'Tis the holiday season once again. Can't believe how quick it's come 'round! Here I am writing this year's wrap-up once again, so here's my 2025 musical life in review.
NEW ALBUMS (worst to best):
I bought a reasonable number of new releases this year. I'm not sure it's been as good as 2024 for me overall, but then again last year we had brand new studio albums from Judas Priest and Deep Purple - 2 of my absolute favourite bands. Either way I've still picked up some good shit this year, as you can see in the photo below.
My next choice is an underground one. It's Valediction by Welsh atmospheric/melodic black metal band Ofnus. I actually saw these guys play my home town last year (it's very rare we get any live underground extreme metal where I live), and me and my friend both really enjoyed them. Then they appeared on 2025's Bloodstock lineup, so I decided to head over to their Bandcamp and buy this new album of theirs. My plan was to listen to Valediction a bunch of times before seeing them at Bloodstock... and then when Bloodstock came, I only went and bloody missed them! They played early on the Friday morning, and the queue to the arena from the main campsite was huge. Damn. Still, the album's rather good. Epic, melodic black metal. Not black metal of the raw, abrasive kind - much more grandiose (kind of like Emperor in some ways). There's only 7 tracks here; all except 2 of them clock in at over 8 minutes long, so the album can be quite a demanding listen depending what sort of mood of I'm in, but that's kind of black metal in a nutshell. The vocals are a little generic - solid, passable, but similar to 99% of other black metal bands. The music however, is pretty damn solid overall.
Primal Fear's Domination is next. I don't have a particularly long history with this band - even though I was well aware of them way back in my teens, I didn't actually buy any of their albums until the last couple of years. That album in question was the self-titled debut, a record I kinda love actually. Even so, I still hadn't picked up anything else by them until 2025's Domination. Anyway, this was kind of an impulse buy, but one I've been enjoying quite a bit. The album has a shiny, anthemic power metal aura about it - I get that this band have been associated with power metal for quite sometime, but their debut always reminded me more of Painkiller-inspired speed metal. Domination isn't especially that. But it is a well-performed and recorded power metal album. The songs are highly melodic, hooky and full of anthemic vocals from main man Ralf Scheepers. The chorus to 'Heroes and Gods' always gets stuck in my head for days whenever I hear it! The guitar work in terms of both the riffs and leads are mostly old-school, but the modern production keeps the music sounding contemporary. My biggest complaint is the way Scheepers recorded his vocals - I can't figure out if he autotuned them in any way, but there's a strange distortion-like sound to them. I don't dislike his vocals at all, there's just something odd in the vocal production department going on somewhere. Still an enjoyable CD either way, just not one of my favourites of this year!
German thrash metal mongers Destruction are next with Birth of Malice. I hadn't planned to purchase this album, but I saw Destruction with Testament and Obituary back in October, and Destruction were unexpectedly the band of the night for me. I've had both The Antichrist and All Hell Breaks Loose in my collection for years and years, but never really picked up anything else by them. Anyhow, they were simply awesome live, so I quickly ordered a copy of Birth of Malice afterward. It's a very strong thrash platter - not flashy in any way, it just tears arse from start to finish. I'm not opposed to a bit of melody, prog, or thought-provoking material in my thrash - but that's not what Destruction are all about. This is meat n' potatoes thrash metal, but the musicianship is still tip-top, the band are tight as hell and the songs are fast. Other than the somewhat unnecessary cover of Accept's 'Fast as a Shark', this album certainly provides me with a thrashin' fix whenever I need it
The past couple of years I've really taken to Grave Digger, and as usual, their latest album, Bone Collector, is a blast. Sometimes they lean more towards speed metal than power metal and vice versa with their albums. I find that Bone Collector leans more into their speed metal side, and does not follow any particular lyrical theme like so many of their other records do. Crunchy, riffy, old-school speed metal with Chris Boltendahl's gravelly vocals on top - that's what this is. Unlike so many other metal bands these days, Grave Digger never overproduce their music. Clean, polished production works just fine for some bands, but I like how Grave Digger's albums still sound organic and human. The same can be said for Bone Collector. This is no-nonsense HEAVY METAL! I'm not sure I like it as much as 2022's Symbol of Eternity (which I ironically scored lower than this, but I seem to like more as time goes on), but either way Grave Digger are one of the most consistent bands in the genre.
