Welcome back to The Elite Extremophile’s Best of 2025 week. Here, I am highlighting the top EPs from last year. This list in particular has always been a somewhat squishy column. My general rule of thumb on separating EPs from LPs is if it’s over or under 30 minutes. However, there are occasional exceptions. This year I have chosen seven…

Welcome to the first installment of The Elite Extremophile’s Best of 2025! Today, I’m starting off with Cool Songs. Tomorrow will feature the Top EPs, and the Top Albums will follow on Wednesday and Thursday. Before we get to it, let me give my usual Best-Of disclaimers. This is a one-man operation, in regard to writing the reviews. (My proofreaders Kelci and Dan are very helpful.) I’m sure there was plenty of great music I just simply missed.

Band: Doom Gong | Album: Megagong | Genre: Psychedelic rock | Bandcamp Doom Gong’s latest record is by turns exhilarating and idyllic. The band nimbly alternates between speedy instrumental antics and moments of lush abstraction. In general, the tempo is upbeat, and the easiest stylistic comparison here would be King Gizzard. These guys have a bit more fuzz to them, often channeling Ty Segall and Ty Segall-adjacent acts, like Wand or Fuzz.

Band: Humming Whales | Album: Chasing Rabbits | Genre: Progressive metal | Bandcamp The debut album from this Finnish quartet is a highly melodic brand of proggy alt-metal. The riffs are powerful, and the vocals are strong. The band demonstrates a strong ear for catchy melodies. There are a few moments in the second half of the album I’m not nuts about; the overly-pop-infused “Ocular” and the butt-rock influenced “Rover” are the main culprits.

Artist: Gianni Carlin | Album: In nessun luogo | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp In nessun luogo features a mildly-lo-fi sound, but it works well. Flute is always prominent, providing some great, breathy contrast to the fat and rubbery bass that underpins much of the music. The songwriting is overall solid, though the 21-minute album opener is a bit unfocused at moments.

Band: Ábrete Gandul | Album: Suciedad Contemporánea | Genre: Progressive rock | Listen This instrumental release heavily incorporates jazz and classical elements into its compositions. Reed and wind instruments can be found among the many slinking themes present here. Things swell and retreat fluidly, and there are a lot of great tonal and textural choices. While I enjoy it overall, this isn't the most distinctive record.

Band: creamcheese | Album: schallplatte | Genre: Psychedelic rock, Post-rock | Bandcamp The new record from this one-man instrumental act draws quite heavily from Pink Floyd. Drifting rhythms and wavering guitars float about, occasionally interrupted by sharper tones. Acoustic guitar is deployed for the occasional bit of earthiness, balancing out this record's more astral moments. “Maha Nakhom” sees creamcheese dabble in some semi-electronic Ozric Tentacles worship, for a nice change of pace.

Artist: William Covert | Album: Dream Vessel | Genre: Post-rock, Drone | Bandcamp Drone is a genre that I largely dislike but do occasionally dabble in. When I run across a drone artist that I do enjoy, it’s usually because they’ve melded those influences with something else. With Neptunian Maximalism, they married drone with heavy, experimental metal. And with William Covert, he has blended it with post-rock and avant-garde jazz.

Band: Agabas | Album: Hard Anger | Genre: Progressive metal | Bandcamp The title of Agabas’s latest record is quite fitting. This record is heavy, hard-hitting, and angry as hell. The riffs are punishing, lashing the listener’s ears. There’s a neverending sense of forward momentum, with almost no breathing room. Everything here is maximal, with shouted vocals, pummeling guitars, and squalling saxophone filling up every available inch of auditory space.

Band: Gros Coeur | Album: Vague Scélérate | Genre: Krautrock, Progressive rock | Year: 2025 From: Liege, Belgium | Label: Spinda Records For fans of: King Gizzard, Wand, Mother’s Cake Bandcamp Gros Coeur is a band out of Belgium, and Vague Scélérate (Eng.: Rogue Wave) is their sophomore release. Belgium isn’t exactly some hotbed of prog; to my recollection, …

Band: Stinkbug | Album: Between Timid and Timbuktu | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2025 From: Portland, (OR,) USA | Label: Independent For fans of: Yes, Yezda Urfa, K’mono Bandcamp Stinkbug is a prime example of why I like going to live music. I discovered them about five days ago (at time of writing) when I went to see Dust Mice…

Band: Coroner | Album: Dissonance Theory | Genre: Progressive thrash metal | Year: 2025 From: Zurich, Switzerland | Label: Century Media For fans of: Voivod, Dark Angel, Vektor Bandcamp As I’ve noted before, progressive thrash is currently one of the less-popular varieties of metal out there. A few bands still carry the torch (like Vektor and Anarchÿ), but black, death, and sludge bands are much more likely to fold progressive elements into their music.

Band: El Castillo de Barbazul | Album: Sobre Finales | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp This Mexican instrumental quartet has a rather fun, loose, and noisy air about them. The music is complex and chaotic, and it’s shot through with influences from some of prog’s odder micro-genres, like zeuhl and the Canterbury sound. Some songs on this album are absolutely longer than they need to be, but the band’s unbridled enthusiasm always shines through.

