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User
Reviews 2
Approval 100%
Soundoffs 10
Album Ratings 847
Objectivity 77%
Last Active 08-01-22 11:41 pm
Joined 06-10-20
Review Comments 2,036
| Wally's Best of '25
It's the same thing each year baby. List is digs ranked in relative order this year. I do a full write up for each of these on my website so, I'll you're curious, I'll drop that in the comments as well. Cheers! | | 31 |  | Psychedelic Porn Crumpets
Carpe Diem, Moonman
Honorable Mentions:
Carpe Diem, Captain Moonbeam by Psychedelic Porn Crumpets (Garage Rock) Psych rock that’s too much fun to miss.
Mercy by Armand Hammer (Hip-hop) Another stellar project from billy woods and ELUCID.
Private music by Deftones (Metal) The Deftones release a Deftones album.
Lotus by Little Simz (Hip-hop) Little Simz processes trauma through a collection of relaxed, laidback beats.
Cabin in the Sky by De La Soul (Hip-hop) A solid old-school hip-hop album that pays homage to the ones we lost and the ones we’ll meet again. | | 30 |  | Chat Pile and Hayden Pedigo
In The Earth Again
Despite it being an album written in collaboration with another artist, this is hands down Chat Pile’s most vulnerable album. The content that singer Raygun Busch covers is devoid of his usual layered cynicism, opting instead for gutwrenching pieces about personal demons, feelings of despair, and lost friends (never thought I’d get teary-eyed because of a Chat Pile song, but I have “A Tear for Lucas” to thank for that). In the Earth Again is by no means a perfect album. It’s messy and at times it feels a little underbaked. But what lands this project on this list is the feeling that this project had to be made right in the moment when it was. There is an urgency to this project that I really respect. Its strength isn’t its polished nature, but rather it’s raw energy. | | 29 |  | Kauan
Wayhome
Having moved from Russia to Finland in 2022, Anton and Alina Belov (Kauan’s main writers) undoubtedly found themselves in a similar position. This album lives in these liminal spaces, heavy at times, meditative at others. Meant to be consumed as one 50 minute song, this album evokes feelings of nostalgia, loss, grief, and acceptance, all within Kauan’s signature atmospheric doom metal. Should you choose to put on this album, do it in the quiet moments of your life. Put it on and watch the snow fall. Take a walk with your dog and find a quiet place to sit by a winter pond. You might find yourself lost, on a journey of your heart and mind. Be at peace. One day you too will find your way home. | | 28 |  | Geese
Getting Killed
It took me a while to come around to this one. Songs like “100 Horses” and “Getting Killed” met me where I wanted them to, grooving with the same maniacal, psychedelic energy that I’d come to expect from this band, while others like “Cobra” and “Husbands” fizzle without really lighting up. It’s a perplexing listen that doesn’t quite rise to the same heights as its predecessor, but it’s still really damn good. If this is a misstep in Geese’s career then, like this album, the highs will outweigh the lows. | | 27 |  | Martin Grech
Dragon's Blood
Although this isn’t the album I wanted, it’s a brilliant piece of art by an artist who refuses to be pinned down. The more I listen to it, the more I find myself immersed in Grech’s world. Please… make no mistake, this is a very dark world. I am often able to differentiate between artist and art, and yet this album leaves me feeling deeply concerned for this brilliant artist (if you listen to the lyrics of “The Pact”, you’ll understand why). This is art that has made me feel at the deepest level, but man is it really heavy. | | 26 |  | Backxwash
Only Dust Remains
On Only Dust Remains, it’s not that she seems to be in a better place, but rather she seems to be seeking a better place. Her rhymes and beats suggest that she still has her addictions, her destructive habits, her demons, but she also seems to want to fight them instead of immersing herself in them. She discusses therapy, trauma, the cycles of addiction and despair from a place of someone who has growing stronger through her struggles. Even the samples have switched from the more metal infused ones from her past to ones infused with elements of electronic music, gospel, and art rock. | | 25 |  | Maruja
Pain to Power
That’s the fury that Maruja channels in their latest album. While not American, their album addresses many of the issues that our country faces, specifically the way the rich use political and social issues to divide the lower classes. Maruja don’t pull their punches, using a blend of post rock, hardcore, and post punk to craft a frantic and chaotic soundscape. This album perfectly encapsulates the anxieties induced by the echo chambers we live in and the financial systems that oppress us. Maruja offers us an answer, turning each song into a rallying cry for us to embrace each other, to choose love over hatred, and to fight against corruption and the systems that trample the people that live in them. | | 24 |  | Igorrr
