Metalcatto
It’s time to reward the albums that made us scratch our heads and wonder: what the heck just hit me? Is this even metal? And should I be having an identity crisis because this album makes me feel stuff I didn’t even know I could feel? Anyway, you don’t have the answers to these questions either, so why keep bothering you? Here are my favourite avant-garde albums of 2025.
5. Now I’ve Done It – And III Guest
I wanted to start this top with a bit of a surprise. Not many people have talked about Now I’ve Done It, which is a disgrace, because this is one of the most fun and disturbing album jams the year has given us. And III Guest feels random yet strangely organised. You never know what the next track will throw at you, but you can be sure you won’t be bored. It’s just an absolute blast to hear something this unhinged.
4. Calva Louise – Edge of the Abyss
Another album that is pure fun madness, but this time the band tones down the more complicated stylistic detours and focuses on Metalcore, Punk, and other more accessible forms of heavy music. That doesn’t mean the result is any less crazy. Edge of the Abyss is a dynamic record that achieves something genuinely difficult: taking elements that feel commercial and giving them a challenging and complex twist. It’s not pretentious at all, and in this specific category of Metal, that’s already an achievement on its own.
3. Blut aus Nord – Ethereal Horizons
Ha! If you read my Black Metal top, you might have been annoyed that this wasn’t included—and that’s because Ethereal Horizons is so intrinsically idiosyncratic that it had to live here. Sure, it’s Blut aus Nord doing its take on atmospheric, melodic Black Metal, with far fewer psychedelic or perverse elements than before, but it’s so well executed, so digestible and still deeply messed up at the same time, that I can’t stop returning to it. Once again, it shows a band that remains the true chameleon of extreme Metal.
2. Imperial Triumphant – Goldstar
It was almost painful to place this in second position, because I’m a complete Imperial Triumphant fundamentalist. Goldstar took some time to fully convince me, but once it did, there was no turning back. It’s the most Metal the band has sounded in a decade or more, particularly in its Death and Djent leanings—within reason, of course, because the cold and merciless impro-Jazz machine is still very much alive. Nobody makes me want to love and hate New York more than Imperial Triumphant. The world it portrays is as fascinating as it is repulsive, and this album proudly keeps that tradition alive.
1. Agriculture – The Spiritual Sound
This album jumped me in an alley like a bunch of thugs with knives asking for my wallet. The Spiritual Sound deconstructs Black Metal, Post-Metal, Avant-Garde, and even Pop at times, all to deliver one of the rawest and most humane musical experiences of the year. Agriculture make you feel your futile mortality and the ephemeral nature of all good things, yet at the same time, the album is strangely comforting in its most vulnerable moments. It’s as technical and convoluted as anything else on this list, but the level of emotional honesty it delivers simply takes the cake this year.
Metal Eclipse Reviews 