The Top 10 Rock Albums of 2025

Rock music continues to be one of the last vestiges of picking up instruments and playing songs the artist has written.  With metal having a more loyal market, it feels like less straight-up rock music is coming out, but then again, it's not something I always look for. There is a very specific feel of moodiness, melody, and underlying mental health issues I seek out from rock music, and these albums touch on varied corners of that sound.  In fact, this year's list is more varied than last year's list. After I sort through the top 10 albums of all the respective genres, I use those lists to compile the top 20 albums of 2025. 

 The 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. You might find your next favorite on this list. I included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out the audio on these guys. Anyway, here are the top 10 Rock albums of 2025.

10-Wet Leg-"moisturizer." 

This quirky power pop band from the Isle of Wight has an odd New Wave vibe to their take on indie rock. They shift slightly from song to song, with subtle hints of punk influences, with a little drive in its strummed shuffle. Their singer has a detached apathy to her voice that carries its own sex appeal.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/07/wet-leg-moisturizer.html

9-Buckcherry- "Roar Like Thunder."   

I have at least heard the bulk of Buckcherry's 10 albums leading up to this one, so I doubt there is going to be a great deal of surprise with album 11. They intend for this album to be fun and lift your spirits, and I am not sure if that is what I want from this band. I prefer them when they are wrestling with the fact that they love cocaine.  It has more of the Hollywood sleaze to it, taking you back to the 80s, which is where their sound originated. They have never been a metal band; they just play a sometimes explosive style of rock n roll. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/06/buckcherry-roar-like-thunder.html

8-Haunt- "Ignite"

Their 2022 album "Windows To Your Heart' was the last album I checked out by these guys. I was a devoted follower since, for all practical purposes, they are a revamped Beastmaker. But they have been moving in an increasingly slick A0R proto-metal direction. Things have not changed. Trevor Church continues to smooth into a sugary tenor that brings Ghost to mind, but his songwriting has an urgency Ghost lacks. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/08/haunt-ignite.html

7-Skunk Anasie-"The Painful Truth." 

One of my favorite bands from the 90s, who in America were always a best-kept British secret. In my mind, they will always have to measure up against their 1999 album 'Post Orgasmic Chill". Skin's vocals are still on point. They have mellowed into a shimmering pop pulse, with electronic elements becoming hard to decipher from where guitars are plugged into amps, but a the end of the day, they pull it off in a way that does not matter much to me how they got here.

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/04/skunk-anansie-painful-truth.html

 

6-LA Guns -"Leopard Skin."

If Tracii Guns and Phil Lewis are both in the band it's L.A. FUCKING Guns to me. The past few albums have held up their legacy, so here's to hoping this one does, and the first two songs find them staying true yet not stagnant. They have the sleazy vibes from their era, but more slathered in blue grooves. It's more rock n roll than metal.  Phil Lewis sounds great. Amazingly, he is 68 years old. Holy shit. That is four years older than Vince Neil, and he sounds better than Neil has since "Dr. Feelgood". 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/04/la-guns-leopard-skin.html

5-Hellacopters-"Overdriver"

This album feels more like lost classics from 70s rock radio. The singer places his voice in all the right places to compensate for his limitations, which is a skill in and of itself, as the melodies work really well, and everyone in this band is serving the song with zero overplaying. Granted, if you mainly listen to punk, all of this might seem like overkill to your ears, but it works for what is going on here, regardless. I can hear less dramatic traces of Meatloaf, but aside from a little ELO, I do not hear them heavily tipping their hat to their influences. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-hellacopters-overdriver.html

4-Chokecherry-"Ripe Fruit Rots and Falls." 

 I was a big fan of the band's 2024 EP "Messy Star." They are back with a marginally more shoegazing effort that is still rooted firmly in the sounds of the '90s. The jangling grunge drive provides the backbone. There is more punk energy, but the smooth croon of her vocals balances this out. Even when they amble along, with a dreamy slacker attitude, they are still rocking out with more intention than their peers. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/12/chokecherry-ripe-fruit-rots-and-falls.html

 

3-Jaye Jayle- "After Alter" 

Jaye Jayle went from being Evan Patterson’s solo project that explored sounds outside of what he did in Young Widows, and has now become a full-fledged band. Some of the arrangements are more minimalist, though it's not underproduced as they captured some interesting drum sounds, and the overall mix leans into the ambiance by giving all the instrumentation a great deal of open space, even when things begin to come together dynamically. If Josh Homme wrote songs for Queens of the Stone Age with no radio aspirations, the result might be similar. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/01/jaye-jayle-after-alter.html

  2-AVATARIUM-"Between You, God, the Devil and the Dead." 

