The Year in Metal: 2025 Summarized

2025 : THE YEAR IN METAL

2025 was a bit of a rough year for us metal fans. It was a year with a lot of huge losses to the metal community. The biggest one were of course the passing of Black Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne. Possibly the most important front man of all time. So rest in Peace Oz. We also lost KISS iconic axeman Ace Frehley and some underground heroes like Omen's (And Annihilator's) Coburn Pharr, Cloven Hoof's Russ North, Angel Witch's Kevin 'Skids' Riddles and Heavy Load's Ragne Wahlquist. (Metal Heroes we lost in 2025.)

May they all rest in peace.

But there wasn't just doom and gloom, even though that can be a good thing too. hehe We had some big names especially within the thrash genre that released noteable albums like Testament's Para Bellum, Sacrifice's Volume Six, Sodom's The Arsonist, Coroner's Dissonance Theory and of course the years big disappointment in Dark Angel's Extinction Level Event.

Lots of the big traditional heavy metal bands didn't release anything this year so naturally I put my focus elsewhere. My attention certainly wandered towards thrash metal and the New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal underground during 2025.

I might be an old grumpy man that haven't got the time to dwelve into everything that is brewing in the underground these days, because we still got the 80's and I have still not heard everything from that decade. haha. So with that in mind I would like to shed some light on these full-length albums from 2025. Albums that I found interesting.

Noteable metal releases from 2025 (Not in any particular order)

• Fer-De-Lance - Fires on the Mountainside
• Coroner - Dissonance Theory
• Void - Forbidden Morals
• Vultures Vengeance - Dust Age
• Dolmen Gate - Echoes of Ancient Tales
• Black Sword Thunder Attack - S/T
• Species - Changelings
• Ereb Altor - Hälsingemörker
• Scimitar - Scimitarium I
• Sacrifice - Volume Six
• SexMag - Sexorcysm
• URN - Demon Steel
• Seven Sisters - Shadow of a Fallen Star, Pt. 2
• Century - Sign of the Storm
  
• Stygian Path - The Lorekeeper
• Tales of Medusa - Relentless Tragedy
• Crucible - Hail to the Force

I could go on but I think that's enough recommendations for now. I made a Spotify-list (See below) with a ton of songs from 2025 if you want to explore these and everything else that was going on in the metal realm in 2025. 

Have fun with these and I'll see you guys in 2026!

Cheers!

/ Ruthless

Album of the Month - December 2023: Merciless Law - Grimoire for the Ultimate Sinner

AOTM Dec 2023: Merciless Law - Grimoire for the Ultimate Sinner

Album of the month for December 2023 goes to Merciless Law for their EP Grimoire for the Ultimate Sinner. Merciless Law is a Chilean one man project from a man called Pancho Ireland, he sings, plays the guitar and bass. Everything but the drums that are handled by Cederick Forsberg (Rocka Rollas & Blazon Stone).

December might have been a slow month for us metal fans due to christmas and all but Merciless Law released a four track EP that is worth investigating if you haven't heard it. They play heavy / power metal with great clean vocals and with some impressive guitar play that brings my mind to Iron Maiden.

You can find the album at HRR: MERCILESS LAW -- Grimoire for the Ultimate Sinner

or listen to it on Spotify: 

Album of the Month - November 2023: Destructor - Blood, Bone and Fire

AOTM Nov 2023: Destructor - Blood, Bone and Fire

Album of the month for November 2023 goes to Destructor and their fifth full-length titled Blood, Bone and Fire. For those who don't know Destructor is an American metal band from Ohio. They released their debut album Maximum Destruction in 1985. That album is generally considered to be an underground classic but when their bassist Dave Iannicca was murdered the band went away and in around the year 2000 they returned and put out a couple of solid records.

But death struck again in 2018 when the bands original guitarist Pat Rabid died due to diabetes complications. It was unclear wheter we would hear from the band again but here we are in 2023 with a brand new Destructor album. 

Blood, Bone and Fire is as I said their fifth and it's in the typical Destructor style. That US Power metal sound with a splash of speed and thrash metal madness. It's a classic sounding album in the American USPM tradition with great musicianship across the board. It won't disappoint you. 

