ANCIENT HAND'S 2025 Music Breakdown

Those of you who have been around since the inception of the Sleeping Village may remember one Ancient Hand, who was around...well, technically before the inception of the Village proper. Back in 2018, he was one of the very first people I met whilst writing silly lil' reviews on Instagram. He wrote some stuff here, I wrote about some of his musical projects...and then we both kinda stopped using Instagram. Needless to say, it was quite nice indeed to receive an email with this surprise AOTY list. Here it is (sans pink background, which is sadly not possible to replicate). Enjoy! - Ed

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Written by: Ancient Hand

2024 was filled with albums that I highly anticipated and was extremely satisfied with upon release, but 2025 held a number of records that were absolute surprises– both from artists I was aware of but maybe didn’t expect a ton in terms of quality and from artists I had never heard of before. I am happy to have listened to over 90 records that came out in this one calendar year and run down my thoughts on some of them!

Let’s get started with my honorable mentions: records that I very much enjoyed but did not have space on my top 10 for.
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LUX by Rosalia (I have no doubt this will work its way up, it just came out too late)

private music by Deftones
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Seraphim III by How To Disappear Completely

​I Don’t Know How But They Found Me! by Jensen McRae

Getting Killed by Geese
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HEROINA by Sevdaliza (Controversial, I don’t care)

Let God Sort Em Out by Clipse

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Birthing by Swans
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I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven by The Callous Daoboys

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This year was not without its duds, of course. Therefore, I feel I have to share what I think is the worst album of the year. In jest, of course. All art has value… or whatever.
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Flowers by The Devil Wears Prada

After a run of a couple decent records in the teenage years of this band’s existence, they rang in their 20th year with a shockingly flat and all-around monotonous record. 

Boring song structures relying way too hard on vocal melodies that cannot be properly capitalized upon by the dual vocalists of this band delivers a 42 minute and 22 second slog to listen to. Every song I was checking how much longer was left. It’s like the band figured the formula of “Chemical” and “Salt” were what has kept them relevant and decided to do it again… and again… and again.

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And a quick shoutout to my biggest disappointment. It hurts, and I won’t harp on it for fear of disrespecting my kings.
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The Place After This One by Underoath










​"And Then There Was Nothing” rips, though. And the outro to “Outsider” is beautiful. “Teeth” is exciting. There we go ok bye now!

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The EPs this year were not as strong as last year’s in terms of overall standouts, but the highs of this year’s EPs did clear last year’s. Here are my top 3 EPs of the year!

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#3: Weapon X Demo 2 by XweaponX

Good ol’ fashioned hardcore. The lyrics are what nail this thing home for me:

“Weapon X
Straight Edge
Fuck You”

#2: 01 by Now, Now

They’re so back, baby. Just listen if you love pop music. 

“I don’t wanna write another song about you…”

# 1. Perverts by Ethel Cain

Ethel Cain eschewed her meteoric rise with the tagline of “pop star” with a 90-minute drone/ dark ambient EP. As strange and unsettling as the description of “90-minute drone/ dark ambient EP” sounds, this thing is absolutely insane. It was my most listened to release of the year for a reason. It’s hellish, terrifying, challenging, and all the things I love in music.

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And now, the moment I’ve been waiting for that nobody actually cares about… my top 10 albums of 2025! (at the time of writing this, who knows what I will think in the future… who knows what the future holds for any of us, fuck ICE by the way):
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#10: Iconoclasts by Anna von Hausswolff

Iconoclasts strikes an emotionally intense balance between haunting and beautiful. It melds the worlds of classical and singer-songwriter in a way that leaves me shocked with its wicked effectiveness. Epic, sweeping song structures paired with whiplashing-inducing features form a record that feels timeless. I think of all the records on here, this one may age better than the rest, lending itself to repeat listens a year, four years, even twenty years into our highly uncertain future.​

#9: Portrait of My Heart by SPELLLING

This record makes me white-woman dance like it's 1999. 

“VEIL OF CHANGE– 
LET ME THROUGH YOUR LIGHT. 
I DON’T WANT TO STAY
IN THE WORLD HE LEFT BEHIND.”

#8: MAYHEM by Lady Gaga

Female-fronted pop is so back. Lady Gaga claimed the crown in the later 00’s- early ‘10’s, and while some may have thought it slipped during her foray into acting and whatever Joker 2 was, Gaga has made it evident that her songwriting chops have not weakened at all. 

“Abracadabra” is the best pop song of the year, and it is not even close for me.

