Angry Metal GuyWe made it! It’s the end of yet another year, and we’ve reached the final Record(s) o’ the Month for 2025. Over the last 12 months, we’ve laughed, cried, burned posers and poorly performing n00bs at the stake, and we’ve all grown as people (except the aforementioned victims of fiery doom). What better way to set the stage for the looming Listurnial celebration than to look back at the best things that hit the ears in November. That was rhetorical. There is NO better way. Onward!
It shouldn’t be a big surprise that 1914 nets the top spot for the month, since Viribus Unitis [November 14th, 2025 by Napalm Records – buy it at Bandcamp!] was another stunning testament to the talent of this Ukrainian ensemble. It seems grimly appropriate to learn about the horrors of modern warfare from those forced to live through it in the present day. As with prior releases, Viribus Unitis is steeped in dark, melancholic atmospheres as tales of battlefield brutality and inhumanity spill over the speakers. It’s a masterful merger of black, death, and doom metal in service of emotional devastation that will transport you to a muddy, blood-soaked trench and fill your soul with existential dread. As a sobered Grin Reaper solemly summed up, “Viribus Unitis is a masterclass in no-bullshit metal storytelling that feels authentic, intimate, and anthemic for the entire runtime.” War is still Hell.
Runner(s) Up:
Qrixkuor // The Womb of the World [November 7th, 2025 | Invictus Productions | Bandcamp] — Symphonic death metal can be a sticky biscuit, and balancing the brutality with the bombast takes a steady hand. For The Womb of the World, Qrixkuor brought in an actual orchestra to lay down the symphonies of destruction that undergird the cavernous death metal that’s become the band’s gruesome calling card. Abrasive riffs come in bunches, horrific sounds are forced upon you, and discordance is the watchword. It’s a lot to process and absorb, but it’s very impressive. The Spongefren was all over the AMG Slack channels the last few weeks preaching the merits of this thing, and we couldn’t get him to shut up about it. As he gushed in his extremely gushy review, “Their sound and style won’t find fans in every corner. In fact, I’d go so far as to say The Womb of the World is liable to weed out prudish listeners more harshly than Poison Palinopsia already had. But it is an unqualified success all the same, a mastapeece for those to whom sanity is immaterial.” Symphomania!
Oromet // The Sinking Isle [November 7th, 2025 | Hypaethral Records | Bandcamp] — Oromet came back with a vengeance on The Sinking Isle, delivering 3 long-form doses of funeral doom heavy enough to crack a tectonic plate. Opening with a 20-minute track takes Christmas ornaments of brass, but Oromet shows you how doom is done with crushing lows contrasted against dizzying highs. It’s the rare funeral doom album that won’t have you glancing at the clock, and that’s a symptom of success. Despair and hope, violence and tranquility, you get it all for the price of one album. As a stunned Beglassesed Man of Steel exhorted, “As monumental as Oromet’s debut was, this one is a step forward thematically and musically. It reinvents what funeral doom can be—not just a crushing sense of sorrow, but a genre that can raise your spirits as well.” Go down with this ship.
#1914 #2025 #Oromet #Qrixkuor #RecordSOTheMonth #TheSinkingIsle #TheWombOfTheWorld #ViribusUnitis
🤘 The Metal Dog 🤘
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