Part two of our list, and things are already starting to heat up! I thought I’d take this quick time to highlight some honourable mentions, as there were so many albums that sadly didn’t quite make the cut that are well worth checking out: Badflower. Dropkick Murphys. Russel Dickerson. Bleed From Within. Cam. Ron Pope. Heaven Shall Burn. William Prince. Jordan Davis. And, knock her all you like, but the new Sabrina Carpenter album slaps!

80 – Star Circus: From the Wreckage

We kick off part two of this years list with a long-anticipated sophomore album, and one hell of a sleazy, AOR/hard rock release! I’ve been a fan of the band for a few years now, and was pretty hyped when this was announced and we got sent it, and for anyone who’s read our review, I was certainly not disappointed! Nearly 50-minutes of awesome riffing and instrumentation, and packed full of choruses big enough to fill stadiums! Feeling like a modern version of Glenn Hughes or Night Ranger, it’s a lot of fun, and an incredibly easily listen that I’d recommend any rock fan check out! If/when you do, you’ll easily hear why we gave it a whopping 9.5/10, and why it easily made it onto our list!

Listen to: Chained to You, One Hit Wonder, and Last Dance

79 – Paradise Lost: Ascension

The godfathers of death-doom returned this last September with their first new studio stuff in half a decade, and proved that they are still one of the best in their genre. This is an hour of moody, gothic heaviness, and I love every bit of it. The riffs are the main highlight, as expected in this music, but some of the vocal lines are surprisingly catchy too, even when screamed! And the whole thing is just epic, flowing perfectly one track into the next. It’s certainly not for everyone, and is no small undertaking, but if you are at all into doom music, this is very much the album for you! It was, you guessed it, another massive 9/10 from us when it dropped, and a few listens later it still very easily sits at that. A welcome, easy addition to this spot on the list!

Listen to: Tyrents Serenade, Salvation, and Sirens

78 – Rival Pack: BURN

As I’ve said before, 2025 was the year of the hardcore return, and few did it better this year than this Netherlands-based collective. Frankly, the fact that they sit on barely 100 monthly listeners at this point is nothing short of criminal! This isn’t even half an hour of absolute aggression and fury that would put plenty of other artists to shame. It’s a great way to get out some anger, as it makes me just want to throw people around a pit, and at the same time is a great fun listen. It’s a typical sound for the genre and doesn’t do a lot out of the ordinary, but what it does do, it does to perfection. I’ve spun this a lot since June and haven’t yet gotten bored of it, sure to keep spinning it plenty in the new year, too! From the riffing to the screams to the breakdowns, it’s all so good. Somehow it was one we hadn’t checked out for NMM, but give this a listen and try to tell me it is anything less than a 9/10! An amazing heavy album, and well worth its placement on here. On a weaker year, it could have gotten far higher!

Listen to: Closing In, Killer in the Pool, and Don’t Waste My Time

77 – Luna Marble: Self-Titled

The debut album from the bluesy hard rockers only came out last month, but has quickly established itself as a force in this list! This is a powerhouse of 70s riffs and psychedelia from start to finish, as well as being packed full of some awesome, arena-filling choruses to boot! It’s honestly refreshing to hear a band inspired by Led Zeppelin but not sound like a clone of them. It’s a more modern sound, reminding me a lot more of something like Brave Rival. These guys have truly mastered their craft and sound already, insanely impressive for a band so young and not having been going all that long. Everyone is exceptionally talented; from the riffing to the drumming, synth to the actually-focused-on bass to the soaring, powerful vocals it’s all incredible. I’ve fallen in love with the band since this early November release, and if you are at all into more of a classic rock style it is an absolute must-listen! It’s very easy to hear why it got a massive 9/10 from me, and it more than earned its slot here!

Listen to: All of my Love, So Long, and Redemption

76 – The War & Treaty: Plus One

Firstly, I don’t remember this album being this damn LONG. As much as I love the band, 66 minutes is a lot to sit through, and I think it’s a big reason as to why I’ve stuck to the tracks I like and very rarely revisited the release as a whole. It’s most likely the reason that it’s a touch lower than their previous release was on these lists. The highs are in the sky, but there is a fair bit of needless filler too, in this writers opinion, which stopped it from being quite as excellent an album as Lover’s Game. However, it’s still a damn good album, and produced some of my favourite country-adjacent tracks of the year. The duo lean even harder into their Southern Soul style than ever, putting out a truly unique release different to anything else on this list. And, honestly, it’s the more country/Americana stuff that I find myself going back to the least. They have really found their niche and bounce off of each other somehow better than ever, crafting something honestly special here, despite the length. It’s crazy to look back on our review of it and see my opinion has changed a bit on the slower stuff. Honestly, I’d stick with the 9.5/10 over top marks. However it’s still awesome, and very deserving of a slot of this list, that’s for sure! Check this out, especially the opening half!

