Here are the 11 best thrash albums of 2025.
Thrash has not historically been known for its willingness to reinvent the wheel — when James Hetfield famously sang “full speed or nothing” on Metallica’s “Motorbreath,” he unwittingly summed up the subgenre’s ethos.
Yet the bands on this list still found a way to keep their thrash formula sounding fresh more than 40 years after the Bay Area scene first took the metal world by storm.
READ MORE: The Best Thrash Metal Album of Every Year Since 1983
The Best Thrash Albums of 2025: A Mix of Old and Young
You’ll see a few veteran heavy hitters on this list, including Testament (whose latest offering, Para Bellum, was named Loudwire’s best metal album of 2025) and Swiss progressive thrashers Coroner, who returned after a 30-plus-year absence. Brazilian quartet Violator also returned after a 12-year break with the furiously catchy Unholy Retribution.
For the most part, though, the thrash albums on our year-end list came from younger acts. Costa Rican headbangers Chemicide dazzled on Violence Prevails, which features a cheeky nod to one of the genre’s progenitors. Lafayette, Louisiana “haunted thrash” upstarts Void also impressed on their sophomore album, Forbidden Morals, blending dizzying technicality with horror-filled imagery and a healthy dose of camp.
READ MORE: The 40 Best Debut Thrash Albums of All Time
Old or young, the bands on this list share a few characteristics. There’s the aforementioned “full speed or nothing” commitment, which means blazing riffs and whiplash-inducing drums galore. These bands have also found ways to tackle thorny subject matter — violence, class inequality, artificial intelligence — in a way that’s sufficiently grave but never preachy. The world may be going to Hell in a handbasket, but at least we have a killer soundtrack in the meantime.
Read on to see the 11 best thrash metal albums of 2025.
The Best Thrash Albums of 2025
These albums will wreck your neck and open up circle pits — and they’re being dished out by bands from a bunch of different generations.
Entries written by Bryan Rolli (BR) and Joe DiVita (JD).
Gallery Credit: Loudwire Staff
Want more? See our full list of the best thrash album of each year since 1983!
The Best Thrash Album of Each Year Since 1983
A history of the best thrash metal albums, year by year.
Gallery Credit: Joe DiVita