It sure is nice to have Biohazard back! Better still is the fact we got a new album from them this year - Divided We Fall, their first since 2012's Reborn in Defiance! I think I kinda wanted this to be my album of the year, mainly because it's been such a long time since we've had anything new from Biohazard. Them being on hiatus for several years didn't help things of course, but either way Divided We Fall is hardly disappointing even if it's not my number 1 this year. The album is full of rage and pure aggression from beginning to end - which is what you want - and slots in quite comfortably alongside their '90s metallic hardcore classics Urban Discipline and State of the World Address. I saw them live again in March this year, and can confirm they've still got it. Welcome back Biohazard!
Rage's A New World Rising was maybe the biggest surprise for me this year, at least in terms of how much I've been enjoying it. This is a band I've been listening to in small doses since college - in fact, I've had their album's Unity and Soundchaser in my collection for more than half my life now and even though I love 'em, in total I still only own 5 Rage albums! But anyway, I've been listening to A New World Rising non-stop since it dropped at the end of September - this is a high-class slab of speed/power metal. The musicianship and instrumentation is stellar, the production is crisp and the songs are full of blazing guitar solos and riffs, and a high number of catchy vocal hooks. The band sound like true heavy metal, yet don't sound dated. On the first couple of listens I was a little disappointed with Peavy Wagner's vocals - the man is 60 now, and he understandably isn't singing to the same standard as he was prior. Some guys still have it at that age, some guys struggle. But after a couple of listens I got used to him and the music is so strong here anyway that I can often look past the ageing vocals. Songs like 'Innovation', 'Next Generation', 'Against the Machine' and 'Paradigm Change' get stuck in my head for days!
I had never checked out any of Don Airey's solo material until his new album Pushed to the Edge was released this year. I really like this. With him on keyboards and Simon McBride on guitar (who had played with Don for a number of years before he joined Deep Purple), there's obviously some similarities to Deep Purple on this CD. But this only makes it all the stronger!! Aye, this is an excellent slice of keyboard/guitar-driven hard rock with great vocal performances from guys like Pete Agnew and Dan McCafferty of Nazareth to accompany Don's organ wizardry. Scorching opener 'Tell Me' is my song of the year! I read a review somewhere a few months back calling Pushed to the Edge "more Deep Purple than Deep Purple" (or something similar) - I don't fully agree with this. Like I said, the album has a Deep Purple aura about it, sure, but it still has a personality of it's own. Let's not forget just how many freaking bands and artists Don had worked with prior to even joining Deep Purple. Great stuff.
Taking the top spot is Glenn Hughes' latest solo record, Chosen. The man is 74 years old now, yet his vocal talent remains unspoilt. He still sounds phenomenal! But the music itself on this album is really strong too - catchy, classy, well-structured hard rock songs that are full of memorable hooks plus excellent production. I only had to listen to the album 2 or 3 times to remember each of the 10 tracks on here. Chosen has been on repeat for me since I received my pre-order in September! Don Airey's Pushed to the Edge nearly topped Chosen for me - that album is a little more deep instrumentally, whereas this is hookier overall. I like to think I care more about the music than anything else, but sometimes I'll unashamedly admit that catchiness wins me over! Whatever, I think any fan of classic rock should be checking this out.
