Kaylah's top five albums of 2025

This year, I discovered a lot of new (old?) music, stuff I had somehow skipped from previous years (or decades), still on my shoegaze-spin-offs run. It did take a degree of effort to pull myself away from comfort playlists this year, and i got trapped for the first six months by one album you and me by oPEN HAND, which was my favourite new/old discovery.

But that’s not what you’re here for. You came for the new shit.

here are my top five albums of 2025.

5 - Sunset funeral - glare

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GLARE was a band I discovered deep in my gaze trenches, and SUNSET FUNERAL is their debut after many singles and some EPs, I was happy to see them make something in full. If you’re familiar with their earlier works, ‘VOID IN BLUE’, ‘BLANK’, and ‘BLOOM’, you’d have a good understanding of what to expect. SUNSET FUNERAL takes the best parts of them all, and combines it more tightly and more refined. It still had the glitter, but had tightened a bit of the air up. ‘NU BURN’ is the slapper for me.

4 - goldstar - imperial triumphant

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This was the band I most underestimated this year. IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT played at Dark Mofo’s HYMNS TO THE DEAD (read my review HERE!!), and one of my friend’s was talking them up in the weeks leading to it - and I was the least excited for them. I walked out amazed, the best band of the evening and took me quickly and violently. Their jazzy black metal fusion that is ‘PLEASUREDOME’ captured me, and GOLDSTAR entered the album rotation for weeks. If you’ve never listened to them before, please start here.

3 - labyrinthe - faetooth

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FAETOOTH rolled into my recommendations on Last.fm sometime last year, with ‘ECHOLALIA’ from their debut REMNANTS OF THE VESSEL, so I was stoked when I saw LABYRINTHE was announced, and that they were touring with SLOW CRUSH. I think LABYRINTHE is more lowkey than REMNANTS, with less ambient tracks so is a bit more ‘on task’. ‘IRON GATE’, ‘HOLE’ and particularly ‘OCTOBER’ move me everytime. I am so excited to see where this band goes.

2 - unself - conjurer

I loved CURSE THESE METAL HANDS, my number 1 album of 2019, and caught Conjurer at Dark Mofo in Hobart in 2022, and had shamefully shelved them until UNSELF arrived. UNSELF is an album deserving of multiple listens, because it gets better each time. The opening track ‘UNSELF’ stole me originally, then it was ‘The Searing Glow’s wicked bass line, and then the mirror track ‘THIS WORLD IS NOT MY HOME’. Then I recommended it to a friend, and listened to it again, and ‘ALL APART’ gripped me, then ‘LET US LIVE’. I think CONJURER are a band that will never cease to amaze me with the filthiest riffs, and guttural vocals dispersed with moments of beauty.

1 - everything out there has teeth - shedfromthebody

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I wrote about this album when it came out, after being obsessed with AMARE, and I can’t stop listening to shedfromthebody. ‘SHATTERMIND’ has had me by the throat weeks later, and probably sometime into next year too. The melancholic and bleak downtime makes the more intense part of the album so much more so, but is still lowkey enough to lay in a puddle of tears on a moody Sunday afternoon. EVERYTHING OUT THERE HAS TEETH came to me at the right time and everyday it helps me.

This album will be treasured and is my favourite album of 2025.

Honourable mentions to

Bodies by Thornhill

spilling / five of tears by Pure Hex

The Weary & the Wise by modus fire (See my review HERE!!)

The last leg of the human table by Cloakroom

A Young Person’s Guide to King Parrot by King Parrot