- Cemetery Skyline – Nordic Gothic (Deluxe Edition) [5/1]
- Reaper – Liberation [5/1]
- Sevendust – One [5/1]
- Underground Springhouse – A Noise Without a Name [5/1]
- NVTURES GHOST – I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream [5/1]
- Slaves Wage – Omnia Nova [5/1]
- Scattered Hamlet – Tangled Web [5/5]
- Crashdïet – Art of Chaos [5/8]
- Hillbilly Vegas – Á LA MODE [5/8]
- mothshade – Revenant [5/8]
- The Wandering Willows – The Light & the Dark [5/8]
- The Hungry & Dangerous – No Mercy [5/8]
- Saint Social – Saint Social Live From The Sanctuary [5/13]
- Self Deception – One of Us [5/15]
- The Hollow – The Hollow [5/15]
- Gasoline Invertebrate – Black Lists Matter [5/15]
- Heathensun – Adios [5/15]
- Dead Lights – LASH [5/15]
- Black Cloud – Life Without Summer [5/20]
- Black Heart Gypsy – Into Darker Times [5/22]
- Valley Lights – Devil May Care [5/22]
- Static Dress – Injury Episode [5/28]
- Dark Divine – Undead Melody [5/29]
- Shinedown – EI8HT [5/29]
- Paul McCartney – The Boys of Dungeon Lane [5/29]
- Baarhus – Songs Under a Darkened Sky [5/29]
- The Cruel Intentions – All Hail Hypocrisy [5/29]
- Whale Watching – Remember to Love Before You Die [6/4]
- Evanescence – Sanctuary [6/5]
- The Red Clay Strays – Grateful [6/5]
- Cruel Mourning – Modern Tension [6/5]
- Christopher Ardra – Saw It in a Dream [6/5]
- seaspyre choir – spiral survival [6/5]
- Makes My Blood Dance – #Z3RO 2 LGHT $P33D! [6/5]
- BLiTZ – Bitter Me [6/12]
- Crown of Nothing – I’m OK [6/12]
- Rice Thief – The Hard Way [6/19]
- Cheap Coffins – I AM MARA [6/19]
- Muse – The Wow! Signal [6/26]
- Nachtmahr – IMPERIVM [6/26]
mothshade
My Top 50 Songs of 2025
This list is rolling out a lot later than usual, and I’ve gotta be honest – it’s because I failed so miserably at keeping up with releases last year. I mean, I added tracks to my playlist and shared them here, as well as on Facebook and Insta, but I didn’t sit and listen to them until recently. I’ll do better this year, I swear!
And now, here are the fifty songs that really jumped out at me in 2025. A few things to be aware of: I do not rank the tracks in any particular order, and I do not include major label artists (or I try not to, at any rate), nor do I include covers. Last but not least, no band/artist can have more than one song on the list.
View the full playlist HERE.
- Element 117: “Vision”
- SKNN: “Digital Zombies”
- Could You Not?: “Backpedal”
- Hooked Like Helen: “Quote Unquote Life”
- The Fiction We Create: “More Than Scars”
- Nouveau Arcade: “Push”
- Eli Howard & the Greater Good: “Long, Strange Trip”
- Boze: “I Will Go”
- The CyberTones: “Red Flags Flying”
- Deadcode: “Don’t Let Me Go”
- AGBAT: “Fair Winds”
- Sever Red: “Conjuring”
- Endless May: “Call My Name”
- Absolutist: “Lineage”
- Elirah’s Cross: “The Walk” (ft. Histheory)
- Matte Blvck: “Vicious Dreams”
- Alchemy Within: “The Call”
- In Passing: “Silhouette”
- A Fatal Black: “Kill the Lights”
- Stellar Circuits: “Bury the Ashes”
- mothshade: “Labyrinth”
- New Dilemma: “Ice Cold Hands” (ft. Chloe Robin)
- Czarina: “Fall Damage” (ft. Circuit Preacher)
- postdrome: “So Inviting”
- Cold Clay Mountain: “These Hands”
- Krysis: “The Summit’s Ice”
- Adelitas Way + New Medicine: “Rollin'”
- Blackwood: “One Track Mind” (ft. Kameron Jane)
- The Black Zodiac: “Gallow’s Call”
- No Fly List: “The Rush”
- Voice of Glass: “Henosis”
- Nights in Prada: “Thorns in Silk” (ft. Sara Rayne)
- Divide the Fall: “Beyond the Surface”
- War Inside: “Hollow Points”
- Ethereal Treason: “Ivory”
- Mirrorcell: “U(phoria)”
- Noir Addiction: “Chemical Bride”
- Phantom of Pop: “Sugar Sin”
- Almera: “Retrograde”
- Stellar: “Outta My League”
- Kings of Karma: “Falling to Pieces”
- Wraithlurk: “One More Lie” (ft. $KIMMY)
- Rise to Ruin: “Archaic”
- Danger Silent: “To Whoever’s Left, Pt. 2”
- Hallowtide: “O Captain”
- MAK: “Fever”
- The Mercury Seed: “Disappear”
- vasthearts: “such a shame” (ft. romziie and Leø)
- AnonTheory: “Thoughts and Prayers”
- We Brought the Storm: “Heavy Rain”
Mostly Music 