With December already in full swing, a quick heads-up — this is the last weekly roundup of the year. With all the bigger, dedicated features we’re running right now, we just don’t have the time to keep these long digests going, so we’re putting the format on pause for now. Maybe it’ll return someday in a tighter shape.
In the meantime, stick with our daily features — that’s where we’ll keep spotlighting independent artists and new releases. Jump through the quick links below, dig into what dropped this week, and keep an eye on the latest posts anytime.
⤵ Hardcore / Metalcore, ⤵ Screamo / Post Hardcore, ⤵ Post Rock / Post Metal / Experimental, ⤵ Punk Rock, ⤵ Rock, and ⤵ Metal.
⤵ Hardcore / Metalcore
Berlin hardcore band FORKED have a new single out called “Human Shape,” a short, heavy hit built around burnout, depression, and the grind of the city swallowing you whole. The track arrives with the band name-checking Ceremony, Angel Du$t and Trapped Under Ice as touchstones, but the story they’re telling is right there in the lyrics: worn-down streets, collapsing nights, and that feeling of fading out while the walls keep inching closer.
NYHC icons INDECISION just put out a newly beefed-up remaster of Unorthodox, the first touch-up since 2011. The 1996 record gets brought up to current specs and hits Bandcamp alongside a fold-out digipack CD via Bitter Melody Records. Credits stay true to the era — Steven Bago, Justin Brannan, Pat Flynn, Tom Sheehan, plus the Most Precious Blood choir — all tracked by Ron Thal at PCM in Brooklyn.
Ohio hardcore unit EYES OF SOCIETY have dropped a new single titled “Tears,” now streaming across all platforms. The track arrives under their N.V.B.S. banner, continuing their run of raw, heavy material and local DIY activity.
SUNK have dropped a new digital track, Cheap Stunts, a two-and-a-half-minute blast aimed squarely at delusion, bad actors, and the political circus. The lyrics swing from cynicism to outright condemnation—“make them live one day in their lives / it’s time they settle up for all their cheap stunts”—while the band leans into imagery of serpents, rising tides, and institutional apathy. Written and performed by Bobby Waterman, Brett Sabo, Tim Balch, and Peter Sovia, the track was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Kevin Folk.
Scottish metallic hardcore wreckers KAKIHARA are streaming their new EP Love Songs Part II in full via Decibel ahead of its December 5 release on Ripcord Records. Decibel calls the five tracks “love songs” only in the loosest sense — ten minutes of yelling, chaos and blown-out energy, with “Calamari” held up as proof. The band keep it simple: they made the record the only way they know how, most of it tracked live in a living room, leaning into what they jokingly call “Big. Stupit. Beatdoons.”
Blackenes hardcore post metallers CELESTE have issued a new remixed version of their 13-minute closer “De sorte que plus jamais un instant ne soit magique” . The track arrives alongside the 15th anniversary edition of Morte(s) Née(s), which has just been reviewed by The Razor’s Edge, highlighting the record’s blackened hardcore intensity, slow-burn pacing, and abrasive emotional tone.
A new Salt Lake City project called WARM VEINS has surfaced, formed by members of SUFFOCATER while that band remains on pause. The group dives into a heavier post-hardcore framework, mixing metal vocals with early emo and post-hardcore guitar lines and drifting occasionally into shoegaze territory. Their debut album, recorded by Wes Johnson at Archive Recordings and mastered by Will Killingsworth at Dead Air, is out now—eight tracks released independently through the band’s own Gold Glass Records, with vinyl and tapes currently in production.
Hamburg heavyweights DAGGER THREAT have opened pre-orders for their third LP bleed///reboot, dropping January 23, 2026. Four tracks are already live on Bandcamp — “becoming,” “404,” “tissue,” and the new single “leech,” which features DISTANT and NASTY and lands in full beatdown/nu-metal mode. The record is produced and mixed by 1408 Productions, and the guest list gets even wilder deeper in the tracklist with appearances from SLOW BURN, PEACE OF MIND, COLLISIONS, TORCH IT, BLOSSOM DECAY, SECOND SIGHT, and DETHRONED. Early cuts hit with that dense, mechanical stomp the band leans into, pushing the metallic hardcore angle harder than before.
