-PRESIDENT : "Blood of Your Empire"

I like the brand of pop music these guys craft. This is their full-length, so fans, or "citizens, " as the band refers to them in their universe, might be curious to see how they pull off a full 10 songs. They open this album with the lead single "Angel Wings," which plays it pretty safe.  And "Doom Loop" incorporates more electronic elements and builds things into a more nu-metal-tinged, loud dynamic. I wouldn't call this aggressive, as I am not feeling that kind of energy from them. There is a more metallic crunch leading into "dark heaven" but this is quickly offset by trap elements. The hook is pretty strong in this one.It does carry that anthemic Myspace feel.

They try to get a little rowdier on"Pink Noise," but their electronic pop side feels more authentic rather than than they are trying to live up to their marketing scheme. At times it makes me think of 30 Seconds to Mars, "Mercy" was apparently another single from this album, but I never heard any of these songs before listening to the album as a whole; it kind of feels like a Deftones power ballad. There is a raspier tone in his singing voice in places on this album. You can tell he takes influence from a few different singers from the 90s. This song is pretty well written, and they sell me on it. I think if this album were darker, it would not lean so heavilly in the pop direction.

"Sleepwalker" is more of a mainstream, middle-of-the-road, radio-ready pop-rock song that kinda bores me. The drumming helps to shift the groove and modulate it in places and salavages the song from being too bland..Production-wise, there is more of a djent sound than where they go sonically. "Dionysus" could be Post Malone when it comes to the first verse; the chorus is more Breaking Benjamin. But at least it's hooky. They go pop ballad on "This Will Divide Us". The vocals are layered more like Sleep Token. Of course the band calls these comparisons lazy, but it's not as lazy as sounding like another band.

"Hate Figure" features Ando San helping them out. This makes things sound much more nu-metal with the hip-hop elements dialed up. "White Devil" closes the album. It is another pop song, with intersting keyboards. This album sounds great, even though it might be more accessible than the previous EP, I think they pull off the full length well by showing a balanced picture of who they are, and the songs grew on me even though I went skeptical. I will give it a 9.5. 

Thanks for reading. Give a listen to the song below, and  please "like" and share on social media to give music a voice 

https://www.facebook.com/abysmalhymns

Check out our Podcast here ... https://www.youtube.com/@abysmalhymns666

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Whats Up with the Industry Plant Theory ?

This is more Conspiracy realism than theory. There are several "bands" that have been designed by labels ranging from The Monkees to the Backstreet Boys, so this is nothing new. Music that influenced culture needed to be controlled; the Government was clear on this in the 1960s, and it is not something they simply forgot or stopped monitoring. It's a form of social engineering. If you want to learn more about DARPA & the CIA's involvement in this, I am including an episode of the Danny Jones show where this is outlined in greater detail than I feel like going into, as it's a rabbit hole that might waste an entire day for me. However, I will say that Strategic Communications is a political construct that holds considerable sway, and NATO certainly employs. If you were aiming for a One-World Government, music would certainly be a tool to achieve this, by dulling the more extreme edges of society. So we have a motive.

Sure, pop stars with a huge audience, like Taylor Swift or who hold cultural sway across cultures outside of the US, like Dua Lipa, would certainly be tools to use. This also factors into why more pop elements are being worked into metal, as it makes them more digestible to the Tiktok crowd while continuing to emasculate a genre that pushes a high testosterone energy that is harder to control. Do you think soldiers are listening to Sabrina Carpenter or Pantera when they ride tanks over the deserts of the Middle East? I mean, what music are you listening to at the gym? 

Taking the teeth out of music has been going on since the PMRC got cranked up in the 80s, run by Al Gore's wife Tipper, wait, what a Democrat supporting censorship? Not just any Democrat, but one who would become  Vice President under Bill Clinton, they went after Ozzy, Judas Priest, WASP, Twisted Sister, Mercyful  Fate, Slayer, etc, putting the Parental Advisory labels on albums which turned into a more marketing tool since, as a teenager, I did not want to buy albums without it. But political parties are all playing for the same side, and much like Professional Wrestling, beat each other up in a steel cage when the camera is on, but go out to get a beer once with each other when the camera is off, one of the real reasons we will never see the Epstein files.

