Most Wanted Albums for 2025: Part 1

My ten most wanted (and likely) albums

Jan 13, 2025

I really enjoyed having this list to refer back to throughout 2024, so we’re running it back! I’m paring it down a bit, though — simplifying to just ten acts on each of the halves; 25 is an odd number, and it would be awkward to do 13 here, 12 there. Also, if the number grew every year, it would become meaningless over time.

For those who weren’t here for last year and are confused about why the list is split, let’s get into…

The Rules

Every good list has qualifications, and mine are pretty simple. We’re looking for LPs, specifically, of course. That’s what I review. Not EPs. Not Mixtapes. Cover albums don’t count.

But there’s also a distinction between acts who have remained active and those who have gone silent. So Part 1 — this post — will cover artists whose last LPs released between 2-5 years ago (2020-2023); I generally don’t enjoy releases in adjacent years (give it more time to cook, man!), so no artist who released an album in 2024 is eligible. And once you go five years between releases, we’re officially in a serious lull, so artists whose last album released in 2019 or earlier are not being considered here.

Part 2 of this list will only consider artists whose last albums released in 2019 or earlier.

Finally, I won’t be including any artists who have already announced release dates for 2025.

2024 Review

Of the 24 artists who made my list in 2024, seven of them dropped albums! You can review the lists in the image below, or revisit Part 1 or Part 2, if you like, to read my breakdowns. I’m also changing out the songs I’m including for each artist, so revisiting the old articles means you’ll see a different song suggested for artists who are still here.

The wild thing, to me, is that the 5+ year bracket actually released more albums than the 2-5 year bracket.

There are a couple of artists here I need to spotlight:

Sara Bareilles last released an album in 2019, which means she has, unfortunately, “graduated” to the more senior list. This is devastating and awful.
Spiritbox has announced an album is coming! It’s due out March 7, 2025.
Shireen is not being added back on, despite that Elytra clearly did not count as an LP. I desperately want a genuine album from this group or another project that Annicke Shireen is involved with, but I’m disappointed in what Elytra offered, as described at the end of the 2025 Release Radar.

In the end, that leaves seven rollovers1 for this part of the list. The competition for the final three spots was intense: I considered 34 artists2 while compiling this article.

The List

Anneke van Giersbergen

Previous Appearance: The Darkest Skies Are the Brightest (2021); 12th

Van Giersbergen’s 2021 The Darkest Skies Are the Brightest is still very much a go-to for me. She is a phenomenal vocalist, both in her folk-rock solo material and in any of the various metal ventures she has participated in. However, she’ll be turning 52 this year, so she may not have many years left with her voice in its prime. The knowledge that any given record could be the last of her career has me anxious to get more – sooner, rather than later.

Giersbergen technically appears on this list twice, as her most recent band, Vuur, is on Part 2 of this list.

Auri

Previous Appearance: II – Those We Don’t Speak Of (2021); 15th

This project, led by Nightwish co-founder Tuomas Holopainen, is the foundational act for the Celestial Metal microgenre. Holopainen founded the group with Johanna Kurkela (a Finnish Folk vocalist and violinist who, incidentally, also happens to be his wife) and Troy Donockley (a multi-instrumentalist and fellow member of Nightwish). To date, they have released two albums (2018 & 2021) which were both incredibly good – good enough that Martijn Westerholt, the creative force behind Delain, founded Eyes of Melian, another project which fits into this same, weird space between Symphonic and Celtic Folk Metal. Auri remains the dominant force here, though, and a new album from them could help to further define this microgenre and potentially grow it enough to invite other projects into the space.

With Nightwish going on hiatus following last year’s album, now is the perfect time for the group to circle back up! (*pause to Google, on the off chance*)

Oh, look! This instagram post is one day old as I write this…

Converge/Chelsea Wolfe, Bloodmoon: II

Previous Appearance: Bloodmoon: I (2021); 16th

This wishlist item is a bit more specific than the others on this list; Converge and Chelsea Wolfe are both separate artists who will also be working on their own unique material. In fact, Wolfe released a new album in 2024. It was good, but not what I was after.

I want Bloodmoon: II, a direct followup to the collaborative project between Wolfe and Converge.

I didn’t really expect that this album was a realistic ask in 2024. The first album apparently took five years of work. An equivalent timeframe would have this one releasing in 2026, most likely. But the artists involved have made absolutely no secret about the fact that a successor is coming.

The first album blends Hardcore Punk with a variety of Metal genres, including Gothic, Sludge, Post-, and Doom. The album is defined by its extremes — moments of crushing beauty punctuated by jagged, crystalline harshness. It provides face-melting serenity. And while a couple of tracks are genuinely a bit too much for me, that doesn’t diminish my adoration or my N E E D for this next album.

The fact that it ranked 16th in 2021 just shows what a great fucking year that was for music. In fact, seven of the ten artists on this list were in the mix in 2021.

Diablo Swing Orchestra

Previous Appearance: Swagger and Stroll Down the Rabbit Hole (2021); 30th

DSO was a new discovery in 2021. They’re in this incredible Avant-Garde Metal space, blending a Metal framework with stylings from Swing, Jazz, Bebop, and more. They’re, easily, one of the most unique acts out there, with an approach to composition that is as whimsical as it is refreshing. There was a strange, somewhat amusing polarization in the reception for their last album, 2021’s Swagger and Stroll Down the Rabbit Hole. Critics, including myself and AngryMetalGuy, among others, generally loved it, but it was was widely panned by fans on Reddit and elsewhere, citing the mixing. Obviously, I heartily disagree; I’ve gone back and listened to their older material at this point, and I think this album is their best yet. It rated a Blue from me and ranked 30th on my 2021 year-end list. And as time goes on, I feel, more and more, that I might have underrated it.