STEPPDÄD dropped a new two-song release, The Horror… The Tragedy. The Northumberland hardcore-punk crew lean into fast, metallic grit across “The Tragedy” and “The Horror,” rounded out by a blown-out cover of Type O Negative’s “Kill All the White People” featuring a guest solo from Tony Sannicandro. Tracked between Belligerent Asshole Studios and Big Iron Recordings, the EP is another snapshot of NH hardcore going full throttle.
WOLFBREATH return with “Climb the Ravine”, a short, punishing new single that hits like a collapsing ceiling — thick, metallic, and fully in their Temple City Hardcore mode. Built on suffocating beatdown grooves and a vocal performance that feels ripped straight from the edge of burnout, the track channels the panic and confusion of adulthood into something muscular and heavy as hell. A fast, feral release from Magelang’s finest.
WITNESS CHAMBER dropped Bronze Gates on Brain Floss Records, a seven-track slab of straight edge metallic hardcore recorded with Charles Toshio that pushes their Boise sound into darker, heavier territory. The record’s all dread, self-reckoning, and feral force — snarling vocals over crushing riffs and snare-driven punishment — marking their most expansive work since True Delusion.
Chaotic outfit THE UNDERTAKING! just put out a new EP, Only Left Alive To See The End, a five-song burst the band calls their strongest set yet. Austin spells the vibe out plainly: they stopped aiming to please anyone else and made something for themselves, recording, producing, and mixing it on their own. The release lands ahead of their December 19 show with Secrets at Brick by Brick in San Diego.
Salt Lake City bruisers SKIN SHOW dropped a new under-two-minute jolt called “Dirt,” sticking to their loud, fast, raw blueprint. The band—built by Malachi Greene and rounded out with players from Liar’s Tongue, Taste Of Blood, xForever Warx, Division Of Doubt, and Eye For An Eye—leans straight into the 80s hardcore pulse, sharpened with flashes of Negative Approach and Agnostic Front. The clip Greene directed spells out their whole deal with a few tongue-in-cheek PSAs. They play a hometown toy-drive show on December 20.
Las Vegas hardcore force ROMAN CANDLE just dropped a new single, “Nothing Is Original,” paired with a video and framed as the first spark of their upcoming record. Vocalist Piper Ferrari says it set the tone for the whole thing — those early lines, “holier than thou / holier than me,” pushing the band into a rawer kind of self-interrogation. It follows their recent Sumerian Records singles and keeps building the momentum they’ve carved through heavy touring and that screamo-leaning mix of intensity and vulnerability.
Swedish hardcore legends REFUSED hit Hellfest 2025 for what’s now part of their farewell run — a last swing through Clisson before calling it. ARTE Concert captured the set, a reminder of how far the band pushed things from their early ’90s Burning Heart days to The Shape of Punk to Come and beyond. Jazz shards, techno edges, pop flirtations, all folded into that sharp anti-conformist core they never really drifted from. The show was filmed June 22, 2025, and stays online until June 2026.
Punk-metal hardcore crew THIS IS HELL are back with a quick new single, “Born Suspicious,” clocking in under two minutes and landing via Trustkill.
Chicago-by-way-of–Dominican Republic hardcore crew LA ARMADA dropped a new burner, “De Vuelta a la Barbarie,” a short, sharp hit built on lines about atrocity déjà vu and a future circling back into violence. Recorded by Dan Tinkler and finished by Matt Qualls, the track runs hot and direct—addiction to spectacle, history repeating, conscience gone dull. The band’s current lineup—Enrique Vargas, Juan “Manilo” Marte, Paúl Rivera, Eric Urrea, and Jimmy Pol—pushes it with the same political bite they’ve carried since their early days.
THE SOUTHERN ORACLE dropped their new single “Childstealer,” a prequel to the band’s upcoming sixth album. The full record is set to follow soon.
