The 32 moments that defined 2025

It’s been a hell of a year, hasn’t it? We’ve already touched on the slew of stupendous, shitty and downright surreal world events in the intro to our best albums of 2025 countdown, but even narrowing focus to the musical realm, there’s been a lot going on. From TikTok getting briefly banned in the United States and Beyoncé becoming the first black woman to pick up the GRAMMY for Best Country Album, to Drake attempting a defamation lawsuit against Universal Music and Kendrick Lamar spectacularly clapping back on the Super Bowl halftime show, there was almost too much to take in. And that all went down before we were midway through February!

Rocking is our business, though, and there was plenty of action in the world of cranked amps, shredded throats and smashed guitars to keep us scribbling. New arrivals. Legends resurrected. Victories won. Spectacular fails. Gods of the genre waving their final farewells. So without further ado, Kerrang! presents the our comprehensive review of the 32 moments that rocked 2025…

Back when Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine were first breaking through, the thought that they might one day unite for a superpowers-style arena co-headline tour would have had fans circle-pitting themselves into a frenzy. Celebrating 20 years of their classic albums Ascendancy and The Poison with full-album play-throughs, the reality was even better than we could’ve imagined, with an explosive first night at Cardiff’s Utilita Arena on January 26 paving the way for one of the best tours of the year. Yes, the wheels would come off in May with dates cancelled in Latin America, Australia and New Zealand. But while it was on the road, Poisoned Ascendancy was a vicious nostalgia trip.

• “We were part of something very special – it felt like something new”: How BFMV and Trivium captured lightning in a bottle

First announcing that they’d be calling it a day back in May 2023, it was a long goodbye from pop-punk icons Sum 41. From festival headlines and arena tours to 2024’s infernally good farewell album Heaven :x: Hell, the fanfare seemed to be endless – and utterly deserved. There was even that weird moment last year where fans were convinced that frontman Deryck Whibley would be taking over vocals for Linkin Park. As The Tour Of The Setting Sum rolled into Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena for its final nights on January 28 and 30, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house, with Still Waiting and In Too Deep somehow even more poignant after two decades of hard rotation.

• “What a life. What a ride. What a wild time”: Here’s the setlist from Sum 41’s final show

The hills of Los Angeles were burning back in January. As some of the worst Californian wildfires in living memory turned The City Of Angels into a nightmarish hellscape, homes were destroyed, thousands were displaced and hundreds of lives were lost. Racing to contribute in any way they could, the star-studded local music fraternity arranged a massive Fire Aid benefit concert for January 30 across both the Kia Forum and Intuit Dome featuring Green Day, Gwen Stefani and Red Hot Chili Peppers alongside the likes of Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Rod Stewart, Stevie Knicks and Sting, helping to raise a massive $100 million to get the community back on its feet.

“We’re here with rock royalty, Poppy… No, you are. Hey, you got nominated against Judas Priest and Metallica!” In one of the year’s most hilariously cringe-inducing moments, Spiritbox vocalist Courtney LaPlante – also nominated in the Best Metal Performance category – was stopped by an over-enthusiastic red carpet reporter at the GRAMMYs, who was convinced she was actually fellow nominee Poppy. Rather than getting worked up, Courtney just dryly rolled with it. “Yes, I am Poppy and I am really happy to be here nominated with Knocked Loose. I really hope we win!” Incredible.

Ithaca were always going to flame out rather than fade away, but seeing one of the loudest, proudest heavy British bands of the modern era remove themselves from the spotlight was still a wrenching experience. The Cremation Party at London’s O2 Academy Islington on February 8 was the official farewell: a fiery last headline performance in a venue that felt like home. In a welcome surprise, May 20’s self-titled final song followed. Then the last show proper on August 15 saw them tearfully bring the house down under the setting summer sun at ArcTanGent. “We’ve fulfilled more than our wildest dreams could have imagined in terms of where this band would take us,” read a band statement. “Now, we’re ready to put it to rest.” Here’s to a well earned lie down.

• After 12 years, my metalcore band are breaking up – here’s what we learned

When letlive. announced their sudden disbandment on April 28, 2017, citing a “divergence in views and aims”, it hit fans like a bolt from the blue. So much so that belief was always harboured that one of the greatest bands of their generation would return, even if it was just to properly say goodbye. Announced on February 12 and brought into reality March 30 at Anaheim’s (since shut-down) Chain Reaction, the reality of that goodbye circuit exceeded expectations. After the cancellation of FEVER 333’s 2024 world tour due to frontman Jason Aalon’s struggle with depression, some fans wondered which version of the firebrand we were going to get, but his stage-climbing, show-stopping appearance at 2000trees proved he’s burning brighter than ever.

