Last Rites Presents: Our Most Anticipated Albums Of 2025, Part 2

It’s time for Part 2 of Last Rites’ super-prestigious Most Anticipated Albums Of 2025. If you’re just now diving in, don’t forget to follow through to the first part, which you can find here.

TEITANBLOOD – TBD

TBD; Norma Evangelium Diaboli

Revelation 20:14 says, “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”

And that’s much more poetic than “Austin 3:16 says, ‘I just whooped your ass.’”

However, a new Teitanblood album would surely open up all kinds of whoop-ass. The Revelation 20:14 Bible verse plastered at the top of this paragraph was posted, along with other cryptic messages in Q4 of last year, to the band’s official Instagram page.

While the Spanish black/death metal outfit may have broken their streak of releasing albums every five years, it sure does seem like something is brewing for 2025. If it does indeed happen, we’ll see if they continue building upon the more atmospheric elements found on 2019’s The Baneful Choir. But Teitanblood creates tunes perfect for the apocalypse. So, one thing is fore sure: it’ll be suffocating and NOISY!

I will not scream for a new Teitanblood album because that’s just a waste of good suffering. Instead, I’ll just sit here in my end-of-days bunker waiting for the new LP. [BLIZZARD OF JOZZSH]

Quality Confidence Factor: 666%

PHRENELITH – ASHEN WOMB

February 7; Dark Descent

Some bands rock. Some bands rip. Some bands do both while also putting on an incredible live show and making memories for the Last Rites Crew who love each other more than any of us ever thought possible. It was at Maryland Deathfest, our annual mandatory meetup (at least before COVID), where Phrenelith absolutely tore the roof off Ram’s Head, allowing the afternoon sunlight to pour into the arena.

Now, was that Deathfest special simply because THE CHASM played or was it special because of bands such as Phrenelith? I’d argue that Phrenelith was a huge part of it. They are an exciting death metal band from the Holy Land of grimy death metal: Denmark. Sharing members with Undergang means that confidence factor is HIGH and I can report that my confidence factor for Phrenelith’s 2025 release Ashen Womb soars higher than an eagle crossbred with a hawk and situated with turbine engines installed for maximum lift.

This year is looking to be a GOOD year for death metal. [MANNY-O-WAR]

Quality Confidence Factor: 86.5%

CRADLE OF FILTH – THE SCREAMING OF THE VALKYRIES

April; Napalm

Perhaps my favorite thing (of many) about Cradle is Filth is that they just keep doing the damn thing. Maybe that doesn’t sound like much, but think of it: Whatever your opinion of Cradle of Filth, there’s a better than average chance that you have one, and that it’s been formed for a goodly long time. And yet Cradle of Filth soldiers on, somehow (shockingly!) immune to your slings and petulant arrows. “Oh no I don’t like these sounds,” you mewl and stutter. Meantime, BAM! – riff after screech after keyboard-sugared swell of grade-A not giving a shit.

Cradle of Filth’s metamorphosis from clattering death metal to vampyric black metal to glammy goth metal to blackened trad has been as fun to follow as a fan as it has produced almost watch-settingly consistent quality. Sure, as with any long-running act there are dips and slumps. I’ve been on the Cradle train ever since a chance purchase of Bitter Suites to Succubi at the Virgin Megastore in Paris the summer of 2001, and the band has been on an undeniable hot streak since 2015’s Hammer of the Witches. Their last album, 2021’s Existence is Futile, was another excellent late-career album from a band with little to prove but who still find new tricks here and here (the rather lovely devotional of “Necromantic Fantasies” or the environmental resignation of “Suffer Our Dominion”).

In a recent interview with Metal Hammer, Dani Filth revealed that the band’s newest album (their 14th-ish, depending on how you count) is called The Screaming of the Valkyries and should be released sometime in April. Although it’s not confirmed, one assumes that the tune “Malignant Perfection” (released last October) will serve as the album’s lead single, and if so, it’s an excellent harbinger. Nothing seems titanically different relative to the band’s last decade or so, which – for this particular knucklehead – is absolutely cause for celebration. This latest phase of Cradle of Filth strikes an excellent balance between tongue-in-cheek melodrama and thundering heavy metal, so climb on board or keep smirking, you fatuous sore-head. Choo chooooo. [DAN OBSTKRIEG]

Quality Confidence Factor: Fraternally Yours, 666%

VULTURE’S VENGEANCE – DUST AGE

February 21; High Roller
Preorder

As a youth growing up alongside heavy metal in the ‘80s, I reaped the rewards of other metal fans’ fussiness. That is to say, I raided the used cassette bin at local record stores on a regular basis in an effort to maximize my lean allowance. More often than not, this worked to my advantage, as I typically gorged myself on the more unique vocalists and strange production choices that sent the more persnickety fans running to trade tables: Cirith Ungol, Trouble, Wayne-era Metal Church, and deeper yet into the underground for bands such as Lords of the Crimson Alliance and Genocide Nippon.

You guessed it: This is a realm where Italy’s Vultures Vengeance thrives, and I have very much been there for it since the first day I finally caught wind of their epic 2019 full-length debut, The Knightlore.

So, what would throw those finicky fans of olde, just as it might throw the most critical of today’s elite, when it comes to getting down with the Double V today? Pretty much the same old story: Tony T. Steele has a… unique voice (think Tim Baker colliding with Eric Wagner, then put him in the midst of battle with a full suit of armor), plus the band opts for production choices that, while crystal clear, sound every bit as dusty as the off-kilter bands that likely influenced the Vultures Vengeance trajectory. It adds immeasurably to the band’s overall charm, though, and what pushes the pants-shitting needle right through the glass of the oh-shit-ometer is the AMAZING guitar work laid down by Steele and his fellow six-string ripper, Tony L.A. Scelzi (is he still in the band or not??) Seriously, these two are essentially the Rexor & Thorgrim of the current NWOTHM craze, and not even Crom himself would be immune to the charms these two cast with their respective axes.

So, yes, with the above considered, plus the fact that The Knightlore managed to close 2019 as my #2 album overall, I would say Dust Age ranks very high as one of my most anticipated albums of 2025. Luckily, I don’t have very long to wait for the record to leap into my ears. [CAPTAIN]

Quality Confidence Factor: 95%

METH LEPPARD – TBD

TBD; TBD

Australian grind duo Meth Leppard only has one previous full-length to their name — and of course, about a trillion shorter releases — but all of those are absolute rippers, and Woke especially is one that I return to often and loudly. So when, in a recent interview promoting some European tour dates, the band stated that a second album was in the mixing phase… well, my grindcore giblets got all a-tingle.

It’s still a little early to tell when and how exactly this album will find its way into my ears, but I assure you: I’m here for it. These two goofuses have an impressive history of silly lyrics (that just sound like unintelligible grunts anyway, so … you know, whatever) and most importantly, they have an established track record of seriously hooky riffage and seriously savage blastbeats, of swaggering attitude and sweltering anger, and all of that is everything I want in an album (or an EP, or a split — just keep ’em coming, fellas).

I have almost zero doubt that this new one will tear heads off, just like the last one did. At this point, a new Meth Lep is as much of a mandatory purchase for me as just about any grindcore release could be, and not to get my hopes too high, but I’ll be disappointed if it’s anything less than a smasher. So, hey… no pressure, guys… [ANDREW EDMUNDS]

Quality Confidence Factor: 90%

Posted by Last Rites

GENERALLY IMPRESSED WITH RIFFS

  1. New Vultures Vengeance??? I can’t freaking wait! (and it comes out next month? awesome)

    Reply

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