Take any style of music, and there’s good and bad. But not on this page. We’ve collected 50 of the best tracks from this year's Rock Continues Not To Be Dead file and listed them in order of greatness, from really great via exceedingly great to inspirationally, oh-my-god-what-the-hell's-happening great.
You might not agree with our choices (hell, we don't agree with our choices), but give that playlist at the bottom a twirl and it should become swiftly apparent that 2025 in rock music was an absolute monster of a year.
50. California Irish - Something Different
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Long before his band The Answer, and a world away from 60s/70s hippie hub Laurel Canyon, Cormac Neeson recalls his parents endlessly flipping tapes of Crosby, Still And Nash, Joni Mitchell et al. Those childhood memories now tumble into Neeson’s new band’s Something Different, with its bucolic wash of harmonies and woodwind.
49. Jethro Tull - Puppet And The Puppet Master
Sounding reassuringly Jethro Tull-esque, Ian Anderson and his merry men hop, skip and rock effortlessly through storytelling, flutes, guitar flash, accordions and more on this cut from latter-day highpoint Curious Ruminant.
48. Henry's Funeral Shoe - Hey!!! (What’s Your Pleasure?)
They’re back! Having largely retreated from band life in order to care for their terminally ill mother (she sadly passed away in 2023), and in the shadow of the pandemic, the Welsh brother duo have seemingly lost none of their mojo – based on this insistent, toe-tapping blues rocker.
47. Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse - One Massive Hit
I mean, with a title like that, you don’t really expect it to be an understated affair, do you? With blue-headed firebomb Greta Valenti at the mic and a barrage of gang vocals, groovy guitars, galloping beats and big juicy saxophones behind her, these California-via-Louisiana rock’n’rollers create a totally righteous knees-up with One Massive Hit.
46. Sparks - Gonna Do Things My Own Way
Perennially young and excitable at heart, the Mael brothers press on with their roaring latter-day renaissance on this brilliantly head-swirling, singular maelstrom (sorry…) of acerbic art rock.
45. Hollow Souls feat Elles Bailey - Burn It To The Ground
Kris Barras’s rainy-day project is rapidly gaining traction, and bringing in his old circuit-mate Elles Bailey was a smart move, shucking another slug of kerosene onto the cowboy-rock of Burn It To The Ground, on which “she absolutely nailed the vocal,” he says.
44. Battlesnake - The Fathers Of Iron Flesh
By the Aussie band’s own admission, the reaction to them showing up to support Smashing Pumpkins in Ghost-style cleric regalia was: “What the fuck is this?” But Battlesnake have the tunes, especially this one, with a frenetic harmony-guitar break that will make you a fan.
43. Black Eyed Sons - Cowboys In Pinstriped Suits
A heartfelt, unexpectedly tender tribute to the glitter-booted forefathers of yore, Cowboys In Pinstriped Suits finds the Black Eyed Sons in harmonious cahoots with Joe Elliott – glam rock’s proudest advocate if ever there was one.
42. Mother Vulture - Phoenix
Bristol’s Mother Vulture kick their livewire vibe up a gear on this soaring, oomphy newbie. In one sense, it’s a healthy nod to their classic roots (guitarist Brodie Maguire was once Angus in an AC/DC tribute band), but with its angular alt-rock verse grooves and beats, offset by a moody, anthemic backdrop in the chorus, it all just seems to punch that bit harder and higher than their previous work.
41. The Sheepdogs - Nobody Like You
Go figure, but one of the year’s best southern rock songs came by way of Saskatchewan, Canada. With its good-ol’-boy riffing and brown-sound chorus, frontman Ewan Currie calls this “the sound of windows down in your Trans-Am and the optimism of a long weekend”.
40. Creeping Jean - Spice Rack
You’d have forgiven Rival Sons if they’d been cowering in the wings over the summer as these Brighton rockers overstepped their support-band status. Creeping Jean deliver on record, too, with this breakneck single stinging like a speck of chilli powder in the eye.
39. The Inspector Cluzo - As Stupid As You Can
This deliciously incensed, grungy slice of 2025 album Less Is More – with a video shot on their farm in Gascony, hay bales and geese included – offers an appetising peek at what’s inside. Expect ragged yet tight, laser-focused riffage, roaring vocals and fiery attacks on the rampant materialism and screen-gazing habits endemic to today. Socially astute but absolutely rocking with it. Their live shows are brilliant, well worth catching when you can.