• “It’s walking through the pain as safely as possible with each other”: Inside the complex, chaotic return of letlive.

Ghost mainman Tobias Forge had hinted that the dark papal shtick was growing tired before the announcement of his band’s excellent sixth album Skeletá. With the hype around 2024’s Oscar-nominated Conclave and, er, the inauguration of the actual Catholic church’s new Pope Leo XIV on May 9, the next Papa could’ve struggled to hog the limelight. Doubling-down, however, with white smoke – like that which would follow from the Sistine Chapel – billowing from a billboard in Las Vegas on March 5 to announce the end of their ‘Sin City council’, Ghost’s introduction of the batty Papa V Perpetua felt like ultimate statement: the rise of a leader who might rule forever.

• Ghost: “I’m a misanthrope, I hate people, but I also believe in miracles”

Another act who’d been on their farewell run for over a year, You Me At Six capped off their grand goodbye in fitting style with two massive final shows on April 3-4, 2025, at the OVO Arena Wembley in London. After eight albums, numerous world tours, huge festival appearances, and a pair of UK Number One albums, Josh Franceschi, Max Helyer, Chris Miller, Matt Barnes and Dan Flint were bowing out at the peak of their powers. And these last two engagements on the Final Nights Of Six world tour delivered more than enough treacly nostalgia, pyrotechnic bombast, heightened melancholia and downright cheekiness to do them justice. Thanks for the memories!

• You Me At Six: “This is a celebration, for us, and for the fans... I’m so grateful we’re doing it our way”

Hyperbole was a hell of a thing on bands’ social media in 2025. But when System Of A Down posted drone footage of their show on May 15 at Sao Paolo’s 75,000-cap Autódromo de Interlagos to Instagram with the caption “This is not a war zone, this is not a riot, this is a System Of A Down style Rock & Roll concert in Brazil!!!!!!!” they were not fucking around. In scenes that could only ever really have come from South America, dozens of burning flares were spinning around circle-pits throughout the crowd, as the band launched into the finale of Toxicity. “If you’ve noticed, we don’t have pyro on the stage,” roars Daron Malakian. “But our fans bring the fucking fire…” Quite.

Sharing much of the same pop-punk-meets-metalcore flavour of their own Self Help fests, Slam Dunk Festival had long felt like the natural hunting ground for A Day To Remember. Having seen stand-alone headline shows at Hatfield and Leeds cancelled due to COVID in 2020, though, the Ocala renegades would be more than two decades into their careers by the time they finally arrived on May 24-25, 2025. That just meant they had buckets more to throw at the tens of thousands turning out. “Are you ready to make some new fucking memories?” Jeremy McKinnon demanded mid-set. Turned out we made plenty, yeah, after the throbbing concussions wore off.

• A Day To Remember: “We’re always chasing that moment that connects with people on a deep level”

Rock’n’roll thirst-traps aren’t exactly a new development, but the sheer big-dick boldness of All-American Rejects frontman Tyson Ritter announcing the launch of his OnlyFans on June 4 was something else. Of course, fully-clothed celeb content has become commonplace on the platform in recent years and the singer’s tease of “full frontal rock’n’roll with all access” practically gave away that it was all a stunt to launch new single Easy Come Easy Go from AAR’s upcoming sixth album Sandbox. But the decision to title the clip Easy Cum Easy Go on OF was a nice touch.

Fans of all things fast and heavy faced a cruel dilemma on the second weekend of June this year. As has been tradition for over two decades, Download Festival would be taking over Donington Park. But due to scheduling snarl-ups, renowned hardcore gathering Outbreak would be shifting to the same weekend. Not just that, but the festival would be splitting with two days at its spiritual home of Bowlers Exhibition Centre in Manchester and one on June 13 at Victoria Park in London. Fans turning their nose up at the notion of a one-dayer in the capital soon changed their minds after headliners Turnstile were announced, roaring in off the back of massive fourth album NEVER ENOUGH. Safe to say, the explosion of sound and colour was Turnstile Summer at its max.