Listen to: Call You By Your Name, Stealing a Kiss, and Love is on Fire

75 – Feuerschwanz: Knightclub

Power metal ‘Gangnam Style’… do I need to say anything else?! The band put the fun in power metal like few other bands can, and it makes this a fantastic listen! Don’t get me wrong, they can also get serious and ‘proper power metally’ when they want to, but the slightly more light-hearted nature is a lot of fun, and has kept me coming back to a lot of this album again and again. And even though the release may appear front-loaded (aside the massive closer), there are some truly incredible folk metal songs throughout, and I couldn’t name you a bad song. I have fully gotten on-board the power metal train the last couple of years or so, and this is honestly one of my favourite releases in the genre since then! It is a resounding YES in answer to the question posed in my review, and I fully stand by the 9/10 I gave it back then. It more than deserves this slot on the list, and would have gotten higher if it weren’t for a couple other power metal albums further on…

Listen to: Knightclub, Valhalla, and Sam the Brave

74 – Carter Faith: Cherry Valley

Another debut album, this one for a sure-fire future country megastar. Her Dolly-esque vocals and her fantastic lyric/songwriting are a winning combination, that’s for sure! Her quick wit lyrically is second to very few currently. She definitely adds some modernness to the neo-traditional sound though, and even some epicness with songs like the opener. It’s simple and rather chilled-out as a whole, but packed full of both fun and emotion. And, even at its pretty stacked length, it’s full of amazing songs and it an incredibly easy listen. A lot of it came out as singles beforehand, but despite being a marketing/income tactic, it’s also easy to see why, as there are so many standouts. It gives off Sabrina Carpenter vibes at times, and I mean that as the uttermost of compliments! It’s very easy to hear why I gave this a 9/10, and it’s stayed firmly in my rotation since the start of October when it was released. If you are at all into country music check this out, especially given how MASSIVE a name she’s going to be sooner rather than later. Heck, ‘If I Had Never Lost my Mind…’ still gives me goosebumps now, that alone should encourage you to listen!

Listen to: Sex, Drugs, & Country Music, Grudge, and Burn my Memory

73 – Old Dominion: Barbara

Just two years after their amazing Memory Lane, the country megastars returned with yet another barn-burner! It’s a really interesting release for me, too. When it first released, I was adamant it wasn’t up there with their last album. However, the more I listen to it, the more I find myself enjoying almost every song a lot. While the singles aren’t as massive and memorable, it’s a shorter, more concise album, with less filler and far more killer than Memory Lane. It’s a chilled-out country album that feels like it leans more into their influences than trying to score another radio hit. The band really cut loose and wrote what they wanted to, and it results in a beautiful album that is packed full of heart and emotion. It combines a more traditional country/soul sound with their more modern elements, so if that sounds at all like something you’d be interested in, I can’t recommend this enough! It’s another one that definitely gets bumped up, as I only gave it 8/10 in our review, while it’s another easy 9 now, if not higher!

Listen to: Making Good Time, Man or the Song, and Talk Country

72 – Fit for a King: Lonely God

The Texan metalcore collective returned back in August with their eighth album, and it’s an epic, varied release! Whether it’s the more modern BMTH-inspired arena metalcore, or the brutally heavy riffing and breakdowns that brought them to the dance, or even a couple of slower ballads, this thing is packed full of a bit of everything from the genre! And the band do it all so well! From crushing breakdowns to epic soundscapes, I’m obsessed with all of it. I do typcially prefer the heavier tracks, but something about this band and this album had me loving every song. They’re perfectly spread out through the album too, the moments of levity incredibly offsetting the brutal times. I loved The Hell We Create, but this is up there alongside it, for sure! If you are at all into modern metalcore, this is certainly an album for you. A very solid 9/10 from us easily landed it it’s spot on our list!

Listen to: Extinction, Monolith, and Blue Venom

71 – Eld Varg: Destroyer

The Scottish melodic hard rock/metallers returned with a vengeance with this album last month. The riff-masters clearly borrow from plenty of old-school metal influences, but still somehow sound modern, maybe due to the album’s excellent production! I gushed over this album plenty in my review, but it is so very deserved. It genre-blends in all the best way, and really has a little something for everyone even slightly into metal. 41-minutes of epicness; from power and folk metal to more thrash to melodic hard rock at times. And, as said before, the whole thing goes by in a flash, and is well worth listening to in one sitting! The band are all so incredibly talented at playing and writing, and I can foresee this pushing them up a few notches in the scene by this time next year. It very much deserves its place on our list!

Listen to: Achamán, The Hell of Mirrors, and Crestfallen

70 – HARDY: Country! Country!

