PHIL'S PICKS 2025 TOP 10 NEW HARD ROCK/METAL ALBUMS --​5 HONORABLE MENTIONS

By: Philip Sayblack

2025 has been a banner year for the hard rock and metal community.  Notable new releases from the likes of Dream Theater, Machine Head, Testament, and so many others both well-known and slightly lesser-know have made this year so great.  Considering the sheer breadth of notable new hard rock and metal albums, making a standard list of the year’s top 10 new albums in said category is next to impossible to compose.  So, rather than shoot for that list, this critic will, as in years past, attempt a list of the year’s Top 10 new hard rock and metal albums, with five additional honorable mentions.
It should be noted that those honorable mentions are no less important and impressive than the other albums.  Absolutely no disrespect is meant toward those albums and the bands that created them.  To that end, here for your consideration is this critic’s list of 2025’s Top 10 New Hard Rock and Metal albums:
2025 Top 10 New Hard Rock/Metal Albums
1.      Dream Theater – Parasomnia
2.      Between The Buried and Me – The Blue Nowhere
3.      Defecto --  Echoes of Isolation
4.      Machine Head – Unatoned
5.      Testament – Para Bellum
6.      Arch Enemy – Blood Dynasty
7.      Sabaton – Legends
8.      Grave Digger – Bone Collector
9.      Rage – A New World Rising
10. Whitechapel – Hymns in Dissonance


2025 Top New Hard Rock/Metal Albums Honorable Mention
1.      Steve Dadain – Revenant City
2.      Helloween – Giants & Monsters
3.      Primal Fear – Domination
4.      Pop Evil – What Remains
5.      Bloodywood – Nu Delhi