Editorial: Top 10 Releases of 2025
- Vlad
- Jan 11
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 12
The glorious year 2025 has finally drawn to a close, and I say glorious for objective and subjective reasons alike. Objective, because it was one of the best years for dark ambient in a long while, with a plethora of well-known scene names releasing excellent new albums after the relative lull of the post-COVID period, but also some notable newcomers making their mark. Subjective, because it was the first full year of operations for the resurrected For the Innermost, during which I managed to review almost 40 releases, report on 6 dark ambient (and related) gigs/festivals and publish no less than 6 interviews with musicians of interest, all of them conducted in person. All that remains, therefore, is to publish a retrospective of my favourite releases of 2025, in the hope of shining some additional, well-deserved light on them. Without further ado, here's my absolute top 10 of the year!
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This album left an exceptionally lasting emotional impact on me, and I found myself returning to it plenty of times during the year, when I needed to clear out my headspace a bit. It's a wonderful, melancholic, emotionally charged voyage despite its relative minimalism, and probably one of the most overlooked releases of 2025.
The Swedish dungeon synth master, perhaps better known for his main project Örnatorpet, released the sophomore album of his excellent side project in August, making it perhaps my favourite release of his so far. Beautiful, melodic and stripped dungeon synth that really goes back to what made this genre so captivating in the first place.
8) Ajna - Algol
Ajna managed to put out not one, but two great releases this year; however, Algol is the one that ultimately left a more lasting impression on me. With a runtime of almost 100 minutes, it's a colossal work that's easier to take in than one would expect, perhaps owing to the sheer storytelling abilities of Ajna's mastermind Chris F, who has managed to sonically paint a massive voyage across space and time. One of the finest examples of the marriage between drone and dark ambient I've ever heard.
In a year rich in collaborations, the one between Phragments and New Risen Throne stands out not just for its quality, but also for the innovativeness of its approach, with each artist reworking the vision of the other. Few releases manage to be approachable and enjoyable while simultaneously making you ponder some of the deepest questions regarding the human condition; Between Ecstasy and Death is precisely one of those.
In the utter noise of the current digital age, Underwater Sleep Orchestra managed to present a beautifully nostalgic, compellingly melancholic work. The duo of artists behind Kammarheit and God Body Disconnect really get into the groove on this third joint release of theirs, offering analogue glimpses of a long-gone world that's a perfect companion for introspective walks at dusk.
In yet another collaboration that marked 2025, Apocryphos & Penumbral Aethyr managed to tell an absolutely incredible sonic story, making perhaps the best clasically cinematic dark ambient album of the year, one that pulls you in from the first second and doesn't let go until the very end. Theoretically sci-fi, The Erosion of Innocence asks a lot of the right questions about the direction our own civilisation is heading in.
4) Eterna Essentia - Revitalisation of the Spiral Path
Eterna Essentia started off 2025 with a bang, providing an extremely old-school Nordic dark ambient album that almost single-handedly revitalises not just the spiral path of the title, but the dark ambient genre itself. Its carefully crafted minimalism manages to conjure an incredible atmosphere and grip the listener from start to end, bringing the golden age of Scandinavian dark ambient from the early 2000s back to life.
Ever the iconoclast of the dark ambient scene, Shrine managed to pull off yet another triumphant return in 2025 with Sentinel, a release that goes well beyond the bounds of classic dark ambient while maintaining all of the emotional charge and storytelling ability that the project is famous for. Proudly inspired by a video game, Shrine shows the younglings how cinematic dark ambient/soundtrack music is properly done.
New Risen Throne was one of the artists that got me into this genre in the first place some twenty years ago, but him releasing his best work yet was definitely not on my 2025 bingo card. With a running time exceeding 90 minutes, The Journey to Reach the Fathers is the artist's most compelling work to date, showing an absolute mastery of all the elements that make up a good dark ambient album. Blowing Funeral Chant II in particular is probably the single most powerful dark ambient track of the year.
Rarely has an album been more aptly titled than Descending Vastness, as that's exactly what this long-awaited sophomore release by the recently resurrected Vestigial brings to the table. Taking everything that was great about the project almost two decades ago and making it better and more refined, Descending Vastness presents us with some of the best dynamics ever heard on a dark ambient album, employing an almost chiaroscuro technique to take us on an utterly fascinating voyage across dimensions. I could spend hours talking about the specific sounds and layers that make me rave about this album, but essentially, everything I wrote in the album review I initially did is even more true from a distance. A colossal masterpiece for the ages.
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As a final thought, I'd like to thank you, dear reader, for visiting the website and reading my humble thoughts on the music we love during the course of 2025. What I (re)started as a mere creative outlet less than 18 months ago managed to attract more than 1.200 unique visitors in 2025. I am proud and grateful that readers such as yourself find the content I write worth your time, and I will continue to play my role in this modest scene of ours to the best of my ability in 2026 as well. All the best and see you around!