The last album I've gotten hold of this year is Testament's Para Bellum. I haven't ranked this one yet because it was a Christmas present and I've hardly listened to it yet! In fact, it's playing right now as I type! I suppose I could've waited a week or so before posting this wrap-up to allow the album to settle more, but I've had this entire article saved as a draft for over a month now, and I wanted to get it done before the beginning of 2026! Anyway, about Para Bellum - well, it's Testament alright. Extremely polished, tight and technical, sometimes melodic. Chuck Billy is still as diverse as ever with his vocals, still doing the harsher/nearly-clean stuff and whilst occasionally dabbling with death growls. The songs are mostly thrash of course, but Testament sometimes tread into death/blackened metal-ish territory with these numbers, while 'Meant to Be' is effectively a ballad! The production is outstanding. But these are just first impressions - I'm digging what I've heard so far (I haven't heard a Testament record I didn't like, even some of the mid-90's ones), but I can't say that I already think it's better than The Formation of Damnation, which was my first taste of Testament way back in 2008 and still my favourite. But I wouldn't be surprised if this ranks pretty high in a few weeks time. I got a taste of 'Infanticide A.I.' and 'Shadow People' back in October from this album too, because I saw Testament live just 2 days before Para Bellum dropped (more about the gig later).
REISSUES & OTHERS:
I also picked up the Gillan boxset 1978-1982. It's a really great package from in my opinion the most underrated side band of the Deep Purple family tree. Everyone loves Rainbow and Whitesnake for good reason, but even though the Gillan band weren't around very long in the grand scheme of things, each of the 6 albums they recorded together is a classic in my opinion. Some of Ian Gillan's most fun, crazy performances can be found on albums like Future Shock and Mr. Universe. There was no other band like them. Anyhow, the boxset resurrects all 6 albums and puts them in a single 7-CD package. B-sides and other material has also been tacked on as bonus material. It literally contains everything you could possibly want from this band (bar unofficial bootleg live releases and whatnot anyway) and only costs 35 quid. £35!! It's not very often I buy, well, anything in this hobby these days and feel like I've gotten a bargain, but the Gillan boxset is an exception. I actually already owned a lot of these albums across CD and vinyl before, but I picked up the boxset anyway because I wanted Double Trouble and Glory Road on CD. So yeah, very happy with this one.
I also got the reissue of Magnum legend Bob Catley's 1999 solo album Legends. I hadn't planned on buying this, nor was I even aware Bob's solo discography was getting reissued this year, but I happened to stumble across this in my local record shop. So I picked it up of course. This is my first and so far only Bob Catley solo album - I love Magnum, but it's only been in recent years that I've really become a serious fan of that band. And I have to say, if the rest of Bob's solo catalogue sounds like Legends, well, I might just track down some more of his stuff! This is great! Dramatic, melodic rock. Unsurprisingly similar to Magnum, but with enough subtle differences to keep the music fresh and original.
Another nice surprise this year were the new Ear Music vinyl and CD reissues of Annihilator's '90s albums King of the Kill, Refresh the Demon and Remains. Obviously I didn't need to add the new CD reissues since I've already got old pressings in my collection, but it's really nice to have King and Refresh on vinyl now. So I totally justified picking up these 2, especially since I love both of these albums. The new reissues are nice too - they're both gatefold sleeves and come with new Jeff Waters interviews plus lyric sheets. Very cool. I didn't bother with the new Remains vinyl however - I don't know if I'm a big enough fan of that one to own 2 copies of it. My old CD will do. In addition to these is also the new More Noise Vol. 1 CD, a compilation of Annihilator rarities. Funnily enough I already had about half the tracks on this disc as some of the older CD reissues of albums came with them as bonus songs, but it's nice to have the unreleased studio track 'It's You', and I really dig the bass-driven demo of 'Weapon X'. Other than that however, this CD is really only worth it for die hard fans like me.
