The 25 most anticipated rock and alternative albums for 2025

With the release of Lambrini Girls’ fiery, feisty Who Let The Dogs Out this week, 2025 has scored a first-minute goal on the albums front. And there’s so much more to come. There’s already cocked and loaded stuff from Architects, Spiritbox and Killswitch Engage in the diary, loads of other bands are busy in the studio, while we’ve had the nod of plenty of others sitting on imminent announcements.

And then there’s the increasingly loud chatter from Slipknot about finally putting out their shelved Look Outside Your Window album, recorded during the sessions for 2008’s All Hope Is Gone. Not to mention the persistent rumours – seemingly incubated by the band themselves – of a new My Chemical Romance record.

It’s going to be another loud 12 months. Here’s 25 of the records to watch out for in 2025…

“As usual, we’re just constantly writing. So we’re just trying to get something together that we think is good enough to be a new record. And once we do that, it’ll be all guns blazing,” ADTR frontman Jeremy McKinnon told K! late last year. “I know people are ready for us to do that because they’re telling us all the time. It’s like that meme with the guy poking the horse like, ‘C’mon, do something!’ It’s time...” Sure is. It’s been four years since the Ocala pop-punk-metallers’ last album, You’re Welcome. They dropped the banging single Feedback last year but… come on: album. They’ve got a very big summer lined up, including their headlining slot at Slam Dunk in May, so expect new shouty melodic rumblings to begin sooner rather than later.

Release date: TBC

One of the hottest new bands in Britain, Nottingham’s ALT BLK ERA spent 2024 getting their foundations laid, with a knockout show at Download in June, as well as killer singles My Drummer’s Girlfriend and Straight To Heart racking up over two million streams on Spotify between them. Now, the wait’s almost over for sisters Nyrobi and Chaya Beckett-Messam to release their debut, Rave Immortal, coming in just a couple of weeks on January 24. Their April tour’s already selling fast, so when the album drops, you’ll want to hurry to get one of the remaining tickets.

Release date: January 24

Between massive shows with Metallica, touring round America and topping the bills at Bloodstock and Wacken, Architects found time to get in the studio. In November, the Brighton big-lads announced that their eleventh album, The Sky, The Earth & All Between, would be dropping in late February, and offered the thumping Whiplash as a taster. “Whiplash marks the beginning of a new era for Architects,” explained drummer Dan Searle. “It is a song that speaks of tribalism, of a deepening chasm that lies between human beings based simply on opinions and beliefs. It gave us the opportunity to explore these concepts in a way that we haven't before and for the first time in a while it gave us fuel to write something truly ferocious.” He’s not wrong.

Release date: February 28

Guess what? “A new revelation has been revealed by the Fox God.” Which means, as BABYMETAL wrote when they announced their European tour, set to hit London’s O2 in May, big plans are afoot. “In 2025, BABYMETAL will enter a new era. The METALVERSE will expand and we will travel to a world we have never experienced… Stay tuned.” Indeed, this will be their first voyage with new member MOMOMETAL. Fox-hands at the ready, people.

Release date: TBC

They don’t like giving much away, Bad Omens. After a ‘loading’ screen appeared on their socials in July, in September they shared a load of shots of themselves in the studio, captioned TO SOUNDLESS DARK I STARE. More recent breadcrumbs came in a recent Instagram post from producer/ex-BMTH man Jordan Fish, at Laser Quest with frontman Noah Sebastian. Working together? Possibly. Red herring? Equally possible. Either way, Bad Omens are sitting on one of the most anticipated records of the year. No wonder they’re having fun not giving anything about it away.

Release date: TBC

Bury Tomorrow’s last album, 2023’s The Seventh Sun, saw the Southampton metalcore titans in a period of rebirth and recalibration, following the departure of guitarist/vocalist Jason Cameron. It also saw them reasserting themselves to those who might have started to doubt them. Announcing their wordily-titled eighth album Will You Haunt Me, With That Same Patience at the end of last year, alongside new single What If I Burn, singer Dani Winter-Bates teased that something slightly different could be afoot this time. “The title serves as a call of reflection, relying on the present moment, remembering what truly matters. I think the notion of patience being haunting is quite a contrast and that’s certainly reflective of the album musically.”

