The Countdown so far...

 

The Countdown so far...

So, this is it. Once again... Almost midnight. Would you like to say a few words to mark the occasion? Of course we do. We would like to thank you all for voting this year, following along and sending messages of appreciation. We are humbled and truly thankful! And of course, we also thank all those bands delivering all those amazing albums. Awe inspiring and the reason we do this! 

Well, It’s almost time to announce the Number 1 album of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2025 according to 192  of you lovely heavy music fiends out there. All you crazies who had the time and energy to send us their list of favorite albums. We thank you once again, cause without you all this could not be possible. And it is the reason Stoner HiVe started; all the way back in 2009…

But before we enter 2026; before we know the Number 1 album according to you all, let’s state a few things about 2025 and list all the albums that have been featured on the Top 20 Countdown of 2025 so far. 22 of all those absolutely amazing albums that were produced this year, made it to the Top 20 Countdown of 2025. But the total list contains so much more! No less than 572 in fact! We shall publish the Numbers 21 to 100 soon enough. Personal lists of the Stoner HiVe Team will also go up next week. And this year, 3 albums received theThe Red Lantarn. 3 albums, received one vote and on the 20th position of someone’s list. So, The Red Lantarn post will follow shortly as well, cause you know, it might just be your new favorite album! And to be honest, for most of you, they already are, cause damn, these three are amazing...

And now, before we start to tear up, profess out love for all that amazing music, from this year, yesteryear and the future once again, let’s run through the Countdown one last time and prepare for fireworks! Soon, after most of the world has crossed over into 2026, we will know, what the Number 1 album is according to all you voters out there! Thank you all! Best of wishes for 2026 may it bring you all you need, and let’s try and make it the best year ever for as many people as we can! Let’s make it loud, heavy and amazing! Happy New Year!

 1. … 

2. Kal-El - Astral Voyager Vol.1

3. Messa - The Spin

4. Temple Fang - Lifted From The Wind

5. Kryptograf - Kryptonomicon

6. Khan - That Fair and Warlike Form // Return To Dust

7. Dunes - Land of The Blind

8. Stoned Jesus - Songs to Sun

9. Castle Rat - The Bestiary

10. Godzillionaire - Diminishing Returns

11. Borracho - Ouroboros

12. Giöbia - X-Aeon & Komatsu - A Breakfast For Champions

13. Year of The Cobra - Year of The Cobra

14. Warcoe - Upon Tall Thrones

15. Brimstone Coven - The Light Shines Not For Thee

16. Paralyzed - Rumble & Roar

17. Goya - In The Dawn of November

18. Naxatras - V

19. Insomniac - Om Moksha Ritam

20. Kaiser - 2nd Sound & Conan Violence Dimension

 

Number 2

 

 

Number 2

Almost fifteen hundred points! Another huge jump to reach the Number 2 album of 2025 according to all of your votes. It switched places with the one on Number 1 constantly and was on so many lists, it is surely a favorite album for everyone across the globe. Released in May through Blues Funeral Recordings and Majestic Mountain Records, it sky-rocketed to the Number 1 spot on that months’ Doom Charts. And with the promise of a Volume 2 following this album, (March 20th to be exact!) the anticipation for this band’s abilities has only grown to immense proportions. Stoner metal mixed with minor doom touches and space elements. Incredibly fuzzy and even opting for some more progressive touches here and there. It’s the quintet doing their own brilliant thing! They have a certain ring to their sound, a cold spark and an icy glimmer. It’s always been there, but this time around, it’s what makes the entire album hum and sing. The energy seems to vibrate at a perfect pitch. And it gives their metallic edge that extra bit of shine. Delivering constantly in big riffs and soaring payoffs. The vocals are pristine and add that extra bit of shiver. The band has delivered many great albums in the span of their career, starting ten years ago with Ecosphere and Dark Majesty from 2021 making it to the Number 11 position of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2021 according to all of your votes. But this new one, is on a different level. Topping up on everything you have come to love about the band. The record takes you on a celestial drive and beyond the event horizon, eternity awaits…

On Number 2 we find: 

KAL-EL - ASTRAL VOYAGER VOL. 1

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Majestic Mountain Records

Kal-El – Astral Voyager Vol.1

Number 11 on the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2021

Number 3

 

 