• Live review: Turnstile, Outbreak Fest London

Download weren’t shirking with the game-changing headliners either, mind. Not content with bringing in two legends who’d never headlined before in Green Day and Korn, new head promoter Kamran Haq took a gamble on granting Sleep Token their first-ever major festival headline on Saturday, June 14. Arriving off the back of the smoother, poppier sounds of fourth album Even In Arcadia, you had to wonder whether Vessel and co. had the heft to prove themselves as bona fide Monsters Of Rock. But with a setlist skewing to the heavier end of their catalogue, spectacularly pink-petalled production and an actual waterfall spilling down the middle of the stage, they delivered something special that felt less like a culmination than a new beginning…

• What happened when Sleep Token headlined Download Festival 2025

Not content with just one masked phenomenon grabbing all the hype, Download was also the first stop on the campaign trail for mysterious post-metallers PRESIDENT. Name-dropped on the poster before anyone had a clue who they were and eventually introduced by a rubbery-masked leader as a “DIY project” to ask deep and uncomfortable questions of its members and the listening electorate, they were a hard act to get your head around. But that just meant that the Dogtooth marquee was rammed far beyond capacity with those trying to figure it all out when they finally stepped into the light. Excellent first EP King Of Terrors presented more questions than answers when it arrived in September, so expect the Watergate-level of intrigue to run and run.

• PRESIDENT: “I’ve sat with these feelings for a long f*cking time… Writing these songs takes a lot out of me”

It wasn’t just UK fans getting their festival fix in 2025, with the United States receiving a three-legged, 30th anniversary celebration of Warped Tour beginning on June 14-15 in Washington, D.C., before hitting Long Beach, California on July 26-27, and Orlando, Florida on November 15-16. Unlike in the glory days where a (mostly) unchanged line-up would bounce from city to city as a sort of rolling caravan of chaos, these were distinctly separate events, with only a few bands performing at all three. Still, packing a stack big names like Avril Lavigne, Asking Alexandria and Bowling For Soup on each date, there was no shortage of fun to dive into.

Deftones have been notable in their absence over the last few years. With British bands from Sleep Token to Loathe, Boston Manor and Architects tipping their hats to the alt. metal legends, it was remarkable that they’d only played Download 2022 and a small show at the O2 Kentish Town Forum on these shores since 2018. Unsurprisingly, their grand return was a Very Big Deal. Selling out a massive headline at London’s 25,000-cap Crystal Palace Park on June 29 as well as Halifax’s Piece Hall on June 24 and Cornwall’s Eden sessions on June 26, Chino Moreno and the gang looked and sounded their best in years. Tenth album Private Music followed on August 22. Tantalisingly, they’ve got a jam-packed arena run and more summer shows in the calendar for 2026…

• Deftones: “A lot more people are expecting things from us now, but that pressure is good”

Linkin Park finally arriving at, and promptly selling out, London’s 75,000-cap Wembley Stadium was a big enough story to make this list in and of itself – especially with firecracker new vocalist Emily Armstrong in tow. So, too, was the mighty Iron Maiden playing for a similar number of fans at their biggest-ever home country headline at West Ham’s massive London Stadium. The fact that both those shows took place across town from each other on the very same day (June 28) was more than remarkable, though, and was overwhelming proof that heavy music in the UK is a bigger draw than ever before.

• Live review: Linkin Park, London Wembley Stadium

The Prince Of Darkness deserved an epic final bow, and that’s exactly what he got. Bringing some of the biggest names in the history of heavy metal – Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Tool – as well as 36,000 lucky ticket-holders to Birmingham’s Villa Park on July 5, Back To The Beginning was an event unlike any we’ve seen before. And that was before Ozzy took took the stage properly himself for the first time in almost five years, initially for a five song solo set, then a further four as part of the original Black Sabbath. Heartbreaking news would emerge little more than two weeks later that he had passed away surrounded by family on July 22 at his Welders House estate in Buckinghamshire, but it was tinged by the satisfaction of knowing that he’d said goodbye on his own larger-than-life terms in a way that so few legends are allowed to do.

• Ozzy Osbourne: No ordinary man

YUNGBLUD’s appearance at Back To The Beginning wasn’t announced before he walked onstage at Villa Park, but as he stepped off again after a spine-tingling rendition of Sabbath classic Changes it felt like he might’ve stolen the whole damn show. Coming just a couple of weeks after a better-than-ever second edition of Bludfest, it strapped a rocket to the Doncaster native, introducing him to new generations of fans and sparking a relationship with Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler and superstar six-stringer Nuno Bettencourt that would see them reunite for another Ozzy tribute at September 7’s MTV Awards. A surprise beef with members of The Darkness over ’BLUD’s rock credentials followed, but a further Aerosmith collaboration – November’s One More Time EP – confirmed that his star is still very much on the rise.

