Top 3 New Metal Releases You Should Be Listening To

2025 has been a surprisingly strong year for metal in terms of new releases. We've had underground bands breaking out into the mainstream with huge albums, old bands being revived with modernised releases, and new bands forming up to leave their mark on the scene. It's impossible to talk about every exceptional album released this year; however, I have chosen three of them that I think you should be listening to right now.

1) The Blue Nowhere - Between the Buried And Me

Genre: Progressive Metal/Avant-Garde Metal

Mainstream Appeal: 4/5

Heaviness Scale: 2/5

Highlight Tracks: "Things We Tell Ourselves In The Dark", "Absent Thereafter", "Door #3"

Sitting lonely at the top, The Blue Nowhere by Between the Buried And Me (BTBAM for short) is a dizzying, mould-shattering example that a band can evolve their sound to be so much more intricate, layered, and utterly chaotic without ever having to lose their soul.

Founded in the year 2000, BTBAM started out as a chaotic underground metalcore experiment with their 2002 self-titled album Between the Buried And Me. The band later went on to launch their most monumental release, Colors, in 2007, which shook the world with its chaotic blend of so many different genres–including jazz, country, death metal, metalcore, and so much more. Colors was truly monumental, proving that a band could still have extreme metal roots at its philosophical center while also producing extremely innovative, progressive, and creative content.

Fast-forward to 2025, The Blue Nowhere emerges as the sound of a band that has learned every trick in the book, mastered them, implemented them, and got bored of them. It's a delirious, unhinged mixture of funk, progressive metal, country, jazz, metalcore, death metal– and so much more. The Blue Nowhere stands on the top of modern progressive rock and metal as an example on how to approach songwriting as chaotic, volatile, and experimental as itself.

The driving point of this album is its emphasis on "lighter" genres such as funk, country, electro, and jazz being blended with progressive metal aesthetics–and it is perfectly telegraphed to the listener from the first track, "Things We Tell Ourselves In The Dark." This first track is the best example that BTBAM can evolve and even leave behind some of their heavy elements, yet still be just as progressive, chaotic, and unhinged as before. While it is definitely the most approachable track on this album, it is far from the least complicated. Leaning heavily on funk and rock elements, this song shows just how approachable BTBAM can be without abandoning their sound entirely.

After which is what I personally consider to be the climax of this album, which is "Absent Thereafter." This track is an utterly unhinged blend of metalcore, country, jazz, and progressive metal– and honestly, whatever else the band decided to throw in randomly. From country shred breaks to an absolutely transcendent melody break, a ripping hillbilly guitar shred break, and to a section that honestly feels like a 60s pub tapdance break; all mixed with extreme metal… It's a rare find for such approachable and fun music to simultaneously be so avant-garde, progressive and extreme. I highly recommend listening to this song on a train.

The final piece of my 3-song puzzle is "Door #3." Door #3 is one of their more driving, BTBAM-signature metal songs, drawing parallels to their album Parallax-II (pun unintended). With an absolute face-melting intro, an exotic break in the middle, and a driving, equally as hype outro, this song definitely stands out as a recall to their previous albums.

2) New Gods, New Masters - Revocation

Genre: Technical Death Metal / Technical Thrash Metal

Mainstream Appeal: 3/5

Heaviness Scale: 4/5

Highlight Tracks: "Buried Epoch", "Confines of Infinity", "Cronenberged"

Next up is New Gods, New Masters (NGNM for short) by Revocation, and this one is an LP that I've been really excited for for the longest time. I've been a fan of Revocation since I discovered techdeath, and their approach of making riffs actually pleasant to listen to, rather than be a chore to dissect really impressed inexperienced-me, not to mention their choruses being structured into the song makes all their songs extremely memorable.

Though Revocation had a lot of slight style shifts during their career, this one stands out a bit slower and more evil than normal (whatever's normal for Revocation). It's not as similar to Netherheaven (their previous album), which had a lot more blackened influence, but rather NGNM has an atmosphere that is more similar to older variants of deathcore, with evil chugs, slower riffs with discordant chords, and a heavier emphasis on low end. This emphasis is especially apparent in the mix, which is very dominant in the bass. It's thick like a wall, almost sludgy in some parts. Make no mistake, you can still hear every single note Berklee jazz graduate Dave Davidson is playing, it just feels more like drowning within the bass-heavy guitar tone rather than listening to something as sharp and cutting as classic techdeath.

With that in mind, if there's one thing this album does right is that it is catchy and it's fun. Every riff is just as catchy, memorable and full of awesome hooks, as usual for Revocation. One that stood out to me especially was on Cronenberged, at around 45 seconds in. It's such a heavy, groovy yet driving riff- and it's an absolute wristburner as well. Funnily enough, one could almost call the motion required to play the chained-gallops as what drummers may recognise as the iconic "swivel technique", which is a cool crossover between 2 tough rhythm instruments. And at the end of the day, that has always been a huge part of Revocation's sound- capturing your attention with the groove of the riffs and driving you into the wall with their songwriting.

The guitar solos are, as usual, nothing short of mindblowing. It's very cool to hear the jazz influence in Davidson's leads, the way he chains together the weird voicings or diminished licks you may find in a jazz lead with the metal format he plays in gives this band the edge to compete with other modern techdeath giants, in my opinion. (First Fragment, anyone?)