AMEN
Amen is not a completely different experience than the group’s previous ones. You’re still going to get your yearly dosage of baroque music infused with thrash, metalcore, and industrial. You’re still going to get breakdowns led by absurd instruments like recorders (“Mustard Mucous”). You’re still going to get unintelligible screams accompanied by lush, operatic vocals. But you’re also going to get a product that feels more refined than some of his previous efforts. For better or for worse, this feels like Igorrr’s most… mature (?) work to date. There’s more atmosphere and space, especially on the back half of the album, which gives some of the weirder moments more space to shine. | | 23 |  | Clipse
Let God Sort Em Out
I think the strength of Clipse's latest project is how effortless they make being great sound. At a glance, this album is a strong collection of beats and rhymes. It’s easy to put this on and let it rattle the trunk. But the true genius of this album is the elements that exist just below the surface. Pusha T and Malice are in peak form here, rapping about fame, money, faith, and power with a sneer and an air of devil-may-care. They tapdance through bar after bar of intricate wordplay, layering double-entendres on top of each other like they’re tiramisu while Pharrell’s beats have enough punch to send the Logan brothers to their maker for an eternity. They invite some of the biggest names in the game (Tyler, the Creator, Kendrick, Nas) to go toe-to-toe with them in the arena. | | 22 |  | Model/Actriz
Pirouette
Damn, this album is sexy. It’s sweaty and intoxicating. It pulsates with a dark, edgy energy that one would come to expect from a night in a big city club. It whispers in your ear and draws you into the darkened corners of your mind to grind on you, to caress you, to take you away from reality even if only for an hour. It’s one that imprints itself on your mind, so that when you awaken the next morning, bleary-eyed and stumbling through the world with a blinding headache, you can’t shake the memory of it.
And yet, despite all this sexual, driving energy, the thing that makes this album so incredible is its storytelling. Buried within the onslaught of industrial and noise inspired dance beats are stories about desire, self-awakening, and liberation. | | 21 |  | Runnner
A Welcome Kind of Weakness
I’ve always appreciated, in some horrible way, the beauty that comes from collapse. There’s something about humanity that emerges when things fall apart, be it the projection that comes from ourselves as we observe it, or the experience we have when it occurs close to us. A car that continues to work even as its parts fail. A sweater with holes in it. An abandoned schoolhouse from the early 1900’s. There’s something about each of these things that provides space for reflection and recognition, which in many ways is the core of what makes us human.
This is the epicenter of Runnner’s latest album. On the precipice of a tour for his last album, the beautiful Like Dying Stars, We’re Reaching Out, Noah Weinman tore his achilles tendon during a game of basketball. Bedridden and disappointed with the cancellation of his tour, Weinman found himself grappling with the relationship that had fallen apart prior to all of these changes. | | 20 |  | Benthos
From Nothing
All this is to say, you really have to impress me if you’re going to drop a metalcore album. Sure, the trends in the genre have shifted, focusing more on a Sleep Token and Deftones-esq sound, but I’m getting old and if I’ve heard done once, I don’t need to hear it done again (the thirty year old said, shaking his fist at the sky). Enter Benthos, a progressive metal band from Italy that combines Dillinger Escape Plan zany-ness (“Fossil”, “Athletic Worms”) with massive, catchy, massive moments akin to Leprous (“Let Me Plunge”). In the year where we lost Destrage, one of metal’s wildest acts, Benthos stepped in as one of metal's more exciting new bands. If their future output is anything like this album, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them on the global stage sooner rather than later. | | 19 |  | Kevin Atwater
Achilles
What I love about this project is the juxtaposition of love and violence throughout it. Yes, I recognize that’s not healthy, but the imagery is truly incredible. The two are heartbreakingly interchangeable in Atwater’s stories, where toxic relationships and nights of passion are always sprinkled with tinges of blood. These are articulated through his signature, abraded storytelling, a factor that has always driven his projects, and it listens not just like an indie rock album, but a collection of personal stories that reveal truths about Atwater and what has comprised his past year. The production is also steps ahead of where it was previously. If my complaint with his last project was that there were a few moments where Atwater shifted moods or styles too jarringly, they’ve been completely adjusted on this. Achilles is a statement of maturity, an artist fine-tuning their voice to create an indie rock album that is as enjoyable and catchy as it is touching and poignant. | | 18 |  | Lady Gaga
