The 15 Best Hard Rock and Metal Albums of 2025

The 15 best hard rock and metal albums of 2025 comprise a combination of seasoned veterans still swinging for the fences, underground lifers and young heat-seekers who embrace the classic rock ethos.

If you’ve read our list of the top 20 rock albums of 2025, some of these picks will look familiar to you. The order has been changed to account for the list’s heavier tone — and because this isn’t a staff-voted selection, but rather, UCR writer Bryan Rolli’s singular act of defiance.

Anyway …

We were mightily impressed by inspired new releases from Cheap Trick, Styx and the original Alice Cooper Group, among others. Decades deep and dozens of albums into their careers, these artists are still finding fresh takes on their patented hard rock sound.

READ MORE: The Top 20 Rock Albums of 2025

2025’s Best Hard Rock and Metal Albums: Legends, Underground Veterans and Hot Up-and-Comers

Outside of classic rock’s tentpole artists, this list also features albums that didn’t make our overall top 20 but still rock abundantly.

L.A. Guns extended their hot streak with Leopard Skin, and Wolfgang Van Halen once again proved his mettle as one of rock’s most gifted polymaths on Mammoth‘s The End. Ghost took their macabre arena rock to all-new glammy heights, while Testament continued waving the flag for classic thrash in lieu of any substantial activity from the genre’s “Big 4” veterans.

UCR has covered all of these artists to some degree in the past, but we also wanted to shine a light on younger and more underground rock and metal acts who have a spiritual connection to the genre’s forebears.

From Castle Rat’s fantastical doom metal to the Dirty Nil’s punk- and classic rock-fueled blitzkrieg, these artists carried the torch for rock ‘n’ roll in 2025 and offered an exuberant reminder that the genre is far from dead.

Read on to see the 15 best hard rock and metal albums of 2025.