Tranquility and At The Gates (Rest In Power Tomas Lindberg). I haven't kept up to date as much with the modern melodeath scene, but I think I found a modern gem here. When you press play, you will probably wonder where is the melodic? At first, it's standard death méetal but being a 10-minute song, the melody takes it's time but comes in different ways, a more acoustic passage, ethereal cleans and melodic soloing are all part of the 10 minutes. Accompanied with excellent heavy riffing and plenty of tastefully placed blastbeats, it seriously reminds me of the glorious 90s melodeath era. This one-man band is the project of Blake Lamoureux, musician extraordinaire who does everything, every instrument including drum programming, producing, recording and mixing, whatever you do, Blake's coming for your job! But seriously, what an impressive artist! This album is a melodic death metal gem, do not skip it.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.4/10

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9: Fessus - Subcutaneous Tomb
Darkness Shall Rise Productions

Hailing from the beautiful red Vienna, comes a disgusting and vile piece of pure, old school death metal that pays tribute to the genre while still sounding new and fresh. First, the beautiful cover, a clear homage to the legendary Considered Dead from the heroes of my hometown, Gorguts. From the moment you press play, you hear a few dissonant guitar notes and then the double kick drums start to blast and from there, it's 36 minutes of expertly crafted OSDM. They're experts at any flavor of death metal, the slow and cavernous, the technical soloing, the fast and blastbeat filled, always creating that wonderful dark cave atmosphere. This thing is produced and mixed to perfection, every growl sounds deep and monstrous, every dissonant note, every hit on the drums sound rich and organic. If you crave pure old school death metal, do not skip this one.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.4/10

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8: Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons
Debemur Morti Productions

Blut Aus Nord is not a band that I have a deep knowledge about; I was struck by the pure chaos of 2022's Disharmonium - Undreamable Abysses, a pure mindfuck of an album (positive). So, I approached Ethereal Horizons expecting the same. In short, I was not expecting this, a relatively peaceful and atmospheric journey in space. Being a 31-year-old project, they underwent many changes, stylistically incorporating many sounds and influences. On Ethereal Horizons I can hear their distinctive chaotic sound but washed in a superb atmosphere, making the dissonance feel beautiful. You get everything from otherworldly cleans to black metal shrieks with blastbeats. I can almost hear some industrial influences while never stepping in fully industrial territories, it's a nice nod to their earlier career. So, if you want an out of this world black metal experience, 31 years in, Blut Aus Nord proves they stand above in their own category.
-Raphael

Sixteen albums into a long and impressively varied career, Blut Aus Nord have become bizarrely consistent for a band that habitually take the kind of risks with their sound that the majority of bands simply would not countenance. While other bands run out of ideas and retreat 'back to their roots' with a fraction of the discography that the Frenchmen boast, Vindsval's crew push on, sometimes exploring the outer reaches of progressive black metal, and sometimes consolidating their previous gains. Ethereal Horizons falls into the latter category, and while it may not offer the kind of groundbreaking experience that MoRT or The Work Which Transforms God did in their day, it is still a mighty and sophisticated work of black metal art. The nearest comparison, at least in feel, is Dødheimsgard's masterful Black Medium Current. This doesn't quite scale the same heights, but the approach is similar. Although elements of the album recall other bands – the chiming lead guitar lines threading their way through 'Shadows Breathe First' like mid-period Alcest, for example – there is something totally singular about the way in which Blut Aus Nord operate, and however expansive they may be on songs such as the 11 minute closer, 'The End Becomes Grace', intense black metal remains at the heart of their sound. The startling nature of Blut Aus Nord has been dulled somewhat by time, but the superior quality of their work remains.
-Benjamin

MetalBite's Rating: 8.4/10

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7: Fear Connection - Where Suffering Remains
Neckbreaker Records

This is a logical step after their debut Progeny Of A Social Disease. Gloomy death metal with some more melodic parts, creating a dense and threatening atmosphere. All ten tracks are very unique and entertaining, each one with different influences. Some Bolt Thrower here, a little bit of At The Gates there, sometimes some cool old Death-memorial-riffs and a lot of thrash and sometimes punk ("The Devil's Dance"). Smart song-writing keeps you interested to the last second. Only the title track puzzles me. Why? It's an instrumental. I don't like them too much - just a personal bone I pick (anybody who wants to tell me that reviews are objective has a screw loose). It is good, but it might have been even better with vocals - we will never know. If you are into melodeath this is a must have!
-Michael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10

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6: Mezzrow - Embrace The Awakening
ROAR! / Rock Of Angels Records

In almost 40 years of existence, this is only the band's third album, although they were on hold for a while. Cool that they are back on the stage again and putting out more music two years after Summon Thy Demons. They've shaken off the rust quickly - Embrace The Awakening is very fresh and full of anger. Ass-kicking thrash metal which sometimes reminds me of "The Evolution Of Chaos" by Heathen. No modernity, just a great mixture of melodies and heaviness. Best example for this might be "Sleeping Cataclysm", a fucking killer song with great riffs. The only possible criticism I have is the runtime. This is 37 minutes but feels half as long. Need a 50 minute follow up album, please!
-Michael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10

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5: Terror Corpse - Ash Eclipses Flesh
Dark Descent Records

