DOTF’s Top 40 Albums of 2025

“You’ve read all the other year end “best of” lists. Now get ready to read the only one that matters!” Yes, the date is December 22, 2025, and by now, you’ve read every other outlet’s obligatory year-end list. That being said, we’ve saved the best for last. When we last did one of these annual recaps, it was on a slightly bitter note. 2024 saw our lowest viewership ever, even lower than our first year (2020). I was seriously questioning if this outlet was even worth the time and effort to maintain. And boy, you all showed me this year that the answer to that question was and is a resounding, “YES!”

I’m thrilled to announce that 2025 was our biggest year ever, smashing all previous viewership records by a landslide. We conducted 39 interviews with members of such legendary bands as Aerosmith, Bad Company, Sodom, and Coroner, as well as countless rising stars in the underground. We reviewed 17 shows that saw us taking in the sights and sounds of festivals like Milwaukee Metal Fest and Legions of Metal, and we even chronicled our first trip across the pond for the ultimate farewell extravaganza, Back to the Beginning: Perhaps already the most important concert of this century. Through it all, we reviewed 183 albums. Here are the top 40 of those 183. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, DOTF’s Top 40 Albums of 2025…

40. Sodom – The Arsonist (Steamhammer)

40 years after desecrating eardrums with their legendary debut EP, In the Sign of Evil, Teutonic titans Sodom went marching off to war again, the spoils of their victory being The Arsonist. Much like 2020’s Genesis XIX before it, The Arsonist is a punishing thrash metal affair, touching on all sounds and eras of Sodom’s storied career. Whether it be the wild witching metal of “The Spirits That I Called” and “Witchhunter”, crossover craziness of “A.W.T.F.”, or Persecution Mania vibes of “Taphephobia”, this album has it all. If you’re into “Sodomy and Lust”, The Arsonist is a must!

39. Vigilhunter – Vigilhunter (High Roller Records)

Having already established himself as the frontman for new school glam metallers Hitten, Alex Panza said with a straight face, “Nah, this isn’t enough.”, and decided to hit us (pun fully intended) with ANOTHER badass ’80s inspired outfit, Vigilhunter. Whereas Hitten is all about big riffs, big hair, and partying hearty, Vigilhunter taps that moody, melodic vein of early prog metal acts like Queensrÿche, Crimson Glory, and Fates Warning. While there are certainly ambitious moments throughout, the hooks remain at the forefront, making this a memorable listen from beginning to end.

38. Aktor – Professori (Season Two) (High Roller Records)

In what may be the ultimate musical whodunnit of 2025, Finnish-American art metal visionaries, Aktor, returned with their long-awaited third album, Professori (Season Two). The title is no coincidence. Situated in the middle of a fictitious three season mystery arc, an assistant detective is catapulted to main character status, scouring the mean streets of this imaginary city up and down for her missing partner. The music matches the tension and sometimes quirkiness of the storyline, lying somewhere between The Cars and Voivod. This might not make sense on paper (or rather screen), but it will once you listen.

37. Glorious Depravity – Death Never Sleeps (Transcending Obscurity Records)

If we were ranking these albums by most fitting title, Glorious Depravity’s Death Never Sleeps might just come out on top. The sophomore album from these NYC death dealers, DNS is an unrelenting exercise in early ’90s DM worship done right, yet without sounding cliche. The band so effortlessly channels the wicked spirit of acts like Deicide, Malevolent Creation, Vader, and Benediction, who are all bands that seem to be largely ignored by this new breed of DM bands, at least in comparison to say Entombed or Bolt Thrower. With this in mind, Death Never Sleeps is a refreshing listen, even if it does sound straight out of ’92!

36. Pagan Altar – Never Quite Dead (Dying Victims Productions)

In the never-ending conversation of “When does a band stop being a band?” or rather, “Where does the line between band end and trademark begin?”, cult NWOBHM devils Pagan Altar have managed to pivot away from this topic altogether, first with a series of celebrated tribute shows for their fallen singer, Terry Jones, and now with their first post-Jones release, Never Quite Dead. Quite a cheeky, yet apt title, wouldn’t you agree? With founding guitarist and younger Jones, Alan, remaining at the forefront, the band have managed to craft an album that’s every bit as compelling as their 21st century resurgence output. Wherever Terry is in the great beyond right now, he’s certainly smiling and raising horns in approval!

