We're back! With 2024's fan-voted round-ups out the way - that's both albums and songs, thank you very much - we can set our sights on the year ahead, and a world of new possibilities with bands pouring in.
We might've missed the boat on the likes of Lacuna Coil, Harakiri For The Sky and Venamoris last week (though we're sure we'll see them pop up again), but fear not: we've hunted high and low to find you some of the most exciting new music around.
Whether you're looking for explosive black metal, melodically inclined alt or something completely off the deep in, we've assembled a fine selection of new music releases for you to explore below. Much as we have for the last couple of years, we ask you to cast your votes in the poll below and tell us which songs excite you most. So with no further ado, this is your first installment for the best metal songs of 2025. Happy listening!
Architects - Blackhole
All the way back in December 2023, Architects released Seeing Red, the first taste of a follow-up to the previous year's The Classic Symptoms Of A Broken Heart. Decidedly heavier than anything on that album, it signalled a move back to the hard-hitting metalcore of their earlier releases, shifting away from the more tonally experimental material they'd flirted with recently. With just over a month to go until The Sky, The Earth & All Between arrives (Feb 28), latest single Blackhole doubles down on the heft found in its preceding songs, shrieking and snarling with impressive intensity whilst still keeping the massive radio-friendly choruses that turned Architects into a festival and arena headliner.
Alt Blk Era - Run Rabbit
Nu gen experimentalists Alt Blk Era don't really care for staying within genre confines. That goes some way to explain the rave-friendly energy of Run Rabbit, a pulsing electro beat and insistent, catchy chorus feeling like a throwback to the likes of The Prodigy and 90s EDM. With their debut album Rave Immortal arriving next week (Jan 24), we reckon there's plenty more to explore.
Alien Weaponry - Mau Moko
Alien Weaponry are back! Four years since the Māori metal champions graced the cover of Metal Hammer and released their second album Tangaroa, they're swinging back with force on new single Mau Moko. Putting some extra heft into their groove metal, the single feels perfectly fitting for a band who have earned global acclaim, setting up big things for new album Te Rā, due March 28 and giving us more to be excited about as they tour the US with Kerry King.
Whitechapel - Hymns In Dissonance
When a band like Whitechapel declare they're looking to make "their heaviest album to date", you know it's probably going to get gruesome. Sure enough, the deathcore veterans' latest single - and title track of their upcoming ninth album, due March 7 - is a scabrous blast of extremity, raging blastbeats and angry god bellows masking a surprising amount of melody in the guitarwork, while the more overt hardcore stylings slip through the din to really let the "core" in their genre descriptor shine through.
Avantasia - Against The Wind
It's funny to think now, that Avantasia started out as a short-lived side project for frontman and founder Tobias Sammet. The initial two-part Metal Opera releases gave way to a further eight records and now Avantasia are a triumphant rallying call for those seeking out the most joyous, bombastic and grandiose elements of power metal. Sure enough, Against The Wind is pure galloping ecstasy, pure excitability and roaring choruses that give us plenty to be excited about ahead of new album Here Be Dragons, due February 28, while we can practically hear the enormity of Against The Wind in the live setting long before Sammet and co. kick off their UK and European tour.
Split Chain - I'm Not Dying To Be Here
Plunging headlong into the same realms of weightless melodies and deceptive heaviness that have sustained Deftones for over 30 years, Split Chain's latest single I'm Not Dying To Be Here is pure nu gaze bliss. On tour in the UK in March and April, as well as lined up to play Slam Dunk in May and Download in June, the time seems ripe for this lot to make a splash on the wider metal scene. Now if only someone could get them a Deftones support slot...
Tariot - Fragments
Metalcore is a global phenomenon in 2025. Over 20 years since the genre hit the mainstream, exciting new bands are still popping up around the globe to show how the scene can still produce electric new talent, Singapore's Tariot being a perfect example. New single Fragments swings for the fences with thundering riffs and throat-shredding snarls, only to give way to glitching electronica and an absolutely colossal breakdown. Chuck in an ascendant melodic segment, and you've got a perfect example of how the sound of metalcore is still spreading and being adopted in fresh new ways.
State Of You - To The Core
Innovation is all well and good, but sometimes all you need is a hard-as-nails fist to the face from some thumping post-hardcore. That's exactly what State Of You are offering on latest single To The Core, bridging the snarling, stomping force of peak Every Time I Die with an oh-so-hooky chorus that could have been lifted straight from the days of Kerrang! and Scuzz TV. It's a taste of the band's new EP On A Knife's Edge, due Janaury 24 with a celebratory release show at London's Black Heart the following night.
Dawn Of Ouroboros - Bioluminescence
From explosive post-black metal breakouts to gorgeous melodic refrains, Oakland's Dawn Of Ouroboros shine on new single Bioluminescence. It's a brilliant showcase of contrasting styles and approaches, drawing comparisons to the likes of Wolves In The Throne Room or even Svalbard in its more explosive moments, while the gentle melodies could easily have come from a Spiritbox song. The title track of the band's upcoming third record, due March 7, this band is one to keep your eyes out for - especially if you're on the West Coast, as they'll be touring the US in March.
Conquer Divide - Bad Dreams (ft. Of Virtue)
Teaming up with Of Virtue, Conquer Divide's latest single Bad Dreams puts their oh-so-hooky and powerful brand of modern metalcore through its paces in a massive rager. The interplay between vocalist Kiarely Taylor and Of Virtue's Tyler Ennis shows how the bands bounce off each other, putting a whole new spin on the idea of a duet. On tour with both New Year's Day and Ankor in the UK in early 2025, we reckon you'd be mad to miss this lot.
Kills Birds - Madison
Alt metal seems to be having a moment again in recent years. Put it down to the shift Bring Me The Horizon made post-Sempiternal or the massive popularity of bands like Sleep Token and Spiritbox, but there's a host of new bands tinkering with alt rock sensibilities again. LA's Kills Birds are a prime example, drawing on some of the more melancholic elements of a genre like shoegaze without directly lifting its shimmering notes and inevitable Deftones/Smashing Pumpkins associations, resulting in a sound that is clear, punchy and very, very addictive.
Scitalis - Suffering
With vocals that sound like fetid breath squeezed from an ancient corpse, Sweden's Scitalis are proof that Norway doesn't have the market cornered on the most vicious, flesh-rending corners of black metal. New single Suffering is utterly crushing, a punishing excercise in raging intensity that somehow manages to seed some kernels of melody beneath a tempest of clattering drumbeats and ungodly wails. Taken from the band's second album Maledictum - out next week, January 24 - it's exactly the kind of extreme metal wake up you want going into 2025.