Violence In The Veins announced Heading To Hell, the new album from BLACK BOMBER, now up for digital pre-order with two tracks—“Heading To Hell” and “Rock And Roll Today, Hangover Tomorrow”—streaming ahead of the December 15 release. The record was produced by the band and tracked at Infosound Studios with artwork by Gabriel Gallego, delivering their usual hard-edged mix of rock’n’roll, Motörhead grit, and Spanish heavy underground swagger. Vinyl variants are available through the label’s Linktree.
Looks like Feet First Productions has been busy documenting the late-2025 Philly/Jersey/Macungie hardcore circuit. The newest uploads hit the usual spread of basement-tight rooms and VFW-style chaos — FIGHTBACK sets from both Philly and Macungie, a QUIZ set from New Brunswick, JOYSTICK FURY’s first show, FEVER, C4, MONKEYFELLOW, and FLIP THE SWITCH all packed into the feed.
⤵ Screamo / Post Hardcore
Raw emoviolent skramz, noise punk, melodic emo MySpace stuff, but also rockish 90s post hardcore.
Also, be sure to visit ⤵ Rock section, it’s full of post hardcore and emo infused sounds, too!
FEEL WORSE have released their debut full-length This Will Weigh Heavily On Your Annual Performance Appraisal, a seven-track mix of hardcore, noise rock and metal recorded by Atrox Productions and now streaming on Bandcamp. The Rochester crew—built from members of Sulaco, CHRMR and Sully—lean into slow-burn tension rather than speed, shifting between post-hardcore, sludge and abstract noise while Jason Leone’s surreal lyrics sit on top of a dense, bruised rhythm section. It’s a veteran project with zero interest in genre rules, landing somewhere between The Melvins, Converge and Slint.
A new five-way screamo split is out today, linking JAMais Vu (Malaysia), Razones para el olvido (Peru), Portia (USA), LÖRI (Germany), and Ümit (Mexico) through a network of DIY labels spread across several continents. Go here to see our full feature and the official premiere of this banger.
No Funeral Records dropped ULTRA LOVE’s new EP Slow Spark, a tight set of emotional, post-hardcore tracks packaged in a 7”×7” lyric zine with a CD and holo sticker, limited to just 40 copies. The release leans into the band’s raw, melodic edge while sharpening the heaviness they’ve been building toward.
ONLY release their debut album Eyes Wide Open, a stark, Berlin-shaped take on modern screamo/post-hardcore. Out today via a wide network of DIY labels, the record frames burnout, class tension and urban pressure with the band’s English/Italian vocal split and tightly honed production from Castalian Spring. It follows their early cassette, a split with Barabbas, du förtappade, and tours alongside Pg. 99, Raein and Jeromes Dream, marking their most focused statement yet.
The UK quartet CHASING DOLLS have a new single, Blood Moon, out on 28 November. The band call it “moody with a flicker of shimmer” in the guitar work, pushed by an atmospheric, scattered drum pattern and a bass line with an “unnerving” groove, all tied to a story about seeing love the way you see the moon on a long walk home. They frame the track as exploring distance, overthinking, and that “confusing, lost ride home from an unsettling love.”
LOWER AUTOMATION members Derek Allen and his bandmate break off into harsher terrain with GRAVE GNAW, a new project built entirely from found sounds and warped samples instead of guitars. Their debut EP, out now, drags noise, industrial, and post-hardcore tension through a palette of resampled metal, glitches, and everyday objects processed beyond recognition — a stripped-to-the-circuit experiment that pushes heavy music into a jagged, mechanical fever dream.
Italy’s BYMYSIDE just dropped Insieme Ricostruire, an emotional screamo LP on No Funeral that threads suffering, hope, and collective rebuilding into one tight, heartfelt cycle. Eight tracks swing between skramz volatility and melodic fragility, circling themes of resilience, shared wounds, and the urge to hold each other up while the world caves in.
FUGAZI just added another gem to the Live Series archive — the full Capitol Theater, Olympia WA set from 10/29/95, a 29-track document of the band in peak shape, ripping through Red Medicine cuts, deep classics, long-form improvisation and two encore
Emo-leaning post-hardcore/pop-punk crew PASTEL FACES just put out a new single called “Vacant,” teaming up with SUNWELL on a quick, sub-three-minute hit. Catchy, moody, punchy, MySpace era infused, straight to the point.
