Robb Flynn’s Most Listened To Albums of 2025

(Editor’s note: Looking back on 2025, there were so many good albums released that we decided to reach out to some of today’s artists and get them to weigh in on their favorites. What follows is Machine Head frontman Robb Flynn’s ‘Most LIstened to Albums of 2025.)

Zach Bryan — American Heartbreak and Zach Bryan

Favorite Songs:
“Hey Driver,” “Whiskey River,” “Jake’s Piano,” “East Side of Sorrow,” “Something in the Orange,” “Happy Instead,” “Mine Again,” “Cold Damn Vampires,” “‘68 Fastback”

Indisputably my two most-listened-to albums of 2025. These became my go-to “heavy in the soul, not the guitars” records. Zach Bryan blindsided me. Mostly acoustic, almost no distortion, certainly no thrash beats — just raw emotion. He writes like he’s emptying out his soul one line at a time, and it caught me in a way I didn’t expect.

“Hey driver, pull over, I’m in a fight with God”… man… I’ve been there too many times. It’s heavy in a human way — the kind of heavy that shows up at 2 a.m. when you’re lying on the floor drunk and high, staring at the ceiling, replaying every mistake you’ve ever made but don’t want to talk about.

Sometimes the best music doesn’t need to be loud — it just needs to be honest in a way that feels almost uncomfortable. That’s exactly why I kept coming back to it.

Sleep Token — Take Me Back to Eden & Even in Arcadia

Favorite Songs:
“Emergence,” “Chokehold,” “Look to Windward,” “Dangerous,” “Caramel”

Sleep Token absolutely swallowed me whole this year. I know some metalheads love to hate on them, and not every song was for me, but there’s something about the mix of crushing down-tuned riffs, haunting melodies, lyrical sadness, sex, and naked emotion that hits a part of my brain nothing else touches.

“Go ahead and wrap your arms around me”… “Will you haunt this eclipse in me”… lyrics and melodies that ping-pong around my brain for weeks. It’s dramatic, it’s weird, it’s glossy, and it’s heavy in a completely different way — the whole thing feels like a confession whispered over a thunderstorm.

Kudos to my old Through the Ashes of Empires producer Carl Bown for the incredible layers of sonic beauty he helped craft. I don’t care how many “true” metalheads roll their eyes — the songs that grabbed me, grabbed me and didn’t let go.

Kublai Khan TX — Spotify Top 10

Favorite Tracks:
“The Hammer,” “Theory of Mind”

Kublai Khan TX has a way of making every song feel like I’m getting dragged into the circle pit against my will — in the best possible way. But “The Hammer”… man, that one hits different. The second it drops, it’s like the temperature in the room changes — that opening riff, that stomp, that dual-vocal delivery boiled down to pure fury:

“You will never know, you will never ever know.”

It’s simple. It’s direct. It hits like a punch to the face. And the rest of their top tracks carry that same pulse — tight, punishing, no-bullshit hardcore that never overstays its welcome. A masterclass in simplicity.

Having seen these guys live three times in the last year, I can confidently say: I pity the band that has to follow them on a festival slot. A band firing on all cylinders at the literal peak of their powers.

Well done, boys.

The Jompson Brothers — Self-Titled (2014)

Favorite Songs:
“Ride My Rocket,” “Hey Girl,” “Inside Your Head,” “Blood in the Water”

My friend Shelli turned me onto this record at the beginning of the year, and I haven’t stopped listening since. Chris Stapleton’s 2014 rock band is like a late-night bar fight between Southern rock swagger and bluesy grit.

Chris’s voice here is un-fucking-real — all whiskey, sex, sadness, and wildfire — and those riffs… big, fat, juicy Zeppelin/AC/DC riffs that just strut with attitude.

Love gone bad (“I should hate you, but I don’t”), one-night stands (“Hey girl, what’s your name”), raisin’ hell… fuckin’ hell… I’ve lived this record. It’s the kind of album that gets the party started or drinks you to sleep. Rough edges, big hooks, pure vibe.

Turnstile — Glow On and Never Enough

I still haven’t stopped listening to Glow On (an absolute timeless classic), but I had to pause and give Never Enough its time — and the boys delivered.

Turnstile dropped an album I kept reaching for whenever I needed something that just felt good without losing that hardcore punch. It’s bright, bouncy, and weirdly uplifting, yet still scratches the heavy itch. It reminds me that being a metal guy doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a little sunshine with your riffs — sometimes pure positivity is exactly what the year needs.

