It’s finally here! Blacforje has compiled the top 20 albums of the year - 10 of our favorite albums in black metal and 10 of the best in dungeon synth. 2025 was the year for some outstanding releases, and here are our favorites.

Black metal and Tolkien have long been kindred spirits, sharing a penchant for dark fantasy. Dawn of the Iron Shadow from One of Nine rides out from the fires of Mordor to channel the colder and more cosmic aspects of Tolkien’s legendarium through black metal.

Enter into a dimension of magic and mystery with Tome Zero, the latest album from dungeon synth legend, Erang. As is standard fare with the artist, the album is brilliantly composed and enrapturing throughout the journey.

What distinguishes Unsheathed Glory is how completely the project braids narrative into that cartography. Based in Boston but probably living in “the mystical lands of Charvencia,” the artist treats each release like a field journal from a highly detailed imagined realm…

Vials of Wrath's Remnants for Remembrance emerges as a masterful autumn meditation that elevates the artist’s already formidable reputation within the atmospheric black metal scene. It weaves together contemplative instrumentals and expansive black metal…

Henere delivers something remarkable in this niche territory of bands exploring the power and terror of nature’s forces. The Chosen Path is an odyssey that acts as a testament to what U.S. black metal can achieve when it embraces melody without sacrificing ferocity.

Burning Embers, Forgotten Wolves is quite literally a work of mystical art. This is music that resonates with the heart and soul in a mysterious way, evoking calm and serenity. In the chaos of extreme metal, Autrest brings a reprieve in the forest of our imaginations.

In a metal scene where Christian bands often play it safe with polished deathcore or melodic approaches, Cataclysmic Warfare takes a different path. This American blackened death metal artist dives headfirst into war metal with their debut, Blood Presidium.

Eternal Winds of Ash & Ice by Hellige stands as a beacon in the dungeon synth scene. This seven-track album, mixed and mastered by another dungeon synth master, DIM, at Lowly Dying Steward, delivers a genuinely uplifting spiritual journey wrapped in medieval grandeur.

Mythráen's Wings Beneath Krynn's Moonlight offers an impressive eight-track dungeon synth odyssey through the Dragonlance universe. The album stands as a testament to the genre's capacity for heroic grandeur and spiritual uplift. 

Within the broader dungeon synth scene, Atlantean Sword continues to create a more heroic dungeon synth. The music that acknowledges life's darkness while insisting on the possibility of transcendence through noble action. Ironmaster represents a spiritual maturation for the artist.

Tolkien black metal nerds rejoice! Heralder, the mastermind behind the medieval black metal project Theoden's Reign, returns with Citadel of the Stars, an album that cements Theoden's Reign as one of the most promising voices in the fantasy and atmospheric black metal scene.

In a scene often characterized by nihilistic despair, Mörkdöd is a beacon of hope wrapped in the darkness of the sounds of depressive black metal. The Russian delivers something profoundly redemptive while rejecting the toxic and unconstructive elements of the subgenre.

TopfHelm's Sir Godric is a plunge into medieval madness that perfectly captures what makes dungeon folk so intriguing. Hailing from Belarus, this 55-minute journey delivers 15 tracks of immersive storytelling that feel like a lost soundtrack to some medieval legend.

It's been a while since the Eastern Orthodox Christian black metal group Hesychast last blessed the landscape with their atmospheric, Georgian, and orchestral soundscapes. The wait has been rewarded with For Whom We Sing New Troparia.

Gelure’s most recent album, Inner Sanctum, leans into the more contemplative and meditative aspects of dungeon synth. It captures the sensation of studying difficult books of wisdom while experiencing embarrassing solitude to clear one's mind in prayer and contemplation.

Catharsis is often central to black metal, and atmospheric black metal artist Unreqvited is perhaps one of the best artists to gaze into nature, the stars, and the world around us to reflect and feel a larger connection to those around us and beyond.

Despite being as ripe for black metal and dungeon synth, the Elder Scrolls franchise is a notable gap in the scene when compared to the works of Tolkien and Nordic sagas. Daedric Chamber (a solo project by Snitz) has been on a quest to change that.

Symphony of Heaven has been on a journey to craft an album to follow up The Season Of Death, capturing the band’s mission of crafting what their Bandcamp page calls “Crushing, epic, torturous, and extreme.” 2024’s Ordo Aurum Archeia’does just that.

Behold a rare sight and sound! Great Helm is a blackened power, yes POWER, metal artist. Even beyond that, we have an excellent one! Power metal and black metal aren’t necessarily known to go together, despite enjoying similar aesthetics and subject matter at times.