Number 3

And now, with almost a hundred points, we climb from Temple Fang at Number 4 into the Top 3 of this years Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown. An album, out on Metal Blade Records, which we wrote about on Stoner HiVe back in April when it was released and concluded with: “Grandiose in gestures and offering up an entire night sky filled with shooting stars, the album is the velvet blanket keeping you warm. Scarlet in color and doom to the touch…” And yes, the journey begins in familiar shadows, doom, heavy, slow burning and bursting with atmosphere. And then quickly develops, unfolds into something broader and even more confident then before. Dark melodies rise where pure weight once dominated, gothic rock textures from another era seep and drip naturally into their scarlet-hued world. Immaculate production and a sense of direction and purpose, give off the scent of unwavering intention. Imploring some more postpunk oriented movement and weaving their haunting atmospherics in almost drone like tapestries, the new seven track, 42 minute long album displays as much of the artistry as it does of their ability to cross genres. Spinning yarns of classic metal riffs through eighties touched songs or letting the vocalist haunt and chill, while always giving her the room to go into whatever territory she wants to go. Captivate, enchant or wrap you around her fingers with her almost jazzy stylistics whenever the music quiets down and waits for the overture to commence, as it does during that beautiful Immolation song. Or The Dress, which will quiet your soul as you listen, enthralled with all that goes on. A shooting star, leaving the heavy underground and soaring through the cosmos… 

On Number 3 we find: 

MESSA - THE SPIN

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Metal Blade Records

Messa – The Spin

Number 5 on The Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2022

Number 13 on The Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2018

Number 4

 

 

Number 4

To reach Number 4 we jump almost, hold on to something, two thousand points! That’s right, we land on the spot that holds my personal favorite album of the year. Released back in April on Stickman Records this is the album that inhabits that ‘free rock’ spirit and can clearly be viewed as rock for the ‘free spirit’. We had to add a few words ourselves when they landed the Number 1 spot on the April Doom Charts: “A live experience by this band is always a singular event. Adventurous, emotional and spiritual. It heals the soul and mends the heart. That is probably why they’ve already released quite a few of their concerts on vinyl. On their new studio album, with a new drummer in their midst they’ve managed to capture more of their live energy and serve it up as the perfect example of how to catch lightning in a bottle. Or perhaps more like fireflies, circling inside the jar before being released into the cosmos to perform that wonderful free rock dance. For that is what the band is about, release and freedom. And their psychedelic free rock searches its own way and knows, without any resistance, to find its way into your heart. With a magical feeling for subtleties and control, they manage to keep you enthralled for an hour and fifteen minutes long. Letting themselves be guided even more by the whims of the great magnet and lettings their egos disappear with every note. Just listen to that beautiful Josephine, that slow meandering start, the lyrics uttered by one of the three vocalists until the moment that his love is being sucked away by a storm. The way the whirling guitar lines ascend, not dark, but almost heavenly. You feel the pain, but also a form of serene understanding, which radiates and sounds so beautiful. Calmness and tranquility descends, like a faint summer breeze as you stroll through a flowery meadow, somewhere high in the mountains…”

On Number 4 we find: 

 

TEMPLE FANG - LIFTED FROM THE WIND

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Temple Fang – Lifted From The Wind 

Temple Fang – The Radiant

Temple Fang – The River

 

Number 5

 

 

Number 5

A bit less than two hundred points to reach Number 5. By a band we saw live at the marvelous Sonic Whip Festival in Nijmegen 2022, where they played their first show outside of their native country. And yes, they've made the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown before, both of their earlier albums in fact. So, yes, Number 5, where we find an album released in March through Apollon Records. An album upon which the Bergen based room rockers chart a course like a secret ledger passed between generations. Part sea log. Part cipher. All beautiful. It begins under clear skies but quickly devolves into encrypted chaos, as riffs crash like convoy waves and melodies unfold with code breaking precision. It draws a bit from proto metal, a lot from seventies hardrock and progressive structures. And with that, the bands builds dense musical systems, where nothing is accidental and every motif pays off. Weathered by time, experience and pressure, the album feels organic and only gradually reveals the darker truths beneath the surface. As the voyage presses on, doom and despair seep through, but more importantly, so does mastery. The album is seasoned, intelligent and relentless, steering their sound beyond nostalgia and retro, towards something enduring and even monumental. And then there’s that hint of danger, something lurking beneath the waves, there’s always a tangible feel of excitement. They simply know that the exciting thing about riffs is that’s it’s a language that can be used to talk to humans… 

 

 

On Number 5 we find: 

 