35. The Rods – Wild Dogs Unchained (Massacre Records)

Another year, another Rods album making our year-end list! Despite their old age, this power trio remains full of fire, cranking out simple, headbanger-friendly riff-fests like it’s 1981 all over again. Hell, for these dudes, those glorious denim and leather-clad days never ended to begin with! Since reuniting in 2010, The Rods have managed to pick up right where they left off, entertaining maniacs with one slab of molten metal mania after the next, and Wild Dogs Unchained is no exception. Take my word for it: This sequel doesn’t suck!

34. Mean Mistreater – Do or Die (Dying Victims Productions)

We could give you a 2 minute head start, and you still couldn’t catch up to Mean Mistreater. Since forming in 2023, these Lone Star lunatics have been recording, touring, and tearing up the country (and world) at a pace as breakneck as their music itself. As if their pedal to the metal, middle finger in your face-attitude isn’t enough, their latest album, Do or Die, sees them incorporating flashes of USPM in the vein of Chastain, Omen, and Manowar. Yeah, let’s give the badass, leather road warriors swords! That sounds like a great idea! I’m sure nobody will get hurt…

33. Nachash – Eschaton Magicks (Signal Rex)

For me to be impressed by a pure black metal release in 2025, there needs to be a unique quality or qualifier that pushes it over the top. In the case of Eschaton Magicks, the sophomore albums from Norwegian kvltists Nachash, it’s that it sounds nothing like what one would expect from a Norwegian black metal album. No, Eschaton Magicks bears much closer resemblance to the outbreak of acts who snuck in between the genre’s first and second waves (1987-1992) that used albums like Venom’s At War with Satan and Bathory’s Under the Sign of the Black Mark as templates. This is black metal that’s epic, aggressive, old school, and unforgettable, as it should be!

32. FM – Brotherhood (Frontiers Records)

There were many thoughts that crossed my mind when listening to FM’s latest full length platter, Brotherhood. One thought that didn’t? “Oh, brother!” FM are one of those rare bands whom, even if you gave me a magnifying glass and told me to scour their entire catalog, I couldn’t find a single dud. Through grunge and EDM, boy bands and pop country, and every other dumbass trend that has come and gone since, FM have stayed true to their AOR roots, always releasing albums that are equal parts melodic and soulful. Brotherhood boasts both qualities, arguably leaning into the latter harder than ever with its subtle west coast influences.

31. Dirkschneider & the Old Gang – Babylon (Reigning Phoenix Music)

The gang’s all here! And by the gang, I mean three-fifths of Accept’s classic ’80s lineup. That’s right, folks. Your old pals Udo Dirkschneider, Peter Baltes, and Stefan Kaufmann are back together again, and with an album that picks up right where 1986’s Russian Roulette left off at that. Babylon is a most excellent old school Teutonic metal album, complete with hard rock and AOR forays that itch that same mid ’80s Accept scratch. Udo’s voice remains agelessly tough as ever, shrieking away like nails on a blackboard against an air-guitar friendly riff barrage, and the songs are the best he’s lent his vocal talents to in recent memory. We’ll accept it!

30. Sölicitör – Enemy in Mirrors (Gates of Hell Records)

It’s always a gamble when a band tries to do “more” than what they’re already known for, especially if they’re still establishing themselves. For speed demons Sölicitör, it was a gamble that most certainly paid off. After a half-decade absence, the band came storming back faster, sharper, and more lethal than ever. On top of their already unrelenting high speed attack, Enemy in Mirrors introduced tinges of prog, power, thrash, and more, yet without ever sounding convoluted or overblown. Five years was well worth the wait for such a rager of an affair, though I’m not sure we can wait another five for album #3!

29. Void – Forbidden Morals (Shadow Kingdom Records)

If you’re like me, Annihilator are a band you’ve given up on releasing any worthwhile new music a lifetime ago. Nevertheless, the follow-up to Never, Neverland you didn’t know you were still waiting for has officially dropped, albeit via a different entity. Meet Void: A band of promising youngsters who look and sound like Annihilator circa Headbanger’s Ball. Equal parts fast and elegant, Forbidden Morals is the sound of a band not merely aping the breakneck insanity of yesteryear, but channeling it in all its unbridled fury, and doing a damn good job at it.

