Joop Konraad – Personal Top 20 of 2025

 

Joop Konraad – Personal Top 20 of 2025

Happy New Year once more! I can still say that right? May 2026 bring you all you need and let’s hope it might bring as much goodness as possible for everyone on planet Earth. Keep hope, do good for everyone around you and things have to slowly become better. But before we drift off into something unrelated to our loving embrace of the heavy rock niche, I thank all the bands again for delivering all those amazing albums and offering momentary relax, respite and way of escape. If only for a few songs, a few riffs and melodies. It is sorely needed. I need it. And I think a lot of you do as well… Below you can feast your ears on my Personal Top 20 albums of 2025!

As with everyone else I guess, my Personal Top 20 for 2025 keeps changing. It evolves, it morphs, it grows. Cause every day I discover another amazing album released in 2025. Every day! Ever since Stoner HiVe started in 2009 the amount of great releases in our little Heavy Underground niche is mind boggling. And every year the amount seems to be growing. So, I present to you my current Top 20. O' and all the albums I also thoroughly loved this year in a massive list of some 150 albums in alphabetical order. They all deserve to be heard in my opinion... And yes, I am sure, dead sure, I'm forgetting to mention a few! As well as that I'm sure of the fact I will be discovering more amazing albums from 2025 in the weeks to come... Hey, and make sure you visit all those other Personal Lists in the Heavy Underground. You will be treated to some grade A record suggestions! And let’s hope we are treated to as many great albums in 2026 as well… Here's to all us! 

1.     Temple Fang – Lifted From The Wind

2.      Khan – That Fair and Warlike Form // Return to Dust

3.      Bask – The Turning

4.      Birds of Nazca – Pangaea

5.      Florence + The Machine – Everybody Scream

6.      Florist – Adrift

7.      Lacertilia – Transcend

8.      Aceves – Magnum Dopus

9.      Komatsu – A Breakfast For Champions

10.  Lorquin’s Admiral – Lorquin’sAdmiral

11.  The Elven – Solstice

12.  Muffasonic – Brotheranza

13.  You Guitarprayer – I Am The Light / The Light I Am

14.  The Dukes of Hades - Oracle of theDead

15.  Howling Giant – Crucible & Ruin

16.  Kal-El – Astral Voyager Vol.1

17.  Kryptograf – Kryptonomicon

18.  Dunes – Land of The Blind

19.  Stoned Jesus – Songs to Sun

20.  Goya – In The Dawn of November

 

In alphabetical order... All worthy of your time and energy... 

 

1968 – Royal Bastards

Aawks – On Through The Sky Maze

Abanamat – Abominat

Acid Magus – Scatterling Empire

Acidsitter - Escape From Egoland 

Afghan Haze – Sermons Of Filth And Disgust

Ambra – Remnant

Anna Von Hausswolf – Iconoclasts

An Evening With Knives – End Of Time

Apex Ten - Atom

Appalooza – The Emperor Of Loss

Årabrot - Rite Of Dionysus

Astralplane – Out Of The Void

Bank Myna – Eimuria

Beach Cruiser – Thunderbird

Beastwars – The Ship / The Sea

Beaten By Hippies – Sidetracked In El Paso

Bentrees – Silver Veins

Black Charger – Small Town

Black Magic Tree - Terra

Black Moon Cult – Ophidian Future (The Children Of Yig)

