Hello, my name is Sio Parker, and I love black metal and I love lists. As such, being the Kentcore junior editor as of [CURRENT DATE], I found it to be a genius idea to combine these two interests of mine to make a list of the 20 best black metal releases of the year. Simply a sensational idea I do say. This year was an exceptional year for black metal, with great releases from the mainstream and underground, strong returns from classic bands and new projects being born from the primordial aether in order to bless our ears with beautiful blast beats and tremendous tremolo. I hope you enjoy these wonderful selections as I have searched through countless worlds to find these rare kvlt releases for you to check out, as they are definitively the best of the year.
But first some honorable mentions that I quite liked, but decided not to include for various reasons. While you should still certainly check them out, including them in the top 20 felt disingenuous.
Moonlit Cryer
Vanishing Amulet
Easily the best dungeon synth album of the year. Obviously not Black Metal but I felt like I should at least mention it. Besides sounding almost vaporwave-esque in sound design, most of the album doesn’t do anything revolutionary. But all it needs is a stellar atmosphere and great melodic composition, and quite simply it does.
Pallid Blue Memory
Eerified Catacomb
While the black metal influences on this one are heavy, it’s more of an ambient, or even drum and bass ep than a traditional black metal demo. Still, its eclectic sonic pallet is extremely unique and worth digging into.
Submersus
Hell
Since their first album in 2009, Hell has been very heavily associated with the black metal scene. However, I would not consider any of their albums to be black metal personally, especially Submersus. But my opinion on what qualifies and what doesn’t for a “best of black metal” list won’t stop me from acknowledging that this record is one of the thickest releases of the year and a must listen, even if I only put it in the honorable mentions category.
Lonely People With Power
Deafheaven
I know, bold to only have this as an honorable mention. Don’t get me wrong, this album is great, that’s why I mentioned it in the first place. However, after I listened to this album for the first time when it came out in late March, I have thought about it very sparsely. Sure, I did really like it, but it’s just kinda been absent from my mind while other critically acclaimed albums from this year have taken up way more of my head space. On top of that, anything Deafheaven does will always be overshadowed, to me, by the genius that is Sunbather, one of the greatest metal albums of all time. Why am I still mentioning it, you might ask? Because it’s Lonely People With Power by Deafheaven. Its reputation precedes it. Deafheaven’s writing is stellar and they remain the most accessible and well liked black metal band in tier 2 music nerd-ery for a good reason.
I am also going to shout out Vom Gipfel by Nimbifer for also being great, but falling victim to a similar problem, exacerbated perhaps by the artwork used for the cover of the EP already being used by the band Wargeist in 2022.
The Poppies Bloom for No King
Panopticon
Easily the hardest cut to make to the main list, but when I decided to make an “honorable mentions” slot, I realized that this would have to end up here. The Poppies Bloom for No King is a two-song EP released by Panopticon, arguably the greatest RABM, (Red and Anarchist Black Metal), band of all time, in mid-September of 2025. The second song is a rerecording of a track they made almost a decade ago on their first full length album. That album is not often brought up in conversation, and for good reason. The thought process behind remaking a song from their self-titled debut baffles me. However, the first track may be one of the best metal songs of the decade. Panopticon writes with such vitriol towards American fascism that puts a lot of other protest music to shame, yet at its core the compassion for the victims of said fascism and those at risk of violence, deportation or any other terror created by the US is deeply palpable. Unfortunately, as ICE agents gain power and increase their violent removal of Americans from their home, The Poppies Bloom for No King gains more and more relevance and will be a very important historical touchstone for years to come. I am very excited for Panopticon’s full length release later this year.
I had no idea when to mention this but he also released a bluegrass album last year, which is very underrated and I would like to point you towards it as well.
And now… the countdown begins. Aliquid latinum, nescio.
20. The Nightspirit Symphony
Heathendom
To start off the list, I unfortunately have a demo that I do not have much to say about beyond “it’s quite good,” but The Nightspirit Symphony by Heathendom is just a really solid symphonic USBM debut that has some great synth work and some mean riffs. It’s only 20 minutes long, and very worth your time.