28. Professor Emeritus – A Land Long Gone (No Remorse Records)

Perhaps I’m biased because I live here, but there are some things Chicago just does better than the rest of the country. One of those things is doom metal. After all, we DID give the world Trouble. In the years since the Psalm 9 legends changed metal altogether, the Windy City has boasted a rich, seemingly endless doom scene, with the current reigning kings being Professor Emeritus. Specializing in a Candlemass-inspired brand of epic doom, Professor Emeritus transports listeners to a past dimension altogether on their latest album, A Land Long Gone. If you’re into long, bombastic songs, operatic vocals, and sprawling guitar lines, get your grubby paws on this album NOW!

27. Time Rift – In Flight (Dying Victims Productions)

By my estimation, Time Rift’s In Flight is the third album on this list from a band who we last heard from half a decade ago, when the world was a very, very different place. In the same regard, Time Rift was a very, very different band. Fast forward 5 years, and they are now a *gulp* “female fronted” band. As a result of said switchover, the comparisons to early Heart and Lucifer are inevitable, but alas, so are the already established influences of Thin Lizzy and Diamond Head! Time Rift are a textbook hard and heavy act, utilizing both approaches to their utmost abilities on this here bad boy, or girl, of an album. Riff on, Time Rift!

26. Teaser Sweet – Night Stalker (High Roller Records)

With their wings outstretched and voices echoing in the wind, Teaser Sweet ALSO returned after a half-decade hiatus with their fourth album, Night Stalker. Although it is their fourth go-around, for myself and many other metal journalists, this album was my introduction to the band, thanks to the good folks at High Roller Records. And I must say, shoutout to whoever made the ultimate decision to bring this band on the roster. Teaser Sweet might be a young band, but old school metal courses through their veins, their riffs and melodies evoking shades of prime Priest and Scorpions. Need I say more?

25. Tower – Let There Be Dark (Cruz del Sur Music)

Before one of you basement-dwelling dorks cries about “DEI” or some bullshit regarding the vast number of “female-fronted” or “female-featured” acts on this list (six and counting), let the record show that this outlet does not blindly hand over participation trophies in the name of social acceptance. No, rather it just so happens that the metal goddesses claimed 2025 with a vengeance, kicking ass and taking names better than the boys in many cases. Take for example, Tower. Already an excellent traditional metal act, the band took their madness even further with their third album, Let There Be Dark. Whereas past releases boasted brass-knuckled bruisers in the vein of Maiden and Diamond Head, this one sees the band channeling the ambitious maneuvers of Satan and Angel Witch, resulting in a metallic brew both arcane and potent. Drink at your own risk!

24. Raven – Can’t Take Away the Fire (Silver Lining Music)

Speaking of the NWOBHM, let’s keep this list going with a band who was ACTUALLY part of the scene, shall we? 2025 was not the year that our old pals Raven anticipated. For a band of tried and true road dogs, they spent most of the year at home, due to lead lunatic John Gallagher suffering a subdural hematoma (AKA brain bleed). Thankfully, Gallagher is on the road to recovery, and it looks like before we know it, he’ll be back on the road itself, hopefully playing songs from the band’s piping hot 50th anniversary EP, Can’t Take Away the Fire. Boasting 5 brand new cuts and 3 unearthed live bangers, this one is technically part-retrospective release. Yet in true Raven fashion, this handful of new tunes obliterates the lion’s share of new full lengths released this year, rightfully earning them a spot on this countdown.

23. Century – Sign of the Storm (Electric Assault Records)

No need to hide under your umbrella! This is a storm you WON’T want to take cover from. Sign of the Storm, the sophomore album from Swedish traditional metallers Century, came roaring in the earliest days of 2025, and has remained a constant listen ever since. Bravely bridging the gap between mystical NWOBHM (i.e. Angel Witch, Satan) and FWOSHM worship, Sign is an all killer, no filler offering of metal magic excavated straight out of 1983. In a year that tragically saw the passing of Heavy Load frontman Ragne Wahlquist, Century do his legacy proud with an album that proudly holds the Swedish metal torch to the sky, shining for the world to bask upon!

22. Wucan – Axioms (Long Branch Records)

With their oddball moniker and Hipgnosis-esque album art, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Wucan and their latest offering, Axioms. Multiple listens later, and I still go in with that same feeling of excitement and anticipation as I did the first time. Over the course of 8 songs, Wucan manages to touch upon traditional metal, classic hard rock, symphonic prog, euro folk rock, and even…disco? Yes, you read that correctly. It’s weird and wonderful, similar to the aforementioned Aktor album in this regard, yet even more nonlinear and off the wall. Expect the unexpected!