Release date: May 16

The first look at the latest chapter in Coheed’s Amory Wars / Vaxis conceptual saga was easily the most aggressive thing the U.S. prog-punks have ever released. The song, Blind Side Sonny, introduced a new villain to their universe, and on their tenth album, The Father Of Make Believe, the ideas aren’t getting any smaller. To wit: you can pre-order it with the new baddie’s helmet and neuro-dynamic display goggles that you can actually wear. Which is very cool.

Release date: March 14

Creeper ended 2024 with a bang, didn’t they, doing a big old double-header gig at Wembley with Black Veil Brides. Whispers are that the Southampton horror-punks are currently hanging upside down in their crypt working on new stuff before they hit the summer festivals. Which seems topsy-turvy to us, when you think about it. Vampires spending the cold, dark winter hibernating while they wait for sunnier weather? Madness.

Release date: TBC

It’s been four years since Deftones’ last album, Ohms. Last summer, guitarist Steph Carpenter revealed that the band had been slowly working in the studio since February, although they had been “dragging our feet”. They did, though, hope to have it announced “next spring, summer”. Which would work very well indeed, since they’ve got a stacked summer coming up, including that big old show at Crystal Palace Park with Weezer and High Vis on June 29.

Release date: TBC

As you will have read on Kerrang! recently, the fifth album from Woking wrecking crew Employed To Serve is imminent. It is, they promise, “more metal”, has a “Scandi sound” from “jamming loads of Soilwork”, and some impressive guests they swore us to secrecy about. Doing all them arenas on tour with Gojira has also got their already sturdy muscle flexing like Schwarzenegger in an arm-wrestling contest. They were already excellent. Now they’ve got ambition strapped to it. Expect greatness.

Release date: TBC

The bleeping out of the tour name when Ghost announced their 2025 round-the-world jaunt in October had plenty of acolytes reckoning that the eventual reveal will be for a new album title. Couple that with mainman Tobias Forge saying all the way back in 2023 that the band were working on new stuff and that he hoped to have it out by the end of 2024, and you have, if not a watertight case, then strong probable cause for a follow-up to Impera dropping this year. They haven’t played live in over a year either, which, even with the release of their Rite Here Rite Now movie last June, only adds to the cauldron of clues.

Release date: TBC

Last September, following their brilliant performance at the Paris Olympics, Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier had an update on the French furies’ next hurdle. “We’re in the middle of [making the new album], and until it’s completed, it’s hard to tell people what it’s gonna be,” he told Loudwire Nights. “And also, I don’t want to. I want people to be surprised. But we’re working. We’re trying to deliver something that is meaningful and impactful. We’re very ambitious in terms of writing songs and the quality of it. And we wanna take a clear step forward and upward with this album.” Previously, his drummer brother Mario had revealed it was going to be “heavier”. Which means double-heavier than anything else getting heavier.

Release date: TBC

Last year, Halestorm revealed that they’d been in the studio in Savannah, Georgia with producer Dave Cobb, knob-twiddler for Rival Sons, Slash and Greta Van Fleet (as well as Lady Gaga, Take That and Zayn Malik). Work and progress, Lzzy Hale said, had been sporadic, but things were moving. And, in the spirit of ‘get your homework done before you can go out and have fun’, the band’s summer shows with Iron Maiden suggest news to come before the clocks go forward…

Release date: TBC

Hot Milk are currently in the studio polishing off vocals for their second album. Although, judging by singer/guitarist Han Mee’s Insta stories, they’d have it done a lot faster if they weren’t interrupting the work day to gas about The Chuckle Brothers. In September, they dropped the single Where Does The Light Get In?, an enormous tune that pointed to an ambitious second act from the Manchester duo. Even more ambitious than before, we mean.

Release date: TBC

Four years since the release of Wallflowers, Jinjer finally return next month with their fifth album, Duél. Obviously there have been some Very Real World factors at play in the long gap there (war in Ukraine, COVID), but the Donetsk metallers have also just been impossibly in-demand everywhere. And, as you’ll have heard on recent singles Someone’s Daughter, Kafka and Rogue, all that touring has got them into the form of their lives.

Release date: February 7

Talking to K! in November to exclusively fanfare the announcement of Killswitch Engage’s ninth album This Consequence, guitarist/producer Adam D and singer Jesse Leach told us that during recording, their singer suffered a crisis of confidence so bad he thought this may be it. Nothing was working, until they finished one track, Broken Glass. “When that song was done and we all sat and listened to it, everybody was like, ‘More of that… be pissed off,’” he told us. “So that shifted gears for me. I thought, ‘If these guys like this, there’s plenty more where that came from!’ So I went dark. I got angry.” A man of many emotions, but we particularly like Jesse when he’s angry.