KRYPTOGRAF – KRYPTONOMICON

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Apollon Records

Kryptograf – Kryptonomicon

Number 17 on the Stoner HiVe Top 20 of 2022

Number 5 on the Stoner HiVe Top 20 of 2020 

Number 6

 

 

Number 6

We mentioned it before the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2025 started and mentioned it again when we talked about Number 7. But today, we jump more than 700 points to reach Number 6! 700 points! That’s a lot! A personal favorite of mine that will surely end up in the Top 3 of my personal list. A band that also made the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown  of 2023 with their album from that year. Released through Full Contact Safari Records in October we jotted down some words about this album at the moment of release. The Melbourne, Australia three outdid themselves delivering a string with which to pull the curtain away and have all onlookers be amazing by the world being revealed. Across two vast, immersive pieces, the trio bend time, letting guitars swell like tides, synths haunt the horizon, and rhythms pulse with ancient weight. This is heavy music that breathes, meditative, cinematic, and deeply physical, moving from sparse, desolate calm to towering eruptions of post-metal force. Solemn, guiding vocals cut through the expanse, leading the listener with purpose rather than excess. Nothing here rushes or unravels; every layer is deliberate. Cosmic yet grounded, ferocious yet serene, the album feels unearthed rather than written, a landscape to inhabit, to return to… and slowly absorb… until everything around you has returned to dust… 

On Number 6 we find: 

KHAN - THAT FAIR AND WARLIKE FORM // RETURN TO DUST

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Khan - That Fair and Warlike Form // Return to Dust

 Khan's Creatures on the Stoner HiVe Top Countdown of 2023

Number 7

 

 

Number 7

We need a bit more than thirty points to get to Number 7 today. But after this spot, the jumps in points get much bigger. Huge in fact. Also huge is the amount of great releases by Ripple Music, we already mentioned that fact, but yes, the album we find on Number 7 was once again a Ripple release. Insane! And it was one of the first of the year and perhaps logically landed on the Number 1 spot of the January Doom Charts. They hail from the UK and channel that spirit you know so well from the nineties alternative scene and the grunge that was prevalent. And they sort it all out through a heavy, fuzz drenched, stoner lens. Turning it into a feral, atavistic and groove ridden stonerrock beauty. Quintessential stonerrock in fact! Packed with chunky live-wired riffs, cool clean vocals and moody psychedelics atmospheres, the album feels raw, authentic and irresistibly catchy. They balance smoke soaked heaviness with fluid hooks and bluesy melody. It's familiar yet fresh, comforting yet ferocious. A gust of wind through the stoner rock hallways, a healing, a hypnotic trip that feels instantly like home… A refuge for the beautifully damaged… 

 

On Number 7 we find:

 

DUNES – LAND OF THE BLIND

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Number 8

 

 

Number 8

An almost sixty point jump takes us to Number 8. Where we find a band that made the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown with their 2018 album. A band we love dearly ever since seeing them for the first time in a now defunct bar in Eindhoven, Netherlands with Belzebong and Mars Red Sky on the same bill. A band but we never really talked about on the HiVe because it was already such a big name in our little scene and we tend to mention the starting bands more. But we did this time, mentioned the album late August, cause sometimes praise has to be sung. Out on Season of Mist, since September, the album is the opening salvo for a trilogy to come. And it feels like a turning point, shaped by upheaval, renewal, and forward momentum after the album that came before. The record is open and expansive, glowing with hope tempered by sorrow. Certain tracks ascend with quiet beauty, while others deliver crushing grooves and there is always those sharp contrasts of light and dark. The closing epic track sinks deepest, offering bleak catharsis. Progressive, heavy, and emotionally resonant, this album defines the ever evolving identity of the band. And promises a lot for the other two albums to follow shortly... 

On Number 8 we find: 




STONED JESUS - SONGS TO SUN

 

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Season of Mist

Stoned Jesus – Songs To Sun

Number 18 on the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2018

 

 

Number 9

 

Number 9

On this first of the single digits and almost fifty points above Godzillionaire on Number 10, we arrive at an album that was released in September. Another album released by Blues Funeral Recordings, but this time in conjunction with King Volume Records and one that is able to create its entire own universe. A fantastic realm that implores medieval, mythical and operatic influences to shape their compendium of heavy metal. Barely a turning of the Earth after we were invited into the realms, the banners are raised once more. From their Brooklyn keep, the four return, bearing a weighty tome of steel and sorcery. Enter, and you’ll find not mere pageantry of cloaks and unicorn sigils, but true craft: riffs forged like broadswords, drums that thunder as siege engines, and a voice, by turns angelic and infernal, issuing proclamations fit for any great hall. The shock of discovery has passed, yet the magic endures. This chapter leans more toward galloping heavy metal than creeping doom, its songs roaming far and wide through mythic lands. But there are epic ballads of wonder and passages which flirt with operatic grandeur, as if monks and metalheads alike were chanting the same prophecy. What seems at first a playful masquerade reveals itself as living legend. No longer cosplaying actors, they are becoming real heroes… Fast… 