Legendary screamo torch-bearers SAETIA just showed up in the latest batch of HATE5SIX uploads, filmed October 5 at Punks For Palestine 2025. Alongside it, the channel dropped fresh footage from DARK THOUGHTS, BLACKEST DAWN, JUICEBOX, SHUTDOWN, UNIFORM, and JOHNNY BOOTH, a tight cross-section of various corners of punk and hardcore.
Canadian noise-rock icons KEN MODE dropped a quick update confirming they’re in the thick of making a new record, the first since Void in 2023. The note is classic KEN MODE understatement — “proof of life from the Mario Brothers” — followed by a reminder about the year’s final Bandcamp Friday and a nod to Artoffact Records handling physical releases from the U.S. They sum up the process as “slowly scratching away at the sculpture that is a new record,” which tracks with their usual mix of chaos and discipline.
⤵ Post Rock / Post Metal / Experimental
(iN)SECT RECORDS roll out another wild one: NVRSIDEWAYS is back with Nvrducking. Nvrhiding, a six-track jungle/hip-hop hybrid built from sharp breakbeats, warped jazz woodwinds, and that warm tape-hiss glow he bends into something emotional and off-axis. The EP traces exile, anger, and homecoming through frantic drums and soft melodic anchors — a spellbinding leftfield trip recommended for fans of Dakim, Sun Ra, and Leaving Records. Track 2 is already streaming.
The ethereal goth project MERCY NECROMANCY has a new vinyl edition of their 2019 debut EP Fallen up for pre-order through Softseed Music, marking the first time the record appears on a physical format. It’s a short, shadowy set with a dreamlike, otherworldly atmosphere and vocals that carry the whole thing with a quiet, haunted clarity.
Rock icon FLEA has released a new jazz single, “A Plea,” on Nonesuch Records, paired with a full-scale video directed by Clara Balzary. The track runs nearly eight minutes and folds in a large ensemble — upright bass, drums, guitar, percussion, horns, layered vocals — with Flea handling electric bass, trumpet and lead vocals. The lyrics move from civil-war dread and political fatigue into a push for something softer: build a bridge, shine a light, make something beautiful and hand it to someone.
Experimental icon JARBOE has announced a UK/EU tour for May 2026, joining forces with Thor Harris and Joy Von Spain for a set built from her industrial, atmospheric and ritual-heavy catalogue. The trio will also premiere two ambient pieces from her upcoming album Sightings, which lands April 3 via Consouling Sounds, a record shaped by elusive encounters in nature and paired with artwork by Phil Puleo. The run hits Copenhagen, Tallinn, Warsaw, Berlin, London and more, framing a rare collaboration between three deep-cut voices from the experimental underground.
VLOR return with Rise Together, a long-distance collaboration built from Brian John Mitchell’s minimal song sketches and expanded by contributors from projects like DEAD MAN’S TUNING, UNSPEAKABLE FORCES, THE INFANT CYCLE and PROMUTE. The release drifts between post-punk, ambient and experimental film-score territory, originating from a piece that no longer fit its intended shoegaze compilation. Stream and download via Silber Media.
Montevideo’s instrumental collective UOH! released their new single “Soñadx,” marking a shift from their post-rock/noise foundation toward a repetitive, hypnotic blend informed by psychedelic cumbia and psych-rock. The track was recorded, produced, and mastered by the band in Juan Bra’s studio, mixed by Nicolás Demczylo, and features an expanded lineup with guest wind players Emiliano Pereira, Inés Agosto, and Diego Cotelo. The full session includes contributions from Pablo Durán, Marcos Miranda, Hiram Miranda, Juan Bra, Miguel Recalde, and Dardo Marcher.
MAIN ERA return with Four of Wands, a self-recorded full-length shaped during a year of shared living in Allston, where the Boston experimental-rock quartet turned their house into a studio and rebuilt their sound from the ground up. Listen below and go here for more details.
⤵ Punk Rock
Punk, Pop Punk, Folk Punk, raw, fast, melodic, and more.
