As the year winds down, I always like to review the music I’ve found and listened to over the last year. I maintain a playlist every year where, as I find albums I enjoy, they get added to that list. Normally, my review takes the form of a top 10-ish albums review, but for this column, I’m going to focus on individual songs instead. I listen to a lot of metal, so there’s definitely going to be a bias towards that genre this time around. With that in mind, here’s some of my favorites from 2025!

Ish: Otho, by Ex Deo

Ex Deo is a symphonic death metal band based entirely on the history of ancient Rome. In January, they released a concept EP about the Year of the Four Emperors, which is something I’d never heard of before and was a very fun rabbit hole to read up on. Basically, AD 69 saw Rome’s first civil war, as, in order, Galba, Otha, Vitellius and Vespasian each claimed the throne. Each emperor got one track on the EP dedicated to them — of which, my favorite was definitely Otho.

10: The Bed of Wasps

(Those Consumed with

Panic), by The Reticent

A breathtaking slab of progressive metal, The Reticent accompanies their skill and songwriting prowess with painfully powerful takes on uncomfortable subjects, which has the downside that I tend to be blown away by them and then not return for future listens. This album deals with mental health, especially anxiety, depression and panic attacks. This song focuses on the panic attacks, and is a very well-executed profile of what a panic attack feels like. That might not be something that you want to experience, but it can be a very good tool for building mental health awareness, and regardless of how few times I will listen to this song compared to others on this list, it definitely deserves its spot as one of the best.

9: Hydra, by Orbit Culture

This song gets the nod for the most aggressive, workout-style song on the list. If you want something you can unabashedly feel empowered by, lean into this song. Most of the song is kind of serpentine, weaving back and forth while chugging along, but then the drop hits at about 3:40 and it brings chills every time.

8: Nimue, by Faun

I didn’t like this album by Faun quite as much as many of their earlier works. It’s decidedly fine, and solid — but I felt that it lacked a bit of the inspiration they usually bring to the table. That said, perhaps because of that, I have been enjoying it a bit more as we settle into the winter greys, which the album seems to resonate with. Nimue, which features Chelsea Wolfe, was my favorite off this album, probably because it’s the closest in tone and timbre to their usual work.

7: Ik Kom Uit Het Graf,

by Carach Angren

If you’re curious, the song title translates from Dutch to “I come from the grave.” Carach Angren, who just got a nod from me in October for their cinematic horror brand of metal, was among the bands who chose to release EPs this year instead of full albums, which actually works really well for them. My chief complaint with Carach Angren is always that when they are at their best, they are unmatchable, but frequently their best is surrounded by songs I don’t enjoy. Refining that down to an EP worked very well this year. This song, which prominently features increasingly frenetic strings work building to a crescendo as a spoken-word segment as a man pounds from inside a coffin, is easily my favorite of the five offered.

6: Eye of the Storm, by Epica

This is the second mention Epica has gotten in this column this year! This song presents an incredible fusion of strings and heavy guitars that channels “the storm,” as Simone’s soprano soars overhead. As I said before, their 2025 album was very enjoyable to my ears, and it had to be represented on this year-end list.

5: Sleep Tonight, by

The Birthday Massacre

A Canadian darkwave group, The Birthday Massacre is another group that I’d fallen away from for the last few years, but I gave their new release a spin and loved it. This song opens up with 30 seconds of guitar assault before opening up and slowing down. The tempo of this song meshes particularly well with Chibi’s singing, which is always one of the highlights of any good TBM song.

4: Look to Windward,

by Sleep Token

This group, album and song are all hard to describe. They’re sort of a British fusion experimental thing that I stumbled into courtesy of autoplay. This song, in particular, really caught me and got (and continues to get) a lot of spins. It’s a fascinating blend of genres, pivoting wildly from pop to rock to metal to hip-hop with plenty of stops along the way. That fluid genre-bending makes the song really strongly subject to re-listens, because there’s just so much to explore and enjoy. It’s always funny to say that a Grammy-nominated band came out of nowhere for me, but that was actually my experience! Looking forward to exploring their back catalog more in the new year.

3: Shieldmaiden, by Auri

I love, love, love Auri. I do think that this year’s album is the weakest of their three albums, but even saying that feels disingenuous for how good it is. I don’t know how exactly to describe this, but if you grew up with or enjoyed the “I, Spy” books, you’ll love Auri. Their music has the exact same vibes. This song builds wonderfully after a long, atmospheric start where Finnish singer Johanna Kurkela gets to toy playfully with the melody.

2: Nikan Axkan (El Aqui y El Ahora), by Kalaveraztekah

The world we live in may have its fair share of problems, but at least we can use the internet to find music that we would never, in a million years, have found without it. While I haven’t done my year-end album list yet, this album is likely to finish very high on it — a death metal jam dripping with Aztec flavor (including death whistles!). The flow in this album as a whole is amazing, but this song in particular does a fantastic job of setting the stage and getting you in the mood for the rest of the album. An incredible setup to an incredible album that will absolutely not be everyone’s cup of tea.

1: The Circle, by Amorphis

Amorphis is wildly skilled at two things: releasing highly competent albums with a consistent style that rarely experiments or strays too far from the path; and nabbing my personal accolades for favorite song of the year. They’re masters of melody and groove, and their ability to produce earworms year after year is amazing to me. Amongst Stars, from their 2018 album, Queen of Time, still holds the title for my favorite Amorphis track, but The Circle is a very worthy addition to that ever-growing catalog.

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Arianna McKee is Design Editor of The Express.