#7: The Spiritual Sound by Agriculture

This album feels like coming out of a fever dream. It begins in the most chaotic, nearly deconstructed format and only gains clarity and cohesiveness as it progresses. This steady grappling with all of its conflicting elements perfectly embodies the title of the record, initially thrusting you into disorientation and cacophony until finally evening out into a driven and effective exploration of the human desire for spirituality and meaning.

#6: Eusexua by FKA Twigs

An homage to Germany’s underground nightclub scene is something I wouldn’t expect to hit as hard as it does for me. I’ve never been to Germany, and I’ve never been to an underground rave, but this album feels like a big-budget biopic for someone you’ve read a little bit about. FKA Twigs’ greatest strength as an artist is how she manages to bend and weave her way through different sonic palettes while always remaining distinctly herself. Her greatest achievement on this record is the song “Striptease,” a sternum-stretching electronic pop song with a neurotically-delivered chorus (Neurotic in the good way–not like the North West feature neurotic).

#5: Clockworked by Stray From The Path

2025 was a year of political turmoil (and 2026 seems to be determined to outdo its predecessor). One of any piece of art’s greatest achievements is being able to give audiences a sense of purpose and connection. Clockworked is the anthem for the righteously angry in 2025. A swan song to one of hardcore punk’s loudest bands of the millennium delivers all the justified violence would expect… and hope for after watching the news. 

Fuck peaceful protest. Death to evil.

#4: Revengeseekerz by Jane Remover

My first thought upon hearing this follow-up to my favorite album of 2023 (Remover’s Census Designated) was “Music can sound like this!?”

And thank God it can. 

“Jesus in the mosh pit, 
Mary on the cross with her friends”
                                                                                  19 breakdowns kick in at once.

​#3: Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party by Hayley Williams

Now this one… we knew music could sound like this. Williams’ exploration of late 90’s-early 00’s sounds feels familiar while its presentation is anything but. Releasing the record as 17 standalone singles that listeners could construct in whatever order they see fit is something that can only be done in the digital age, and, more importantly, feels like something truly new and inventive from a release standpoint--something we as music fans have been desperate for since the commodification of every moment of our listening. 

“True Believer” is Williams at her lyrical best--20-something years into her career--while “Hard” is anything but its title, eschewing bravado for vulnerability and exploring the warring gender expressions of Williams after decades of being surrounded by testosterone and dangerous peers in the alternative music scene. 

My only issue is that with the official release of the album, the record’s tracklist feels off to me. The physical release obviously needs a clear order, but a burned CD-R in a clear jewel case made by you and decorated with a sharpie is the only real way to experience these tracks.

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#2: Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You by Ethel Cain

A lyrical prequel to (spoiler alert for my 2030 list…) the decade’s best record, Preacher’s Daughter, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You is a slowcore dirge for a high school romance fallen apart. Ushering in a closer-to-even split between tracks with vocals and instrumental tracks, Anhedönia creates an equally cinematic experience compared to her 2022 debut, but this time around, she delivers a tale focused inward: exploring themes of regret, love, and loss compared to the external threats of Ethel Cain’s tragic ending. 

Sensitively painting a hazy image of the blood-stained blonde that started it all, Anhedönia led me to downright weep at the pain suffered by both counterparts in this foreboding love tale. 

“Nettles” is an all-time love song for the patient. “Dust Bowl” is a fan staple and has been since the demo was posted on SoundCloud. “Tempest” is a disturbingly believable exploration of the young male psyche, where vitriolic insults lie in wait at the back of the tongue, waiting to be hurled at those most loved until the brain is finally finished developing… as long as it is free of “sulfuric acid.”

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#1: Lonely People With Power by Deafheaven
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Deafheaven somehow cleared the seemingly impossible task of Sisyphus with this record. They topped 2013’s Sunbather, a record that has held a special place in my heart since I first heard it. However, this album might be the band’s new greatest outing. The songs are significantly more packed with vocals than previous black metal outings, which some may like less, but Clarke’s lyrics are at an all-time profound. 

I struggle to put into words the emotions this album stirs in me. I will leave it at this: incredibly tight and ferocious performances manage to maintain aggression (“Doberman”) while also giving way to starkly beautiful moments (“Amethyst”) and disturbingly brutal honesty (“Body Behavior”). This is a record for anyone who feels lonely in this panoptic age.

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“I was a man made of yesterdays
Mornings glowing like coal
Blinding the every day
Legs buckling together when moving”

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Big thanks to Ancient Hand for the words! Give him a follow over on Instagram. I personally found some unfamiliar stuff in these lists--hopefully you did as well. - Ed.