Since a quarter of a century now, AFM Records has dedicated itself to delivering high class metal and hard rock. Numerous chart successes and international awards pave the way. On the occasion of the company's 25th anniversary, the label was trawling through its archives, and numerous (previously unknown) treasures were unearthed. The result will see the light of day on October 29th (2021) in the form of "25 Years Metal Addiction - The Rare & The Unreleased". As the title suggests, only songs have been taken into account that were previously unpublished, came as bonus material from territory-exclusive editions (e.g. Japanese pressings) or were previously only available digitally. A fine selection of those tunes was now gathered on this comprehensive, entertaining compilation. However, thinking of leftovers or “rejects” would be totally misleading here; rather, the quality of the contributions is consistently surprising and one wonders again and again how these pearls have been withheld from the metal world so far. "25 Years Metal Addiction - The Rare & The Unreleased", which comes as 2CD in a digipak, finally crosses the finish line after 30 songs and almost 140 minutes of playing time. It includes tracks from top-class bands such as U.D.O., Orden Ogan, Lordi and Firewind - to name just a few. The slightly different compilation - for real metal fans and collectors!