38. Luke Spiller - Love Will Probably Kill Me Before Cigarettes And Wine
Even if The Struts don’t do it for you, the solo debut from frontman Luke Spiller demands investigation. This title track is the obvious jump-off, its cinematic swoop evoking Scott Walker, Rufus Wainwright and a less-seedy Serge Gainsbourg.
37. When Rivers Meet - Break Free
Sometimes all you need is a four-to-the-floor thud and an escapist manifesto. “Break Free is about those times when everything feels overwhelming,” Aaron Bond says of this single from Addicted To You. “It’s about finding the strength to push through the chaos.”
36. Die Spitz - Throw Yourself To The Sword
Austin foursome Die Spitz got together after watching Mötley Crüe biopic The Dirt and deciding they needed to start a band. Built on a monstrously thick, dirty gallop of distorted riffage (part Metallica, part stoner basement club losing its mind to Black Sabbath), its tone is old-school in one sense but the overall effect is brilliantly vibey and kind of timeless.
35. Buckcherry - Roar Like Thunder
The title track of their latest album, Roar Like Thunder is the sound of Buckcherry doing what they do best these days: straight-up rock’n’roll with a buzzy, infectious melody and enough slick yet biting AC/DC-hued riffage to put a smile on the most of sullen of faces. “Roar Like Thunder rocks from beginning to end,” frontman Josh Todd said of the full album. “It grooves, it thumps, and there is subject matter in each song everyone can relate to. Strap in and enjoy the ride.”
34. Eureka Machines - Everything
It’s always good to know that we can count on Chris Catalyst and his fellow Machines to deliver glowing, nuanced pop-rock tonic for the soul like this. By turns pumped and tender, fizzing and dreamy, Everything is sort of music that looks at life honestly, and still makes it all feel that bit brighter.
33. Smith/Kotzen - White Noise
“People on their mobiles, it’s kind of like brainwashing,” Adrian Smith grumbled, about the impetus behind this lead single from his and Richie Kotzen’s 2025 album – and the route-one anthemics of White Noise might just turn the lost generation back on to the Luddite joys of wood and wire.
32. Helloween - This Is Tokyo
Touring Japan with late-80s band Pink Cream 69, Andi Deris resolved to one day write a song about the experience. A lifetime later, with its shakuhachi intro and awestruck-sounding backing vocals, This Is Tokyo nails the vibe of a wide-eyed fish out of water.
31. Wytch Hazel - I Lament
Don’t write them off as ‘Christian rock’. Wytch Hazel’s baptism-ready stage garb, hefty crucifixes and faith-based lyrics belie a bona fide powerhouse whose Lizzy-tight twin-guitar harmonies on this standout from V: Lamentations will rock believers and heretics alike.
30. Nine Inch Nails - As Alive As You Need Me To Be
Sci-fi dud Tron: Ares stunk out cinemas in October. But the saving grace was Nine Inch Nails’ shuddering bio-mechanical soundtrack, with robot-funk highlight As Alive As You Need Me To Be perfect for revving a Light Cycle through the steel and neon of a dystopian megacity.
29. The Southern River Band - Don’t Take It To Heart
All lightly crunched major chords and just-quit-your-job momentum, it’s clinically impossible to hate on the Aussies’ Easier Said Than Done offcut. “Metaphorically speaking,” considers Cal Kramer, “it’s about sticking your finger in an electrical socket, knowing full well you’re gonna get shocked.”
28. Biffy Clyro - True Believer
Don’t bow your head: this sweet/sour galloper from the alt.rock Scots isn’t about organised religion, but about backing yourself when life puts you on the ropes. ‘Have faith in yourself,’ urges frontman Simon Neil, ‘and the people you love.’
27. Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown - Bloodshot Baby
It’s a shame Lemmy isn’t around to hear Bloodshot Baby, which comes on like prime-time 1950s proto-rock shot through the prism of the world’s nastiest fuzz pedal. “It’s our tip of the hat to Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee…” says Bryant. If you don’t like this, you’re reading the wrong website.