Band: Lazersleep | Album: Gravity | Genre: Heavy psych, Space rock | Year: 2025 From: Helsinki, Finland | Label: Svart Records For fans of: Elder, Pink Floyd Bandcamp Lazersleep is a band that wholeheartedly embraces textures and sonic effects as practically instruments unto themselves. They play a variety of psychedelia awash in phasers, flangers, wahs, and more, all in service of building up powerful atmospheres.

Band: Syrinx | Album: Time Out of Place | Genre: Progressive rock, Heavy metal | Bandcamp From: Vancouver, Canada | Label: Ocula Records For fans of: Rush, Queensrÿche, Iron Maiden Bandcamp After six years, Vancouver’s Syrinx is back with their sophomore album. Their 2019 debut, Embrace the Dark - Seek the Light blended classic heavy metal with progressive rock to make one of my favorite releases of that year.

Band: Between the Buried and Me | Album: The Blue Nowhere | Genre: Progressive metal | Year: 2025 From: Raleigh, USA | Label: InsideOut Music Bandcamp Four years after Colors II, Between the Buried and Me has returned with their twelfth studio album, The Blue Nowhere. The band’s Bandcamp claims that this is the band’s “most [...] eclectic record yet”.

Band: Cheer-Accident | Album: Admission | Genre: Avant-prog, Progressive pop | Bandcamp Super-prolific Chicagoans Cheer-Accident are back with their 26th full-length release. This album has a more electronic feel than most of their releases. It’s still rooted in oddball, angular progressive rock, but the synths help smooth out some edges. Coupled with some smart and infectious melodies, I would rank this as among the band’s best.

Band: Cardiacs | Album: LSD | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2025 From: Salisbury, UK | Label: Alphabet Business Concern Bandcamp Cardiacs is a band I’ve mentioned a number of times on this site. For anyone unfamiliar with them, they are one of the most singular and unique progressive rock bands ever. Their early material blended the energy of punk rock with proggy ambition, which occasionally earned them the genre tag “pronk.” And as their career progressed, bandleader Tim Smith’s musical ambitions grew, culminating in 1996’s masterpiece, …

Band: Phantom Spell | Album: Heather & Hearth | Genre: Progressive rock, Hard rock, Heavy metal | Year: 2025 From: Murcia, Spain | Label: Wizard Tower For fans of: Wishbone Ash, Uriah Heep, Queensryche Bandcamp Phantom Spell is the solo project of Kyle McNeill, a guitarist for the power metal band Seven Sisters. There are certainly throughlines between these two acts, but Phantom Spell takes a decidedly 1970s-influenced path in their music.

Band: WEEED | Albums: Green Roses Vol. II, Mushroom, WEEED | Genre: Psychedelic rock, Psychedelic folk, Krautrock | Year: 2025 From: Portland, USA | Label: Photon Records For fans of: King Gizzard, Mondo Drag, Weedpecker Bandcamp (Green Roses Vol. II) | Bandcamp (Mushroom) | Bandcamp (WEEED) WEEED, a favorite local band of mine, recently decided to call it quits.

Band: Tropical Fuck Storm | Album: Fairyland Codex | Genre: Art punk, Experimental rock | Year: 2025 From: Melbourne, Australia | Label: Fire Records For fans of: Squid, black midi, Cardiacs, Fuzz Bandcamp Tropical Fuck Storm is an Australian quartet that has been around since 2017, but I ran across them only recently. Their style is a little tough to define, but I think the genre tags I used above are pretty accurate.

Band:  Jordsjø & Breidablik | Album: Kontraster | Genre: Progressive rock, Progressive folk, Krautrock | Bandcamp Norwegian bands Jordsjø and Breidablik team up on this album to each deliver one epic apiece, fittingly titled “Kontraster” (“Contrasts”). Jordsjø’s composition is some of their best music in a long time, featuring a thrilling mix of classic prog that filters the influences of Genesis and King Crimson through their Norse folk-tinged lens.

Band: Changeling | Album: Changeling | Genre: Progressive death metal | Year: 2025 From: Berlin, Germany | Label: Season of Mist For fans of: Opeth, Death, Cynic, Between the Buried and Me Bandcamp Changeling is a quartet made up of people with deep experience in the death metal world. Bandleader Tom Geldschläger has played with Obscura and Belphegor, among others, and the other three members have ties to acts such as Fear Factory, Virvum, and Dark Fortress.

Band: Liquid Pennies | Album: Fore | Genre: Progressive rock, Psychedelic rock | Year: 2025 From: Saint Petersburg, USA | Label: Threat Collection Records For fans of: Zechs Marquise, WEEED, Osees Bandcamp Liquid Pennies is a Floridian psych-rock trio that dabbles in many genres. Their sound incorporates elements of progressive rock, electronica, post-punk, and more. This multifaceted approach lends their records a varied, exciting quality where the listener is never quite certain what’s coming next.

Band: Fer de Lance | Album: Fires on the Mountainside | Genre: Progressive metal, Power metal | Year: 2025 From: Chicago, USA | Label: Cruz del Sur Music For fans of: Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, Wytch Hazel, Rainbow Bandcamp Power metal and classic heavy metal are styles of music that show up on my site every now and then but never with a ton of frequency.