Mayhem
Mayhem is a gallery walk through Gaga’s era, a statement on her career and where she’s come from, while simultaneously allowing for experimentation into styles that have inspired her over the years (Gaga is nothing if not a chameleon). There are club bangers (“Disease”, “Abracadabra”) that are reminiscent of her early domination of the 10’s club scene, as well as strange, artsy songs (“Killah” “Zombieboy”) that put on full display her love for Prince, Bowie, and the Talking Heads. Gaga commands the attention of the listener throughout this entire project, and the result is a collection of earworms that will get you up and dancing like it’s 2011. | | 17 |  | Ghais Guevara
Goyard Ibn Said
This album is nothing but ambitious. It’s apparent in the use of a Russian symphony sample in the opening track (“The Old Guard is Dead” the hip-hop track of the year, holy shit). It’s apparent in the heady nature of the album’s title, and its relation to Guevara’s experience in the music industry. It’s apparent in the choice of album artwork. Everything screams “this is a young man who is not only incredibly talented, he’s incredibly intelligent, artistically literate, and calculated”. This isn’t the type of album someone makes for a debut. This is an album that many young artists make years into their careers. | | 16 |  | Lux Terminus
Cinder
Lux Terminus crafts a very specific type of cinematic, progressive metal. Each song feels like climbing a mountain, watching the sunrise bathe the land in a watercolor of warm colors. Songs like “Jupiter II: To Bend a Comet” feel like the end of a movie where, right before the credits roll, the main character demonstrates some feat of power or discovers some powerful inner truth. Some songs soar with sweeping, epic moments (“Catalyst”) while others groove and bounce with tinges of Weather Report jazz fusion (“P.L.O.N.K.”). There’s a joy and wonder imbued into each track that makes this album feel like an uplifting flight into the sky. This is an album that transforms every run down the ski slope into a desperate race against time, every walk to the grocery store as a quest to discover an ancient treasure, every dinner a mixing of dangerous chemicals that could save or destroy the world. | | 15 |  | Aesop Rock
Black Hole Superette
The reality is if you don’t like Aesop Rock, and you’ve been reading my lists over the past six years or have been in the hip-hop scene, there’s nothing that this album is going to convince you that you’re wrong. Aesop has his style. He has his beats. He doesn’t give a shit if you like him. He hasn’t been on tour since 2017. He doesn’t need your patronage. Aesop does this for the craft and, quite frankly, he’s one of the most legit people to ever do it. He doesn’t need to convince you he’s one of the best artists to ever do it. He just is. | | 14 |  | Honningbarna
Soft Spot
Man, I tried, I really did. I tried to challenge myself to sit still while I listened to this album and wrote this review but, dear reader, it was an impossible feat. Within seconds of the opening track “Schafer” I found myself banging my head and grooving to the music. It’s that infectious. You can’t fault me. Soft Spot is a raucous, pulse pounding, 39 minute assault of pure energy that charges through hardcore riffs, post punk grooves, and driving dance hall beats. This is one of those acts that I would love to see live, as each song is sure to get the crowd moving. It doesn’t matter that you probably don’t know what they’re saying. You’ll find yourself pumping your fist and screaming along just the same. | | 13 |  | Skrillex
F*ck U Skrillex You Think Ur Andy Warhol…
Fuck You… plays less like an album and more like a live set, seeing Skrillex bang his way through forty-six minutes of different genres and styles. Yes, there is still plenty of dubstep on this album (“SPITFIRE” through “ANDY” leans pretty heavily into it) but there’s also enough variety in this to demonstrate how skilled of a dj Skrillex really is (the DnB ending of this is fire). This project isn’t some mature statement like Quest for Fire, but it essentially serves the same purpose. So do what I did and put this on as your getting ready for your ski day. I guarantee you’ll find your zen. | | 12 |  | Psychonaut
World Maker
Upon finding out he was going to be a father, vocalist and lyricist Stefan De Graef composed this album as a message to his son, articulating all his hopes, worries, and emotions leading up to his birth. If that name sounds familiar to you, it’s because De Graef is also the vocalist for Hippotraktor, one of the acts to completely surprise me with where it landed on my list. While the rhythm section is impressive in this band, it’s De Graef who once again steals the show with his vocal performance. He is quickly rising as one of my favorite vocalists in the metal scene, gently crooning one moment before wielding some of metal’s most monstrous harsh vocals. What makes his performance even more spectacular is that he does it all while performing some of the most impressive fretwork of the year. | | 11 |  | Ethel Cain
Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You
I often find myself completely lost in the atmosphere of this album. Sure, there is a track or two that would find themselves cozied up with anything you might hear on the radio nowadays (“Fuck Me Eyes”), but the true power of this album is in the spaces where it breathes. Tracks like “Tempest” and “Nettles” feel like they belong on a post rock album instead of one of an artist whose previous work might have been comparable to that of Lana Del Ray. They meditate on mantras of love lost, desire, and the promises that come in between the kisses we steal under the setting summer sun. Some listeners who prefer listening to individual songs over entire albums might find this to be a bit of a turn-off, but for those seeking an actual album experience, the result is a product that grips from start to finish and leaves the listener drenched in a feeling of melancholy and bittersweet nostalgia. | | 10 |  | Billy Woods
Golliwog
The horror is multifaceted in this project, manifesting itself in the beats constructed by a slew of big name producers (El-P, Kenny Segal, The Alchemist to name a few) and in Wood’s stories about systemic violence and what it means to be black in America. Songs like “Jumpscare” and “Waterproof Mascara” expertly use sampling and production techniques to create a terrifying, unsettling soundscape for Woods to explore these topics, while other producers opt for darker but more straightforward trap beats to punctuate Wood’s poetry. While the list of producers and features on this might make the album come across as a smattering of too many cooks in the kitchen, it affords each song a unique sound that deftly connects back to Wood’s overarching themes and message, something that I’ve felt is lacking on some of Wood’s single producer projects. | | 9 |  | Steven Wilson
The Overview
The album is two pieces, each about twenty minutes in change, that explores the aforementioned concept. While this might sound daunting, each song is brilliantly crafted in a way that gives them space to breathe while keeping them interesting. Wilson’s love for 70’s rock is on full display on this album, each song filled with incredibly memorable motifs that shift and swirl in and out of focus. The even bigger achievement is that neither song loses steam (the second half of “The Overview” is awe inspiring). As the length would insinuate, these songs require multiple listens, but each one is more fulfilling than the last.
While only time will tell where and how Wilson’s legacy will end, this album is a reminder to fans that he can still craft a well-constructed album that pays homage to the acts that have come before him, while also possessing the qualities that make his music uniquely his. | | 8 |  | clipping.
Dead Channel Sky
Ditching the straight up horror aesthetic of their last two albums, clipping. Have created a new type of terror, one rooted in our digital world. Songs about losing your touch on reality, addiction to technology, and rebellion through online engagement are scattered across this album, each one hacking into your subconscious, slowly corrupting you with a sense of unease. Over glitching, sharp electronic beats, Diggs demonstrates his versatility as an artists, at times portraying a sarcastic, bleak version of the future through his conversational if slightly monotone delivery, while at other times developing a sense of frantic urgency through his breakneck rapping. The effect is an album that, like a virus, corrupts your thoughts long after its over, replaying the hooks over and over in your mind like a pop-up advertisement. | | 7 |  | Alpha Male Tea Party
Reptilian Brain
As I mentioned in my review, the heart of this album is the emotion that comes from the addition of vocals. While this band write riffs that are massive enough to sing-a-long to, it’s the storytelling, the NEED to have vocals to do so, that makes this album so powerful. Don’t believe me? I’ll return once more to “A Terrible Day to Have Eyes” the song shared below this post. Capturing a particularly traumatic moment in vocalist Tom Peters’ life. In one piece, the band capture such a human experience, one that every listener can relate to. At some point we have seen something so horrific (the death of a loved one, a scenario where we should have stood up for what was right, a loss of innocence) that we were forever transformed afterward. That message, in a way, is the core of this album. When we see such moments, do we choose to look away, do we stand and stare, or do we act while we still can? | | 6 |  | McKinley Dixon
Magic, Alive!