26. Skindred - You Got This
Feeling a little off today? You heard Benji Webbe – you got this. Opening the case for their next album, due in 2026, You Got This won us over oh so easily, its groove so heavy yet sassy it’s literally impossible to not feel good listening to it.
25. Castle Rat - Wizard
Fantasy and heaviosity collided headlong on these New Yorkers’ campaign-starter for The Bestiary, with a drop-tuned gallop like the thundering hooves of a centaur, and a video beamed direct from a Dungeons & Dragons fan’s wet dream.
24. Danko Jones - Everyday Is Saturday Night
I mean, it’s not rocket science - the vibe of this piece of Danko’s latest album, Leo Rising, is pretty much nailed in the title. Happily the song itself kicks just as much no-bullshit hard rock’n’roll arse as you’d hope.
23. Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts - Troubled Paradise
‘Rock is dead’, ‘they don’t make rock’n’rollers like they used to,’ ‘blah blah blah’ … except they do, and Tuk Smith is living proof – as is the gorgeous, heartwarming title track of his latest EP attests. Think Thin Lizzy leather and grit, with a bittersweet chorus worth crying and then rejoicing over. Sublime twin-lead bridge section, too.
22. Skunk Anansie - An Artist Is An Artist
Latest album The Painful Truth opens with Skin ramming the listener up against the wall and reminding us that, menopause be damned, you’ll never sate her hunger for self-expression. A peculiar square-peg synth banger, it’s the perfect setup for the Britrockers’ most experimental album yet.
21. Whiskey Myers - Time Bomb
Texan firebrands Whiskey Myers have always had a layer of grit in their songs that’s resonated with massive audiences in the States. This year they cooked all that up in Time Bomb – a mammoth rootsy banger with at least as much of a footing in Rolling Stones-esque rock’n’roll as the cowboy-booted steps of their countrymen.
20. Halestorm - Darkness Always Wins
A cinematic slow-burner packed with moody details and twists that build with Mastodon-meets-Led Zeppelin intensity, Darkness Always Wins planted Halestorm in new territory, shot through with the melodic sincerity that’s connected them with so many people. “Darkness Always Wins is not a song of hope, nor is it a song of despair,” Lzzy Hale says. “It is reality. History repeating.”
19. De’Wayne - June
Ready to break moulds (“I’m trying to put a little bit of something into rock music”), genre-mulching Texan De’Wayne telegraphed his talent with this synthy ode to the dizzy fizz of a night on the tiles with a girl who could be The One. A charismatic peak in an album (also called June) chock-full of summer bangers.
18. H.E.A.T - Running To You
Billed in fittingly gung-ho fashion as “a euphoric ode to relentless passion”, Running To You is H.E.A.T at their most H.E.A.T-esque – all galloping 80s hard rock bravado complete with flame jets, big-ass chorus, monster guitar crunch, just the right amount of twiddly soloing and more wide-eyed synth energy than is probably legal. We live in a strange world, but H.E.A.T are here to make it feel like a simpler time.
17. Ghost - Satanized
Forget the horror stylings of new frontman Papa V Perpetua and you could blast Satanized on the school run. “It’s a song about being in love,” clarifies Tobias Forge, “and how that can potentially be mistaken as demonic possession.”
16. Larkin Poe - Easy Love Pt 1
Stick around for Easy Love Pt 2 and you’ll find the Lovell sisters unpacking the “sombre” late stages of a relationship. But first comes Pt 1’s roadhouse-ready groove, its lyrics all wandering eyes and hands (‘There’s something about a man with a guitar that really turns my head’).
15. Those Damn Crows - Dreaming
You wouldn’t call God Shaped Hole a ‘happy’ album – Shane Greenhall chose the title as he surveyed the socio-political tumult around us – but Dreaming feels like a moment of respite, its soft-focus glimmer evoking Stone Temple Pilots at their lushest and loveliest.
14. Alter Bridge - Silent Divide
Bursting straight out of the starting blocks in a blaze of beef, groove and glory, Myles, Mark, Scott and Brian conjure flavours of their early days on this first taste of the next Alter Bridge album – set for release in January 2026. Simultaneously heavyweight and super light on its feet, with a big heart-singing chorus.