• YUNGBLUD: “I needed to get my fight back. I’ve always been a fighter, and I’ve found it again”

Most of the conversation in advance of the Thursday of this year’s uber-stacked 2000trees was focused on the incendiary headline set from controversial Irish rap trio Kneecap, but co-headliners PVRIS were in no mood to be upstaged. Belatedly celebrating 10 years of their beguiling debut White Noise, fans got almost everything from that album, as well as a pick-and-mix demonstration of where they’ve gone since. More importantly, they were introduced to Lynn Gunn the master of ceremonies: clad in black, cool as ice and ready to rule over even bigger stages in the near future.

• PVRIS: “Art makes people happy, and it’s a connecting tool, and it can be used politically. I’m trying to remember that”

Announced in November 2024, Long Live The Black Parade felt like an impossibly epic proposition. My Chemical Romance resurrecting their most iconic album for a run through 12 stadium shows in North America – each city getting a different high profile support like Alice Cooper, Evanescence or Pixies – couldn’t be as insanely awesome as it sounded. Or could it? Kicking off on July 11 at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park, the shows were even better than imagined: 26 songs across two stages re-contextualised around a new dystopian storyline about the liberation of the alien civilisation Draag. European dates have been added in 2026, including three nights at London’s Wembley Stadium, so self-respecting emos should dig out their marching shoes and get pumped.

• MCR: Here’s the setlist from The Black Parade stadium tour

As ‘WTF?!’ album-drops go, Hayley Williams unveiling her 20-track solo record as a surprise batch of singles bundled with a hair dye from her Good Dye Young brand has to be right up there. If anyone could pull it off, mind, it would be the marvellous Ms. Williams. Eventually evolving into the more traditionally-presented Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party, this was an invigoratingly experimental statement from one of the most essential voices in modern alternative, exploring everything from heartbreak and history to the myriad musical influences that make Hayley’s pulse beat. It was brilliant, too, coming in at number four on K!’s list of the albums of the year.

• Album review: Hayley Williams – Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party

If a picture is worth a thousand words, we should probably just link a portrait from the August 5 interview where AFI’s mercurial, chameleonic frontman re-emerged looking like a goth-rock Frank Zappa – all big hair and handlebar moustache – to tease 12th album Silver Bleeds The Black Sun…. Memes were in plentiful supply, depicting the different eras of Davey as both parents and the child in an oddball nuclear family. Rather than just a fresh look, it signalled the next evolution of the Californian heroes, casting off the sharper punk edges of yore to openly bow at the altar of moonlight-dwelling forbears Bauhaus, The Mission and Sisters Of Mercy. Groovy.

• AFI: “I’m sending a message to anyone who wants something more, that you have people out there who are with you”

Tragedy struck close to midnight on August 20 at the corner of Memorial Drive and Boulevard in Atlanta, Georgia. On the back of his beloved Harley-Davidson, notorious Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds – who’d departed the band back in March – collided with a BMW SUV and passed away shortly afterwards aged just 51. An old-fashioned rock renegade with magic in his fingers, mischief on his mind and deep melancholy in his soul, he was among the last of real-life rock stars. Of course, that near-peerless catalogue of classics guarantee his memory will endure. But without Brent, heavy music is a colder, darker place than it was.

• Brent Hinds: 1974 – 2025

Bridging the worlds of radio-friendly high sheen and grittily unsettling heavy music, Bring Me The Horizon’s coronation as outright Reading & Leeds headliners has been a long time coming. Technically, they had co-headlined back in 2022 when they’d closed out Main Stage West before fellow Sheffield natives Arctic Monkeys wrapped up. In 2025 there was no question who had top billing, though, as BMTH brought along heavyweight support from Limp Bizkit and Enter Shikari and closed out the show in an overwhelming storm of angst and attitude. Incredible stuff.

• The big review: Reading & Leeds Festival 2025

‘Can you feel it taking over? I know I'm not alone…’ Courtney LaPlante might have been mistaken for Poppy early in the year, but by September 4 the pair were joining forces alongside Evanescence icon Amy Lee for mega-single End Of You. Produced by Jordan Fish and accompanied by a memorable music video with all three vocalists embracing a similar gothic aesthetic, it became arguably the defining 206-seconds of heavy music in 2025. Even better, it seems to have laid the foundation for Evanescence’s massive 2026 tour, where they’ll be supported by a shifting cast of young acts including Poppy, Spiritbox, Nova Twins and K.Flay in arenas around the world.

