2025 Guest Recommendations
Originally published on the No Limit on the Words Substack. Subscribe there for all the cool stuff.
Remember in the early days of underground music websites when they would have end of year lists from cool people in bands? I used to go through the Hydra Head one and check out everything that everyone listed. Well, this is like that, but with people that I know. The guidelines were simple: genre be damned, anything goes. I highly recommend that you take some time and give these a shot. Tons of links here. I also put together a playlist of all of these—at least, the ones that I could—on Tidal for myself, which is available here for anyone that uses that service and wants to listen as they read.
Nick Sakes (Dazzling Killmen / Upright Forms)
Tortoise - Touch (International Anthem Recording Company)
Strong as hell comeback album by these Chicago legends. I was honestly surprised how much I liked it. I listened to it three times in a row, which is fairly rare for me. Seems a little more rockin’ that their other stuff but still out there.
Leather Hearse - Burn In Heaven Decalogue (Southern Lord Recordings)
Triptykon and Necrophgist drummer Hannes Grossmann, Thomas Philips from Loincloth and Lloyd Siege of Sliang Laos come together for this absolutely devastating technical metal whirlwind. Unreal.
Deaf Club - We Demand A Permanent State Of Happiness (Southern Lord Recordings)
Another Southern Lord release? Yep. This album defies category. Face-slating guitar work from Brian Amalfitano and heightened alert vocal styling from ex-The Locust Justin Pearson. Quality slicing....completely original and beyond super-charged.
Pygmy Lush - TOTEM (reissue) (Persistent Vision Records)
Members of pageninetynine. Complex smart rock blended with hypnotic melancholy. Definitely my album of the year. LOVE IT. Originally recorded by Kurt Ballou in 2016 this is destined for a long life.
Daniel Wallenborg (K L P S)
Idle Heirs - Life is Violence (Relapse Records)
Put Sean Ingram in anything and it gets my attention. Ive been a COALESCE fan since my teens and they helped me form my musical identity in a sense. So when this dropped I was flabbergasted. Didn’t expect this post-metal/post-hardcore hybrid to be this good. The arrangements, clean vocals?! And the overall feeling of the album. It’s for sure one of my favorite albums of the year.
Deadguy - Near-Death Travel Services (Relapse Records)
What can I say, totally came out of left field and totally blew me right out the water. This is all and everything you could hope for when it comes to DEADGUY music. It feels like those 30 years didn’t go by and that this album came out right after Fixation…The songs, production, Tim’s unique vocals. I tip my hat.
Guiltless - Teeth To Sky (Neurot Recordings)
Post-metal, sludge, doom, noise, that’s like poetry to my ears. Been looking forward to an album from these guys and it didn’t disappoint. With legends like those, what can go wrong really. Fills a little void in the absence of Neurosis.
Propagandhi - At Peace (Epitaph Records)
Legendary band, never lets me down. Though this is no Potemkin City Limits nor Today’s Empire, there’s still a few bangers on this album.
Wren - Black Rain Falls (Church Road Records)
Must admit, I had been sleeping on these guys. But after doing my due diligence and checking them out, I wasn’t disappointed in the least. They carry the heritage of post-metal legends, but still doing their own thing. I can highly recommend this band and this album.
Nick Topolski (dude I know)
Still In Love - Recovery Language (Church Road Records)
Blistering debut of metallic hardcore that channels trauma, healing and emotional upheaval into eight fierce, cathartic tracks.
Odonis Odonis - Odonis Odonis (Royal Mountain Records)
Their sixth album marks a shift from their industrial roots toward a more brooding and emotional sound, blending post-punk, shoegaze, and trip-hop influences while exploring themes of anxiety, change and modern survival.
Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power (Roadrunner Records)
Deafheaven’s new album goes back to their heavier roots—returning to “blackgaze” with dark intensity, soaring crescendos and merciless riffs.
Texoprint - Modern Living (Popunie Records)
A powerful debut album, blending tense, raw noise rock with melodic, post-punk energy. The album reflects existential restlessness and modern pressure — the grind of performance, routine and the weight of digital life.