The last album I got hold of in this category was Saxon's new live album, Eagles Over Hellfest. It is a recording of their 2024 performance at Hellfest. From the looks of things, they were headlining the second main stage on the Saturday night. I saw them in March last year supporting Judas Priest, as well as this year in November. The setlist from this live album is pretty similar to what I witnessed last year too - the awesome Hell, Fire and Damnation album dropped in January 2024, so there's a couple of tracks from that record here too (the title track and 'Madam Guillotine'). But the bulk of the setlist here is made up of '80s classics - 'Motorcycle Man', 'Heavy Metal Thunder', 'Dallas 1 P.M.', 'Power and the Glory', 'Strong Arm of the Law'. Being a huge fan of the band, I suppose I would've liked to have seen a couple more songs from the past few records on here, but I never tire of any of the oldies either. So I'm cool with it. The band are still playing great here - Biff Byford's vocals are understandably getting little a worn at times, but I can still confirm that he's still a hell of a frontman. Die hard Saxon fans should indeed seek this one out. I hesitated at first because Eagles Over Hellfest is packaged as a 2 CD set, with the other disc being the entire Hell, Fire and Damnation album. Since it only came out in 2024, I wasn't sure if I wanted to purchase the same album again, little over a year later! So I listened to it a few times on Spotify instead. The nerd in me eventually caved in however, and asked for this package for Christmas! Saxon are one of those bands where I go out of my way to buy all their live releases as well as the studio stuff, so if this one was missing, it would've eventually bugged me. It now sits nicely in my ever-expanding Saxon collection.
CONCERTS:
I only attended 1 gig during the first half of the year, and it was Biohazard/Life of Agony in March at the 02 Institute in Birmingham. This was a nice treat - I saw Biohazard at the same venue back in 2012 (albeit on the stage downstairs), and then again at Bloodstock 2014. I had the opportunity to see them again at Bloodstock in 2022 or 23 (??), but they were on at 11pm Sunday night - I'm normally back home by then! Anyway, they played a setlist that only consisted of songs from their first 3 albums, i.e. the classics. Their new album, Divided We Fall, still hadn't been released in March, so they didn't play any new material from it. Either way, it didn't matter what they played - they were on fire. Pure aggression and heaps of energy for the entirety of the show. It was just nice to have 'em back. And it was nice to see Evan Seinfeld up there - the 2 times I saw them 10+ years ago, Scott Roberts had replaced Evan. I also enjoyed Life of Agony more than I thought I would. Not to the point where I rushed out and bought any of their albums, but their brand of hardcore fit the bill rather nicely, and the crowd responded well to them.
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| Biohazard @ 02 Institute, Birmingham 02/03/2025 |
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| Emperor @ Bloodstock Open Air 08/08/2025 |
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| Machine Head finale @ Bloodstock Open Air 09/08/2025 |
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| Destruction @ 02 Academy, Birmingham 08/10/2025 |
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| Glenn Hughes @ KK's Steel Mill, Wolverhampton 17/10/2025 |
About Saxon though - considering Biff has literally just battled cancer to the point where tour dates in Spain for April/May were postponed, he was the same old Biff I've come to know since I first saw the band at Sonisphere in 2009! I barely noticed any difference in his vocals/stage presence compared to when I saw them open for Judas Priest in March last year. This tour - Hell, Fire and Steel - saw Saxon play the Wheels of Steel album in it's entirety, but before they got around to doing that they played 8 songs - classics including 'Power and the Glory', 'Never Surrender' and 'Backs to the Wall', plus a couple of newer ones from 2024's Hell, Fire and Damnation. Awesome as always, and then of course we got Wheels of Steel. It was really cool to hear songs like 'Street Fighting Gang', 'Machine Gun' and 'Freeway Mad' that I can only assume haven't been performed live for years. I know that Wheels is one of their best-known records, but it still has it's deep cuts. Also, Diamond Head legend Brian Tatler is such a great replacement for Paul Quinn. The man has already moulded himself into the band. Yep, it was a fantastic gig. I couldn't really tell you which is my favourite Saxon performance of the times I've seen them, they've just been consistently strong every time.
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| Saxon @ KK's Steel Mill, Wolverhampton 14/11/2025 |
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| Candlemass @ KK's Steel Mill, Wolverhampton 06/12/2025 |
THE BLOG:
I managed to cram in a fair amount of content here this year. I reviewed entire discographies of Steppenwolf, Blind Guardian, Metal Church and Grave Digger for starters, and I updated my Machine Head page and completed that catalogue too. Steppenwolf's catalogue was kind of interesting to review, although I don't think they evolved as much musically as you'd think - especially considering they started recording music in the era of flower power and psychedelia, and then continued into the '70s. But there's some underrated classics like Steppenwolf 7 and For Ladies Only in this discography that people don't talk about very often.