21. Sanhedrin – Heat Lightning (Metal Blade Records)

There are few bands who put the word “power” in power trio the way Sanhedrin does. Fusing their streetwise New York attitude with a penchant for the NWOBHM, these hesher disciples come wielding their finest outing yet in their fourth album, Heat Lightning. As powerful and anthemic as the songs are, the performances themselves are even stronger, crushing you with the intensity of a doom metal affair, but with far more dynamic musicality. Erica Stoltz rumbling basslines and tough vocals lead the way. The thundering Nathan Honor on drums and ripping Jeremy Sosville on guitar follow with equal intensity. To put it lightly, we’ve been riding Heat Lightning all 2025, and look forward to doing so in 2026!

20. Crazy Lixx – Thrill of the Bite (Frontiers Records)

Who needs antidepressants when you’ve got Crazy Lixx? Armed with yet another album that goes toe to toe with the likes of Def Leppard and Bon Jovi in their hairspray-headed, MTV-dominating heyday, these Scandi sleaze-mongers are still masters of their craft with Thrill of the Bite. Each track is pop metal perfection, luring you in with riffs that toe the line between heaviness and hookiness, feelgood lyricism, gargantuan gang vocal assaults, and the best production job Mutt Lange never did. It’s certainly lighter than the majority of the fare on this list, but catchy enough to appeal to even the most ardent kvltists.

19. H.E.A.T – Welcome to the Future (earMUSIC)

Crazy Lixx aren’t the only arena metal bunch to find their way on this list. Joining them, and side by side at that, is H.E.A.T and their latest, Welcome to the Future. As the world patiently awaits a new Europe album, leave it to these hot rockers (pun fully intended) to beat “The Final Countdown” hitmakers at their own game, at least as the score stands in this decade (3 to zip! Your move, Joey!). Much like 2022’s Force Majeure before it, Welcome to the Future fuses lush AOR, colossal glam metal, and OTT euro power metal with a lethal confidence. The future is now!

18. Bygone – Bygone (Svart Records)

Talk about making it by the skin of your teeth! Released just a little over a week ago, it’s albums like Bygone’s eponymous debut that remind metalheads like you and I why December IS a worthwhile month for new releases, sparse as they may be. Sounding like the missing link between Thin Lizzy’s Renegade and Thunder and Lightning, Bygone was one of many ’70s meets ’80s releases that stole my heart and ears in 2025. The songs rock hard, and the fusion of Thin Lizzy swagger with an intergalactic atmosphere make for quite an otherworldly listen. Pop on your headphones and take the trip!

17. The Night Flight Orchestra – Give Us the Moon (Napalm Records)

If “vibe possession” were a criminal offense, The Night Flight Orchestra would be serving a life sentence, because the vibes on their latest, Give Us the Moon, are off the charts, as always. You want the moon? Take it. The sun? Sure, you can have that too. Shit, take Pluto too while you’re at it. These kids today don’t even know it was once a planet. For a band of Swedes, the NFO still boast a bizarre knack for the west coast aura of Toto, Journey, and so forth. Whereas most AOR albums these days have become pseudo-euro power metal affairs in disguise, the NFO keep it old school and true. No metallic bombast here! Yacht and champagne vibes only!

16. Bear Mace – Slaves of the Wolf (Independent)

Something else us Chicagoans do better than most? Death metal! If I went down the laundry list of iconic death metal acts from this city, we’d be here until 2027, so just know that Bear Mace is the latest in this crowded field, and they ain’t fuckin’ around. From the moment I first heard Slaves of the Wolf, I knew it would be my #1 death metal album of the year…which translates to #16 on the year overall, but I digress. This is the type of aural punishment I want to hear at all times when pumping iron at the gym or wasting zombies on a first-person shooter game. Surrender yourself to the wolf!

15. Creatures – Creatures II (High Roller Records)

They’re creatures of the night…literally! While the remnants of Dokken and Ratt currently limp their way around the county fair circuit, Creatures from Brazil have come out swinging with an album that sounds like both bands in their major label, coked-out prime. This is everything glam metal needs to be: Powerful, vibrant, and exhilarating from start to finish. 40 years ago, this album would’ve gone platinum overnight. If a major label exec had the balls to sign Creatures today, this album would STILL go platinum overnight. Killer tunes are timeless, and this band has ’em in spades.