19. Demo MMXXV
Axis of Desire
This debut demo from Axis of Desire has an extremely enticing meld of goth rock and raw black metal, reminiscent of Shades of Autumn or Lifelover. However, unlike those bands, Axis of Desire leans even harder into the goth rock sounds, almost sounding as if Siouxsie and the Banshees wore corpse paint or if Poison Ruïn committed beyond the aesthetic. The jangle of the guitars and the distinct drumming and bass give the band a much needed distinction from all the Lifelover worshipers out there and I am very excited to see where the band goes from here.
18. DEMO I – “Folklore”
The Blood Mountain Black Metal Choir
Another great addition to the RABM pantheon, The Blood Mountain Black Metal Choir have almost perfected the stereotypical leftist USBM sound. With influences from both blackgaze and traditional American folk music, alongside the usage of piano and lo-fi acoustic guitar creates aesthetic parallels to both the early and late 1900s with the political statements made by the band on this demo. TBMBMC is a new project from Annos, the musician behind Wounds of Reflection and Isleptonthemoon, and this may be my favorite release from him I’ve heard so far amongst everything they’ve done. The riffs are great, the songwriting is creative, and all in all the demo is as dense as a January snow storm. “Folklore” displays a strong understanding of conceptual cohesion and is a promising start for this project.
17. Uulliata Digir
Uulliata Digir
Another debut, this time a full length album from Poland, Uulliata Digir’s self-titled album is an avant-garde beast. The dueling vocals throughout the album are quite unique and the heavy usage of trumpet is a gnarly addition. However, what makes the album so great is just how pounding and disgusting it sounds. The dissonant riffs are mind-melding and slowly hypnotize you till you succumb to their will. But from that, forms a grander cathartic beauty. Take for instance “Omni Dirga”. The song pummels you for 3 minutes with an unrelenting cacophony of instruments before the female vocalist Julita Dąbrowska brings a gorgeous cry from above it all, a brief 30 seconds of respite amongst it all, before returning to the hell that awaits you.
16. 노래하자! 전진하자!
구룡
“Let’s sing! Let’s move forward!”, was the second demo from 2025 for the band Kuryong, a supposedly “North Korean” black metal band writing music about the greatness of the North Korean empire. While this is almost certainly fake, what’s not fake is the absolute musical carnage on display. It’s an incredibly cool concept to view what propagandistic North Korean black metal can sound like, even taking influences from the traditional patriotic music of the DPRK on the final track. The record itself almost becomes danceable at points, a fictional celebration of national pride that you need to dance to even. It’s creative, lo-fi and a fascinating take on not only black metal, but conceptual political music as a whole.
15. Tomb of the Lunar Oracle
Lazer Throne
I have an extremely soft spot in my heart for space themed metal albums, from Vektor to Darkspace to Blood Incantation, the great black void of the universe is the perfect locale for a metal record in my mind. Naturally, this Lazer Throne album happened to catch my eye. Another debut album, following a 2023 EP, Tomb of the Lunar Oracle is delightfully sparse and is the perfect soundtrack for the horrifying ambiance of space, to the point that it almost gives me Funeral Doom vibes. The lyrics describe the death of an intergalactic empress, and the accompanying celestial dirge is horrifically mind blowing. It is a gorgeous addition to the cosmic black metal microgenre and was a great buzzer beater listen for me, even though it came out in June.
14. Dawn Of The Iron Shadow
One of Nine
The second album from One of Nine, one of the best modern Melo-Black acts today, Dawn of the Iron Shadow amplifies what made their debut so good and adds onto it a more colorful and adventurous aesthetic, closer to the Lord of the Rings name the band is connected to. Great riffs and wonderful Dungeon Synth compliment the vast uses of instrumentation seen throughout the album, creating a masterpiece of musical joy. From chiming bells to wonderful acoustic elements, One of Nine provides the best black metal LARP music of the year with this album, and takes my 14 slot handedly.
13. Flame Within Flame
Sargeist
Hot take, this is Sargeist’s best album since Let the Devil In. I’m almost at a loss for words as to what makes the album so good that can’t just be explained by pointing to it and going “look how awesome this album is! Isn’t it awesome?” The strength of this release comes from its traditional approach to black metal songwriting, something that certain people would say is dead, yet Sargeist proves the pessimists wrong. We don’t get many full length raw black metal albums nowadays, but Flame Within Flame is a great display of what can be. Sargeist has a history of insane and evil riffs and Flame Within Flame is a great addition to their catalog of those riffs.
