2025 was a truly monumental year for heavy music.
The past 12 months included the release of several albums from some of the biggest tastemakers and fan favorites in the game — from enduring alt-metal veterans experiencing a monumental upswing, to cryptic forces serving up their most revealing tunes to date, to the arrival of an occult-metal institution’s latest show-stopping frontman.
Along the way, metal reinforced itself as a cultural juggernaut, with not one but two big-time heavy releases debuting at the top of the Billboard 200, likewise decimating plenty of streaming and sales records in their wake. The bar has been set even higher than before.
But what was the most dominant, headbang-worthy, year-defining LP of the class of 2025? We asked our readers to cast their vote, and they responded accordingly
Spiritbox – Tsunami Sea
Many heavy-music fans continue to ride the massive wave stirred up by Spiritbox’s second full-length stunner, Tsunami Sea. Can you blame them?
This crushing love letter to the coastal beauty of Vancouver Island features some of the band’s most uniquely groove-torrented riffs ever — courtesy of master djent tactician Mike Stringer — yet it’s likewise a fluid journey from detuned-but-pop-forward hooks, to drum-and-bass experimentalism, to progressive bombast. Courtney LaPlante levels up the intensity with powerful melodies and a dam-bursting howl.
And the countless devoted let Tsunami Sea wash over them time and time again.
Ghost – SKELETÁ
A “grand usurpation” took place at the top of the year when Ghost announced that they had instated Papa V Perpetua as their new frontman. This shrewd move paid off big for the clergy, as the occult-rock band’s latest singer took the group to the top with the chart-smashing spring release of SKELETÁ.
Papa and the Ghouls fill their latest epic release with worship-worthy pop-metal (“Satanized”), mega-crunched night-stalkers (“Lachryma”) and regal, guitar-screaming arena anthems (“Peacefield”). It was all enough to bring tears to fans’ eyes.
Dark is the season, but for many heavy-music fans this year, SKELETÁ shone bright in the starlight.
Deafheaven – Lonely People With Power
Just as it had in our mid-year poll, blackgaze favorites Deafheaven and the bleak-but-swoon-worthy swell of their Lonely People With Power got plenty of love from Revolver readers. Or, to put it another way, the blast radius on this one remains huge.
Blending elements of black metal, post-rock, shoegazing sonics and more, Deafheaven’s latest reinforces the powerful — and, boy, do we mean powerful — hold the California quintet have had on us for the past decade-plus.
George Clarke is in peak goblin mode throughout, whether screeching over the monstrous “Magnolia” or the hypnagogic, dream-pop-to-death-metal flow of “Heathen.”
Sleep Token – Even in Arcadia
In terms of this poll — and with reverence to the lyrics in “Caramel” — the fans have paid back the good times Sleep Token brought them this year by voting Even in Arcadia into the top 5.
The anticipation for Sleep Token’s fourth full-length release was feverish, with fans sent on a cryptic Easter egg hunt that had them rooting through digital code and studying archaic English scenery. And yet, there were even more surprises to behold once the LP officially dropped in the spring.
Even in Arcadia hits the feels as Vessel goes extra personal and introspective across various fame, fan and industry-questioning allegories. Paradoxically, the band go huge with a swirling series of deep-djenting, trap-beated and balladesque moments that suggest the diamond days continue.
Deftones – private music
Deftones fan came out of the woodworks to shout this out full-force: private music is the album of the year.
The Sacramento quintet had a hell of a 2025, between their multiple arena tours, their latest Dia De Los Deftones fest and ongoing TikTok domination. Their 10th album is the cherry on top — a record that crushes from the jump (check the staggeringly swerve-heavy “my mind is a mountain”) while also serving up stellar moments of alt-gaze beauty, sensual heaviness and some of the rawest screams we’ve heard Chino Moreno hit in a minute.
This is all to say, everyone out here is glad Deftones pushed their private music out into the public sphere this year.