Faced Out - At Eternity’s Edge (The Coming Strife Records)
An intense, 8-song burst of intensity — Swedish death metal riffs, crushing breakdowns and anguished vocals rooted in classic straightedge metalcore.
Andrew (Aversionline)
I’ve opted to select five highlight-worthy 2025 releases from artists that I recognize to fall on the underrated side, and all of whom deserve a much broader spectrum of listeners:
Bleeth - Marionette (Seeing Red)
Powerful, eerily melodic doom/sludge out of Miami, FL. When I first encountered their latest full-length, I was shocked to discover that they’ve been kickin’ for like a decade now. A level of quality that would easily fit it on a label like Relapse, Southern Lord, etc. Seriously, it is wildly insane that this band isn’t more widely known at this point!?
Distance - Le Décor (Sabotage Records)
Superbly catchy, high-energy post-punk out of Bordeaux, France. Staple characteristics are indeed present—driving bass runs, killer lead melodies, lightly reverberated tones—but the pacing and structures lean harder on classic punk rock than most bands of this nature, which pays off big time. An impressive debut that leaves the listener wanting more.
Industrial Puke - Alive to No Avail (Suicide Records)
Blistering, HM-2-scorched grind that also leans toward crusty hardcore/punk. This Gothenburg, Sweden act carries lineup ties to Burst, Obstruktion, Rentokiller, etc. Grind fanatics have zero excuses here: if you dig the fast and the ferocious, this is mandatory material!
Peroxide Blonde - “Time and Time Again” b/w “Make You Mine” (Funeral Party Records)
I’ve been screaming about NJ/NYC four-piece Peroxide Blonde for years now. Unusually creative alternative rock that manages to sneak super catchy earworm hooks into some really quirky riffing that spirals ‘n’ spins in rather sinewy fashion. Hopefully the band having hooked up with Funeral Party Records for this “double A-side” will lead to a slight bump in awareness, but time will tell!
Surrender the Weapon - Unforeseen Circumstances
The latest EP from New Jersey’s Surrender the Weapon is in my official Top 3 favorite releases of the year. Truly unique melodic/metallic hardcore loaded with technical musicianship, and songwriting that could be described as “progressive.” Former members of For The Love Of... and Elements DEC, amongst others. It pains me how little attention this project has received. So good...
Dan Sorrells (Resonant Spaces / college roommate and friend of over 20 years)
France – Destino Scifosi (Standard In-Fi)
France could be the greatest cult band of the 21st century. The approach: drummer Mathieu Tilly locks into a simple beat, adorned with a one-note bass line from Jérémie Sauvage. Above, Yann Gourdon’s heavily amplified hurdy gurdy begins churning and warping as the band enters a trance state, sometimes lasting over an hour. The drones redouble, refract, disorient. The hammering pulse no longer keeps time but instead seems to jettison it entirely. France exists solely as a live creature, and as with all of their albums, Destino Scifosi documents a live performance. The only difference is, this usually very lo-fi band was captured with very high-quality equipment. It’s hard to argue the result is anything less than psychedelic, though France has shied away from the term in the past. The band instead likes to invoke intoxication, with Gourdon telling the Quietus that he was “keen on the idea of ‘losing your bearings’ as both a musician and a listener.”
Georg Gräwe, Brad Jones, Hamid Drake – More Than Anything (Random Acoustics)
Recorded as the band took up instruments sometime after midnight during the 2024 Konfrontationen festival, this live set shows you should never discount the good old piano trio format. The astoundingly virtuosic Gräwe—a mainstay of European improvised music since his debut album on FMP at age 19—has a long history with drummer Hamid Drake, but had never played with bassist Brad Jones before they assembled on stage. The music they produced is everything you could ask for in the context: lithe and energized, seizing sheer possibility from out of the summer night air and forging it into a looming musical artifice, grounded in the rhythm section’s grooves and erected out of Gräwe’s nimble, dual-handed phrases.
