Janne Stark's Top 10 of 2025

Janne Stark Top 10 2025

Here's my Top 10 of 2025, plus some honorable mentions!

1. A.C.T: Eternal Winter – The proggy Swedes never disappoint! Another stellar album! A quirky and melodic musical journey that should attract both prog and AOR fans. Always and still top-notch song writing and performance! 

2. The Mind Palace: Birthrite – Outstanding Swedish melodic hard rock with a unique singer, great songs and great production!

3. Danko Jones – Leo Rising – Danko Jones never fails. Yet another great rockin’ release from these raw rocking Canadians! Riffs meet garage with a punk attitude. Tight and rockin’! Love it!

4. Wytch Hazel: V: Lamentations – I just love these druid rockers, and even more after seeing them live in Sweden. Quirky retro hard rockers that may as well have released this album in the late 70s. Stellar stuff!

5. Inglorious: V – After some years of confusion Inglorious returns with a stellar riff monster. They are definitely back with a vengeance!

6. Warlung: The Poison Touch – Another stellar release by these retro heavy rockers mixing doomy riffs with solid melodic vocals and stellar harmonies. Their best album? Possibly! 

7. Dusty Rose Gang: A-one From Day One – I had to check several times to make sure this wasn’t a hidden previously unreleased early/mid seventies heavy rock album. The sound and style are so authentic it’s scary! If it was recorded in 1972 it would have been up there with Stray Dog, Captain Beyond and Sir Lord Baltimore.

8. Bone Church: Deliverance – The third album mixing the sounds of stoner rock, NWoBHM and classic 70s heavy rock into a perfect musical blend. The killers in a row!

9. Coheed & Cambria: Vaxis III: The Father Of Make Believe – C&C are back with a vengeance! Killer album in the vein of their best album “Good Apollo”. Melodic, proggy, quirky and with great songs! 

10. Armellino: Heritage Blend – Outstanding classic 70s sounding French hard rocker! Bluesy hard rock with swagger!

Honrable mentions:

Anthony Gomes: Praise The Loud – Current kick azz blues rocker with riffs that rock and a voice laced with barb wire! 

Arkado: Open Sea – A solid melodic hard rocker well worth an honorary mention. A stellar heavy AOR rocker with high class vocals and musical delivery. Solid song writing and great production, too!

Angeline: Rhythm Of One – With a load of albums under their belt these Swedish melodic hard rockers continue to deliver high-class guitar driven melodic rock. 

Harem Scarem: Chasing Euphoria – These Canadian melodic rockers are more of an institution by now. Can’t say they’ve ever released a bad album, even if there are some I like more than others. “Chasing Euphoria” is still another solid melodic rock release from the band. 

MoonDog: Time Is The Fire - Solid Danish hard rocker with a 70s touch!

Moon Dog - Time Is The Fire (LP/CD)

Moon Dog  - Time Is The Fire (LP/CD)

Danish hard rockers Moon Dog finally follows up their debut 7” single with a full album. The single showed much promise, and the album does not disappoint. Opening track “Jaguar” is a cool mix of classic seventies sounding hard rock with a touch of early Styx.  Styx really comes to mind also in the opening choir parts of next track “Beautiful Women”, while the riff part has a heavier vibe, but it changes pace 180 degrees into a soft jazzy vibe which really comes as a surprise. A really quirky and cool track with a ton of different flavors. Singer Fjeder Stavnstrup has a past in hard rockers Hero and he also sings in Glam Gang MooreLizzy, Stuff Upper Lip and previously fronted Queen tribute band Queen of Denmark. “War, The War” continues in a heavier and darker vibe and shows the versatility of the band. “Bitch” takes us on yet another journey. It almost has a hint of old classic melodic quirky rockers City Boy. Here Rikke Holst Johansen handles the lead vocals which gives the album yet another flavor. Cool guitar solo from Fjeder as well. “My Black Soul” starts out like a left over from Deep Purple’s “Perfect Strangers” with some distorted Hammond from Lars Rahbek, while the chorus has a progressive twist to it. A really cool track, indeed! “Sow A Letter” is another dark and quirky track with some really cool twists and turns, while next track “Escape” is a happier funky melodic rocker that even features a piano solo. I also must say I really like the dynamic, dry and in-your-face mix of the album. Side two of the vinyl finishes with the title track,  another cool and pretty heavy number with a touch of Deep Purple but a bit more soft-progressive, almost a bit Magnum-inspired it sounds like. A killer track to end the album! The CD-version (included with the vinyl) features four more non-vinyl tracks. Really nice looking artwork, great production and mastering and an album I’d highly recommend you to check out!

Country: Denmark

Label: Supersonic CPH

Year: 2025