Here it is, we are finally ready to reveal Mayhem’s Top 50 Albums Of 2025. In past years it has only ever been a top 20, but it was hard to whittle the original list of 60 down to 20, so we kept 50 of them! This is part 1 which covers positions 41 through to 50. Have your favourite albums made the Mayhem cut? Check out the list below and check out parts 2, 3, 4 and 5 which will reveal the rest of the top 50 very soon! very soon! Are you looking forward to the countdown? There will be a 50 song play list when Part 5 arrives! Here comes numbers 41 to 50
41 ‘The Sky, the Earth & All Between’ – Architects – “A metalcore masterpiece from Architects, one of the finest bands in the UK” 42 ‘Music Can Hear Us’ – DJ Koze – “DJ Koze creates music that takes you to a wonderful happy place with some help from his mates!” 43 ‘The Collapse Of Everything’ – Adrian Sherwood – “The Doyen of Dub and the Master of Mixology delivers his opus!” 44 ‘Sad And Beautiful World’ – Mavis Staples – “86 years old and making some of the finest music of her career. I hope I age that well!” 45 ‘Metalhorse’ – Billy Nomates – “An immaculate return to form for Billy Nomates“ 46 ‘A Fine African Man’ – Knucks – “A sizzling sophomore release from ace London rapper Knucks” 47 ‘Faux Animaux’ – Blue Violet – “Their music has a dark and mysterious pop rock style and is loaded with great hooks.“ 48 ‘Lost In Good Intentions’ – Fishing 4 Compliments – “A band that state their intent with passion and fire“ 49 ‘Dreaming In Stereo’ – Jellybricks –“Everyone needs some Jellybricks in their life. Why not build your music house out of Jellybricks?” 50 ‘Naked Truth’ – Autumn Dawn Leader – “If Jim Steinman had ever decided to produce a more considered and less bombastic album than the type he did with Meatloaf and Bonnie Tyler and employed Philip Glass and Brian Eno it might have sounded a little like ‘Naked Truth’.“
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‘Naked Truth’ is the new album from dark, emotional gothic troubadour Autumn Dawn Leader. It is out this Friday, 7th February. Could this be the last release from the Song Mistress? She describes it as “The final album, and the best. This is the magnum opus. This is the legacy. This is the statement of a lifetime and the work of a life“. Personally I hope it isn’t really the end, but in the meantime let me give you my thoughts on ‘Naked Truth’. The album kicks off with “How It Ends” which has a feel of an operatic Siouxse Sioux song with supremely good prog overtones. It is a dark and slow building song and the lyrics are extremely well crafted. Especially the couplet “What began a thought. Is now a beligerent monster.” I have heard many songs about getting old, but none quite as impassioned and brutally honest as “Five Decades”. It was Autumn Dawn Leader turning fifty last year that inspired this track and she said this about it “Life begins at 40′ and other such bullshit that gets said. You’re told that you give less fucks and that you become comfortable and confident in your own skin. Yeah, well, last year saw me turn 50. I’m still waiting. We’re also told that ‘life is short’, and it really, really is NOT.” I agree with much of this, although I do have far less fucks to give now I am 66!
The Songmistress visits her primal force with the magnificent multi-octave epic “Howl” a sound that draws on Kate Bush’s proggiest moments. The emotion is turned up high on this one. At one point in this tune she sings “We howl – and call it music“. Well maybe she does howl but it is a beautiful howl, what a voice! “Howl” is probably my favourite song on this collection. “Up In Smoke” starts with a slow bluesy riff and has a 70s classic rock feel. I know it isn’t about that, but it has made me want to revisit ‘The Mothman Prophecies”. I believe that “The Picayune Dimension” might be the strangest track on the album. Autumn’s deep contralto voice is both mournful and hopeful. The music is full and sometimes choppy. Lyrics like “I take a bus across town to another dimension. I’m not quite sure what I’ve found, nor why I am chosen” add to the sense of strangeness and maybe a vein of foreboding. Picayune, I think, means something of little value or significance. But on listening to this album it is clear that Autumn Dawn Leader has great value and significance. Some songs that talk about sex are often awkward and trite, but “Life Is Unkind (Sex Is Sublime)” is so much more than that. Musically and vocally in places it sounds like a dark Abba from another dimension. It is cinematic in its ambition and needs to be played on the audio equivalent of Imax. Autumn Dawn Leader had this to say about the track, “Unless you are asexual, sex IS a love language and a HEALER. I will die, happily, on this hill. Whether you’re a sex-enthusiast, like me, or not, I hope you’ll enjoy the song. Thanks to all the great artists who added their voices to this sex-positive anthem and made it what it is“.