Jason Stein, Marilyn Crispell, Damon Smith, Adam Shead – Live at the Hungry Brain (Trost Records)
The trio of Stein, Smith, and Shead was already a formidable unit at the time they invited master pianist Marilyn Crispell to collaborate. It wasn’t the first time Crispell crashed into and reconfigured a working trio (see her transformation of the Evan Parker/Barry Guy/Paul Lytton trio in the late 90s), and the resulting studio album, spi-raling horn, was easily one of the best releases last year. Now we get Live at the Hungry Brain, a full concert that was recorded the night before the quartet went into the studio in June 2023. Crispell’s presence—along with Smith’s place in a bass lineage that passes through Mark Dresser—make it tempting to compare this group to Anthony Braxton’s storied Forces in Motion quartet. But where that group marshalled immense virtuosity in service of Braxton’s compositions, it at times had a rigidity that betrayed it was more of an intellectual exercise than a visceral one. Live at the Hungry Brain captures a fluid and motile process of spontaneous creation, where equal partners negotiate their concept and structure in real time. If you’ve never felt one of those epiphanic moments that only freely improvised music can summon, try starting here.
Éliane Radigue – Asymptote Versatile (Amgen)
Hearing Radigue’s Kyema years ago was one of those bright line moments in my listening passage: there was the musical world I moved within before, and then a very different world after. At nearly 70, she abandoned her legendary synthesizers and began working directly with musicians, collaborating on works with no written scores. Radigue has met with dozens of musicians, conveying her vision through careful listening and oral instruction. Asymptote Versatile is fascinating then, in that it features an acoustic performance in keeping with her work from the last 20 years, but which has much earlier origins. The album captures the first ever performance of her only surviving proposition sonores, graphic scores from the early 1960s that pre-date her more famous work with feedback and tape loops. The 2023 concert features twelve instrumentalists—many of whom have worked individually with Radigue—moving through a slow kaleidoscope of long tones that trace logarithmic curves from the score. Although the shifting timbres and harmonies are quite brisk compared to most of her work, it’s remarkable how of-a-piece it all sounds with the musical concerns she’s held in focus over more than six decades. Whether this character is proof of some originary seed or a direct result of these musicians’ sustained engagement with her mature vision is a tempting question. Either way, it hardly matters. As with nearly all of her music, Asymptote Versatile teaches you how to hear differently.
The Necks – Disquiet (Northern Spy Records)
Longtime fans of the Australian trio know that the Necks are usually good for an album every year or two, a pace they’ve largely kept for 30 years now. They also know the group exists in essentially two forms. Live, they are an acoustic piano trio that spools out hypnotic, minimalist improvisations. In the studio, they transform into something else entirely, using overdubs and an array of instruments to create genre-busting epics that can stretch to an hour or more. Disquiet contains three albums’ worth of material, with four tracks across three discs that range between 26 and 74 minutes. If the title could be read as thematic, the disquiet is enacted through disjointed rhythm, where each track seems to set elements slightly out of phase, less stable than syncopation but not so jarring as to take you out of the soundworld each brings about. Instead, things are uncanny—disquieting—swirling pools of sound that flirt with ambient and New Age but where the angles aren’t quite right, or something in the hues seems off. Still, much of it is beautiful, heady music, and proof there’s still plenty of life left in the trio’s idiosyncratic methods.
Jay Barnes (The Sons of Montana)
Let me preface this by saying I’m terrible at staying current. I’m also lousy at explaining why I like what I like, mostly because it’s all subjective and I’m basically a grumpy old guy who hates almost everything. Half the picks I thought were from this year… weren’t. Oops. Time fly’s and I’m dumb.
AFI - Silver Bleeds the Black Sun (Run For Cover Records)
Very 80’s rock. Not a fan of anything else I’ve ever heard from them, but I dig this. As I get older, I have an appreciation more and more for anything 80’s sounding, so this was a pleasant surprise.
Dirt Pile - Raw Milk
Possibly the nicest guys in CT (which, really isn’t saying much). Love the (sort of) shoe gaze direction on this. They play roughly 76 shows a week and I try to go to as many as possible. Don’t sleep on this release from these guys, both are amazing.
Afghan Haze - Sermons of Filth and Disgust
Super hard-working guys. They’ve had a rough couple of years, so it’s good to see them still throwing their punches at the world. This is packed with great riffs.
Chew Thru - Curb Cuts (Braeburn Records)
This release is a no bullshit, no nonsense, rock ‘n’ roll EP and I love every second of it.