Dobber Beverly, better known for his work in Oceans of Slumber, has a new project, a pure death metal band with grindcore influences that shows how versatile of a drummer he is. The core of their sound is a cavernous style death metal that is extremely dynamic, one second, it's a slow and oppressive riff, almost doom and the next it explodes with a lightspeed grinding blastbeat, showing the inhuman technical abilities of Dobber. He's really front and center in every song with tasty fills and he shines on every level, fast, slow, mid paced, he does it all. The bass is perfectly audible and complements the heavy riffs perfectly. Vocally expect the deepest low growls with the occasional high pitch screams sprinkled here and there. Another impressive accomplishment is ending the album with a cover I really like, their rendition of "Into The Crypts Of Rays" of Celtic Frost is both faithful to the original but also feels new. This is an incredibly promising new project, and I hope they continue to make amazing music for a long time!
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.6/10

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4: Kostnateni - Excess
Willowtip Records

While I've always had an objective appreciation for the unusual stylings of this Ameri-czech project, their previous works were something I liked the idea of, but found it difficult to vibe on a visceral level. I can only say that now because Excess is finally the one that makes it click. I think it's the drum performance, which adds a layer of straightforward intensity that not only drives the weirdness into your skull, but also gives it more texture and definition. This is like Deathspell Omega for slam bros and I am here for it.
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 8.6/10

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3: Dysentery - Dejection Chrysalis
Comatose Music

Snare goes ping. Vocals go gurgle gurgle eeee. Every moment of this is tailored to inspire spin kicks and moshing, but without ever touching beatdown/deathcore levels of simplicity - there's enough speed and snaking riff movement to satiate a brutal death metal fan. This is my first time discovering this band but they've been in business since the mid-00s, this being their first album in ten years and their fourth full length. Not sure why I have never seen anyone mention them before this because they go HARD.

A lot of the death metal in the Northeastern USA has this mix of subtle hardcore influences, heavy technical prowess and outright brutality that is just so insatiably delicious. Also I cannot overstate how awesome that snare tone is. Slaaaaaaam
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 8.7/10

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2: Bell Witch & Aerial Ruin - Stygian Bough: Vol 2
Profound Lore Records

I remember the first time I've listened to Mirror Reaper, since I was never a huge fan of funeral doom, it took me until 2020 to finally give it a spin and you know, the feeling of listening to something and knowing you can't go back before, this album is so impactful that it now holds a special place in your heart instantly! I honestly kind of get this feeling with Stygian Bough: Vol 2, the mix of glacial, slow and heavy funeral doom with the arial and soothing clean vocals of Erik Moggridge aka Aerial Ruin, gives a surreal and ethereal feeling that will take you on a 58-minute transcendent journey that will fly by in a blink of an eye. The star remains the drumming of Jesse Shreibman, the super slow tempo creates a satisfying anticipation at every hit of the kit. He also shows off his technical skills with fast and precise fills. Also, the guitar solo at the very end of the record is so fast, a very rare shred moment for funeral doom. The production and the mixing on this album are phenomenal, it sounds clear, every hit on the drums sounds huge and organic, truly one of the best sounding albums of 2025.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.8/10

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1: Qrixkuor - The Womb Of The World
Invictus Productions

Heavy metal typically makes great claims for its ability to scare and frighten, adopting as it does, the aesthetic and thematic trappings of the darker side of life, the musical equivalent of the horror films that so often go hand-in-hand with this music, at least in terms of the cultural interests of much of its audience. Despite this, it is rare to encounter an album that is truly terrifying, something that stays with the listener once the music has gone, an ineffable infection insidiously eating away at one's cognition, a body decaying from the core. In The Womb Of The World, Qrixkuor have created a record that stands with Khanate's Things Viral, or Today Is The Day's Sadness Will Prevail, a truly unsettling piece of work. Across four lengthy tracks (although where any one of them starts and finishes is difficult to say) the band create a sinister soundscape that combines dank, cavernous death metal with classical instrumentation, and layers of cacophonous voices that are close enough to sense, but just too far away to ever quite grasp, a wisp of smoke forever evading capture. The use of strings in particular is a masterstroke – the spiralling arrangements are fully embedded into songs, as much a part of their attack as the guitars, as opposed to the symphonic harmony that more conventional bands would utilise them for. The Womb Of The World is a white-hot fever dream that feels like it could immolate at any moment, but not before it triggers drawling madness in those who are brave enough to listen to it.
-Benjamin

One of the strangest death metal albums of the year. From the hallucinogenic cover, cryptic song titles and the sick music, everything is really mysterious. Vocals sound like early Bolt Thrower, a bit more whispered, and the instruments are a ferocious cacophony enriched with some odd string soundscapes. Musically it is a homage to some brutal black and death metal bands back from the 90s, cold, dark and barbaric. Nothing is beautiful nor aesthetic, there is just sheer blackness to find. If this is the womb we all come from I don't want to be born.
-Michael

MetalBite's Rating: 9.4/10

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Thanks as always for stopping by. Check out the previous lists for this year here:

October 2025
September 2025
August 2025
July 2025
June 2025
May 2025
April 2025
March 2025
February 2025
January 2025

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Entered: 12/31/2025 10:32:27 AM

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