The real meat and bone of this album are the amazing collaborations scattered throughout. Almost as if it's drawing out from the deathcore influences, NGNM is full of fun, ecstatic deathcore collaborations such as Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation, Jonny Davy of Job For A Cowboy and even Luc Lemay of Gorguts, just to name a few. (Lemay is not affiliated with deathcore, but he is too huge of a name not to mention.) These collabs keep the album fresh with every listen, and I must say they're what make this album really special, when it is in such a space that it has to compete with Revocation's near flawless discography, and especially when the last album Netherheaven was so strong. And without further ado, the three highlight picks for this album are…

1. "Buried Epoch." You just can't get any better than getting Lemay on your team for a song of this calibre. From start to finish it just never stops blasting, even when shifting from deathcore influenced chugs to the weird, moving and breathing melodies that Lemay is so known for. I would consider this track to be the peak of this album- the chorus, the eerie clean interlude, the classic yet renovated Gorguts sound mixing with Revocation's magic… It's just too beautiful for a track about the definite demise of the human race. Give it a shot; you won't regret it.

2. "Confines of Infinity," featuring Travis Ryan from Cattle Decapitation. I was skeptical at first at how Ryan's unique voice would fit into a Revocation song. (As much as he is one of my favorite vocalists of all time and supremely talented, one still could describe his vocal style as "Donald Duck screaming in pain through a drain pipe."). However, the delivery is what sold me for this track. Ryan's vocal delivery at 2:47 just fits so well with the rhythm and mood of the song that it makes it a moment to wait and clench your seat for, just waiting for that iconic voice to kick in again after so long. If you're a fan of Cattle Decapitation, give this a listen.

3. "Cronenberged." It's perhaps the most anticipated track for a few reasons. Not only does it share the name of the world renowned horror movie director and screenwriter David Cronenberg, it also has one of the most iconic voices of the Soundcloud deathcore era: Jonny Davy. Davy absolutely crushed it in this song; as usual, his delivery is crushing and merciless. What really set this song apart for me, though, is that swivel riff. Whenever it appears in the song, it instantly locks in with the drums to create a monstrous groove.

All in all, New Gods, New Masters may not have reinvented the wheel for Revocation, but it proves that even when they slow down and sink into darker territory, they still write some of the most technically engaging metal out there.

3) I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me - Lorna Shore

Genre: Deathcore / Symphonic Deathcore

Mainstream Appeal: 2/5

Heaviness Scale: 5/5

Highlight Tracks: "Oblivion", "Prison of Flesh", "Forevermore"

There is not much to say about Everblack. Not because it's supremely bad or supremely good, but because it is exactly what everyone expected it to be. And that is, the fact that it is Lorna Shore, being nothing else other than Lorna Shore.

Allow me to explain. Lorna Shore, since their explosive popularity in 2021 with their single release "To The Hellfire," has been a great topic of contention within the metal community. That is to say, either you like listening to 10-minute epics, orchestral worship, deathcore vocal gymnastics, and the textbook definition of "breaking the sound barrier," and you love them–or you think they're repetitive, boring, overproduced, and overbearing, and you hate them. It seems there is no middle ground, a Big Metal™️ wants you to believe.

And I won't lie and say that Everblack breaks that festering (pun intended) perpetual tug-of-war about Lorna Shore's discography–because it doesn't. It's Lorna Shore being Lorna Shore–nothing more, nothing less. After a while, you run out of synonyms for words like "explosive," "epic," "orchestral," and "crushing" to describe their music. Lorna Shore is themselves–and that is okay. They occupy an amazing, creative, and soulful niche within the deathcore community, and that's what their fans love.

Now to say– Everblack is actually quite good. It's a bit more drawn-out and restrained compared to Pain Remains (their last album, 2022), but that is by no means a bad thing. It's just as cinematic and pleasing to listen to, just with more room to breathe every now and then. In terms of its core and soul, it isn't much different from Pain Remains. If you loved that album, you'll love this one too.

As for our highlight tracks, I would like to start off with my personal favorite- Forevermore. Standing at a whopping 9 minutes and 47 seconds, it is the definitive "epic album closer" that Lorna Shore loves and has pulled off once more. However, this time it stands out that the softer orchestral parts create a more push-and-pull sort of contrast with the heavier parts, which I quite enjoyed. You can tell their songwriting got a lot more refined in this album, and overall, the epic parts have a lot more room to breathe amongst the softer, chill parts. It's a successful 10-minute epic, and I strongly recommend you pay attention to what the guitars and the piano are doing beneath all that orchestral mix and Will Ramos's absolutely unhinged vocal delivery.

Next up is Prison of Flesh, the album opener. This song's been stirring up some reactions from the metal community, because it has everything that makes Lorna Shore so divisive in the first place– the fact that it is so productionally bold with its orchestral elements while also not compromising the deathcore integrity of the guitar-drum locking. It leaves some amazed while others questioning if the orchestrals add or detract from the sound. Personally, I think it's a banger. Will Ramos is once again doing Will Ramos things, and that's something I will eat up all day. That breakdown at around 3:20 is nasty in the most animalistic way possible. It's a nice callback to the pure vocal gymnastics of To the Hellfire.

And finally, is Oblivion. And this song is just too beautiful to skip over. When that orchestral chorus hits, you're just left wondering if you will be left the same when those 8 minutes end. Despite not having any vocal melody, you can feel every emotion in Will's voice, and that's what makes Lorna Shore so special. They can make such extreme and unapproachable music be beautiful and artisanal to listen to, much more than any other caveman chugging band.

Overall, I think Everblack is a fantastic lesson on artistic expression– as in, do not let anyone tell you what you should and shouldn't be doing. Hey, Lorna Shore stuck to their guns- and what came out was nothing short of excellent. Sometimes the world needs just that- a band being themselves, rather than what they're "supposed" to be.