Suicide Cages - Live Without (Braeburn Records)
Part of me feels weird dropping two releases from our label mates, but it is what it is. Guess that means other labels gotta step their game up. Everything about this release is great!
Roger Waters - This is not a Drill, Live from Prague (Legacy Recordings)
I don’t know if this counts as it was released in 2025 but was recorded in 2023? He’s had some controversial viewpoints over the years, but this is music not politics and I’m judging it as such.
Nels Cline - Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note Records)
Nels is a huge influence on me. I rip him off unashamedly. This one blurs the lines of experimental and more orchestrated arrangements.
Miltown - Tales of Never Letting Go (Man Alive Records)
It is about fucking time this was released.
Evan Jagles (Dazzling Killmen / Killdeer Trio)
Teagan Faran - Middle Child (Navona Records)
I have an improvised music project called Duo Extempore with NYC-based pianist Nicole Brancato. We explore history, hidden stories, architecture, and more through curated musical improvisations in concerts, films, and recordings. Nicole has another duo called Persophone & the Phoenix with violinist Teagan Faran. I had heard a lot about Teagan through the years but never met her. Teagan teaches violin at Ithaca College, so when Killdeer Trio played in Ithaca this past September, I recommended we split the bill with Teagan. She played a song called “O Superman ‘For Bach’” and I was blown away. Soon after the concert, I checked out her new album “Middle Child” and was just blown away. It’s so nice to hear such refreshing new directions in “classical” music. Her virtuosity is an excellent tool for exploration rather than something rooted in competition (as it sadly often happens to be in the classical world).
TAKAAT - Is Noise Vol. 1 / Is Noise, Vol. 2 (Purplish Records)
I had a long drive from Richmond Va. back to upstate NY with Blake Fleming following the first leg of the Dazzling Killmen Re-Formation 2025 tour. We talked a lot about music, influences, experiences, and recordings. He recommended TAKAAT to me after I said how much I love electric guitar music from Africa. They are the rhythm section for Mdou Moctar but as a trio they definitely have their own thing going. This music just brings such an intense joy to me and always gets me excited for the next thing!
Nels Cline, Craig Taborn and Marcus Gilmore - Trio of Bloom (Pyroclastic Records)
Ben Greenberg (who I play with in Dazzling Killmen) is also an amazing and accomplished engineer. He recorded this album and since these three are some of my favorite musicians on the scene, I had to check it out. It was another one that I just kept on repeat for weeks. To me, it just feels so incredibly fresh and honest. I first discovered keyboardist Craig Taborn back in 2006 on the album “Underground” by Chris Potter. When people ask who my biggest influences on the bass are, Craig Taborn’s left hand is pretty high on the list. This album feels so fresh and inspiring. I have to say too that I feel that a big part of that is Ben’s touch. Recording is both an art and a science and the way in which he captured their sound without overtreating anything (which is sadly the case on so many modern recordings) is a big part of what hits me about this record.
John Patitucci - Spirit Fall (Edition Records)
I am a sucker for a chordless trio. I love how harmony is mutually created with two lines rather than defined by a chord instrument. These three musicians have been huge influences for my entire musical life and I was so excited to see this album on the list of Grammy nominees for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. I had the honor of meeting and studying with John back in 2009 and what he shared with me continues to be a huge influence in my jazz playing. There was no big surprise or revelation to me with this album, but it feels like comfort food.
Jason Rigby - Mayhem (Endectomorph Music)
I met Jason in 2009 when we both worked at the New York Summer Music Festival. He was older and much more accomplished than I was then and I learned a lot from him. We would go on motorcycle rides together (he had an 1979 1000cc red Honda and I had a 1978 Suzuki GS550) and I always thought his playing had such a powerful edge to it. He owned whatever he was playing and even if he was just playing a standard, it would bite with his unique stamp on the tenor. When I saw that this album was coming out with Mark Guiliana I had to check it out. Although there are electronics, it still feels so organic - like iron and stone.