On Number 9 we find: 

 

CASTLE RAT - THE BESTIARY

 

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King Volume Records

Stoner HiVe on Castle Rat – The Bestiary

 

Number 10

 

 

Number 10

As we enter the Top 10, we have also arrived at the realization that so far a lot of your choices have been released by either Heavy Psych Sounds, Blues Funeral Recordings or and even more by Ripple Music. And guess what. The Number 10 album was released by Ripple Music as well and all the way back in January! And across many reviews it has been accurately described as the bands most eclectic release to date. It builds on everything the fans already loved, while confidently pushing forward into new territories. Stoner rock, grunge, alternative grit and flashes of metal colliding without ever spinning out of control. Razor tight performances and fearless songwriting. With a vocalist clearly reinvigorated delivering lyrics that are raw, reflective and sharply human. His voice shifting smoothly between restraint and eruption. A record that does not simply hit you hard, it stick with you, like a scar you forgot about until you brush against it and immediately remember exactly what you did and how you got it. Emotional weight throughout, but still catchy and always unflinchingly honest. Nobody ever claimed you had to arrive at the finish line unscathed.. 

On Number 10 we find: 

GODZILLIONAIRE – DIMINISHING RETURNS

 

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Number 11

 

 

Number 11
 

Crazy Number 11 sits only ten points above Number 12… All those numbers, all those digits, it might cause you to see circles, lose sight, go round and round, like a snake biting its own tail! Released in August by Ripple Music its another Number 1 album on the Doom Charts. So for this one we summon the alembic and we light the furnace, for the new record is pure transmutation. Nearly two decades of searching has brought these riff alchemists the gold drenched stoner rock they have been searching for. This is their sixth and it is proof the circle of heavy rock remains unbroken. Less sermon, more mirror, these songs manage to offer for judgement, the leaden flaws of modern life and then go forth to melt them down with towering riffs and crushing weight. Punchy anthems formed from stoner ore and polished doom, give you seven tracks, perfectly balanced, endlessly repeatable. It’s an album by a band that never seems to age, but only seems to refine, shedding impurities and growing stronger with every passing cycle…  

On Number 11 we find: 

BORRACHO - OUROBOROS

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Ripple Music

 

Number 12

 

Number 12

 

Seventy points above Number 13 we arrive on a spot occupied by two albums! That’s right, the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2025 contains 22 albums. Damn! Did I just give away the fact that after this placing there are no spots occupied by more than one album? I guess so… Sometimes it’s good to share right? And we hope these two bands will think as well. For they also share the same label: Heavy Psych Sounds. One was released in October and the other already in April. 

Let’s write a few words about the Italian quartet first. For the psych-space explorers have returned with a bold new chapter in a career defined by constant evolution. Building on some two decades of sonic exploration, from garage psych, to heave space rock and cosmic stoner, the new album blends hypnotic rhythms, swirling synths and expansive guitarwork into a retro futuristic soundscape that could help you imagine some weird new steampunk adventure. Time, infinity and human frailty are themes that unfold across eight powerful tracks. Turning it into a sci-fi journey completely and utterly timeless. 

The other album we find on Number 12 definitely set the table early when it comes to sludge rock and stoner metal. That’s right, the now stripped down trio, kick down the kitchendoor with their fifth full length and don’t even think about closing it behind them. It grooves, pulsates and swings like a caffeinated wrecking ball! Powerful by default, psychedelic stoner sway colliding with sludge-fueled force and razor-edged heavy metal riffs. No filler, all protein! Don’t worry, the bulldozing foundation is still there, but it is fully alive, breathing and snarling. Louder, leaner, this is a band full throttle and devouring all in its way. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, guests and all! 