The band President came out and said they were not an industry plant, which is obviously what an insutry plant would say. They made our top 10 pop albums of the year, so I don't care if they are, but if you see them as silly pop candy and don't take them seriously as artists, then you can enjoy them like a Twinkie, ok, every now and then, but not something that is the staple of a healthy diet. You can apply this rule to Sleep Token, Yungblud, Babymetal, Poppy, Ghost, and an over-the-top pop-laced project that uses a gimmick-forward marketing approach with a huge push on social media, as the tech companies are involved in this and have a ton of money behind them. So, suddenly blowing up or in your face all the time is not just luck. Who passed putting in the miles on the road, playing shows, and grinding it away with PR Companies that take a few years to reach larger audiences, and who is suddenly headlining festivals based on hype alone and playing stadiums? 

Things don't just happen; they guilty dogs will always bark the loudest and open their mouths to defend themselves or the target of accusations, spreading doubt about the marketing machine, since company men will defend other company men for being company men. Though if you need further proof, just Google up the aftermath of the band Dogma, the Satanic Nun gimmick band that was a construct of business management.  If you want the back story on the industry plant scheme check out the video below.

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The Top 10 Albums Most Mistaken for Metal in 2025

 

Once upon a time, the battle cry championed by metal bands was "Death to False Metal.", It's a sentiment going back to the earliest beginnings of the genre when it drew lines to separate itself from the bands of the Sunset Strip who wanted the look but were making glammed-out pop music. Today, kids are thin-skinned and take offense, screaming out that this is gatekeeping rather than seeing it as quality control standards. Most of those people just need to feel like they belong wherever they want to go and call those who actually belong there elitists as a projection of their own insecurities. 

I'm here to say fuck your feelings. In the interest of this blog's mission statement, pledging to always tell it like it is easy even if you can't handle the truth. After seeing albums like those represented here appearing on metal top ten lists, I think it's fair to set the record straight and have some truth in advertising to pick out the top ten offenders in this regard. Four of these entries are great albums; they just are not great metal albums. They are great rock, folk and pop albums, just not metal. There are a few that are terrible, but they are also not metal, so here we go, setting the record straight for you.

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10-Wardruna- "Birna" 

Six albums into their career, Norway's primal folk bards are still haunted by their metal past, despite bringing an increasingly cinematic conjuring of otherworldly eons past. It is weird how they are the biggest band making this kind of music. Also, even stranger is how they can headline festivals. It is very much a wintery sound as should be expected from the region where the music is being made. It feels like they are getting ready to be hit by the worst storm in over a hundred years and are invoking the ghosts of their ancestors

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/12/wardruna-birna.html

9-Scowl- "Are We All Angels." 

Sure, they were once more of a punk band, but this album finds them crossing over into the kind of grunge tinged alternative rock that was big in the '90s. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/04/scowl-are-we-all-angels.html

8-Creeper-"Creeper : "Sanguivore II: Mistress Of Death"

There are some goth moments, but overall it leans in a more cock rock direction, but cock rock that comes clsoer to Meatloaf than "Shout at the Devil" era Motley Crue.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/10/gothtober-creeper-sanguivore-ii.html

7-Dream Theater- "Parasomnia" 

Once a metal band does not always make you a metal band, this might be hard to swallow for most of their fan base, which they did through more heavy riffs on this album than they have in some time, but overall it is consumed by the kinds of ballads that make them sound like a more guitar solos-focused version of Journey. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/02/dream-theater-parasomnia.html

6-Deftones-"private music" 

The fact that they have not been a metal band since 'Around the Fur" is what saved their career; they have always been growing almsot to the point of becoming a shoegaze band. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/08/deftones-private-music.html

5-Turnstille- "Never Enough." 

Once a hardcore band does not always make you a hardcore fan, especially when writing pop songs. Compared to "Glow On" this album was a bit of a disappointment, but there are a couple of catchy pop ditties on it, but nothing all that aggressive or explosive.  

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/06/turnstile-never-enough.html

4-President -"King of Terrors." 

Anonymity creates quite a buzz, as they had a huge online presence despite only having one single out and a Download performance under their belt. It is the songs from that performance that are given the studio treatment, with the first single opening the EP. Sonically similar in many ways to Sleep Token, they blend djenty metal guitars with technical drumming and multiple layers of soulfully harmonized vocals. If AI were told to create a band in the vein of Sleep Token and Bad Omens, the results would be similar, though the pop hooks here make it endearing. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/09/president-king-of-terrors.html

3-Sleep Token- "Even in Arcadia." 

I like pop music. This album is a slapping pop album, so . I don't feel so guilty about liking it.  If he just came out, life would be so much easier, but denial has become a part of his identity. There was maybe 20 seconds of nu-metal guitar, and a scream that needed every bit of post-production effects on it in the first three songs. The beats and hooks that would make Sam Smith jealous, this is the kind of music Justin Timberlake wishes he was making. Justin Bieber, rinse off the baby oil and get these guys to write your next album. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/05/sleep-token.html

2-Baby Metal-"Metal Forth." 