Matt Boyles (The Sons of Montana)
Miltown - Tales of Never Letting Go (Man Alive Records)
Miracles do happen! Waiting 25 years for something is rarely worth it, and the chances it will live up to expectations are slim---but this is the exception. Tales of Never Letting Go is nearly perfect and absolutely worth the wait. The songs, production, and packaging are all stellar, and I can’t get enough of it.
Dirt Pile - Raw Milk
Raw Milk is five-songs (14 minutes) from the heaviest trio to every exist. I absolutely love this band and adore the three guys in it. We’ve been fortunate to share many bills and beers with them and their live show astounds me every single time. As musicians, they are gig playing juggernauts who’ve dialed in their sound to a crushing mix of Whaling City grit, sludge punk, noise-core, and a shoe-gaze atmosphere on this most recent release. The writing for these new songs shows an evolution in the band and a huge leap in confidence and creativity. “Lather Jacket” is stand out track for me among this collection of pummeling bangers. If you enjoy heavy music, you will probably enjoy this release --- If you don’t, we can’t be friends.
Scorpion Milk - Slime of the Times (Peaceville Records)
I am a huge Beast Milk fan, and their release Climax is still in constant rotation for me. Scorpion Milk is a new project from Mat McNerney (Beast Milk and Grave Pleasures) with contributions from Nate Newton, Will Gould, and features an appearance from Paul Ferguson (Killing Joke). This debut LP Slime of the Times is packed with 80’s influenced UK post-punk and a great next step from Mat’s previous endeavors. If you dig Drab Ministry, Crisis, or Killing Joke this may be something you’ll be into. Check it out.
Chew Thru - Curb Cuts (Braeburn Records)
Five songs that absolutely rip. Chew Thru are Denver dudes playing a mix of energetic hardcore and post-hardcore and I can’t get enough of their latest release Curb Cuts. Great song writing that makes me want to go skating again or come out of mosh retirement. Have you ever wished you could hear a band that sounds a little like Stillsuit with the energy of early Suicidal Tendencies? Then this is for you. Awesome release from super sweet humans.
Suicide Cages - Live Without (Braeburn Records)
Our homies from the Centennial State, Suicide Cages’ latest effort, Live Without is fantastic and a must if you’re a fan of Curl Up and Die or Zao style jams --- this is essential listening. More than just mathy, metalcore, these guys have riffs for days and write incredibly catchy songs married with powerful lyrics. This release is guaranteed to make you bob your head, over and over.
Mariachi El Bronx - “Forgive or Forget” [single] (ATO Records)
Their first new music in over ten years arrived recently with the single “Forgive or Forget”, and I’m practically in my traje de charro waiting for the rest of the full length. If the purpose of music is to spark emotion, then my love for this band is easy to explain---their music simply makes me happy. And, I’ll say it again: Matt Caughthran is a criminally underrated, top-tier frontman, both in this project and in The Bronx.
Foot note: It wasn’t until I wrapped this list that I noticed every band features at least one member named Matt. I, too, am a Matt. 100% pure coincidence. I promise this is not a coordinated Matt agenda, nor did my fellow Matts secretly sway the rankings. No nepotism, Matt-bias, or Matt-based favoritism was involved in the making of this list.
Charles Cure (Spiritkiller / Invisible City Sound Archive)
This is my top 5 with the following caveat - I love everything my label put out and listen to every release a lot, but I don’t want to use this list to self promote. A list of 10 noteworthy records would be hard for me, but just 5 is super difficult unless I exclude releases I had a hand in. I have included honorable mentions which all rule and I listen to multiple times weekly and that stuff is included there.
Age of Apocalypse - In Oblivion (Closed Casket Activities)
This record is sonically heavy in a way that recalls the best of HVHC’s classic song form with the emotive power and frankly often beautiful singing from vocalist Dylan Kaplowitz. A good blend of so many things I loved about outlier hc/early metalcore/groove metal of the late 90’s. RIYL Life of Agony, Only Living Witness, windmilling and spinkicking with tears streaming down your face. I’m fine, you’re the one crying.
Clipping. - Dead Channel Sky (Sub Pop)
This is the 4th or 5th clipping. album I think. I have liked all of them, but this is glitchy/experimental hip hop that kind of defies explanation and brings an interesting cyberpunk/industrial vibe to the genre that I have not heard present in other projects in this style. Its forward thinking and forward leaning in a way that I think deserves tons of attention.