LA alt-punk crew DEATH LENS have a new single out called “Power,” a straight-shot burner that lands as their first drop since Cold World. No fluff around it — just a quick jolt about getting knocked down, getting back up, and dealing with a world that doesn’t slow for anyone. It’s also tagged for the next EA Skate game, with a Marco Hernandez video built around skaters like Tristan Funkhouser and Tyler Pacheco carving lines while the band rips through the track.
THE FLATLINERS have joined Equal Vision Records and released a new single, “Misanthropy & Me,” marking their first output for the label. The track arrives alongside a short run of December dates in Chicago, Toronto and Montreal, with support from THE LAWRENCE ARMS, FUCKED UP, SAMIAM and others, before the band shifts to European festivals in mid-2026, including Jera On Air, Vainstream and Mighty Sounds.
Stockholm melodic punk rock outfit FEELS LIKE HEAVEN just put out a new single called “Volvo (On The Road)”.
Long-running punk wrecking crew SNFU are putting their 1985 debut …And No One Else Wanted to Play back into circulation with a fresh remaster and a box-set version that piles on a full 2xLP of rarities. The add-ons dig through early singles, loose studio cuts from ’83–’85, and a whole stack of live recordings from Scandals and Spartans, plus the “Hollywood Recordings 1985” takes.
A scrappy indie-punk jolt from Boston hits with ADIOS FATSO dropping their new single “Gopro, Not Again!” and premiering its animated video on the big screen at the Capitol Theatre in Arlington. The track rides on ripping guitars and wired frustration over a GoPro dying at the worst moment, with Sir-Ken Celli steering the chaos. The band marked the release with a full live set before the video rolled, packed with Boston touchstones like the Citgo sign and the Zakim Bridge.
The long-running pop-punk group SIMPLE PLAN have announced a 2026 UK and European headline run, their largest in more than a decade, with dates stretching across over 19 cities and framed by shows at Wembley Arena in London and Accor Arena in Paris. NECK DEEP are confirmed as special guests for the “Bigger Than You Think!” tour, which the band link directly to their ongoing 25th-anniversary celebrations. In their statement, SIMPLE PLAN note they’ll be playing major hits, rarely performed tracks, and that they’re “grateful and amazed” by the support that led them to these venues.
View this post on Instagram
NOFX return from “retirement” with A to H, the first chapter of their massive A to Z rarities trilogy dropping December 5 via Fat Wreck. It’s a stack of demos, deep cuts, and long-lost oddities — including Barcelona, the so-called last NOFX song — wrapped in SHAG artwork and aimed squarely at anyone who ever burned through their ’90s catalog. Fat Mike sums it up the only way he can: “demo versions of songs that are not nearly as good as the album versions,” which is exactly the charm people want.
Philly solo agitator FAUSTBOT has a new EP, Rant, landing January 1, with the first single “AI Is for Assholes” already up. The track fires off funked-up drums, clipped guitars, and rapid-shot lyrics spelling out exactly why generative tech gets the middle finger — privacy wreckage, rent hikes, stolen art, environmental fallout, and the bigger fear of workers being swapped for bots. Mike keeps it blunt, almost gleefully so, framing the song as both a warning and a takedown. It’s chaotic post-punk with its teeth out.
⤵ Rock
Alternative, Indie Rock, Hard Rock, Emo, Noise Rock, Post Punk, Grunge, Shoegaze and more
Moody indie-punk outsiders TIGERS JAW have a track called “Head Is Like a Sinking Stone,” and the lyrics alone sketch the whole mess: bad timing, old ghosts creeping back through the doorway, and that sinking-weight feeling that hits when someone drifts out again. The song turns on repetition — time slipping, truth running, a heartbeat dropping out — with the narrator stuck in the quiet aftermath, admitting, “I’ll do nothing at all.”
A new split 7” from WILL ROMEO and THE 1984 DRAFT arrives December 5 via Sweet Cheetah Records and Poptek Records, pairing two ’90s alt-rock covers: Romeo’s take on Sponge’s “Plowed” and The 1984 Draft’s version of Jawbreaker’s “Jet Black.”
We covered this new release in a special feature here.