I need more!

Khemmis

Previous Appearance: Deceiver (2021); 14th

I have made no bones about my love of Doom Metal. That love starts and ends with Khemmis. Their flavor of Epic Doom, tinged with bits of Heavy and Death, is, in my opinion, perfection. I’ve sought out a lot of other Doom acts in recent years, and there’s a lot of good shit out there. But I always come back to Khemmis. 2024 saw a dearth of Doom in my queue; I didn’t have the time to go seeking out any to add in. So I need a solid hit in 2025.

I do also need to note that you might well have heard this band if you have played any entries from Supermassive Games’ The Dark Pictures Anthology, which spawned from the success of the studio’s success with Until Dawn. The Anthology games all feature an intro credits sequence with Khemmis blasting a badass cover of the Appalachian Folk song “A Conversation With Death” (aka “O’ Death”). I really want to hug whoever at the studio had that idea and got it pushed through.

Lisa Miskovsky

Last Album: Bottenviken (2019)

Lisa Miskovsky is an artist I discovered through the end credits of 2008’s Mirror’s Edge, the first-person free-running platformer developed by DICE and published by EA. I didn’t play it for several years, but Miskovsky’s performance in “Still Alive” convinced me to look more into her music, and I’ve loved her since. Her brand of Folk Pop verging on Indie Rock brings a lot of popular elements together; but, most importantly, she does so convincingly and creates enjoyable, memorable easy-listening tracks. Frankly, she should be much better-known than she is.

Marina

Previous Appearance: Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land (2021); 11th

Marina Diamandis, who performs mononymously as Marina, is one of my favorite Pop acts. 2021’s Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land really solidified that for me. It was an aggressively political album, featuring strong Fem-4 anthems that are also wild bops. And when I specify that these are Fourth-wave Feminism, I mean it — look no further than “Highly Emotional People”, one of the few downbeat songs on the album; the toxic expectations of the Patriarchy are also hard on men, and in ways that create toxic feedback loops. The hard tone change for that song, underscoring the sincerity of the sentiment and the importance of the message, was perfection.

Marina has stated that she has a new album set to release this year, so I’m hoping that comes to fruition; after all, we’re nearing a full year from the point where Brad Paisley’s new album was supposed to release, and we still don’t have an actual date.

Mastodon

Previous Appearance: Hushed and Grim (2021); 2nd

For years, I thought of Mastodon as a talented band that was good, but didn’t fully mesh with my tastes. They were the sludgiest Sludge Metal act out there and, for me, served mainly to fill out playlists for variety. Crack the Skye was solid, but it wasn’t anything foundational for me. But the band shifted with 2021’s Hushed and Grim, a 90-minute-long double album of epic proportions. When most of us think of a 90-minute-long record, we anticipate exactly what Pitchfork’s Chris O’Connell wrote in his disgusting outlier review of the album: “an inoffensive, occasionally alluring, but overwhelmingly dull 90-minute slog.”3 That review couldn’t be further from the critical truth:4 despite the album’s daunting length, each track feels fresh and unique, and the darkness which pervades the album on every level is so wonderfully inviting. It shifted away from Sludge a bit, but I am hoping that Mastodon can repeat the magic they pulled off in Hushed and Grim.

Historically, they tend to release on a 3-4 year cycle, so a release this year isn’t out of the question, especially given that they were talking about ‘fine-tuning’ the songs in October 2024. But we’ll have to see how long the album takes to record, mix, and master.

Noah Kahan

Previous Appearance: Stick Season (2022); 14th

This one will be popular. There are a lot of people ready for the next Noah Kahan. He has blown up with Stick Season. And for good reason — that album is damn near perfect. I’m pretty certain I underrated it in 2022, as it was a last-minute pick up for me.

Even potentially underrated, though, it nearly made my Top 10.

Kahan’s brand of Folk Pop, with its emotional and melodic depth coupled with strong storytelling, will be very welcome whenever it gets here. Especially as the US enters a stick season, politically.

Run the Jewels

Previous Appearance: RTJ4 (2020)

“Basically done”, he said. Like, bruh, do you know what that means?

I may be just a bit sour that RTJ5 never surfaced last year. Maybe that’s due to Killer Mike finally getting some fucking flowers for his incredible 2023 solo album, Michael, and maybe not. Either way, I have concerns now. Whatever they wrote in 2022/3 isn’t going to be timely anymore. And given the heavily political nature of Run the Jewels, timing is everything.

So whatever they had planned for RTJ5, I hope they’re working on fresh material, or at least lyrics.

2020’s RTJ4 is easily one of the top ten albums of that year, and one of my favorite hip-hop records, period. I would love to see its successor hit the same highs or even be better (somehow).

RTJ is my favorite Hip Hop act, hands down. Killer Mike and El-P are such an incredible duo, and their lyrics are satisfyingly aggressive and clever with flow and delivery to match. But they also pay attention to the melodies and instrumentations and how all of the various elements come together in their songs. You can’t beat RTJ.

If any of the above artists provide new albums this year, they’re almost certainly shoe-ins for the Top 40. Which really just means good things for our ears.

Who am I overlooking, though? Are there any artists I should have included instead?