Hundreds of Au - Life in Parallel (Iodine Recordings)
HoAU gained an excellent standalone vocalist for this record and it brought their brand of already razor sharp emotional hardcore/screamo to another level with a more fully realized sound and increased dynamics. Straight fire made by a bunch of people I legit love.
Blackbraid - Blackbraid III
One of the best current black metal projects going, which checks several boxes for me personally; songs written in/about the Adirondack Mountains of northern NY by a musician of indigenous heritage, a really well constructed dynamic flow throughout the record that brings in the best of Cascadian black metal while also maintaining a savage baseline of aggression and technicality, and a fully aligned musical and visual aesthetic that seamlessly blends indigenous cultural elements with true black metal roots. Cannot say enough good stuff about this project and every release has captivated me.
Skinhead - It’s a Beautiful Day, What a Beautiful Day (Closed Casket Activities)
A band called Skinhead has no business having this much depth or expressing this kind of vulnerability, even if it does sneak in through the back door, lyrically speaking. Maybe the biggest surprise of the year for me in terms of records I didn’t expect to love as much as I do. The last song is tough.
HONORABLE/SINGLES (in no order):
Sunrot - Passages
Unfortuneteller - Casting Spells on a Burning World
Take Steps - Take Steps
Evil Mind - MMXXV
Bore - Feral
Kirkby Kiss - Four Color Black
Cloakroom - Last Leg of the Human Table
The Last Miller - Like The Leaves
Federal Charge - I-V
Violent Streets - Demo
Easy Blame - Hypernormalized
Burial - Comafields/Imaginary Festival [single]
KatzPascale - Spill Your Time [single]
No Division - 6 songs
NOIR - Pointless Existence
Flatwounds - Drenched [single]
Tied By Fate - Emotional Distortion
Sunnyboyy - Carry On [single]
Anthony Mandelli (Noise Protocol)
James Brandon Lewis Quartet - Abstraction is Deliverance (Intakt Records)
After JBL & The Messthetics kicked off a year-long jazz rabbit hole that covered Coltrane, Rollins, Ellington, and the genre’s many forms, I found myself back where I started with Lewis’ Abstraction is Deliverance. His second release of the year after February’s Apple Cores, Abstraction gives us more of what Lewis does best with dense harmonic arrangements, spicy improvisation, and enough melody to keep the songs stuck in your head. It’s a layered mix of classic jazz foundations with modern twists and turns.
Deep Sea Diver — Billboard Heart (Sub Pop)
The guitar tones on the album alone are enough to stop you in your tracks. Sometimes crystalline, warping, textured. Other times dreamlike and shoegazey. Always huge. Jessica Dobson’s songwriting is equally sharp. Catchy without being predictable, atmospheric, and loaded with small instrumental details that reward repeat listens. It’s indie pop and rock in perfect balance and it never feels heavy-handed. One of my favorites of the year, easily.
Bayway — The Recipe (Trustkill Records)
This is Garden State hardcore at its best. The Recipe is raw, street smart, and classic Jersey from start to finish. Jayway deserves huge credit here. Producing and mixing the album himself gives The Recipe an unmistakable sonic identity: thick guitars, crisp drums, and vocals that always sit well above the mix.
Between the Buried and Me — The Blue Nowhere (Inside Out Music)
As a long time BTBAM fan, this record feels like a return to form for the band. Songs like “God Terror” and “The Blue Nowhere” have the same truly awe-inspiring stylistic range and imagination that first drew me to them when I heard Colors. No surprise I hear a lot of that album in The Blue Nowhere, with the wild stylistic pivots, cinematic feel, and epic (but tasteful) displays of virtuosity.
Lily Allen — West End Girl (BMG)
Admittedly this is my first experience with Lily Allen, but her latest album knocked my socks off. It’s witty, sharp, vulnerable, and a structurally perfect pop record. Allen’s storytelling is funny, self-aware, and emotionally incisive without ever losing her signature charm. It’s pop as high craft: memorable choruses, detailed production, and writing that reveals new layers the more you sit with it. West End Girl is an instant classic and one of the best pop releases of the decade so far.
