My favorite album releases this year skewed toward the dark, which isn’t all that surprising considering that (1) look at the fucking world right now and (2) a great artist can make the darkness beautiful. Here are the ones who did it best in 2025:

A6 – Lights

I’ve already written about it here, but Lights’ newest release brilliantly captures the struggles of trying to keep your heart together while living through this whole mess. The emotional pendulum swings back and forth with the opening pair of songs, “DAMAGE” and “ALIVE AGAIN,” taking us through the agony of living with your past hurts while celebrating the simple fact of still being alive. The rest of the album follows suit, from soulwrenchers like “SURFACE TENSION” and “GHOST GIRL ON FIRST” (this last being a callback to Taking Back Sunday) intertwined with the playful “DRINKS ON THE COAST” and the steamy “CLINGY.” This navigation through emotional highs and lows never feels like whiplash, because Lights handles it with the finesse of lived experience and remarkable musical talent.

Fusing new wave into her alt-pop style and sprinkling it with callbacks to some of her earlier work (particularly “February Air” and “Day One”), A6 is the soundtrack to a night out when you’re not okay but need feel the life and energy of the world around you.

And, as if this album alone wasn’t enough of an achievement, Lights is set to release A6EXTENDED, featuring seven additional tracks, in January. Considering the spectacular quality of the first two singles “EDUCATION” and “LEARNING TO LET GO,” it’s likely that I’ll be putting A6EXTENDED onto next year’s list, as well.

Even in Arcadia – Sleep Token

I might’ve written about this one not just once but twice because there’s so much to talk about here. Sleep Token’s follow-up to 2023’s Taken Me Back to Eden is a brilliant, intricate tapestry of metal, R&B and pop, with flavors of jazz, electronic and Midwest emo that doesn’t allow itself to return to any one genre for longer than it takes you to catch your breath, before taking it away as they pivot into the next aural twist. Every song is a journey, from the first notes of the seven-minute opener, “Look to Windward,” to the last ones on the ascendant finisher, “Infinite Baths”—notes whose similarities tie together the cyclical nature of this album’s story, reflecting the cycle of violence that is one of the many themes Vessel’s lyrics touch on.

Even in Arcadia is, in some subtle ways, also a refutation of many of the elements that made Take Me Back to Eden such a success, stripping away surface-level catchiness to ask more of its fans than anything Sleep Token has made yet… but offering up an even richer experience. This isn’t an album you might immediately love on your first listen, but with each following one the myriad connections pull the work tighter together, deepening your appreciation for how the band has been able to craft such a lush collection of songs that push them into a bold new direction… all while continuing to tell the tragic, epic conflict between Vessel and Sleep.

Percepticide: The Death of Reality – Pixel Grip

Chicago’s EBM darkwave trio Pixel Grip delivers another soundtrack of provocative, sexy, unapologetic tracks that feel less like songs, and more like excuses to be your least-inhibited self. The slow open of “Crow’s Feast” is a gentle set-up for the explosive body-mover, “Bet You Do,” which showcases the bold, confrontational strain that runs through the album with lines like,

“People wanna seem so dark

It’s ’cause you’re standing in my shadow”

That energy is at its fullest in “Reason to Stay,” “Last Laugh” and the aptly-named “Insignificant.” Feelings of success and triumph swell here, sentiments that are well-earned for a band who recently finished their own world tour and just opened for Nine Inch Nails—they have a lot of success to brag about, and they aren’t taking shit from people who try to diminish it.

And these songs are just fun, like “Stamina,” which is about needing some of that, but for something that isn’t running or dancing. Rita Lukea’s vocal range adds constant variety throughout, alternating between sensual and commanding to angry and ass-kicking. This is a must-listen, from a must-see band who put on shows unlike anyone else.

They’re also super friendly people, especially if you run into them at O’Hare when you’re dealing with an eight-hour flight delay; even when they’re hauling equipment around, about to start off their world tour, they’ll take a minute to talk to a fan.

I wouldn’t know anything about that though.

King of Terror EP – PRESIDENT

Coming somewhat out of nowhere, enigmatic multi-genre metal band PRESIDENT has recently released a powerhouse of an EP packed with the sort of raw emotionality and songwriting mastery that you expect to find with Sleep Token—one of the band’s obvious inspirations. Across these six tracks, lead singer the President wrestles with the concept of an afterlife, navigating the harrowing intersections of loss, longing, alcoholism, hopelessness, damnation and salvation with a directness that is perhaps amplified (and allowed) by the anonymity of wearing a mask.