13. Coroner – Dissonance Theory (Century Media Records)

Considering the hit or (mostly) miss nature of thrash comeback albums, I kept my expectations for Dissonance Theory, Coroner’s first new album in 32 years, to an absolute minimum. Considering their placement on this list, one can infer that said expectations weren’t just exceeded, but completely smashed like a pane of glass, and you’d be correct. Despite lingering in a void of modern prog-groove-thrash like the acts Coroner would go onto inspire (i.e. Gojira, Meshuggah, etc.), Dissonance Theory manages to sound fresh, fierce, and most importantly, schizophrenic. It’s as if no time has passed since Grin at all!

12. Crypt Sermon – Saturnian Appendices (Dark Descent Records)

Last year, Crypt Sermon made it all the way up to #4 on our year-end list with their masterpiece, The Stygian Rose. This year, they simultaneously bid farewell to this era and introduce a new one at #12 with their latest EP, Saturnian Appendices. Featuring two songs whose origins date back to the Stygian sessions, a brand new metallic exploration, and a wildly unorthodox Mayhem cover, Saturnian Appendices captures the magic of an underground metal EP circa the mid ’80s: You know, when EPs mattered? In my world, they still do, and none matter more this year than Saturnian Appendices.

11. Warfield – With the Old Breed (Napalm Records)

In some cases, for whatever reason or another, the student will surpass the master. This is one such case. With all due respect to Sodom’s The Arsonist that kicked off our list, Warfield’s With the Old Breed takes the band’s war-thrashing ways and warps them into an absolutely devastating beast of a brutal thrash album. With its combat-crazed lyricism and napalm-laced riffage, one can’t help but draw comparisons to Agent Orange and M-16, only this isn’t some cheap imitation; this album is the real deal. Warfield may be a new band, but they sure can stand tall with the old breed.

10. Bergfried – Romantik III (High Roller Records)

What began as a lo-fi folk metal project and evolved into a metallic AOR spectacle, Bergfried came bursting onto our radar like a bat out of hell with their debut full length, Romantik III. The Meat Loaf pun is no coincidence. This album boasts the same grandiosity and over the top hooks as Meat’s 1977 blockbuster, albeit with a traditional metal bite. Mastermind Erech III. von Lothringen channels his inner Jim Steinman with bombastic epics chronicling love and the measures one will go to for it, even if the final consequence is death. Woah…

9. Fer de Lance – Fires on the Mountainside (Cruz del Sur Music)

Quorthon may be gone, but his spirit is alive and well, flowing through the veins of Chicago epic metal masters, Fer de Lance. The band’s unique hybrid of doom metal, viking metal, prog, and folk is nothing short of goosebump-inducing, sounding like a cross between an early ’90s epic black metal opus and a ’70s prog rock voyage on their latest, Fires on the Mountainside. Let’s say Hammerheart era Bathory meets folk era Jethro Tull, with a hint of early Rotting Christ for good measure. Do I have your attention now? Fire on the Mountainside is the epitome of a “headphones only” listen, guaranteed to stimulate the headiest of heavy metallers.

8. Phantom Spell – Heather & Hearth (Cruz del Sur Music)

Lying at the crossroads of American prog titans Kansas and NWOBHM demons Angel Witch is Phantom Spell: A one-man project spearheaded by Seven Sisters frontman, Kyle McNeill. Whereas Seven Sisters is a full fledged traditional metal affair, Phantom Spell sees this metal journeyman tapping into his heavy prog side. Heather & Hearth, his sophomore offering, is a stunning display of ’70s worship, touching on all of the subgenres that made this innovative era so special. From driving Purple-tinted metal to whimsical prog suites, with a healthy dose of folk earthiness in between, Heather & Hearth has it all and then some. One listen and you’re under his spell.

7. Savage Master – Dark & Dangerous (Shadow Kingdom Records)

I’m a sucker for a good ol’ fashioned arena metal album. You know, an album that fuses an unadulterated traditionalism with melodic hooks and a larger than life production? Think Defenders of the Faith era Priest for reference. Everyone’s favorite masked marauders, Savage Master, made that unexpected leap this year, resulting in their finest album to date, Dark & Dangerous. Every song on here is a gem, with the mood ranging from headbanger mania on a Saturday night to passionate Triumph and Agony era Warlock-esque metallized AOR. Couple these new tunes with their ever-entertaining stage show, and you’ve got a band who deserves nothing but heavy metal superstardom.