• Poppy: “I want to get closer to understanding myself. I think that’s my only responsibility”

As At The Gates wrote back in 1991, All Life Ends. But some losses are crueller than most. When the Swedish melodic death metallers posted to their Facebook on August 15 that a new album was incoming but that frontman Tomas ‘Tompa’ Lindberg had been hospitalised since May after being diagnosed with mouth cancer in late 2023, it was an unexpected shock for fans. Barely a month later, he was gone. A member of numerous other great punk and metal acts like Lock Up, Disfear, Skitsystem and Grotesque, his passing was felt across heavy music, but it’s particularly saddening to think we’ll never again hear his iconic ‘GO!’ from the middle of ATG’s heaving mosh.

In December 1976, Paul Daniel ‘Ace’ Frehley was walking down a flight of steps backstage at a KISS concert in the Lakeland Civic Centre in Florida and gripped a metal railing for balance. The railing was unearthed and a connection was made with the his guitar, electrocuting him and sending him tumbling some distance to the ground. Miraculously recovering, he wrote about the experience on Shock Me for the New York legends’ 1977 album Love Gun. It wasn’t the first or last time Ace would cheat death over a long, chaotic career, but it sadly, eventually caught up with him on October 16. Having somehow transcended KISS to be known as one of the most respected players and showmen of his generation in his own right, the loss was huge. But as the title to his autobiography makes clear, the Space Man left this earthly realm behind with No Regrets.

Waving goodbye and striding offstage at Manchester’s AO Arena on March 10, 2023 on the final night of the Viva Las Vengeance Tour, Panic! At The Disco were supposed to be calling it a day. Mainman Brendon Urie was expecting a child and it was time to focus on family. But what better way to be a cool dad than fronting one of the most extravagant bands in the history of pop-rock? It was a point well proven when Panic! returned in their hometown of Las Vegas for When We Were Young on October 18-19 to celebrate two decades of career-making debut A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out with a full play-through, then a second set of greatest hits – plus plenty of fire and fun chucked in for good measure. The next steps are still to be revealed, but keep your eyes peeled.

• Here’s Panic! At The Disco’s setlist from When We Were Young

Watching Limp Bizkit run riot through UK arenas back in March, they looked like a nu-metal force back at the height of their powers. Even more so when they laid waste to Reading & Leeds in August. Little did we know, however, that R&L would be the final bow for founding bassist Sam Rivers, who passed away aged 48 on October 18. “Today we lost our brother. Our bandmate. Our heartbeat,” the band wrote in a message to fans on Instagram. “Sam Rivers wasn’t just our bass player – he was pure magic. The pulse beneath every song, the calm in the chaos, a the soul in the sound… Rest easy, brother. Your music never ends.” There’s not an awful lot we can add to that.

• “He was a very special, genuine person”: See Fred Durst pay tribute to Sam Rivers

Looking at the other big returns on this list – Panic! At The Disco, letlive., My Chemical Romance – there was always the sense that they were going to come: money left on the table as well as work undone. Almost eight years since Yorkshire firestarters Marmozets last released new music, even 16 months since they announced a record deal with Nettwerk, there was genuine uncertainty over whether they would ever actually come back. That just made it all the sweeter when explosive new single A Kiss From A Mother dropped on Guy Fawkes night and they returned to the stage at the 150-cap Huddersfield Parish on December 1. News on album three will follow soon!

• Marmozets: “We had to fight to get back to where we are now”

Drawn-out farewell tours were all the rage in 2025. Unsurprisingly, Stray From The Path don’t go in for that sort of thing. Talking to guitarist and bandleader Tom Williams about the then-still-to-be-revealed surprise new album Clockworked in April, the band still didn’t know that it would be their last. By the time they were launching vinyl copies from the stage at Slam Dunk, they’d realised the time had come to call it quits. So the run of dates booked through Europe at the end of the year would have extra significance: one last chance for their most fervent fans to turn out and throw down. Emptying the tank at their final show in Bristol on November 28, the message was clear: this is it for SFTP, but fans feeling lost should remember their furious music will live forever.

• Stray From The Path: “The world needs music like this right now, but it takes a lot to actually make it”

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