“Fearless” juxtaposes the strained weariness in the President’s vocal delivery with a bombastic chorus like a back and forth rage/sad of a breakdown that sounds less like a metal one, than a mental one. “Rage” is carried along by a beautiful glissading beat that plays as a throughline with the defeat in the President’s voice, giving the impression of someone sitting alone in the dark, drinking to memories he loves about a person he hates.

“Destroy Me” is a harrowing depiction of co-dependency and alcoholism, while “Conclave” returns to existential concerns with the gorgeous lines,

“But I will love you anyway

Even in the afterlife.”

I can’t wait to hear more from this band, to see what lore they build in a style like Sleep Token’s. Honestly, if we start getting enough multi-genre, anonymous masked-members bands coming out of this to call it a subgenre, I’m going to be pretty happy.

A Grave Marked Strange – Baby Jane

I wrote about Baby Jane’s first album *here*, and I’m just as excited to talk about her second one. A Grave Marked Strange moves away from the lighter, house-like tones of Otherworld, descending deeper into darkwave EBM while continuing to explore the paradox of hedonism and longing.

“Cult of Dionysus” is the spectacular tonal and thematic introduction to the images of uninhibited revelry that permeate this album, the soundtrack to masked figures in the night dancing around a bonfire in a cemetery. These visuals weave throughout the album, such as in the clubby and queer “Leather” and the highly danceable “Nightterrors.”

However, what stands out among all this excess, when so much is available, is what isn’t there. The torture of having everything except for who you truly want shines through in songs like “Reincarnate,” in which the speaker declares herself as a reincarnation of someone else’s true love. Moments of quiet and slow, desperate longing offer emotional depth amid the partying.

And so many of these songs just go the fuck in, like “Myth” and “Pyschotrance,” the latter of which incorporates flavors of Myspace hyperpop. This is definitely a strong companion-piece to Pixel Grip.

AFI – Silver Black Bleeds the Sun

Pulling in post-punk, goth and death rock, alternative staple AFI has crafted a luscious aural feast, while pushing themselves in a bold new direction. Still, Silver Black Bleeds the Sun is far less of a departure from the band’s previous sound that some fans have claimed, considering that AFI has blended punk, goth and emo for the thirty-plus years they’ve been around. Their range is telescoped into one of these areas here, though, focusing on the heart of goth: summoning the beauty that lies in the dark.

Davey’s vocal range is on full display here, alternating between the sweeping highs of “Holy Visions” and the lows of “Behind the Clock” and “A World Unmade.” This latter, a song of cosmic defiance, contains some of the album’s most striking lines:

“The order is chaos

Disorder is the form

…

I am the heliocentric flaw

I am the current’s break.”

“Blasphemy and Excess” is a celebration of hedonism, while “Spear of Truth” invokes the airy gloominess of the Cure. “Ash Speck in a Green Eye” is the most intense and danceable track, goth at its most transcendent: when it merges darkness and sorrow to create release.

The October release was perfect timing, an offering to the goth holy month. I blasted it almost nonstop leading up to Halloween, and will be doing it again next year.

Honorable mentions

will it emo? (vol.1) – nothing. nowhere

Ten emo covers of pop songs by the master of the multi-genre. Emo “All Star.” Emo “HOT TO GO!” Emo “I Want It That Way.” Need I say more?

Lo-files – Bring Me the Horizon

A compilation of lo-fi covers of songs from every era of Bring Me the Horizon’s career. Equal parts chill and nostalgic.

Surrender EP – Amira Efelky

Nu-metal infused emo that could be featured on a Twilight remake. Thought you were too old to belt out lines about heartbreak and longing? Not while listening to this, you aren’t.

Photo Credits: A6: Amazon Music Even in Arcadia: The Clackamas Print – Percepticide: Bandcamp – King of Terrors: Wikipedia – A Grave Marked Strange: Out Now – Silver Black Bleeds the Sun: Mondo Negro – Will it Emo?: Reddit – Lo-Files: bmthhorizon.com – Surrdener: Bandcamp