12. Za Striebornou Horou
Stangarigel
Za Striebornou Horou is an extremely high quality folk black metal album coming from Slovakia. It has remarkably diverse songwriting and has a lot of similarities to the previous entry as my appreciation for this record does simply come down to a pure gut feeling that this is incredible music. However I would be remissed to not mention “Sedem Modrých Ohňov Plejád” as a highlight and how “Turoni a Chriapy Obchádzajú Snehom” sounds like training montage music. Overall a very creative release that tries put many things and continuously sticks the landing with all of them.
11. Faryād: Barpākhiz! Rastākhiz!
Shāhanshāh
Opening with a warning alarm for bombings during the Iraq war, this short Iranian demo won me over extremely quickly. It’s bold and devastating and has one of the greatest qualities a black metal demo can have, pure hatred. What really sets this apart however, are the solos. Incredible blackened heavy metal guitar stuff that I have not heard in many places. The closer “Div-e Sepid,” or “White Devil” especially starts to sound like an progressive-era Iron Maiden track, it’s really some phenomenal stuff and a very exciting follow up for this band.
10. And Nothing Makes Me Happy Or Sad
I don’t really feel anything anymore
Coming out of Texas from the extremely prolific Iseult, And Nothing Makes Me Happy Or Sad might kind of surprise you as an inclusion on this list, both from the cover and how the first of the two tracks just being a 10 minute (high quality) ambient piece. But, the following 20 minute atmospheric DSBM song is so depressive and oppressive that it had to crack the top 10. The usage of an obliteratingly fuzzy tone creates an atmosphere that I have never seen produced prior. It simultaneously feels like an ambient dreamscape and the purgatory you exist within for ending your own life. Very rarely can I say a black metal song is elegant or beautiful, but this checks all the boxes it needs to. There’s such a raw emotional weight to this record that I simply must recommend it. Absolutely worth your time.
9. Ersatz Soul
ONW
Probably one of my favorite album covers of the year, Ersatz Soul bounces around from blackened post-hardcore to blackened death metal to just pure raw black metal and back to hardcore. I’d even argue it’s blackened nu-metal at points. The point is, it’s kind of undefinable. Yet in that hard to pinpoint space comes the genius of the record. Probably my entry level pick from this list for anyone interested in getting into black metal outside of Lonely People With Power. Rest well sweet soldier on the album cover.
8. The Pederast
Christian Necromancy
My main problem with this album, and why I didn’t place it higher, is that conceptually, I’m not really sure how I feel about it. While certain sects of the Christian faith do have serious problems, it’s hard to tell what is a serious critique and what is a parody of said critique. As such it’s kind of difficult to listen to the record given the topic of the album, which should be obvious considering the combination of the title and cover. With that I cannot put this any higher. However I still have The Pederast at the eighth spot. That is simply because there is not a more deranged display of music available today. The best way to summarize The Pederast is that it’s as if everything about Black Metal as a genre was turned up to 12. Christian Necromancy manages to shock and repulse you not just with the lyrical content but on the insanity of its freeform instrumentation, leading to this being one of the most extreme interpretations of the genre ever made. The usage of dissonance and the insanity of the drumming is incomparable and there’s actually not even a guitar on the album, it’s actually a heavily distorted lyre! That’s awesome! You can’t not include a black metal lyre album in your top ten.
7. ∫um’ad∂ejja ∫ervaj
Trhä
My obligatory Damián Antón Ojeda pick. If you are already familiar with their work, you know why this is on here and what Trhä’s appeal is. If not, do I have a world to show you. Damián is one of the most prolific artists alive today, releasing dozens of albums over dozens of different projects, such as Sadness, home is in your arms, and Life. Trhä is my personal favorite alias of theirs, and ∫um’ad∂ejja ∫ervaj encapsulates everything I love about the band. While it is particularly more melodic than usual, that just makes it way catchier than most metal releases around. ∫um’ad∂ejja ∫ervaj is a phenomenal display of lo-fi black metal goodness tied up in a 5 song bow. Getting lost in the worlds that Damián creates is an absolutely ethereal experience and ∫um’ad∂ejja ∫ervaj was my favorite of those this year. I’m very excited to hear 25 more albums from them next year.
