October 2025 Best Heavy Metal Albums

Here are our picks for October 2025’s best heavy metal albums…

1. Coroner – Dissonance Theory (Century Media)

Legendary Swiss thrashers Coroner’s sixth album is Dissonance Theory, their first since 1992. Known for their technical approach to the genre from the late ‘80s to the early ‘90s, their traditional thrash structures are fully intact. That has made them a band that has historically been compared to Voivod and Artillery among others for their unique, musically tight and near progressive song writing style. After an intro track, the listener is treated to “Consequence” with fat bass and the classic vocals of Ron Royce while Tommy Baron’s guitar lines, especially on the solo here become otherworldly.

”Symmetry” feels more on par as a combination of styles from albums Punishment For Decadence and Mental Vortex, properly marrying the more traditional thrash with something more complex but not settling for anything more than a balance. To keep you intrigued, another later track “Transparent Eye” feels more progressive with ample room for new drummer Diego Rapacchietti to run wild. Dissonance Theory is a welcome return for a legendary thrash band that is still clearly a cut above some of their contemporaries. It’s our pick for October 2025’s best heavy metal album.

2. Hooded Menace – Lachrymose Monuments Of Obscuration (Season of Mist)

As Lachrymose Monuments Of Obscuration’s intro settles in, it builds an ambience of gloom and doom and it becomes apparent that Hooded Menace are primed for spooky season. Their seventh full length continues from the critical highs of their previous album, 2021’s The Tritonus Bell. Considering the death doom style the band is known for, melodies have begun to creep into the music with each successive release, with the first proper track “Pale Masquerade” having that front and center.

The slow funeral march of “Daughters Of Lingering Pain” gives the band ample room to stretch out. Pained vocals are juxtaposed with some of the beauty that would make even the most ardent fan of funeral doom blush. Compare that song with “Lugubrious Dance,” which has a speedier tempo, but maximum riffs being more in line with doom laced heavy metal than being the expected, slow crawl. Hooded Menace continue to flex their collective muscles on Lachrymose Monuments Of Obscuration, forging a path forward in a genre not often concerned with innovation.

3. Primitive Man – Observance (Relapse)

Primitive Man‘s latest album, Observance, is another exploration into their signature world of sonic heaviness. While described as their “positive” record, this is a relative term; the album trades sheer aggression for a more atmospheric, experimental form of dread, creating a slow-burning and unsettling nightmare.

The production is characteristically clear, magnifying the oppressive instrumentation and deranged vocals. It remains an intense endurance test due to its length and unrelenting darkness. While it may not surpass their foundational classics, the band earns respect for genuinely pushing their sound forward, offering a new flavor of misery for their dedicated listeners.

4. Battle Beast – Steelbound (Nuclear Blast)

After issuing a live album earlier this year, the Finnish heavy/power metal band Battle Beast are ready to unleash their seventh album Steelbound. They’ll try to make it their fifth consecutive studio album to top the Finnish album chart.

This time around they’ve written an especially catchy collection of songs. There are traditional/power metal numbers like “Burning Within” and “Last Goodbye” alongside poppier songs like the title track and “Angel Of Midnight.” No matter whether it’s aggressive or accessible, Noora Louhimo’s versatile vocals are on point with power and passion. The ten songs fly by, with little filler (the instrumental “The Long Road” leading into the epic symphonic folk track “Blood Of Heroes” is the exception, but it’s only two minutes long), making Steelbound one of Battle Beast’s most well-rounded and memorable albums.

5. Evoken – Mendacium (Profound Lore)

Mendacium is New Jersey’s preeminent funeral doom destroyers Evoken‘s first album since 2018’s Hypnagogia, and their seventh overall. Right away their oppressively heavy opener “Matins” is casket dragging doom with frightening death metal vocals mixed in between. The genre is often seen in complete darkness, yet this song’s closure sheds a pale light of hope, allowing for some beauty to be thrown into the sonic suffering of the first 10 minutes of the album.

“Terce” is another plodding procession that envelops the listener, the kind of all encompassing dirge that properly showcases this band’s place in the genre in the present day, even though they have been around since its nascency. After over 30 years of heaviness, Evoken are still not satisfied with their band’s legacy, continuing to outdo themselves even this far along into their career. Mendacium is a masterclass in balancing music extremes, blurring the lines between doom, decimation and delicacy.

6. Bastard Cröss – Crossripper (Morbid And Miserable)

Bastard Cröss’ blackened thrash metal has plenty of hooks throughout their debut album, Crossripper. It’s almost like finding an endangered species in the wild to get a band capable of that, not to mention one in a genre known for its aversion to doing so. The vocals are traded between guitarists Blasphemous Axe and Heathen Chevalier (yes, all the members have pseudonyms like this, and yes, it is goofy in the best way).

“Demons At Midnight” glams up their black/thrash with a glitzy stomp. “Behead The Priest” is a blasphemous treat, closing Crossripper out with two different extremes: a swift eruption followed by an extended outro of acoustic guitars and female vocals. The fact that Bastard Cröss can make both work shows they are above being just pugnacious instigators.