BERNAL and FIN DEL MUNDO have teamed up for a new single titled “Rutina,” a slow-burning, spoken-melodic piece produced by Raúl Abellán and Eduardo Nogués at The Mixtery. The track sits in the same alt/math-leaning space the Valencia artist has been carving out all year, but this one is pared down to the bare nerve: a first-person spill about burnout, routine, and the slow erosion of motivation. The lyrics trace long work hours, driving, and the avoidance of self-reflection, building toward the recurring line “nunca es suficiente.”
ANGEL DU$T drop “DU$T” and it’s pure whiplash energy — opening like a soft indie lull and then detonating into blast beats and a breakdown that feels ripped straight from a basement show. Justice Tripp sounds fully locked into that “don’t care, won’t stop” zone, and Cold 2 The Touch (out Feb 13) already looks like their most chaotic, most dialed-in version of rock-and-roll-through-a-meat-grinder. One of those tracks that hits fast and leaves the place trashed.
NEGATIVE LOVE just dropped a new two-track single, MTPPL, ahead of their debut EP landing January 16, 2026 on Static Era Records. The title cut opens up a darker, more experimental lane for the band — a moody pivot with a heavier hardcore punch underneath, something that’ll sit well with Deftones kids but doesn’t stop there. The flip, “Shades From Inside,” keeps that same shadowed tension, hinting at where the EP might go next. Great stuff.
Inhumano Records just opened pre-orders for the new LP by EL CÓMODO SILENCIO DE LOS QUE HABLAN POCO, titled San. The Chilean band leans deeper into warm Midwest-emo tones and slow-burn post-rock, weaving in cello, violin, and touches of South American folk and Japanese-influenced atmospheres.
It’s a clear shift toward broader, more textured arrangements, but the introspective core of their writing stays intact. Expect something in the vein of American Football and early Kinsella projects, but shaped by their own calm, luminous melancholy. The LP lands in Europe in early February via Inhumano.
A Rose’s Diary and letters to you reunite for a split EP built from mid-2000s recordings tied to their shared Myspace-era beginnings in Ansbach. See our full feature on this piece here.
Dreamy Costa Rican indie crew ADIOS COMETA just put out three live cuts from their recent San José show—ghosted, raw takes on “Norte,” “Costanera,” and “Los Años, Pequeños Días.” It’s a small holdover while they sit on Un Destello de Luz, due January 29, and they keep it casual in their note: “here’s a small treat… hope you enjoy it.” Vinyl, cassette, and CD pre-orders are still up through Steadfast Records and Spinda Records.
Paris alternative crew PÆRISH have shared a live version of “Houses of American Style,” recorded inside the vast stone halls of L’Ancienne Abbaye Saint-Léger. The track comes from their third LP You’re In Both Dreams (And You’re Scared), a record the band describe as heavier, noisier and sadder than their earlier work, with Mathias Court calling its songwriting more spontaneous.
Post-hardcore rockers CIRCA SURVIVE weren’t just pausing — according to Anthony Green on the HardLore podcast, the band actually broke up back in 2022. He explains that the “hiatus” label was more a soft landing than a real description, tied to his relapse before the postponed Blue Sky Noise anniversary tour and the fallout that followed. Green talks about the strain it put on everyone, calling the split “heartbreaking,” but also says he’s been reconnecting with bandmates since. Whether the band ever plays again is unclear, and he doesn’t sugarcoat it: even if something happened down the line, “it wouldn’t be the same.”
The heavy-leaning tribute set NINE INCH NAILS – THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL REDUX has landed in stores and on major streaming platforms, pulling together 14 reinterpretations of the classic album by acts ranging from Black Tusk and Sandrider to Author & Punisher and Between The Buried And Me. Issued via Magnetic Eye Records, the release arrives alongside the companion collection Best of Nine Inch Nails Redux, which gathers 13 more covers from across the band’s catalogue. A full stream and shop link are available through the label.
KARNIVOOL just rolled out “Opal,” another preview from In Verses — their first album in a decade — and both Lambgoat and ThePRP hit the same note: this one’s stitched together from old fragments that finally clicked. Drew Goddard talks about riffs dating back to the Themata era and a verse dug up from the Asymmetry sessions, all of it suddenly snapping into place after twenty years of floating around. It’s very on-brand for them: proggy, polished, and patient enough to let abandoned ideas resurface when they’re ready. The full record drops February 6.