Reviewing Blind Guardian was fun. For a very long time I only had Follow the Blind and Imaginations from the Other Side in my collection. It's fair to say I'm a huge fan of their albums from the 1988 debut up to 1998's Nightfall in Middle-Earth. This was a near-enough unbeatable 10-year run of albums in power metal. I do enjoy nearly everything else that came after as well, but they certainly branched out and experimented with their sound. There's definitely an era of Blind Guardian I favour over the other, but like I said, there's still some stuff from the latter years I really like too.
Metal Church are a band I've been a fan of for so long now, but it wasn't until this year that I actually bothered to obtain all their stuff. I had maybe half their discography in my collection prior. Either way, the first 3 records (Metal Church, The Dark and Blessing in Disguise) are simply some of my all-time favourite US metal albums of all time. Absolutely essential listening. Tons of great albums that came after too. Just an extremely reliable and consistent band regardless of the multiple vocalists they've had over the years.
And then there's Grave Digger, a band that have slowly but surely become one of my favourite Euro metal bands in the past couple of years. I appreciate consistency; while there are bands I love that try to do things differently with many of their records, some bands don't need to do this. Grave Digger are one of them. They're either delving into history with a power metal-focused concept record, or delivering straight-up Germanic heavy/speed metal with pretty much every release. So many good albums to choose from, and their 1994-2003 run is epic. I've lost count of the number of times I've listened to The Reaper, Heart of Darkness, Tunes of War, Knights of the Cross, Excalibur, The Grave Digger and Rheingold this year.
The most polarising discography I reviewed this year though, was easily Machine Head's. Until this year, I stopped buying their albums after 2014's Bloodstone & Diamonds. As stated in my review, I was kinda finished with this band for ages until I suddenly decided I wanted to revisit their catalogue and buy the 3 albums they've released since I stopped listening to them. I think part of this decision was because the band headlined the Saturday night at Bloodstock this year, and I hadn't seen them since 2012. Live they were great as always... this discography not so much - in my opinion of course. It's not all bad news. I still think Burn My Eyes and Unto the Locust are great. The Blackening may be one of the all-time most overrated metal albums in my eyes, but I think it's still good. 2022's Of Kingdom of Crown was a genuine surprise - I like that one a lot too. And I still think The More Things Change... has it's moments. But then there's The Burning Red - this one's only gotten worse over time for me, and I still consider Supercharger to be absolutely horrible. But even worse is 2018's Catharsis! I remember this coming out and getting a massively mixed reception. I avoided it until this year and yeah... I'm definitely in the category of people who hate this thing with a burning passion. It's absolutely baffling that Robb Flynn - who was already a man in his 50s when Catharsis was recorded - managed to churn out this complete turkey. 'Bastards' is easily the worst song I've had to endure this year - utterly juvenile, university student-levels of clueless political ranting over what is essentially nu metal instrumentation. Like I said in my review, I honestly don't care where Flynn stands politically, but fuckin' hell this album is just brainrot on every level.
One of the most fun blog posts I've done this year is my 'Deep Purple SOLO PROJECTS/ARTISTS' page. I've grouped albums from current and ex-Deep Purple members' albums that aren't Rainbow/Whitesnake. So anything by Ian Gillan, Glenn Hughes, Don Airey, Roger Glover etc.. I have enough CDs and vinyl from all these guys that a separate page was worthy of them. Anyhow, I'll add any more of these reviews to the page as time goes on and I accumulate more of them in my collection.
