In addition to our Most Anticipated Metal & Hard Rock Albums, check out our Most Anticipated Albums and Tours of 2025.
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While album sales are nowhere near where they used to be, thankfully the format continues to exist in the streaming world, even as singles remain king. Beyond collecting a group of songs, the album allows ample space for artists to stretch out and open a portal of their own creativity to spark the imagination of listeners.
For a band like Dream Theater, this means lengthy side-long progressive metal epics, often rife with narrative lyrical content that’s woven across an entire LP. Ghost have created their own lore across their discography, each album centric to the storyline of their enigmatic frontman Papa Emeritus and his clergy. Similarly, Coheed and Cambria present each album like a film, complete with its own world-building, characters, and story arcs.
Those bands are among the acts featured on our list of the Most Anticipated Heavy Albums of 2025, a year that promises major full-length releases from across the spectrum of metal, hard rock, punk, and beyond.
Among the bigger names are Gojira, fresh off their triumph at the Olympics, and Deftones, who are set to embark on a headlining North American tour in February. Metal fans can also look forward to new releases and potential drops from Arch Enemy, King Diamond, Mastodon, and Volbeat.
There’s also plenty of hyped hardcore, metalcore, and alt-metal on the horizon from the likes of Lacuna Coil, Shadows Fall, and (hopefully) Turnstile. Meanwhile, rising acts such as Sleep Token, Jinjer, and Spiritbox are set for further conquests in 2025.
One thing’s certain: all of these artists have released quality albums in the past and warrant inclusion here based on their track record. And the album format stands as the best representation of their art — even if it only takes one viral TikTok riff to pay the bills.
See the most anticipated metal and hard rock albums of 2025 below, and keep checking back at this link as more albums and details are announced throughout the year. For more metal for your New Year, check out our workout playlist to help you headbang through your resolutions.
— Jon Hadusek
Senior Staff Writer, Heavy Consequence
Be sure to check out our upcoming release calendar to see more albums arriving in 2025. Plus, take a look back at the best music of 2024 with our 30 Best Metal & Hard Rock Albums and 30 Best Metal & Hard Rock Songs lists, along with the rest of our Annual Report.