Chris Conway provides backing vocals and plays magical Theremin on “Slivers & Splinters”. This one made the hairs on the back of my neck rise and tingle. The state of the broken heart is almost palpable. There is a wonderful Latin feel to “I Told The Ravens” and it is probably the happiest track on display here. Autumn apparently loves corvids (a.k.a. the Crow family), especially ravens. I believe that love is very clear on this majestically moving song. The title track, “Naked Truth”, for me speaks of a relationship gone wrong, one that just never worked or a love unrequited. You could slice the exposed emotion on this tune. Have there ever been many songs that openly sing about polyamory? Probably not, but on “Limitless” Autumn Dawn Leader does exactly that. She said this of the song “This is an anthem of Polyamory. Polyamory isn’t about sex; it’s about LOVE. It’s about knowing that you can be in love with more than one person at a time, but instead of hiding it or denying it, you embrace that humans were not meant to be monogamous creatures and there need be no moral wrongness“. The counterpoint vocal from Becky! gives an almost Fleetwood Mac aura. The album closes with the poetic prose and nature sounds of “Splendour”. This could be remixed into an incredible chill out track or maybe even a goth dance anthem. I love this album. If Jim Steinman had ever decided to produce a more considered and less bombastic album than the type he did with Meatloaf and Bonnie Tyler and employed Philip Glass and Brian Eno it might have sounded a little like ‘Naked Truth’. If you love great music give this album a try!
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I was initially attracted by the whole concept of the Blackheart Orchestra given the myriad of ways in which they have been described online; acoustically electronic and a duo that sounds like an eight-piece band. I was even more intrigued to discover that this gig was to be a very intimate all-seated show. So, what was the Blackheart Orchestra like? Read on dear readers I need to tell you about the support act first. She is called Autumn Dawn Leader and yes that is her real name. Her music is impassioned, passionate, and emotional electronic folk. Musically, on some songs, I felt a hint of the more ambient elements of ‘Low’ period David Bowie (with Brian Eno). Her more classical piano sound on other songs made me think of Philip Glass. Vocally I felt that Autumn has some Siouxse and Kate Bush vibes. She is a truly original artist with some great songs. I loved the power displayed in “Seaweed Dreams” which, for me, was on a par with Kate Bush in her most “out there” moments. Autumn is also a life model and she has written a gorgeous song, “Living Art”, about that part of her life. “Radioactive” was described by Autumn as a nerdy love song, it certainly is, but it is also a very fine one. She switched to guitar for “What It Is”, a deep, dark ballad, on which the hurt and the anger were almost palpable. She closed with the multi-octave epic “Howl”. It is hard not to love Autumn Dawn Leader. I am now a fan!
The stage set up for the Blackheart orchestra looked like it was set for many more people than just multi-instrumentalists Chrissy Mostyn and Richard Pilkington and I can confirm that they have a sound that is so mighty and potent that they do sound like an eight-piece unit. Their sound is a weird and wonderful mix of Gothish, proggy, and folky electronica. Imagine if you will the Eurhythmics taking their sound back to nature, that is one way that the Blackheart Orchestra made me feel. They are in possession of some stunning songs and heavenly harmonies. There is a rich vein of prog rock running through what they do and apparently, the prog crowd has adopted them. The obvious comparison with Chrissy’s voice is probably Kate Bush, but in her phrasing and projection on some songs I picked up traces of Dolores O’Riordan. The huge range of sound the band hits the audience with is cinematic in scope, vision, and ambition. It is often haunting, always phenomenal, and if music can be described as physically beautiful, pulchritudinous! “A Dangerous Thing” is the perfect example of the band’s enormous soundscape. Why was “Under The Headlights” not a huge hit? It has everything that a perfect rock or pop song needs; hooks, gorgeous melody, and the musicianship and voices are off the scale. In a set full of highlights my favourite moments were “Astronaut” and the majestically epic “The Flood”. The melodic use of the bass guitar is stunning! I also loved the playing the guitar with a bow moment, in homage to the dark master himself, Jimmy Page. The Blackheart Orchestra is an unbelievably classy act, can someone offer them the chance to record a James Bond theme, please? Even their merch is delightfully tasteful. They might have run out of tea towels, but a dedicated fan (a really nice chap) has built a Blackheart Orchestra Bird Box, now that just adds to the magic of this band. If you have not heard them before, start listening now, that is an order!
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