Metal Riot's Top 5 Underground Albums of 2025
Mares Of Thrace at Transplants in Palmdale, CA. 1. ALBUM OF THE YEAR: The Loss by Mares Of Thrace I have always gravitated towards "guitary" but bare bones/metal and bluesy tinged stuff like Castle or EHG or Melvins (I mean, they are lots of things but early on Melvins were crudely minimal in an amazing way). Mares Of Thrace always has scratched that itch and had top tier aesthetics and ethics. The band (current and past incarnations) might be a duo, but I am gonna bring up the White Stripes right now not to draw a parallel but to the number of members but rather the depth of feeling inherent to the performances. I love when a trio or in this case a duo can fucking level a room or rip a heart in half or just immerse you completely in a rock n roll moment like a portal to a better place that somehow acknowledges all your bruises. The Loss is objectively a stunner even when considering my bias as a many years long butt kisser of how good this group's albums have always ...