Angelo Mosca (Unfortuneteller)
Spiritkiller - Spiritkiller (Immigrant Sun Records/ Protagonist Music)
Let’s get something straight here, from playing shows together I have gotten to know and call these gentlemen friends, but before that I was already a fan! This adrenaline packed record has heart and lyrical intention. The bass and drums are always locked in a groove, as well as guitar work that takes me back to when I first got into hardcore, a time when bands were composing well written songs that didn’t just revolve around getting to the breakdown. Kids are piling up on top of each other, trying to grab the microphone and sing along to these songs because there is a message here that is truly relatable.
Hundreds of AU - Life In Parallel (Iodine Recordings)
Start to finish this album is emotionally gripping and intense. I had seen Hundreds a few times live and loved the dynamic of the back and forth vocals, but the addition of Brian Burdzy as lead vocalist on this recording truly solidifies this band as top tier emotive hardcore. Tracks like “Scorched Earth Harvest” and “Endless Beige” are so impactful and thought evoking.
Exitum - Seppuku
This album gives me anxiety, but in the best of ways. It’s hard to listen to this cassette and do anything else at the same time. The guitar work and drumming are master class, the vocals are absolutely disgusting and the lyrics are like carefully placed mines asking to be stepped on. Cinema grind is alive, unwell, and playing at a level of musicianship that is unrivaled by most on these songs.
Soul Blind - Red Sky Mourning (Closed Casket Activities)
I am 90% positive that all of the music I enjoy is made by people around my age or older, with soul blind being the exception to that. There is wisdom beyond age in this band’s approach to writing the songs on this record. These songs are as heavy as they are alternative and at times summon the sounds of artists like Helmet and Alice In Chains.
Easy Blame - Hypernormalized (Invisible City Sound Archive)
This album starts out very chaotic, with the intense track “Crab Virus” coming in at just under a minute and setting the tone for the longer tracks that come. Tracks like “Under The Taps” and “Needles” are constructed of many moving parts that take you for a ride, led by Lee’s gut wrenchingly emotional vocals. I saw the band perform “Needles” live months before it was recorded, and I feel that the recording perfectly conveys the sound of this band live. This album also contains some of my favorite bass tones.
Tyler Krupsky (Pacemaker Audio / dude I knew in high school)
In no particular order… just releases I loved.
Pile - Sunshine and Balance Beams (Sooper Records)
As a long time listener and fan… the band just seems to be getting better with age.
Scarab -Burn After Listening (Rebirth Records)
This energy is raw and brings an anger I haven’t felt in music lately. Fast stuff rules.
Julia Wolf - Pressure (girls in purgatory)
A genre bending pop album that has lots of feeling and melodies for days. I didn’t plan on falling in love with it but this was on my playlist a ton this year.
Crippling Alcoholism - Cam Girl (Portrayal of Guilt)
A unique pallet cleansing album that kept me coming back for more. Truly a great piece of work. I love all the synths and layering.
The Armed - The Future Is Here and Everything Needs to Be Destroyed (Sargent House)
Another band just getting better and better. I think they have settled into something special with this album. It’s sax time.
Mundy (rapper/producer)
Yaya Bey - “Spin Cycle” (drink sum wtr)
Kokoroko - “Idea 5 (Call My Name) (feat. LULU.)” (Brownswood Recordings)
Little Simz - “Blood”
Earl Sweatshirt - “Heavy Metal aka eject seato!” (Tan Cressida Records)
Navy Blue - “La Noche” (Freedom Sounds)
Dee Holloway (writer)
Obviously there was a ton of music out this year in modes that I love--the Sumac/Moor Mother collab, new Yellow Eyes, Cloakroom’s Legs of the Human Table, Labyrinthine by Faetooth, the Nadia Reid and clipping. albums--but I also feel like those albums are doing fine, at least in the circles I move in. As I was looking through my journal entries, which is the best way for me to keep vague track of what I’m listening to since I don’t use Spotify, some other stuff popped out as defining 2025 for me. They are:
Messa - The Spin (Metal Blade Records)
A gimme, but an earned one. I’m a gothic metal girlie longtime, Messa’s expansive, inquisitive sound makes me histrionic, and The Spin is their best yet.