6. Episode VII – Revenge Of Unfailing Valor
La Torture Des Ténèbres
La Torture Des Ténèbres are a band where, every single album of theirs is better than the last, and following that logic, Episode VII is my favorite of theirs yet. Being the most explicitly black metal album in their catalog, while still sticking with their conceptual black noise, provides a slightly more relistenable edge to this album while keeping everything that makes La Torture unique. As opposed to their typical releases taking thematic cues from urban decay, Episode VII takes us to retro-futurist space where feedback becomes jet fuel and samples become the beeps of a ship carrying you to the recently colonized moon. Songs like “Breathe in Fucking Sawdust and Die” are some of the best walls of noise Ténèbres has ever done and their use of samples are, as always, a major highlight. I cannot recommend this band enough if you are into the sonic equivalent of psychological torture, and especially this album, where earth may be hell, but space is no escape either.
5. III
Gates of Dawn
In their third full length outing, Minnesota band Gates of Dawn pivoted hard from their previous work of traditional, mildly experimental metal, to the black metal equivalent of The Grateful Dead. While the more alt-rock adjacent first few tracks are already a mean sound to dig into and would have lead to Gates of Dawn making the list anyway, the penultimate 15 minute masterpiece that is “Trembling Gaze,” is such a jam it’s remarkable that it manages to maintain its quality for its entire runtime. Such a creative idea, executed extremely well. There is a major amount of promise for what the band can do going forward along the genre-bending black metal lines.
4. Tome II: Ignis Sacer
Vígljós
After Tome I: Apidæ came out in 2024, I was honestly a little worried that my favorite bee-themed black metal band Vígljós might be one and done. A little foolish considering that the album is titled “Tome I” but hindsight is 20//20. Luckily, I was delightfully surprised to see their swift return, and with an album that blew their debut out of the water. Their conceptual storytelling is developing extremely well, and their aesthetic and grander artistic vision is even more refined. But what it really comes down to, as always, is the music itself. Thankfully, Ignis Sacer is made up of some of the best riffs of the decade. “Decadency and Decay” is a personal stand out, just a full odyssey of a song. I love bee keeper metal and I really hope Vígljós pulls out Tome III soon for an even more honey and danger filled release. I love bugs Charlie! I love bugs!
3. Burning Embers, Forgotten Wolves
Autrest
The three and two are honestly a bit interchangeable, and the only reason I have Burning Embers below is just that I like the cover of the following a bit more. Yes that’s how close it is in my eyes and how seriously I take this music stuff, only the harshest of criticisms possible. At least until my Turnstile article comes out. I digress. Autrest provides an immense atmospheric aggression. Every song sounds like floating through a forest on a sea of leaves thanks to perhaps my favorite guitar tone of the year. The folk elements really add to the atmosphere and every single song seems to get better than the last, finishing with the incredible Chasm of Time, which is one of the best closers for a metal album I’ve ever heard. I cannot recommend this album enough.
2. The Tear
Flaming Ouroboros
The Tear, perhaps, Tears? I jest, but seriously, The Tear is absolutely phenomenal. Flaming Ouroboros has casually put out some of the most emotional non-dsbm riffs I’ve ever heard on this 23 minute demo. Every single song is jaw dropping in quality and the closer is one of the best black metal songs of the 21st century. Please, I beg of you, just listen to I Declined the Host, you will walk out a changed human. The vocals are great and really compliment the semi-blackgaze sound of the record. The Tear is a powerful demo and a great argument for why Flaming Ouroboros are one of the most exciting names in USBM right now. This is an absolute must listen, and whatever they release in 2026 will be a must listen too.
1. Месяц Карачун
Числобог
Mesyats Karachun by Chislobog, is a lo-fi, symphonic black metal masterpiece. This Russian symphonic debut demo from one of the coolest labels in the game right now, Horrible Room, has blown me out of the water. It has some of the best acoustic elements of the year, the best synth elements and the best non-guitar string elements of the year. It’s a psychedelic trip and yet has time to just pummel you to the ground. Every song has something going for it that’s different from the last, yet it exists as this stunning stand alone effort. It’s stripped back but when it wants to it knows how to do everything it can to destroy you. It is genuinely all I want in a black metal release. I have no idea how Числобог has made something so tailormade for me to experience every single emotion I turn to black metal for, but they have. That is why Месяц Карачун is my black metal project of the year.
Thanks for reading. And as always,
Go Caps.