Rap-blues heavyweight EVERLAST teams up with YELAWOLF for a new acoustic take on “Put Your Lights On 2025,” dropping it just as Tommy Boy Records lines up the 25th anniversary edition of Eat at Whitey’s. The reissue info circles back to the original era — the 2000 LP where Everlast pulled in guests like N’dea Davenport, Cee-Lo, B-Real, and Carlos Santana, the last of whom he wrote the Grammy-winning version of “Put Your Lights On” for — but the new cut stands on its own as a stripped-back revisit.
Metalcore bruisers PALEFACE SWISS went balland hard rock with a new single, “Everything Is Fine,” backed by a video and set as the closing track on their upcoming The Wilted EP, out January 2. Frontman Marc “Zelli” Zellweger lays out the song’s core: “Everything Is Fine tells the story of two lovers caught in situations they cannot change… they try to accept what neither wants to accept,” he says.
Darkwave goth post punks DANCE OF DAYS have released Dance Finite, an eight-track debut built around bright, dance-ready rhythms cut with what the band frame as a “moody, shadowed core.” Written, produced, and recorded by Brandon Olds with contributions from Coleman Elliot, Jules Trifan, and Kaeleb Dummar, the album pulls in signposted shades of ’80s new wave and post-punk while keeping a punk edge tied to their California roots.
Philly alt-rock crew GRAYSCALE drop The Hart (Deluxe) this week via Infield, capping a heavy year with an expanded take on their fourth LP. The new edition folds in guests across the scene — Smallpools, Derek Sanders, Slowly Slowly, Veaux, The Wonder Years — and pushes each track into different atmospheres. The focus cut, “Painting Over You,” brings Cassadee Pope into a synth-warm soft-rock moment, paired with fresh visuals shot by Kyle Short. Frontman Collin Walsh keeps it simple: having friends jump on songs they already loved was “crazy, chaotic, and so fun.”
A dusty, slow-burning shoegaze drift frames ELBOWSWAY, who’ve just put out their debut single “common sense” through the Tashkent label Boshqa Musiqa. We featured the band in a special piece about them coming from the nonobvious scene od Uzbekistan.
Noise rock & roll wrecking crew SOMETHING IS WAITING have dropped Livelick, a live album yanked straight off the stage at Chicago’s Empty Bottle, start to finish, no edits, out on Learning Curve Records. Eddie Gobbo is also back in wrestling mode, rolling out a fresh “Best for Business” top five of the wrestlers he thinks will own 2026. See our full feature on that at this location.
Gloom-soaked goth rock unit COLD IN BERLIN step back in with Wounds, their first album in six years, pulling together post-punk, doom, krautrock, and cold-wave tension around Maya’s fierce, unornamented vocals. We dove deep into this adventurous offering here.
South London/ Brighton indie–alt-rock outfit MUTTERING have rolled out a new single, “Holding You Back,” landing as they edge toward their second LP. The group pulls its lineup from Big Scary Monsters’ orbit — Charlie B, Tom from Modern Rituals, and Charlie P of Wallflower — and they’ve been grinding onstage for three years since their debut Great, hitting sold-out rooms across London, Brighton, and Bristol with Oversized, Retirement Party, Carly Cosgrove, Michael Cera Palin, and Nervus.
NYC mid-fi pop architect VICTORYLAND drops a new single and video called “Fits” , a homemade-leaning piece that leans into the project’s whole charm: haunted, joyful, apartment-born guitar pop. The project comes from Julian McCamman, formerly of the now-defunct ATX/Philly punk outfit Blood, and feeds straight into his debut album My Heart Is a Room With No Cameras in It, landing January 23, 2026 on Good English Records.
Toronto rock outfit DEAD BROKE return with “Hypernormal,” a sharp, fed-up look at living inside the constant churn — everything reactive, everything monetized, everything too fast to process. Michael Bright spells it out: we’re doomscrolling through nonsense while real violence sits right beside us, and no one feels able to move the needle. The track also marks a shift in how the band writes, trading their old all-in-a-room approach for a more tech-heavy, shared-demo workflow that kicked off during lockdown and snowballed into a batch of new songs.