You can order the album through: Shadow Kingdom Records

Or give it a listen on Spotify:

Album of the Month - October 2023: Heavy Load - Riders of the Ancient Storm

AOTM Oct 2023: Heavy Load - Riders of the Ancient Storm

I've decided to put a little more work into the Patreon page by shedding some light on a new album every month. After some time I will post these album of the month texts up on this website as well. I will name an album, not necessarily the best album of the month but an album that I think is cool or worthy of our attention. So to kick this album of the month thing off I decided to start with the comeback album of Heavy Load, A Swedish heavy metal band that were active from the mid 70's up until the mid 80's. They had a very epic sound and they are generally considered as pioneers of the Swedish heavy metal scene, not only for their viking themes but also for being the first actual heavy metal band from Sweden.

For me Heavy Load is one of the greatest bands of all time and when they return after 40 long years, my hype for the album was through the roof. The single 'Ride the Night' was a track that made it impossible for me to understand how 40 years have passed, when it felt like it has been five minutes when their classic sound didn't feel impacted by the passage of time. Maybe the album didn't fully live up to my hype, the production might not be perfect and there are a little bit too much keyboards on certain songs but that doesn't matter that much to me, when your heroes return and they do it so well. You just got to take a bow to the Walhalla Warriors.

I salute the heavy metal gods by naming Riders of the Ancient Storm the album of the month. Check out the music video for Ride the Night or go and listen to their full album through the Spotify link. Or why not go and order the album straight away through No Remorse Records.
Ride the Night - Music Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxH-628cHsU No Remorse Records:
https://www.noremorse.gr/products?searching=heavy+load

Metal genre chart.

METAL GENRE CHART

 I made a metal genre chart because why not? 

I have seen a few of these online but I felt like a lot of them were a bit weird to say the least so I made my own. So I hope you like it. I obviously couldn't fit every little rock genre on the chart but I think it turned out pretty good. 

Cheers!

> > > Metal Chart Download Link < < < 

Rest in Peace Gord Kirchin of Piledriver.

 

REST IN PEACE GORD KIRCHIN OF PILEDRIVER. 

Legendary frontman Gord Kirchin has passed away. He was the vocalist of Canadian Speed/Thrash Metal band Piledriver. They released their debut album Metal Inquisition in 1984 and the sophomore studio record Stay Ugly came out two years later in 1986. If you haven't heard Piledriver, They were a pioneering metal band on the Canadian scene with their cool speed metal with absolutely over the top lyrics and image. Gord Kirchin was the bands vocalist and he was also known as 'Pile Driver'. The band also underwent several stages and lineup changes, in the 90's they were known as Dogs With Jobs and in more recent years as 'The Exalted Piledriver'.

I discovered Piledriver quite early on my personal metal journey. Probably through the internet or hearsay somehow some 20 years ago. I don't remember exactly when but I laid my hands on their debut album Metal Inquisition and I just loved it from the start. It was such a catchy album. It had a speed or heavy metal vibe to it and I just loved the album so much. The over the top antics, I mean a song like Sex With Satan. Who writes a song like that? Or title-track Metal Inquisition. It's a metal anthem for the ages. However, The band could easily have been brushed off as just some type of comedic act with such over the top songs but their songs were so well crafted, heavy with lots of cool riffs and memorable choruses. Which really made their music stand out from most other Canadian bands with thrash aspirations. For me Piledriver absolutely should be up there with your Voivod, Thor, Razor, Annihilator and Sacrifice. Remembered as one of the standout acts on the Canadian metal scene.

The look was also quite insane as you can see on the image above, with all the leather and spikes and that studded leather helmet is just beyond metal. It surely takes a lots of guts for an aging and slightly overweight man to put on an outfit like that and just go out on the stage and deliver a show like there's no tomorrow. What's more metal than that? Nothing I would say. 

I definitely respect and sheer Gord Kirchins contributions to metal and I hope that everyone reading this also shares my view of his work which has been nothing but remarkable but yet so often overlooked. For me Gord Kirchin was a true metal legend and he will be missed.

Lately he battled cancer and just a few weeks ago it looked like Gord was in recovery but things took turn for the worse.

So fuck cancer and Rest In Peace Gord Kirchin.

1961-2022

PILEDRIVER Frontman GORD KIRCHIN Dead At 60 - BLABBERMOUTH.NET

RUTHLESS METAL QUIZ

Test your metal knowledge in the Ruthless Metal Quizzes. 

I've made 10 quizzes with 20 questions each. You'll get 10 minutes to answer all 20 questions and each question has four alternative answers to choose from. 

And remember folks, Google is cheating. ;) 

Test your metal knowledge here:

Ruthless Metal Quizzes