Using live performances of local Chicago musicians as the backdrop for his rhymes, Dixon constructs an jazz rap album that is light as it is thought provoking, as sorrowful as it is joyful, as playful as it is pressing. The energy on this project is truly the driving force, and it feels like a warm summer day in the city, catching an artist busking on the corner of the block, people dancing in the street. It’s warm and bright, and engages the listener from the soothing, scene setting intro track “Watch My Hands” to the pensive, shimmering conclusion “Could’ve Been Different”. The wisdom that Dixon pours across these tracks fills the soul with a sense of purpose, and it’s one that I can see myself returning to as it ages and the years as a reminder to stand up for what is right as well as appreciate the moments I have with my loved ones. | | 5 |  | Cardiacs
LSD
LSD is to avant garde, progressive punk what Blackstar was to art rock. It’s a zany celebration of life, an epic meditation on death, a middle finger to the way life eventually cripples us all. This album, oddly enough, is a great starting point for understanding the band because it has a little bit of every album on it. There are symphonic and epic flourishes, ala “Men in Bed”, “Busty Beez”, and “Pet Fezant”. There’s manic punk rock energy on rippers like “Woodeneye”, “Lovely Eyes”, and “Downup”. There are fist pumping rock anthems like “By Numbers” and “Ditzy Scene”. All of these different songs are played in a way wholly unique to Smith’s unique writing style and sound, which is made all the more impressive by the fact that Smith was not able to sing or play on the album. It’s hard for me to truly describe this album because it sounds entirely unique. If you haven’t heard a Cardiacs album, you have no idea what you’re in for, but I can promise you that it will be an experience you w | | 4 |  | Moron Police
Pachinko
Their previous album, 2019’s A Boat on the Sea, was a goofy collection of socially conscious songs about false kings and the meaning of life that sounded like a mix between your favorite musicals and anime theme songs. In many ways, it was a test drive for all the qualities that make this album so damn strong. Because while A Boat… was a collection of songs with similar production and thematic material, this is a full-blown balls to the wall concept album. Themes are introduced in early songs only to be revisited, reshaped, and strengthened as the album progresses. Songs twist and turn with reckless abandon. It is truly a masterclass in modern progressive rock, and I say that as someone who has listened to hundreds of progressive rock albums over his thirty-four years of life. This is a band recognizing its final form, and it is truly awe-inspiring to reach the end of this album, tears in your eyes, and realize: “Holy shit, they actually pulled this off.” | | 3 |  | The World Is a Beautiful Place...
Dreams Of Being Dust
Well if Illusory Walls was dystopian or rather post-dystopian album where one hobbles through the wreckage, finding hope in the ruins of society, then Dreams of Being Dust is the prequel, a grim, bleak, furious collection of songs that perfectly articulates all the dread and anger I’ve bottled inside me this last year. The group completely abandons the shimmering post-hardcore and midwest emo of previous works in favor of a sound that leans heavily on hardcore and metalcore riffs, harsh vocals, and brutal breakdowns. It’s an artistic decision that alienated plenty of their fanbase, but for this music reviewer it was the direction shift I was craving from the group. Not only does the heavier sound work for vocalist Josh Cyr’s cynical, flat delivery, but it fixes many of the pacing issues that its predecessor had. | | 2 |  | BRUIT
The Age Of Ephemerality
The Age of Ephemerality is a violent rebellion against that, an album that is challenging and rewarding, a piece of art that commands your attention and requires disconnection from all distraction and fleeting reaction. Composed of four members (Theophile Antolinos, Julien Aoufi Luc Blanchot, Clément Libes, each multi-instrumentalists in their own respect) Bruit are a group capable of producing astonishingly immense walls of sound. Together they create a blend of post rock, symphonic music, and electronic that is a monumental tome of sound. At times this album flirts with the edges of what your ears can physically take in. It’s overwhelming, all-encompassing, bombastic, and the perfect metaphor for this cacophony that is media consumption in the 2020s. Bruit have taken the reins from bands like Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Russians Circles, and have created an album that perfectly disrupts our need to swipe through sounds and images. | | 1 |  | Coheed and Cambria
Vaxis III: The Father of Make Believe
Dismissing conversations about the story for a second (because every Coheed and Cambria album is part of a larger, science fiction saga), the music on this album is Coheed at their heaviest, most emotional, and most energetic in a decade. Their versatility is on full display here, from the poppy opener “Goodbye Sunshine”, to the hardcore leanings of “Blind Side Sonny” and “Play the Poet”, to the epic and emotive closing multi-suite track “The Continuum”. It truly is a smorgasbord of everything that Coheed does really well. This could, of course, be a detriment to people who haven’t previously enjoyed their music, but for even casual fans there’s a little something from each of their eras to keep them engaged. | |
WalrusTusk
01.29.26 | If anyone cares to read my full write-up!
https://kevinjasica.com/2026/01/16/top-30-albums-of-2025/ | Hawks
01.30.26 | Nice to see 2 and 5 so high on your list!! | WalrusTusk
01.30.26 | Thanks man. Have you watched Bruits KEXP yet? |
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