Album number four from one of Nashville’s biggest modern songwriters certainly washed out some of the bad taste in the mouth that Quit!! left behind. Leaning more into the country-hard rock fusion that made mockingbird so successful was definitely a step in the right direction, and lead to an album I have revisited a fair bit the last three months. Is it as good as mockingbird? Given that it’s here on this list and not at number 2, no. But hell, it made the list this year, and above a lot of other country albums, so that should say a lot!

Despite being long and certainly having some filler without a cool concept to explain it away, there are still some excellent country tracks across a lot of this, and it’s very much a return to form for THE CROW. There is far more great than not too, with most of this ending up on my personal playlist by now! There’s a lot of fun, but there’s also plenty of emotion shown at times, HARDY’s vocals and talent handling both styles masterfully. The length has most probably dropped it a few places on this list, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a surprisingly easy listen for over an hour. In fact, it may be the longest album on the list this year, which is an achievement in of itself, I guess! I gave it an 8.5/10 back in September, but as predicted in that review, this has grown on me more since! It’s a solid, easy 9/10 now, and very easily makes it this high on the list. Hopefully he rearranges his UK tour next year, as I’d love to hear some of this live!

Listen to: Country Country, Girl With a Gun, and Y’all Need Jesus

69 – Solence: ANGELS CALLING

After sitting with this album for a couple of months now, I’ve finally gotten on-board with serious Solence, and I really love this release! This thing is an incredible pop/alt-metal album packed to the brim with amazing, catchy-as-anything tracks. Honestly, every track is as good as the last, and the album has such a fantastic flow to it, 27-minutes going by in a flash. It has hints of early 2000s US radio-rock, but with a distinctly modern European twist on top of that, especially with the Callboy-like electronic elements and screams. Oh, and then we just get some insanely technical solos thrown in for good measure too; this album really having a bit of everything!

I’ve had most of this album stuck in my head at various points over the last two plus months, and it has grown on me more and more. They fully deserve the fast rise they are having, and I can really see 2026 being their year with the sheer amount of touring they have planned! We gave it 8.5/10 when it released, but it’s definitely higher than that for me now. A good album that’s grown on me even more with subsequent listens, it more than deserves to be rocking this list!

Listen to: Monsters in my Head, Where Were You..?, and All of the Pain Must Go

68 – Locash: Bet the Farm

The first album from the country duo in six years was more than worth the wait! This is a masterclass in bro-ish country, and is a release I’ve been jamming a lot from April all the way to now. It’s a lot of fun throughout, but also packed full of emotion, as well as some stadium-sized choruses and harmonies from the pair. And from the more Southern rock infused to the country ballads, they do it all perfectly. It’s a sound that’s definitely taken a step back in recent years but I’m so glad hasn’t died off completely. If you are into country at all, I’d definitely recommend giving this a chance, it’s impossible not to love it! And at under 40-minutes, it’s pretty short for a country release these days. We gave this a whopping 9.5/10 when it released, and if you take a listen it’s very easy to see why! If it wasn’t for country booming once again this year, it would have ended up higher, but it is still at a damn respectable point of the list!

Listen to: Hometown Home, Bring Em Back, and Shipwrecked

67 – Tetrarch: The Ugly Side of Me

The nu-metal revival continued to be in full swing in 2025, and this album was a large focal point of that! The bands third album followed up 2021’s amazing Unstable perfectly, building on everything that album laid out and coming out with an incredibly strong release overall. Every song slaps, and it makes for a fantastic, heavy, catchy just over half-an-hour! The duo of Josh Fore and Diamond Rowe is a real powerhouse, and will inspire this band continues to grow into a juggernaut in years to come. Especially if they keep continuing to grow and build on their sound, and put out better and better albums! From the crushing riffing to the massive choruses to the occasional awesome solo, it’s all amazing. It got a huge 9/10 from us when it dropped, and has been in regular rotation for me since May, easily earning its spot on this list! For anyone who’s into nu or industrial metal, or just anything around that early 2000s sound, listen to this immediately!

Listen to: Never Again (Parasite), Live Not Fantasize, and Cold

66 – The Damn Shames: Trailers on Bricks

A release recommended to me by a good friend of the company, Kyle Daniel, and I’m so glad that he did! This is an incredible Southern rock album! From the instrumentation to the incredible harmonies to the arena-filling choruses, it’s all so damn good, from start to finish. Honestly, each of these 10 tracks are as good as the last, and it makes for a super easy listen from start-to-finish! The band are all insanely talented players and songwriters, and the fact that this is their debut album and it’s of this high quality is truly amazing. This somehow only got an 8.5/10 from us upon release, but after multiple revisits over the last six months, this is easily closer to a 9 for me! If you are at all into the country or Southern rock scene, this is very much the album for you. Hopefully either scene in the UK picks them up, as I’d love to see this stuff live! I look forward to hearing where they go from here, but for now I am content to keep spinning this record, hence why it ends up pretty high on this list!