6. Helloween – Giants & Monsters (Reigning Phoenix Music)

Pumpkins united! Nearly a decade since this current all-star incarnation of Helloween got together, and the band are enjoying one of the greatest second acts in metal history. Having dropped their finest album in ages with their eponymous 2021 album, Giants & Monsters keeps the party going strong with an equally compelling collection of euro power metal anthems. Just like last time, it’s as if the band revisited their catalog, pinpointed what made those albums so special, and wrote a new batch of songs honing in on exactly that. Helloween remain giants of the euro power metal sphere, armed with yet another monstrous effort. Beware!

5. Hexecutor – …Where Spirit Withers in Its Flesh Constraint (Dying Victims Productions)

Yet ANOTHER band we haven’t heard from since the year of the plague, Hexecutor achieved new heights of black metal excellency with their third album, …Where Spirit WIthers in Its Flesh Constraint. Instead of lazily regurgitating the established tropes of yesteryear, Hexecutor threw a real curveball, fusing classic blackened thrash sorcery with flashes of the sophisticated metal their homeland of France is known for. Ever wonder what it would sound like if a band such as ADX or Sortilège tried their hand at black metal? Look no further. Spirit is a masterclass in metal that’s truly fresh and singular.

4. Helms Deep – Chasing the Dragon (Nameless Grave Records)

For a guy who had as rough of a year as John Gallagher, you’d never know it, as he appears on this list not once, but twice! This time, we see the NWOBHM legend assuming his role as a bassist and backing vocalist for USPM warriors, Helms Deep. Formed by frontman/guitarist Alex Sciortino, Helms Deep nails the ’80s US steel attack better than 101% of the sound’s modern day purveyors. If I heard their latest album, Chasing the Dragon, blindly, I’d assume it was a lost Metal Blade release circa 1984. An utterly brilliant show of warrior force!

3. Vultures Vengeance – Dust Age (High Roller Records)

Oui, oui! The French were NOT playing around this year, coming in hard with two songs that make up our top five. As majestic as Hexecutor in their own manner, Vultures Vengeance may as well be the love-child of ’90s Running Wild and Crimson Glory. These ain’t songs, folks; these are symphonies. The scale on which these cuts are composed and delivered are nothing short of breathtaking. Specifically, the guitar duo of Tony T. Steele and D.D. Fury unleash a performance on par with Tipton and Downing at their leather-studded peak. Dust don’t rust!

2. Hooded Menace – Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration (Season of Mist)

Oh my goth! Hooded Menace are a band who NEVER disappoints, or at least that’s what their track record has been for the past 18ish years…even when they’re covering Duran Duran. Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration (what a mouthful) see’s the band’s melancholic brand of death/doom reaching new musical heights, incorporating epic flashes, progressive arrangements, and more impassioned melodies to their already crushing sound. And yes, the aforementioned Duran Duran cover (“Save a Prayer”, for those wondering) is as memorable as every other song on this album: An effort that is second only to…

1. Testament – Para Bellum (Nuclear Blast Records)

2025 was a year full of WTF moments, both in the world of metal and in my own personal day to day life. And yet if I were to rank all of these said moments, I’m not sure any would touch Testament dropping an album I enjoy from beginning to end, let alone one I enjoy SO much I can safely brand it the #1 album of 2025. Look, I’m not going to go so far as to say Testament jumped the shark the way so many of their peers have, but from the sounds of their last 3 to 4 albums, it gave off vibes of a legacy act in autopilot mode. So you can only imagine my shock when I first laid my ears upon Para Bellum.

Picking up right where 1999’s The Gathering left off, Para Bellum is an absolutely devastating death/thrash album, boasting some of the most brutal tunes the band have ever unleashed. This, mind you, 40+ years into their career! Emboldened by youngster drummer Chris Dovas, who comes from a death/black metal background (and it shows), Para Bellum is dominated by blinding blasts, ripping solos, and infernal growls. On the straightforward mosh-thrashers, the band throws it back to their late ’80s heyday, and even the obligatory ballad smokes! No pun intended, Para Bellum is a testament to Testament’s strength and longevity. They’ve turned the dial up to 11, yet again, and I hope they keep it there for many, many albums to come.

Thank you again reader, for another year of unwavering support. We wish you the happiest of holidays and look forward to seeing you in 2026. Heavy Christmas to all and to all a good night!