Looking Ahead: Rock Music in 2025

ose Not The Cold Earth is going to be a thing that you need to experience, given how hotly anticipated it has been, and even if it’s not the masterpiece some were expecting, it’s as close as damn is to swearing. Cold, icy and undeniably bleak, Deafheaven are still doing wonders for blackgaze, though it’s surprising how much the pivoting from a more shoegaze-centric lens to a more black metal one has worked as well as it has. There’s a levelling-out here that feels unmistakably dark, even if Death Lo Be Contundansn isn’t their best work. Dark Funeral’s Enchanted Wings of Tragedy is perhaps even more gothic-leaning, and while there’s nothing definitively bad about its fraught, harrowing presence, it’s an album that leans more towards the ornate and sepulchral side of black metal that doesn’t always click as effectively. On the other hand, Regarde Les Hommes Tomber’s The Cult of Ignorance is some absolutely fantastic blackened post-metal that brings plenty in terms of atmosphere, weight, and dynamics that so many of their peers struggle with. All of that just adds up to a great month for metal, and that’s not even getting into the rest that doesn’t entirely coalesce with the themes we usually cover here.