The novelty of this album lies in the fact that the J-Pop group features a guest artist on each track since these are metal dabbling artists or actual metal artists like Spiritbox are on it. Both artists flirt with the boundaries of what is metal and pop; just because an album has distorted guitars and some screaming on it does not make the album metal. Metal is an aggressive feeling of darkness that cannot be found on any track. In fact, I am embarrassed for anyone who appeared on this album. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/08/just-how-metal-is-babymetals-metal.html

1-Ghost - "Skeleta" 

It's easy to let the make-up and marketing fool you; in fact, what it all hides is the fact that this was also our number one worst album of the year. All style no substance, unless you are really into the song"Thicker Than Water" by Andy Gibb, which is what they really sound like.  I will tell you how it is: at its worst, some dreadful ballads make Styx sound heavy. So it's not worth owning, and was hard for me to make it through, but maginally better than their average album. The highlights are the riffs that sound like Dokken and Ratt, though those are far a few between. It ranked worse than anime schoolgirls because at least with that, you go into it knowing it will be terrible; this relies so heavily on a marketing image that they have idiots invested in it, adding insult to injury when you listen to it. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/04/ghost-skeleta.html

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The Top 10 Pop Albums of 2025

 

Pop does not have to be a bad word. Sadly the music industry takes it down a deeper hole of vapid capitalism, by pumping out products rather than music with anything to say.  Unlike their more mainstream counterparts, these albums were not rolled from the same assembly line and did not need the teams of songwriters and producers to create for them, they generally did this themselves.  Here are albums that stand shoulder to shoulder with other genres, proving pop does not have to be trash, despite being that more often than not these days. 

 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 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, you look forward to listening to it again. Perhaps you can find your next favorite on this list; and 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 Pop albums of 2025

10-Jane Remover- "Revengeseekerz" 

What the kids are calling digicore. The auto-tuned vocals are not unlike those heard from more mainstream trap rappers, such as Future. Lyrically, aside from being presented chaotically, with typically vapid radio friendly lyrics that are  more tolerable when presented in this fashion. At times dub-step at others harsher barrage of noise the beats keep things moving.  

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/09/jane-remover-revengeseekerz.html

9-yeule- "Evangelic Girl is a Gun" 

This weird little singer from Singapore was a new find for me,. Her fourth album at times embraces an almost trip-hop sound that features some subtle guitar elements as it progresses. In other moments, there is more of a 90s alternative feel, bringing to mind bands like Elastica or Lush. The pop grooves put her on a sonic footing closer to  Grimes or early Charli XCX, which balance out the glitchy atmosphere in the periphery.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/06/yeule-evangelic-girl-is-gun.html

 

8-President -"King of Terrors" 

Anonymity creates quite a buzz, as they had a huge online presence despite only having one single out and a Download performance under their belt. It is the songs from that performance that are given the studio treatment, with the first single opening the EP. Sonically similar in many ways to Sleep Token, they blend djenty metal guitars with technical drumming and multiple layers of soulfully harmonized vocals. If AI was told to create a band in the vein of Sleep Token and Bad Omens, the results would be similar, though the pop hooks here make it endearing. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/09/president-king-of-terrors.html

7-The Beaches - "No, Hard Feelings" 

 This band's last album, "Blame My Ex" found them taking the number two spot in our Top 10 Pop Albums of 2023. They have raised the bar for themselves. They move in a marginally more indie rock direction for this album, while e trying to still dish out a comparable level of hooky choruses. The  more pop stabs reflects back on what worked on the last album, though perhaps not as hard-hitting, but still highly effective. Working well enough to earn the number 7 spot.  

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-beaches-no-hard-feelings.html

6-Miley Cyrus- "Something Beautiful" 

Miley's 9th album is pretty ambitious. It's framed with preludes and interludes to create a more immersive experience than your average pop album. Ranging from soulful lounge ballads to oddly experimental bursts of sound.  Her voice sounds great, this seems to blend her pop sheen with the more rock-inflected moments of albums like "Plastic Hearts". She claims this album is inspired by "The Wall", the saxophone wailing in the background brings a "Diamond Dogs" styled chaos to the fringes of its sound. 