Smote, Songs from the Free House (Rocket Recordings)
For people who really liked the 28 Years Later score, or people with an annual subscription to Hellebore.
Bruise Blood - You Run Through the World Like an Open Razor (Rocket Recordings)
A post-postmodern techno debut that made me want to be decompensating at the club.
Menace Ruine - The Color of the Grave is Green (Union Finale)
A collection of dark fairy tales from that most mysterious of countries, Quebec. Background music for your next Devil’s sacrament.
Ureterocele - Tube With Contrast Medium
A brief but profound blitz of field recording-inspired vignettes, landscapes, and unexpected groove. Sounds like the soundtrack to a film A24 would fumble.
For me, overall, the year was framed in gothic overtones. Sinners came out in the spring and Frankenstein in the fall, and those films served as perfect complementary bookends for the frame of mind I’ve been inhabiting. My listening also trended gothic; the Messa, Smote, and Menace Ruine records most obviously and traditionally, but the Bruise Blood and especially Ureterocele albums move in subgenres that feel particularly salient to our era. Cybergothic? Hypergothic? The gothic irreal?
Adam Merendino (Cold Kiss / Evil Mind)
Combust - Belly of the Beast (Triple B Records)
I’ve been a fan of the band since the demo and loved the last LP on Cash Only. This one is just a step up and a perfect combination of all of their influences. It’s nice to see a band that is unequivocally nothing but HC getting their flowers.
Skinhead - It’s a Beautiful Day, What a Beautiful Day (Closed Casket Activities)
I’ve been obsessed with this band since the EP and every release gets better and better. It’s a perfect combination of beautiful music with the angriest/most violent lyrics; and they’re all true. I for sure am a poser with their influences though so feel free to haze me all you want; I don’t know anything.
Mongrel - Baptized in the Gutter (Daze)
In a world of heavy/hard bands, sometimes lyrics are an afterthought. With Mongrel it for sure isn’t the case. I listened to the singer give a brief telling of his life on Forum of Passion, and then going back and listening to this again the lyrics hit so much harder. Mongrel is that band and I need more.
With Hate - From Boston, With Hate (Triple Dream Records)
The first two tracks off this EP define how I feel about a lot of people I see walking around most days. I still haven’t gotten to see them and hope I get to soon. “You never knew what this was all about it, you had to be in in order to sell out.”
Larry June, 2 Chainz & The Alchemist - Life is Beautiful (ALC Records / Empire Distribution)
I listened to this record more than anything else that came out this year.
Honorable Mentions/Demos – I was only allowed 5, but here is a couple other things I couldn’t stop listening to:
Heard No More - Demo
Anxious - Bambi
C4 - Payback’s a Bitch
Missing Link - Miracle Smile
Freddie Gibbs - Alfredo 2
Order of Living - Demo
Rennie Resmini (Starkweather (band) / Starkweather (Substack))
Usually I wait until the calendar year is over because every year some line stepper has to monkey wrench the works... I get the feeling Martröð - Draumsýnir eldsins may not be the only one do it this year.
5 recommendations, and some, under the orange shadow of corruption and graft.
Diego Caicedo - Eidos Daemonium (Burning Ambulance)
If you dig this you may also find new Sleepwalker/夢遊病者- РЛБ30011922 and Apparitions - Volcanic Reality to work wonders.
Gorycz - Zasypia (Piranha Music)
You really won’t find anything quite like this but you can go for abstraction and greying the artistic lines with Yurei - Antinomen or Grey Aura - Zwart vierkant: Slotstuk)
Hateful Abandon - Threat (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)
Need more industrial weight gloom and crush Mutterlein - Amidst the Flames, May Our Organs Resound and old school stalwarts Laibach - Alamut and Ramleh - Hyper Vigilance
Hesse Kassel - La Brea
Should this work its magic, try the debut Shearling album and Gláss - s/t)
Kamra - Unending Confluence (Avantgarde Music)
For more evil emanations and gruelling vokills: Kreyll - Ontzielingsrituelen and Teitanblood - From the Visceral Abyss
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