 

On Number 12 we find: 

 

GIÖBIA - X-ÆON

&

KOMATSU - A BREAKFAST FOR CHAMPIONS

 

 

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Heavy Psych Sounds

 

 

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Heavy Psych Sounds

Stoner HiVe’s - Komatsu – Breakfast is served…

Review for A Breakfast For Champions

Review for Rose Of Jericho

Review for New Horizon 

Recipe For Murder One, Number 19 on the Stoner HiVe Top 20 of 2016

Review for So How's About Billy

Review for Manu Armata

Review for Komatsu

Number 13

 

 

Number 13

A bit more than thirty points takes us from Warcoe on Number 14 to lucky Number 13. Released in February through the German Prophecy Productions label, it brings a close to a six year long smoke choked wait we all had to endure. For yes, the Seattle duo comes roaring back with a self-titled album that will knock you out of your socks and hits you over the head like a rhythmic ritual performed at full volume. Powered by some colossal bass work and hypnotic no-fear vocals which are locked in mortal combat with feral bone-rattling drums, this is the doom and this is the stoner, stripped of excess and pumped completely full of high powered adrenaline. Guitars, we don’t need them, we don’t miss them, as psychedelic sludge, grunge grit, hard rock swagger and shoegaze haze coil together into something all encompassing. Grooves crawl, scramble, creep, lurch and then crush, dragging you in, under, swallowing you whole before spitting you out… Smiling… Captured with cinematic weight, this is heavy music that bites… Sharp teeth, radiant soul and zero compromise gives you a record that demands to be played loud, extremely loud, until you feel it vibrating in your chest… 

On Number 13 we find: 

YEAR OF THE COBRA - YEAR OF THE COBRA

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Prophecy Productions

Number 12 on the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2019

 

 

Number 14

 

 

Number 14

A fifteen point jump takes us to Number 14. Where we find an album that was released by Ripple Music and Morbid and Miserable Records back in September. The Italian trio is on their third full-sized album and have made another amazing step forward in both songwriting and production. They are kicking down the temple doors and lighting the altar on fire! This is doom metal fully awake, Sabbath blooded riffs, proto metal swagger, a finger licking stoner groove and occult grime swirling into something dangerous and wicked. The songs hit harder, move smarter and seem to ooze with some deliciously strange details. Take that garage rock filth here or the psychedelic haze there and even that touch of dungeon-synth shadows. Vocals arrive like a half mad cult sermon, pulling you deeper into the ritual with no place left to run. Darker, louder and sharper! It’s the sound of a band possessed, confident and merciless. They are becoming the regal doom masters that are worthy to sit upon all of them thrones… 

On Number 14 we find: 

WARCOE - UPON TALL THRONES

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Morbid and Miserable Records

Stoner HiVe on Upon Tall Thrones

Stoner HiVe on A Place For Demons

Stoner HiVe on A Place For Demons single

Stoner HiVe on The Giant’s Dream

 

Number 15

 

Number 15

It’s time to move another twenty points from Paralyzed at Number 16 to reach the Number 15 album on this years Top 20 Countdown! An album, we must confess we did not listen to all that much since it was released in October. But luckily the fact it is now here on Number 15 remedied that fact. Votes trickled in throughout the voting period, but during the final night, it suddenly soared. And rightfully so, for they have returned in flawless form with their new self-released album. A bass-heavy occult doom blues triumph if ever there was one. Smooth yet powerful grooves, haunting vocal harmonies, and precision-crafted riffs reward every listen. Hooks across the board. Catchy, subtle, and devastatingly heavy, it’s a top level release packed with standout tracks and undeniable legacy power. And you know it’s gonna be this good from that first eerie tick tock tick tock… 

On Number 15 we find: 

BRIMSTONE COVEN - THE LIGHT SHINES NOT FOR THEE 

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Kozmik Artifactz

Number 16

 

 

Number 16

Their 2022 album ended up on Number 12 of that years Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown. And it’s great to see them enter the Countdown once again. With 30 points more than Goya, the Germany quartet deliver another selection of heavy rocking, seventies inspired, blues based, psych rockers. This time around perhaps not the diesel blues variant, but more the desert inspired blues, surging through every composition that still vibrates at the perfect vintage pitch. And yes, sometimes or even often, we might assume the vocalist to be the bastard son of Jim Morrison. But the music has drifted more away from The Doors and into heavier territory. And that is never a bad thing! Signed to the majestic Ripple Music label for this album the four turn their heavy blues into true hard rocking power. A lot of groove and boogie that keeps the energy flowing the right way, up until the middle track, serving as the perfect resting point to breathe, admire the guitar work and the scenery created by these blues spirited four. The album is another thunder rocker and at those moments when the organ is allowed to flourish, punctuate and penetrate, it all becomes irresistible!

