We're all doomed! Wonderfully so, at that. 2025 has been a brilliant year for new doom bands, even with the bittersweet knowledge that we'll never see original architects Black Sabbath again. From Messa and Castle Rat to Cwfen, Blood Vulture and Margarita Witch Cult, it feels like you can't move for bands producing top-tier Sabbath worshipping music right now.
So, to help you sift through the masses of stoner, doom and sludge, we've picked out ten of the very best albums to make waves in 2025 from across the stoner/doom pantheon.
Bell Witch & Aerial Ruin – Stygian Bough Volume II (Profound Lore)
Despair has never sounded so comforting. Like peace found at the bottom of an ocean when all hope is gone and only oblivion beckons, Bell Witch's second collaboration with Aerial Ruin finds serenity in the end, its glacial pacing and mournful melodies proving oddly alluring. Its a surprisingly gentle listen, heavy in atmospherics that feel almost choir-like, if said choir was ushering in the end times. Rich Hobson
Blood Vulture – Die Close (Pure Noise)
Sounding like the lovechild of Alice In Chains and Mastodon, with just a touch of Type O Negative style goth, Blood Vulture's debut album proved to be a revelation. Helmed by Jordan Olds - best known as Two Minutes To Late Night's Gwarsenio Hall - the project's weighty, emotional tale of a vampire reckoning with immortality and the reality of seeing the end of everything proved perfect doom fodder, delivered with soulful, sludgy riffs and gorgeous melodies that made this an absolute delight from start to finish. Rich Hobson
Bonnie Trash – Mourning You (Hand Drawn Dracula)
Two albums in, and Canadian alt/doomsters Bonnie Trash continue to fly under the radar. More's the pity; Mourning You is a fantastic slab of modern doom, hatched in the vein of Chelsea Wolfe and building its DNA from the likes of alt. metal, doom, post-punk and goth to craft a surprisingly hooky collection of tunes about death and grief. Songs like Veil Of Greed and Haunt Me sit fairly comfortably in doom, but its when you get to the post-punk/poppiness of My Love Remains The Same or Poison Kiss that you see the real spark in what this band do, crafting songs with serious breakout potential. Rich Hobson
Castle Rat – The Bestiary (King Volume)
It's no exaggeration to say Castle Rat are the breakout doom band of 2025. With a colourful, fantasy-inspired image, insane live show and some almighty tunes, the New Yorkers proved themselves stars in the making with The Bestiary. What's perhaps best about it all is that the album isn't reinventing the wheel; it's not adding in other genres or flourishing some leftfield creative choices, it simply does doom better than just about anyone else on the scene right now, each serving of fresh riffs and alluring vocal melodies laying the groundwork for good ol' fashioned Sabbath worship. All hail our rat queen. Rich Hobson
Conjurer – Unself (Nuclear Blast)
Inspired by the experiences of singer/guitarist Dani Nightingale, who recently came out as non-binary, Conjurer made a blazingly heavy yet conscious album for the modern age. Let Us Live and Hang Them In Your Head were venomous outcries against the bigots of the world, whereas The World Is Not My Home turned inward to voice what life is like with gender dysmorphia. Musically, Unself was another sludgy, riff-stacked attack, mixing the compositions of 2022’s Pathos with the blunt-force arrangements of 2018 debut Mire. Once again, the Midlands four-piece have proven why they’re one of the UK’s buzziest bands. Matt Mills
Cwfen – Sorrows (New Heavy Sounds)
Bewitching and brilliant, Scotland's Cwfen stepped out onto the global stage with their debut Sorrows. It's an album of enrapturing melodies and buzzing, fuzzy guitars hatched from doom's primordial past, dark and gothic without ever falling too hard into despair. Instead there's a burning intensity and even angry edge to the likes of Wolfsbane that speaks of empowerment, while Reliks produces some of the best 80s deathrock worship this side of Mat McNerney. Rich Hobson
Dimscûa – Dust Eater (self-released)
Amenra a bit too jolly for you? Check out rising UK outfit Dimscûa, whose sludgy post-metal is as emotional musically as it is thematically. The songs on Dust Eater touch on the members’ own grief and struggles, with vocalist Alex Rowlands screaming about that real-life pain over crushingly slow riffs. Despite being a self-released debut album, it became a quick cult favourite after getting championed by the booking agents at UK festivals Arctangent and Damnation. Dimscûa played to heaving audiences at both events this year, and their 2026 is set to be just as exciting, with new music already in the works. Matt Mills
Margarita Witch Cult – Strung Out In Hell (Heavy Psych Sounds)
Black Sabbath may be gone, but doom still prevails in Birmingham. Margarita Witch Cult's second album, Strung Out In Hell cribs notes from the masters - Sabbath, Zeppelin, even a bit of Motorhead - and finds joyous release in a crashing tide of fuzzy riffs and big ol' sing-alongs. With the sludgiest cover of White Wedding you're ever likely to hear, alongside some gold-plated headbangers in Scream Bloody Murder and Witches Candle, plus a rumbly, jammy tune in Who Put Bella In The Wytch Elm, they rediscovered doom's oft-overlooked party potential. Rich Hobson
Messa – The Spin (Metal Blade)
While crafting the follow-up to 2022’s lauded Close, Messa both tightened up and tried new things. The single At Races pulled post-punk and goth into the Italians’ doomy universe, while packing a chorus for the ages. At the other end of the spectrum, the eight-minute The Dress broke down into a fearless jazz section. The Spin was a fast breakthrough, released via Metal Blade Records and followed by a tour supporting dark deities Paradise Lost. In a year stacked with downtempo excellence, this record both held its own and got more people than ever wondering, just what form will this band take next? Matt Mills
Paradise Lost – Ascension (Nuclear Blast)
On their first album in five years, Paradise Lost sounded fucking huge. Such songs as Salvation, Serpent On The Cross and The Precipice made the Northerners’ death/doom more widescreen than it had been since the days of Gothic and Shades Of God. In between, they pulled influence from their recent Icon 30th-anniversary celebrations and offered up a host of goth-metal bangers. Since they got heavy again in 2015, the band have been on an unstoppable hot streak, but Ascension was the best thing to bear their name in decades, proving their bite had not dulled with time. Matt Mills
