01) Saor, Amidst the Ruins (Season Of Mist)
The number one spot, surprisingly, goes to: Saor’s sixth record, Amidst the Ruins. It will immediately transport you to a different dimension, depleting your worries, sorrows, and anxieties, for at least 58 minutes and 54 glorious seconds, and put you in a new world of musical bliss. It was in 2024, while on 70000tons, that I experienced the magic that is the UK atmospheric folk/black metal collective, live for the first time. I was taken aback by the musicianship, bringing something old, different, and unique to the musical landscape. I definitely kept them on my radar and, while I didn’t expect them to land as my best album of the year, which was saved for Epica for 99% of it, their new album, Amidst the Ruins, spoke to me on levels I can’t put into words. Their music is that intense, that magical. It has the pacing, the harsh vocals, the classic musical elements for someone who still listens to classical music, and it creates an uplifting, transformative experience from despair to being reborn. This record is magnificent, and I’m looking forward to seeing what Saor does next.
Key Track(s): ”Amidst the Ruins,” “Rebirth”
Best Unsigned Albums:
01) Blackbraid, Blackbraid III (Independent)
Key Track: “Tears of the Dawn”
02) Nephylim, Circuition (Independent)
Key Track: “Grand Denial”
03) Corroding Soul, Corroding Soul (Independent)
Key Track: “Sapphire”
04) Veil of Conspiracy, Shape of Grief (Independent)
Key Track: “Ocean of Despair”
05) The Obsidian Resurrection, As Darkness Falls (Independent)
Key Track: “As Darkness Falls”
Special Mention:
Sindre Nedland (late In Vain vocalist), Embers – EP
Key Track: “Hold The Night”
Honorable Mentions:
Abduction, Existentialismus (Candlelight)
Key Track: “A Legacy of Sores”
Aephanemer, Utopie (Napalm)
Key Track: “Par-delà le mur des siècles”
Ambush, Evil in All Dimensions (Napalm)
Key Track: “Evil in All Dimensions”
Avatar, Don’t Go in the Forest (Black Waltz)
Key Track: “Death and Glitz”
Årabrot, Rite Of Dionysus (Pelagic)
Key Track: “A Different Form”
Barrens, Corpse Lights (Pelagic)
Key Track: “Sorrowed”
Behemoth, The Shit Ov God (Nuclear Blast)
Key Track: “To Drown The Svn In Wine”
Benediction, Ravage Of Empires (Nuclear Blast)
Key Track: “Beyond the Veil (of the Grey Mare)”
Bloodbound, Field of Swords (Napalm)
Key Track: “Field of Swords”
Burning Witches, Inquisition (Napalm)
Key Track: “Soul Eater”
Chris Harms, 1980 (Napalm)
Key Track: “Somewhere Between Heaven And Armageddon”
Crematory, Destination (ROAR)
Key Track: “Destination”
Cryptopsy, An Insatiable Violence (Season Of Mist)
Key Track: “Dead Eyes Replete”
Dawn Of Solace, Affliction Vortex (Noble Demon)
Key Track: “Fortress”
Destinity, Ascension (Crimson)
Key Track: “Dying Light”
Destruction, Birth of Malice (Napalm)
Key Track: “Destruction”
Dream Theater, Parasomnia (InsideOut)
Key Track: “Dead Asleep”
Elvenking, Reader Of The Runes – Luna (Reaper Entertainment)
Key Track: “Season of the Owl”
Garbage, Let All That We Imagine Be The Light (Stun Volume)
Key Track: “Hold”
Glasya, Fear (Scarlet)
Key Track: “Fear”
The Halo Effect, March Of The Unheard (Nuclear Blast)
Key Track: “Conspire to Deceive”
Hexvessel, Nocturne (Prophecy)
Key Track: “Sapphire Zephyrs”
Incite, Savage New Times (Reigning Phoenix Music)
Key Track: “Lies”
Internal Bleeding, Settle All Scores (Maggot Stomp)
Key Track: “Settle All Scores”
Killswitch Engage, This Consequence (Metal Blade)
Key Track: “Abandon Us”
Kittie, Spit XXV EP (Sumerian)
Key Track: “Charlotte XXV”
Lacuna Coil, Sleepless Empire (Century Media)
Key Track: “Oxygen”
Laurenne/Louhimo, Falling Through Stars (Frontiers)
Key Track: “Falling Through Stars”
Liv Kristine, Amor Vincit Omnia (Metalville)
Key Track: “Ode to Life Pristine”
Messa, The Spin (Metal Blade)
Key Track: “The Dress”
Mezzrow, Embrace the Awakening (Reigning Phoenix / Rock of Angels)
Key Track: “Architects Of The Silent War”
Mors Principium Est, Darkness Invisible (Perception)
Key Track: “Of Death”
Mystic Circle, Hexenbrand 1486 (Rock Of Angels)
Key Track: “The Bible of Witch Chase”
Nailed To Obscurity, Generation Of The Void (Nuclear Blast)
Key Track: “Glass Bleeding”
Obscura, A Sonication (Nuclear Blast)
Key Track: “In Solitude”
One Of Nine, Dawn Of The Iron Shadow (Profound Lore)
Key Track: “Of Desperate Valor”
Onirophagus, Revelations from the Void (Personal)
Key Track: “Hollow Valley”
Orbit Culture, Death Above Life (Century Media)
Key Track: “Inside the Waves”
Rage, A New World Rising (Steamhammer)
Key Track: “Against the Machine”
Revocation, New Gods, New Masters (Metal Blade)
Key Track: “New Gods, New Masters”
Ronnie Romero, Backbone (Frontiers)
Key Track: “Eternally”
Soulfly, CHAMA (Nuclear Blast)
Key Track: “Storm the Gates”
The Violent Hour, The Violent Hour (Megaforce)
Key Track: “Sex and Cigarettes”
Unleashed, Fire Upon Your Lands (Napalm)
Key Track: “Left For Dead”
Venamoris, To Cross or to Burn (Ipecac)
Key Track: “Holding on to Nothing”
Void Of Hope, Proof Of Existence (Avantgarde)
Key Track: “The Hollow Hymn”
Waldgeflüster, Knochengesänge (AOP)
Key Track: “Krähenpsalme”
Warfield, With The Old Breed (Napalm)
Key Track: “Appetite Aggression”
Wolfheart, Draconian Darkness II EP (Reigning Phoenix)
Key Track: “Carnivore”