On Number 16 we find:

 

PARALYZED - RUMBLE & ROAR

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Stoner HiVe on Rumble & Roar

Stoner HiVe on Heavy Road

Number 12 on the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2022

 

Number 17

 

 

Number 17

And now we climb just over 20 points from Naxatras at Number 18 to reach this wild doom album. We had personally wanted to write a few words about this record at the end of October. For obvious reasons. Even though it was released in June. But due to situations beyond my control that never materialized. You all voting for this record gives me the opportunity to remedy that a little bit. An album that definitely hit hard emotionally upon first listening and then slowly opened up to show how meticulous and wonderful the music was crafted after having it on repeat. A wild and monolithic slab of doom forged from crushing riffs, fuzz-soaked guitars, and haunting psychedelic atmospheres. Six sprawling, low-tuned epics that ooze despair while remaining hypnotically accessible. Recorded in Seattle with legendary producer Jack Endino, the album’s colossal tones and immersive production amplify its graveyard grooves and bleak meditations on mortality. Heavy, melodic, and relentlessly punishing, the album released in June on Blues Funeral Recordings marks the band’s towering resurgence. Heavy on all fronts, this is music for staring into the void... And realize that once this album hits, the void will be staring back at you and wink at ya... 

On Number 17 we find:

GOYA - IN THE DAWN OF NOVEMBER

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Blues Funeral Recordings

Number 18

 

 

Number 18

It’s a forty point jump to reach Number 18. Released in February through their own Evening Star Records this is their fifth full-sized album and one that stands tall as the epitome of heavy underground fusion. Almost logically it ended up on the Number 1 spot of the Doom Charts of that month, where we wrote: Space and Progressive rock have always been the sisters that could dervish and whirl in beautiful circles around each other. Combined with more jazzy and fusion tones; elements borrowed from many world music scenes and everything psychedelic, turns their fifth album into grandiose 1001 nights fairytale proportions. Like a quicksilver river the compositions flow through your veins and warm up your blood. Vivid images and sceneries come to life, bloom and blossom as you listen to this album. Visionary might be an understatement here… Indeed, and all of you who voted must have felt something similar, cause the album ended up on Number 18…

On Number 18 we find: 

NAXATRAS - V 

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Evening Star Records

Number 19

 

 

Number 19

 

Just like every year, during the first few days we do two days where we do two spots per day, so we can end the Countdown on January 1st... Yesterday, late afternoon we learned that Conan and Kaiser occupied the Number 20 position of this years Top 20 Countdown. This morning we jump almost two hundred points to reach Number 19. Indeed, quite a big jump in points, after which the jumps get smaller for quite a few spots. It’s with much admiration that we present to you this record, released in September on Blues Funeral Recordings. An album full of honor, mourning and devotion… The album drifts between worlds. Swirling, weighty guitars and incantatory vocals conjure meditative metal, shoegaze, doom, and psych entwined. A vessel for spirit and loss, hypnotic, worldly, unignorable. Enter this heavy rock mantra and let the ritual unfold within… 

On Number 19 we find: 

INSOMNIAC - OM MOKSHA RITAM

 

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Blues Funeral Recordings

Number 20

 

Number 20

There were only a few moments in the past weeks that two albums occupied the same spot. During the final hours, this happened again. And yes, on Number 20 we find two albums! Both of them released during the first months of 2025. Both of them got reviewed on Stoner HiVe and we wrote something that hopefully enticed you to listen to these albums. To this ferocious fuzz-soaked journey. Bursting with Kyuss-worthy stoner grit, metallic muscle, and stunning musicianship, this addictive album only grows deeper with repeat listens. Loud, dynamic, and irresistibly heavy! For the other album we jotted down some thoughts that could guide you along this brutal descent into doom, sludge, and pure sonic warfare. Burning riffs, pulverizing drums, and desperate fury collide across eight devastating tracks. From crushing epics to punked-out assaults, this is a band at their most colossal and merciless! With some forty points above the Number 21 we find two bands… 

 

According to all the votes that came in… 

On Number 20 we find: 

KAISER - 2ND SOUND  

&

CONAN - VIOLENCE DIMENSION 

 

 

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Majestic Mountain Records

Stoner HiVe on Otu – Fuzzy Tunes 

Stoner HiVe on 2nd Sound 

 

 

 

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Heavy Psych Sounds 

 Stoner HiVe on Violence Dimension