Black Tongue Reverend – Upstate Of Mind 

Bloodwood - Dark Simulator 

Blue Heron - Emulations 

Bob Mould - Here We Go Crazy 

Bone Church - Deliverance 

Borracho – Ouroboros

Brimstone Coven – The Light Shines Not For Thee 

Bush - I Beat Loneliness 

Carbon Decoy - Crush The Sun 

Carson - When Gods Know Why

Castle Rat – The Bestiary

Cleaning Women - Washer

Clouds Taste Satanic – Birmingham 2024

Codex Serafini - Mother, Give Your Children Sanity

Coltaine – Brandung

Conan – Violence Dimension

Cozmic George - Cozmic George

Crystal Spiders – Metanoia

Da Beumb Project – Closer, Warmer

Daevar – Sub Rosa

Daytripper – The Alchemist

Dead Otter – The Sentinel

Dead Shrine – Cydonia Mensa

Deafheaven – Lonely People With Power

Del-Toros – Stainless

Ditch – The Traveler

Doomherre – Plaguelords

Dozer - Rewind to Return 

Drink The Sea - Drink The Sea I 

Dune Aurora – Ice Age Desert

Duskhead - The Messenger 

Earthbong – Bring Your Lungs

Elder – Liminality / Dream State Return

Electric Citizen – Ec4

Elepharmers – Western Wilderness

Ethel Cain – Perverts

Faetooth- Labyrinthine 

Farseer - Portals To Cosmic Womb

Fusskalt – Faceless Man

Fvzz Popvli – Melting Pop

Gain - High Peak, Low Life 

Gaupa – Fyr

Gentle Beast – Vampire Witch Reptilian Super Soldier From Outer Space

Giac Taylor - The Last Sicilian Standing 

Giöbia – X-Aeon

Godzillionaire – Diminishing Returns

Good Spirits – The Green Seer

Grey Czar – Euarthropodia

Grin - Acid Gods

Håndgemeng - Satanic Panic Attack

Heath - Murmurations 

Hebi Katana – Imperfection

Hedonist - Eat Thus

Hibernaut – Obsidian Eye

Hög – Blackhole

Icarus Burns – Icarus Burns

Ikitan – Shaping The Chaos

Insomniac – Om Moksha Ritam

Iron Rat – Beneath It All

Kadavar – Kids Abandoning Destiny Among Vanity And Ruin

Kaiser – 2^nd Sound

King Potenaz - Arcane Desert Rituals Vol.1

Kombynat Robotron – Aank

Lo-Pan – Get Well Soon

Maha Sohona – A Dark Place

Malkasian – Heavy Blues

Mandy Manala - Mandy Manala

Margarita Witch Cult – Strung Out In Hell

Masters Of Reality - The Archer

Matt Berry - Heard Noises 

Messa – The Spin

Minerall – Strömung

Miss Lava – Under A Black Sun

Modder - Destroying Ourselves For A Place In The Sun

Mooch – Kin

Motorhome - Odisea

Motorpsycho – Motorpsycho

Mountain Dust - Mountain Dust 

Mountain Of Misery – Shades Of The Ashes

Museum Of Light - Diviner

Naxatras – V

Nepal Death - Pilgrims And Psychonauts 

Neptunian Maximalism - Le Sacre Du Soleil Invaincu

Ningen Isu - Mahoroba 

NON - Vipassana

One Dimensional Creatures – Tolerance Paradox

Palm Desert – Rays Of The Gold And Greys

Paralyzed – Rumble & Roar

Peacebone – Blame The Bird Ep

Pelican – Flickering Resonance

Phantom Druid – The Edge Of Oblivion

Phantom Spell – Heather & Hearth

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Death Hilarious

Pink Fuzz – Resolution

Plasticdrop – Life, Death And Miracles

Ponddigger - Nocturnal Hymnal

Pothamus – Abur

Psychonaut – World Maker

Rainbows Are Free – Silver And Gold 

Red Eye - III 

Red Fang – Deep Cuts

Red Mess – Hi-Tech Starvation

Rise Of The Wood – Discharge

Seedy Jeezus – Damned To The Depths

Sheev - Ate's Alchemist

Shit The Cow – Killing It

Silver Orbs - Silver Orbs

Skogskult - Skogskult

Slomatics – Atomicult

Spidergawd – From Eight To Infinity

Steinsopp – Goloka Sessions

Stiff Buscemi - Jet-Black Highdooks

Space Witch - Mountians Of Neptune

Sunbreather – Sunbreather

Suncraft – Welcome To The Coven

Supernaughty – Apocalypso

Superseed – Tremor

Technicolor Blood – Evolution Now

TFNRSH - Book Of Circles

Thammuz – III

The Big Rip – Olympus Mons

The Birch – Vicious Mind

The Lunar Effect - Fortune’s Always Hiding

Tier – Backwood Blues

Torpedo Torpedo – Arrows Of Time

Torso - Annihilation Day

Trainer – Oh, Mandy

Triptonus – Terra

Turtle Skull – Being Here

Uranus Space Club - Space Pleasures

Vinnum Sabbathi - Intersatelital EP

Void King - The Hidden Hymnal : Chapter 2

Vvarp – Power Held In Stone

Warcoe – Upon Tall Thrones 

Warlung - The Poison Touch 

Wąż - Monolith

We Kill Cowboys – Back From The Dead

Winds Of Neptune – Winds Of Neptune

Yawning Man – Pavement Ends

Year Of The Cobra – Year Of The Cobra

 

A lot of the albums on the alphabetical list have something written about them, just click on the corresponding 'Label' to the right of the page to find out...