The 6th album from the band formed by Leif Elding from Candlemass, their singer, gives them a more blues-based rock feel. It makes them less metal, but also creates a more Deep Purple feel, setting them apart from all the bands that sound like Sabbath. The production is very organic without being tribute band-level retro. Memorable vocal melodies and thoughts are put into the songwriting. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/01/avatarium-between-you-god-devil-and-dead.html

1-Alice Cooper -The Revenge of Alice Cooper." 

The first album with the original Alice Cooper band since "Muscle of Love".  Bob Ezrin is also producing it.  Does it perfectly capture the fire enough that it picks up where they left off on "Muscle of Love"? Almost, it is pretty energetic for a band in their mid-70s who have not played together since the 70s.  not at the level of his most classic work, but way better than other rockers close to his age are doing, it's closer to "Muscle of Love" than it is "Love it to Death" s it's not what I expected, but still congruent with what these guys used to do. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/07/alice-cooper-revenge-of-alice-cooper.html

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The Hellacopters : "Overdriver"

Not the first time I have reviewed these guys. I always forget that, despite their Entombed connection,n they are just a rock n roll band. This album feels more like lost classics from 70s rock radio. The singer places his voice in all the right places to compensate for his limitations, which is a skill in and of itself, as the melodies work really well, and everyone in this band is serving the song with zero overplaying. Granted, if you mainly listen to punk, all of this might seem like overkill to your ears, but it works for what is going on here, regardless. I can hear less dramatic traces of Meatloaf, but aside from a little ELO, I do not hear them heavily tipping their hat to their influences. 

"Wrong Face On" is more straightforward than my rock n roll tastes lean, but for what it is, they do a good job of it; it's just not my thing. However, I like the darker vibe that creeps into the verses of "Solider On" which is more to my liking, even if the chorus touches on southern rock, weird coming from Sweden. They reach a more middle-of-the-road place on the rather upbeat "Doomsday Dreams," which has some great guitar playing, and if you are into guitar solo,s it's the song to check out. It is a song that grows on me with each listen. You can also tell they are into Thin Lizzy on "Faraway Looks", not the album's best song, but once again, they are effective at what they are going for here. 

"Coming Down" is the first song that comes closer to being a ballad, though it's still upbeat enough to stay rooted in rock; the mood is just more introspective, almost like Bad Company in this regard. "Do You Feel Normal" finds the chorus a little too hopeful for what my mood normally is, but these guys are masters of their craft, so it's hard to argue against that. "The Stench" starts off in a darker vein, not unlike "She's So Heavy". The thicker bass line to the last song brings more rock grit than the bulk of this album works off of. I'll give this a 9.5. It sounds like this is going to be the rock record to beat this year. 

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The Hellacopters : " Eyes of Oblivion"

These guys have been doing this since the mid 90s. Former members of Entombed and Backyard Babies playing straight up 80s flavored rock n roll. There was once a more punk feel to it, but now they are totally almost party 80s rock. The opener is solid, surprised how slick of a production they have. The second song reminds me a little more their earlier sound. The vocals are melodic though husky. He works well with the vocal cords he has, not a Rober Plant type singer at all. I am more impressed by his singing on "So Sorry I Could Die" which has a more 70s like swagger, almost a ballad. This is not just straight up in your face rock, there is a great deal of range sonically, emotionally and very blues based. 

"Eyes of Oblivion" has more of a Thin Lizzy feel to it. The chorus is perhaps slicker. I like the verses to "A Plow and A Doctor" better than chorus, which smiles to the cheese a little too much for my tastes, though it rides the line. They more rock cock attack of "Positively Not Knowing" is moodier and works better than the previous song. At times the touch of the 80s brings to mind bands like Guns n Roses and WASP.  Perhaps this is traced back further to the roots of those bands like the Stones and the Who. The wheel is certainly not being reinvented here. There is a more Slade like spectacle to arena ready riffs of "Tin Foil Soldier".  These 70s roots lean in more of a radio rock direction than what I typically listen to but I appreciate it. 

"Beguiled" charges ahead with more of the 70s punk energy. This is more of what I expected from them. I still had to listen to it twice to form how I felt about it.  Not the most original thing , but it works is the conclusion I came to. They return to a moodier 80s rock feel that is more Bryan Adams than not with "the Pressure's On". They step on the gas again for the last song, that meets somewhere at the cross roads of rock and punk. To  sound like a long lost album from the golden years of arena rock is a lost art, so I will give this album a 9.5 . 

   

8.6