13. Robert Plant - Everybody’s Song
While there’s a dusting of Kashmir’s spices in this jangle-drone cover of the cult Low track, Everybody’s Song, from Robert Plant's self-titled Saving Grace album, this isn’t Zeppelin-lite, but the work of a career artist still forging ahead. “I’m too long in the tooth to piss about in the shallow end,” Plant told us.
12. Mirador - Blood And Custard
Fast friends Jake Kiszka – stepping out from the Greta Van Fleet sphere – and Ida Mae’s Chris Turpin really should have scheduled a single release for this walloping highlight from Mirador’s self-titled debut. Chew on a piece of their custard pie.
11. Joe Bonamassa - Drive By The Exit Sign
One of Joe’s grooviest, sassiest tracks yet – built on a juicy hook that’ll have you reaching for a guitar, whether or not you play – Drive By The Exit Sign mixes his blues vocabulary with southern-sizzled slide lines and a rock’n’roll feel that we got on board with very readily.
10. His Lordship - I Fly Planes Into Hurricanes
Two minutes and it’s all over. But what a two minutes. This breakneck bone shaker from James Walborne and Kristoffer Sonne extracts the DNA from a ’77-era droplet of Johnny Rotten’s spittle then turns it into something fresh and vital.
9. Joanne Shaw Taylor - Hold Of My Heart
Take your pick: the slide-decorated Black & Gold original, or the stripped-back and even more confessional unplugged version released on Acoustic Sessions. Either way, it’s prime JST, driven by a hard-hammered guitar and that undimmed all-spit, no-polish vocal. Our favourite from this year’s first-class Black & Gold record.
8. Alice Cooper - Wild Ones
Originally drafted back in the 80s, this standout from The Revenge Of Alice Cooper was envisaged by its co-writer, Alice Cooper Band bassist Dennis Dunaway, as “an anthem for bikers [like] Steppenwolf’s Born To Be Wild”. The riders might be a little older now, but the engine still roars.
7. The Black Keys - Man On A Mission
The Black Keys are no longer the scraddedy-arsed bluesers we met back in the post-millennium. But they’ll still show you flashes of fuzz and fury, and louche kerb-crawl anthem Man On A Mission is the kind of tune you’d hear throbbing inside a Dodge Blacktop with tinted windows.
6. Creeper - Headstones
The Southampton shadowmen waited until Halloween to release Sanguivore II: Mistress Of Death, and this was a roaring highlight in an album concept billed by frontman Will Gould as “a vampire rock band on a tour soaked in violence and excess”.
5. The Hives - Enough Is Enough
The Hives do their turbocharged, garage-rock-on-steroids thing in excelsis on this highlight from The Hives Forever Forever The Hives. Theirs is a formula that just works, and they know it. Everything to like and nothing to dislike.
4. The Darkness - Rock And Roll Party Cowboy
You’d have to be a joyless husk to resist this lampooning of the rock scene by Justin Hawkins and co. From Zippos and aviators to Marlboros and Marshalls, no cliché goes unskewered.
3. Mammoth - The End
We could have picked any number of tracks from Wolfgang Van Halen’s excellent third album The End, but the title track is just awesome on multiple levels. The thrilling, punchy energy! The soaring melody! The 40-second tapping solo! All the zombies (a bloodthirsty Myles Kennedy included) in the video!
2. Cheap Trick - The Riff That Won’t Quit
When you’ve got five necks on your guitar – like Rick Nielsen has – a classic riff is bound to fall off one of them eventually. Its parent album might be titled All Washed Up, but this headbanger suggests a hungry garage band awaiting their big break. Irresistible.
1. Steven Wilson - Objects Outlive Us
At 23 minutes, this opus from Classic Rock’s Album of 2025 The Overview (i.e. side one) might be the longest Track of the Year entry we’ve ever had (the video excerpt, below, is a mere six-and-a-half). But what a ride; from its high, haunting first notes through to a darkened conclusion, Objects Outlive Us takes the listener on a journey through deep space via blissed out Floydian sensibilities, atmospheric electronics, big rock guitars, killer soloing from Randy McStine, kitchen-sink vignettes from XTC lyricist-in-chief Andy Partridge and gnarly moments that call to mind the heavier and twisted ends of Wilson’s catalogue. Truly immersive. Shoots for the stars in more senses than one, and slips down a treat in the process. Worth every minute.
