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Extreme metal encompasses many sub-genres, all of which shun mainstream aspirations with their commitment to intensity, but that is not to say that these albums are the heaviest ever, as all of the albums listed in our Top 10 Extreme Metal Albums of 2025 list are very song-oriented, some even have melody. Perhaps this year, even more so than in the past. The bands here did not fit neatly into other genre lists because they blended other harsh genres, such as black metal or hardcore, into these warped versions of grindcore or screamo. They are all very dark and lash out with their own forms of sonic fury, but they are the albums that proved best at it.
After I sort through the top 10 albums of all the respective genres, I use those lists to compile the top 10 albums of 2025 The very fact that these bands made it on the list speaks to how great these albums are, so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album; there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. After all, we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day, what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, and you look forward to listening to it again. Perhaps you can find your next favorite on this list, and I have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out the audio on these guys. Anyway, here are the top 10 Extreme Metal albums of 2025
10-Crossed -"Realismo Ausente."
The tense syncopation creates a bleak vibe when combined with the screamed vocals are undecipherable, making the fact that they are from Spain a moot point. They blast at you with the menace of feral punk, while displaying their ability to let chords ring out and create a more nuanced atmosphere. They established a more GISM-like mood to their brand of chaotic hardcore.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/12/crossed-realismo-ausente.html
9-Küntsquäd -"Satans Cock"
This Australian death metal band has a raw, unhinged style that takes the sonic intensity of crust and combines it with a more taunt death metal chug that does not try to trample you. The pitch-shifted vocals of Paula are a bestial texture, though the song titles take things to extremes with "Gential Dismemberment Bot." The lyrics are incomprehensible, with the overall songwriting managing to compensate for the vocals just being a static frequency.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/06/death-is-june-kuntsquad-satans-cock.html
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8-Noctambulist - " Noctambulist: "Noctambulist II: De Droom"
This band's last album was the number-one Black Metal album of 2021. This means expectations are high, and they are proving here that there are more than enough weapons in their arsenal to meet these expectations headfirst. Not shying from taking apart the conventions of black metal to reshape them to their own liking, with a brighter, more organic guitar tone. At times, even carrying an indie rock jangle almost feels more like screamo than black metal. This still works for me as I appreciate their ability to jerk themselves away from conventions.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/02/black-metal-history-month-noctambulist.html
7-Shock Narcotic -" My Flesh is Afraid, But I am Not."
Grindcore has now been brought to arenas thanks to Pantera picking bands like King Parrot and these guys on the road with them. They cram a great deal of riffage into two minutes, sometimes allowing for more chaos than other moments. At times, there is a groove; at others, things carry more of a death metal aggression. This is going to be on the heavier and more confrontational end of your average metal head's tastes.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/07/shock-narcotic-my-flesh-is-afraid-but-i.html
6-PISSGRAVE-"Malignant Worthlessness."
These guys have to be the most extreme band on Profound Lore. This completes a trilogy they started back in 2015, but the lyrics are snarled in such a way that they are like cutting your years with broken glass, so there is no way to make them out, just a fine layer of hatred draped over the intense thrashing blast. There is more songwriting employed here than in the one-minute spasm of screaming grind-core dishes out, though that would be the genre most fitting unless you want to call this grind thrash.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/12/pissgrave-malignant-worthlessness.html
5-Drugs of Faith-"Asymmetrical."
When it comes to grindcore, the genre splits off into two directions: one that is more punk and one that is more metal, these guys are on the punk end of the equation. The band has been around for over 20 years and features former members of Agoraphobic Nosebleed and Enemy Soil. Their first release in 6 years finds them in a more rock-oriented songwriting mode. it could have come from a crusty punk band out of the '80s. The vocals are shouted with articulation that gets the lyrics across and in your face. The guitar tones are pretty plug-in and crank it up, with none of the low-end metal gain. This keeps even the more aggressive moments rooted in punk.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/01/drugs-of-faith-asymmetrical.html
4-Low Before the Breeze- "A Hole Beneath The Home We Shared."
This band from Atlanta is going in an experimental grindcore direction that finds the chaos tempered with atmosphere. That does not mean it's an easy listen, as it took me going back and giving it a second or third pass through before some of the songs clicked with me. At times possessed by spastic madness, as feed back squeals out over a collage of sampled sonics. It's very dissonant and moody, though more introspective in an odd way than dark.
3-Full of Hell-"Broken Sword, Rotten Shield."
This EP is a memorial of sorts that explores loss through the lens of a fantasy metaphor to obscure the processing of their feeling regarding a dog's death. At times, it might be seen as one of their most refined and perhaps accessible songs yet. That said, even when they play nice, they are heavier than. There is a more metal approach that delves into little of their more grindcore spasms, and at other times they carry a hardcore stomp to the riffs.
2-Bludgeoned By Deformity-" Epoch Of Immorality."
Helmed by the lead gurgler of Sanguissugabogg, this is one of the most brutal death metal slabs you are going to hear in some time, well, until his day job puts something out. Less gore, grind grooving than the Suggabogg, they do stomp down on things pretty hard. I went into this expecting to be hit by something more blasting and perhaps more technical than, well, you know who, but it's on the more pleasing end of extreme brutal death metal.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/05/bludgeoned-by-deformity-epoch-of.html
1-Internal Bleeding- "Settle All Scores."
For this band to have been around since the 90s, y are inspired and were ahead of their time. Kids now call this Slam, but it's really just hardcore-influenced death metal. Iit's fair to say these guys are also big fans of Cannibal Corpse. After all, Cannibal Corpse, formed in Buffalo, three years before these guys. This is the first album to feature Sacrafical Slaughter vocalist Steve Worley, who sports a very commanding grunt and gurgle. His lyrics are growled in such a manner that, despite their brutality, you can still make them out. They shift into more traditonal metal riffs that provide enough dynamics to make most metal heads happy.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/09/internal-bleeding-settle-all-scores.html
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