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/05/miley-cyrus-something-beautiful.html

5-Wu- Tang Clan - "Black Samson , the Bastard Swordsman" 

The legendary New York rap collective dropped this album for a limited vinyl release on Record Store Day, and now it's receiving a wider release. This is the first full-length release since the 2017 compilation "The Saga Continues," which was released as simply Wu-Tang due to the absence of U-God. It's also the first album since 2015's "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin" to feature all 9 living members of the group. This album is a collaboration with producer Mathematics, who effectively captures the feel of the group's classic work, proving why they are one of the only hip-hop acts that matter.  

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/06/wu-tang-clan-black-samson-bastard.html

4-Deathbyromy-"Hollywood Forever" 

Pop music marketed to the "vvitches" of Tiktok, who are the new generation of Hot Topic kids. Her image contrasts with the otherwise upbeat grooves that open the new album. Her voice is what you expect from a pop singer in 2025. At the end of the day, the strong songwriting won me over. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/09/deathbyromy-hollywood-forever.html

 

3-Sleep Token- "Even in Arcadia" 

I like pop music; this album is a great pop album. I don't feel so guilty about liking it.  If he just came out, life would be so much easier, but denial has become a part of his identity. There was maybe 20 seconds of nu-metal guitar, and a scream that needed every bit of post-production effects on it in the first three songs. The beats and hooks that would make Sam Smith jealous, this is the kind of music Justin Timberlake wishes he was making. Justin Bieber, rinse off the baby oil and get these guys to write your next album. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/05/sleep-token.html

  2-Pixel Grip-  "Perceptide the Death of Reality" 

 This interesting electronic band was circling my radar to glad for the chance to check them out. They open things with an atmospheric pop song that simmers in introspection. The alluring vocals of Rita Lukea, give everything a sex dripping sheen, as they jump into dark 90s techno. The darkest album on this list which gives it the edge over Sleep Token. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/05/pixel-grip-perceptide-death-of-reality.html

 

1-Taylor Swift- "the Life of a Showgirl" 

At the end of the day, she can whip out songs that sit effortlessly next to the other classics in her discography with no effort. Even Tay Tay dialing it in is better than what most can do with two dozen producers and a co-writers This album grew on me, and makes it clear she is the dominant force in not just pop music, but songwriting. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2025/10/taylor-swift-life-of-showgirl.html

Thanks for reading. Please "like" and share on social media to give music a voice 

https://www.facebook.com/abysmalhymns

Check out our Podcast here ... https://www.youtube.com/@abysmalhymns666

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PRESIDENT : "King of Terrors"

 

Anonymity creates quite a buzz. This band has a huge online presence despite only having one single out  and a Download performance under their belt . It is the songs from that performance that are given the studio treatment, with the first single opening the EP. Sonically similar in many ways to Sleep Token, they blend djenty metal guitars with technical drumming and multiple layers of soulfully harmonized vocals. If this were AI, told to create a band in the vein of Sleep Token and Bad Omens, I would believe. You hear a little more of who they are in the pop leanins in the second song, "Fearless". There is enough believable emotion being conveyed from under the mask to work. Lyrically, this is just a pop song. The vocals are pretty much the centerpiece, as this could be any band with a metalcore singer. And without the pop nuanced vocals, it would be much less impressive. 

They cross over more fully into pop for "RAGE". Perhaps it is ironic that this song does not invoke any feeling of rage whatsoever sonically. Even when things kick into the more syncopated stomp.'Destroy Me" has a more nu-metal feel, though things are dialed back to a Post-Malone level of intensity for this song. The vocals dance around a TikTok beat bolstered by Myspace metal guitars. The album's first actual metal moment drops in the last minute of the song.  "Dionysus' picks up where the last song left off as it works off a similar formula., They go for the soaring emotional response on the chorus. Once again in the song's final moments, things come crunch down.

The last song makes you think they are going to fake you out and go into a cover of Steve Winwood's "That Just the Way it is' until the heavily layered and auto-tuned pop vocals come in to bring the party to the kids. Guitars kick in enough for you to be aware they are cosplaying as a rock band. It is hard to argue against a good pop vocal. I will give this album a 9, only rounding it down to the fact that they seem a little caught up in their illusion, and instead of doing what they are good at, which is writing pop songs, they throw mediocre metal riffs in so kids can feel edgie than they are, illusion sells, these guys get caught between a markerting gimmick and being solid songwriters. Just listen to the music and forget the hype. 

Thanks for reading, give a listen to the song below, and  please "like" and share on social media to give music a voice 

https://www.facebook.com/abysmalhymns

Check out our Podcast here ... https://www.youtube.com/@abysmalhymns666

 

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