Listen to: Who Killed Rock n’ Roll?, Another Spoke in the Wheel, and Quittin’ Time

65 – Epica: Aspiral

I mean, we finally got three new parts of A New Age Dawns on this release, that alone gets it onto this list! However, the other eight songs are also just as good, too! The whole thing is an epic, cinematic masterpiece that somehow feels like it goes by far too quickly despite it being an hour. I always felt like they were one of the more underrated symphonic metal bands, but they put out one of the best albums in the genre in recent years with this. From Simone’s incredible vocals and choruses to the insane instrumentation throughout, it’s easy to hear why it’s had me hooked since April. It got a huge 9.5/10 from us, and if you give it a listen you’ll easily be able to tell why! I’m always a touch hit and miss with the genre, but when it’s done as well as this it’s hard not to fall in love, hence why it’s here and in a pretty favourable position. It’s a big undertaking, but I’d highly recommend a full listen through of the album for anyone even slightly interested!

Listen to: Cross the Divide, Arcana, and Eye of the Storm

64 – Humming Whale: Chasing Rabbits

Another debut album, and this time a fantastic blend of so many different metal styles! Somewhere between hardcore and prog metal, it’s a blend that shouldn’t work anywhere near as well as these guys make it! I already gushed over this album in my review not long ago, so I feel like cliff notes are probably more preferred, right? Incredible instrumentation, catchy, powerful vocals, great cleans and harshes, and some epic songwriting. Like it somehow combines Tool, Godsmack and Turnstile. If that sounds at all like your sort of thing, go check it out ASAP! Their creativity and uniqueness is off the charts, and I can see a huge future for them if they keep on putting out stuff of this quality. For now, I’m more than happy to keep spinning this release, an easy 9/10, and it easily made it onto this spot on the list!

Listen to: Chasing Rabbits, Waves, and Black Waters

63 – Born of Osiris: Through Shadows

This brutal slice of technical metalcore from back in July is somehow something I haven’t revisited too much since its release, but upon doing so am blown away all over again. Instrumentally this is absolutely phenomenal from the very first note; the riffing to the solos, drumming to the electronics and synth, it’s all mind-blowingly good. And the vocals too, be it screams or the odd clean, all fit it so well. I’ve really gotten into the heavier side of metalcore since the mainstream side of it has lightened up, and adding a tech and electronic edge to it is like a match made in heaven. And heck, some of it is catchy, as well as being heavy and djenty, it’s really awesome! I knew I had this album in my list for a reason, but I can’t believe I even slept on it for a few months again, even after giving it 9/10 back in July. If you are even slightly into metal, but especially modern Machine Head, Periphery or Shadow of Intent, this is one to put on immediately!

Listen to: Seppuka, Through Shadows, and Activated

62 – Lanie Gardner: Faded Polaroids

The second album from the rising country star, somehow she keeps just getting better and better! She’s incorporated a little more rock elements since her debut, and it’s made for an incredible, fun country album. And even on her slower tracks, they’re also radio-country ballads, and just as good as the rest of the songs. And even at its length, it’s still an easy listen without a bad song throughout. Her vocals are incredible, as are her lyrics, and they all fit perfectly over the instrumentation, whether it’s country, southern rock, Americana or more of a pop leaning. It got an incredibly easy 9/10 from us, and there was no way it wasn’t getting a strong spot on this list. She has such an insanely bright future ahead of her, and I don’t suspect this is the last time she’ll be on a list like this!

Listen to: Boys Like You, Boot Down, and Buzzkill

61 – Once Awake: Far Out and Beyond

I have such a weak spot for old-school melodeath this year, and the fifth album from the Norwegian quartet delivered that in spades back in April. This thing is an epic nine tracks crushing brutality, riffs, breakdowns and some huge, catchy moments to break them up. There is not a track to skip, and I’ve done it in full numerous occasions since its release. Heck, it’s so good it even prompted me to go to Derby of all places to see them live, that should be the biggest endorsement there is! For those into the heyday of In Flames or Bodom, this is an album you need to spin, you’ll surely be as obsessed as I’ve been. And it actually has our first 10/10 review of our list so far, and it more than deserves that rating! It’s a phenomenal album, and only reason it’s not even higher up is because of the sheer amount of awesome releases from 2025, and the wide variety of styles we cover. I challenge you to find me a better straight-up melodeath album over the last year or two, I think you’d be hard pressed to find much!

Listen to: Where’s All the Silence Gone, Injustice, and Kill the Concern