2026 BLOG/MUSIC PLANS:
As for 2026 plans, well, it's gonna be the most important year of my life - because I'm getting married in October!! Music-wise however, I've been saying for a few years now that I plan to collect the entire Uriah Heep studio album discography! This has proven to be difficult though - I'm not made of money and there's a few albums in that catalogue that are a pain in the arse to obtain without spending an arm and a leg. 2011's Into the Wild for example, is incredibly difficult to find here in the UK. And on Discogs, right now there's 2 copies for sale in Brazil. One of them is used and costs £57.03 in total ($50 shipping 😡😡😡!! Foreign Discogs shipping prices often make zero sense to me), the other is £39.58... still way too expensive. So unless their catalogue gets a thorough reissuing sometime in the near future, I don't see myself finishing my Heep collection any time soon sadly.
After seeing Destruction this year live, they've really gone up in the ranks for me in terms of thrash bands. I've bought a handful of their albums since October, and maybe I'll think about trying to obtain their discography next year. It's seems a little more doable and affordable than Uriah Heep at least. We'll see. Erm, so I guess I don't really have many definite plans here for 2026 (just a few more articles so far which I've explained in the next paragraph)! This doesn't mean I'm slowing down, not at all. I don't work to a schedule is all. I'll just keep adding in reviews here and there, and write the odd article too I guess. Things always need updating too - there's still a lot of poorly-written crap on here from before COVID.
I've recently been writing a series of posts I've called 'Blast from the past albums'. These are rambles about CDs I bought and listened to a lot back in my teens (and possibly early 20s), but have barely touched as I've gotten older. I've done 5 of these posts so far and really enjoyed doing them - it gives me a chance to talk about individual albums from bands I have no plans to review entire discographies of, and also often provides a nostalgia trip too if I say so myself. I have a list of albums I want to talk about for more of these types of posts, so expect more throughout 2026!
For a very long time now I've been toying with the idea of starting a YouTube channel to run alongside the blog - I think it could be another fun little hobby project in the same way this website is for me. Like this blog, it would just be another way of documenting my hobby. I'm not interested in actually becoming a full-time YouTuber or anything like that, I just have a lot of stuff to show and things to say about my favourite music! This is not something I would've even considered doing in my early to mid 20s. I suppose I was quite camera shy back then... or just shy in general even. This is not really an issue for me in my 30s. I'm a different man nowadays.
The only concerts/festivals I have planned for 2026 right now are Bloodstock Open Air in August (as per usual) and Deep Purple in Birmingham for November. Bloodstock's 2026 lineup already looks better than this year for me. Saxon, Judas Priest, Biohazard, Sepultura, Body Count, Testament, Death Angel, Cryptopsy, Nevermore, Municipal Waste, Black Spiders, Lamb of God... plenty of great bands, even if I've already seen 95% of the one's I've just mentioned. That said, Saturday on the main stage looks particularly terrible for this metalhead. Metalcore band after metalcore band followed by Slaughter to Prevail headlining. Fucking Slaughter to Prevail headlining the mainstage!! They can't even sell out the 02 Academy in Birmingham for Christ's sake!! If you like metalcore/deathcore, then fine. Whatever. But Slaughter to Prevail can do one. I can't stand them! I get they're popular to a degree but this feels like a vanity booking courtesy of Bloodstock's own Vicky Hungerford, because they're supposedly one of her favourite bands. I'll be at the Sophie Lancaster stage that day I think. Or the campsite, drinking. Probably the latter.
And this will be my 3rd time seeing Deep Purple too. Ian Gillan reported recently that he's losing his eyesight, and will call it quits when performances become an embarrassment. Even around the time Now What?! was unleashed back in 2013, I'm sure I remember rumours of them splitting up or at least retiring from touring. But something tells me we really are coming to the end now. I know they're writing new material, so a new album is likely - but I really feel like next year's tour could be the last one now. The story has to end eventually. So I've gotten me and my fiancée tickets one again - they've been great the last couple of times I saw them, and I'd like to be there for what I think could very well be their final shows.
And that's it for my 2025 wrap-up. I won't be ditching metal/rock for EDM any time soon, so don't worry!!