Release date: February 21

We aren’t ones to call Loathe liars or anything, but at one point they were all, ‘Yeah, the new album’s definitely out in 2024’. And yet here we are. Now, the Scouse crew have been very busy and endlessly doing gigs all over the world and all that, but still: they’re entering Duke Nukem Forever/Chinese Democracy/Austin Powers 4 territory following up their last proper-proper album I Let It In And It Took Everything, which next month celebrates its fifth birthday. Unlike so often with long waits, however, Loathe are definitely not going to be dropping a dud when they finally do give us something new.

Release date: TBC

Having properly called time on the Pain Remains era with the release of a photobook of touring and various other timely shenanigans, rumblings on the grapevine are that Lorna Shore are gearing up to start their next chapter this year. They’ve been coy on the details so far, but either way, it’s not going to be lighthearted stuff, is it?

Release date: TBC

Big, banger year for Machine Head, this. Boom! A fuck-off U.S. tour with In Flames, Lacuna Coil and Unearth. Boom! Coming over here to headline Bloodstock in August. Boom boom boom! Last month they shared a photo of Robb Flynn hard at work in the studio, captioned, “Robb putting the finishing touches on the new album”. We’ve not heard it yet, but looking at how jolly the Oakland crew are in their Christmas photo a couple of posts later, they’re very happy with it, which bodes well.

Release date: TBC

Remember a whole year ago when Nova Twins posted a video of themselves arsing around in the studio and asked, ‘We’ve been cooking 🍜 what’s this new record gonna taste like?’ Yeah. Then there was, like, a stadium tour with Foo Fighters and stuff. Anyway, they’re now being all mysterious and posting pictures of butterflies. Almost as if something’s about to appear after a long time gestating in a chrysalis…

Release date: TBC

Scowl have completed Being The Coolest Hardcore Band On Earth already. After all that, singer Kat Moss promised late last year when they released the first look at their next phase (via Dead Oceans, home of Slowdive and Phoebe Bridgers) that they’re not taking it easy. “It's still Scowl and it's still very us, but I feel like this is us on steroids,” she told Kerrang!, discussing new track Special. “We've cut away a lot of the fat in some regards, and really refined what emotions and what the feeling is that we want to convey.” So, expect even bigger riffs, dancier two-steps, more chorus-y choruses, and to make you realise they’re even more cool and brilliant than you thought.

Release date: TBC

Look, Sleep Token don’t really do intel until they’re ready. They’ve just done their big UK arena tour where they headlined The O2 twice. Their calendar now has Vessel and his mysterious mates putting their feet up until June when they hit Germany’s Rock Im Park and Rock Am Ring, before they headline Download. But, they're also very good at striking while the iron's hot, and the gravity around doing all this activity isn't one they'd be keen to waste. So, yeah. Keep an eye on their socials for cunning clues over the next few months.

Release date: TBC

It’s been four years since Spiritbox released their 5/5-rated Eternal Blue debut. That ends on March 7 when they unleash round two, Tsunami Sea, three weeks after their enormous show at London’s Alexandra Palace on February 13. First single Soft Spine was an absolute belter, but you’d be a fool to have expected otherwise. There’s a reason why the Canadian metallers are up for the Best Metal Performance at next month’s GRAMMY Awards – they’re still one of the most exciting new(ish) bands on the planet. Make 2025 yours, Spiritbox.

Release date: March 7

Static Dress are, we’re told, currently beavering away on the follow-up to their much-loved Rouge Carpet Disaster debut before they head to America in April. Don’t expect a sudden surprise drop next week or anything – word is it’s not even finished yet – but with the wind Olli Appleyard and co. have in their sails at the moment, whatever’s next for the Leeds art-hardcore collective is going to be something special.

Release date: TBC

Another one for the It’s-Been-Aaaaages-So-We’re-Probably-Due-A-New-One box. Especially since Turnstile have a banner summer coming up, not least when they come to the UK to headline the first London edition of Outbreak festival in June. Which would be a very nice way indeed to celebrate breaking the four-year wait for them to get a new album done.

Release date: TBC

Read this next:

• The Sound Of 2025: The new artists breaking the boundaries of alternative music
• The 50 best albums of 2024
  
• Oli Sykes: “I still feel like the underdog… But it’s important to stop smell the roses, and to be like, ‘This is f*cking amazing, what we’ve achieved’”