Paleface Swiss — Cursed

Favorite Songs:
“Enough?” “…and with hope you’ll be damned”

This album is a pure sonic bloodbath. That voice… WOW. This young man has a very bright future, delivering one of the most cathartic vocal performances of the decade.

Every song feels like a breakdown waiting to collapse the floor. It’s raw, ugly, and gloriously over-the-top — yet lyrically it runs counter to the overly masculine posturing of today’s metal climate. All of it delivered with death-metal rap flows that make you want to fight your steering wheel while driving.

Clipse — Let God Sort ’Em Out

Favorite Songs:
“Chains & Whips” (feat. Kendrick Lamar), “P.O.V.” (feat. Tyler, The Creator), “Ace Trumpets,” “Let God Sort ’Em Out / Chandeliers”

This is the hard shit — the hard shit I’ve been missing in hip-hop. Pusha T and Malice have always had effortless cool, and I’ve followed their Clipse and solo careers for decades because they always deliver.

Cocaine flows, guns, and murder — it grabbed me by the throat immediately. But those tracks with Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, The Creator? Fuckin’ hell. Whole different level.

A Clipse/Pusha/Kendrick feature feels like a pressure drop in the room (see 2013’s “Nostalgia” for god-tier hip-hop). Kendrick comes in sharp, surgical, almost unsettling. Then Tyler shows up like a wrecking ball made of charisma and chaos, flipping the entire vibe on its head.

Clipse came back swinging. Welcome back.

Bring Me the Horizon — Post Human: Nex Gen

Favorite Songs:
“Kool-Aid,” “Limousine,” “Darkside,” “N/A,” “Amen,” “Dig It”

The metal police can complain all they want — BMTH put out a guilty-pleasure album I kept reaching for because it really is that good.

It’s wild, messy, catchy as hell, and somehow sounds like modern BMTH meets Deftones in Blur’s backyard for a techno-metal sad-boi mishmash. Gleefully smashing genres just to see what sticks.

And that video of Nik Nocturnal getting drunk and emotional on stream to “Dig It”? Yeah… I was right there with him.

Blasted it all year with zero shame.

Knocked Loose — Spotify Top 10

Favorite Songs:
“Suffocate” (feat. Poppy), “Slaughterhouse 2” (feat. Chris Motionless)

“Suffocate” might be my favorite heavy track of the year. So primal. So heavy. Constant tempo changes, that insane buildup with Poppy’s voice — and then the breakdown with the reggaeton-inspired drum beat that somehow captures the zeitgeist perfectly.

The rest of their top tracks hit just as hard, and revisiting them reminded me why Knocked Loose sits at the forefront of hardcore right now.

Slaughter to Prevail — Grizzly, Kostolom, and Behelit EP

Favorite Songs:
“Bratva,” “Behelit,” “Imdead”

I couldn’t get “Behelit” out of my head for days. Every time it came on, I could feel my bloodstream heat up.

Alex Terrible sounds like he’s tearing open a portal to the underworld with his lungs, while the band swings riffs like ten-ton hammers behind him. It’s primal, savage, and caused so many stank-face moments I’m amazed my jaw still works.

And that guitar tone — violence distilled into audio waves.

Sanguisugabogg — Hideous Aftermath

Favorite Songs:
“Felony Abuse of a Corpse” (feat. PeelingFlesh), “Semi-Automatic Facial Reconstruction”

I’ve never been the biggest death metal guy on record — it always made more sense to me live — but this album is straight-up sonic barbarism, and I loved every filthy second.

I felt like I was doing something illegal just listening (those lyrics are fucked up). The riffs don’t just hit — they maul. The Peeling Flesh feature absolutely rips, and the grooves are so nasty you practically need a shower afterward.

No polish. No pretense. Just pure, swamp-dwelling death metal — and a reminder of why I fell in love with the ugliest corners of the genre in the first place.

Linkin Park — The Emptiness Machine

Favorite Songs:
“Two-Faced,” “The Emptiness Machine,” “Over Each Other”

This new chapter of Linkin Park hit me way harder than I expected. Bold move bringing in a female frontperson — and it paid off.

Emily Armstrong stepped in with grit and raw power, not trying to replace anything — just planting her flag and going. Shinoda is dropping lyrical gems all over this thing (“I only wanted to be part of something…”), which… man… who can’t relate?

But it’s all about “Two-Faced” — an absolute classic LP banger. I first saw Linkin Park opening for Orgy in the small downstairs room of Maritime Hall in San Francisco, and I’ve been a fan ever since. It makes me genuinely happy to see them making relevant, dynamic new music instead of coasting on nostalgia.

Emotional, massive, and forward-moving — a hell of a return.