Minneapolis rock outfit THE MODERN ERA walk back in after nearly a decade with a new single, “Dear Anyone,” their first drop since 2016. The track comes with a live-at-The-Green-Room video and marks a fresh run toward a full album arriving in 2026. They’ve got Jack Endino on production this time, which fits the band’s lean, loud backbone. Formed in 2013 and known for past tours with Meat Puppets and Richie Ramone — plus a couple film placements along the way — they’re picking things up with a sharper, hungrier version of themselves.
NECK DEEP rolled out a new visualizer for “December (again)” featuring Mark Hoppus, a refreshed take on one of their most enduring tracks. The clip arrives via Hopeless Records and comes with a push for fans to use the song in Shorts, signaling the label’s annual December revival around the track.
Scottish alt-rock duo VUKOVI just pushed out a new video for “Bladed,” the closing track from My God Has Got a Gun. Shot by Zak Pinchin, it leans into monochrome menace — Janine Shilstone calls it “enchanting with the undertones of destruction and mental illness,” a final swing at wrapping up the album’s themes. The band hit the UK for an intimate headline run across January and February 2026.
Chicago’s indie-rock shape-shifter RATBOYS just dropped a new one, “What’s Right,” a tight little pop-rock knot arriving ahead of their album Singin’ to an Empty Chair, due in February through New West Records. The album runs 11 tracks—including “Light Night Mountains All That”—and was made with Chris Walla across a Wisconsin cabin, Electrical Audio, and Rosebud Studio. The band also mapped out a 2026 North American run kicking off February 25 in Detroit, with a stop at Pitchfork Music Festival London next month.
Punk rockers NECKSCARS dropped their Christmas song earlier this week.
A new Brooklyn/Boston project called THE GUPPIES has surfaced with a fourteen–track debut recorded straight to a Tascam 488 MKII during a two-day break in tours for DINOS and SCOTTY MALCOM’S ACID MINION. The band — formed almost by accident out of that session — leans into loose, lo-fi garage rock with flashes of punk, country detours, and quick instrumental breaks.
MOODRING have released a new visualizer for “Cannibal,” their latest SharpTone Records single that blends late-’90s/early-’00s nu-metal, alt-rock and industrial electronics. The track, built on thick riffs and pulsing synths, arrives alongside its placement in the trailer for the upcoming season of Crunchyroll’s Clevatess. Frontman Hunter Young notes the lyrics draw on black widow mating cycles as a metaphor for destructive intimacy. The band, originally from Florida and now based in Atlanta, continue the run that followed their 2022 debut Stargazer and this year’s single “Half-Life.”
CURSIVE kick off Noise Real Records’ new “Noise Pollution Series” with a 7” built around two alternate takes of “The Recluse” — the slow, haunted live version they’ve been playing for over a decade and a punked-up sprint they usually save for fun. Check out the details here.
Hard-rock outlier POPPY has a new single, “Guardian,” tied to her upcoming album Empty Hands, out January 23 on Sumerian Records. The song sticks to her usual mix of sharp guitars, heavy percussion, and clean, controlled vocals. It follows a run of recent work—from the Grammy-nominated “Suffocate” to collaborations with Jordan Fish, Amy Lee, and Courtney LaPlante—plus the earlier singles “Bruised Sky” and “Unravel.” The full tracklist for Empty Hands is now public.
Indie-folk drifters EUPHORIA AGAIN and DOGWOOD TALES are rolling out another piece of their joint LP Destination Heaven with “It’s Not Hard To Laugh,” landing December 8. The track grew out of that quick, no-prep weekend in the Shenandoah Valley where both bands piled into a room and cut the record live, eight people chasing melodies as they came. The song’s writer calls it a “self-effacing, humorous attempt at a love song,” more about making strangers feel seen than any big romantic arc. The full album drops January 7 via Born Losers Records, with tour dates to follow.
Blackgaze wanderer SADNESS dropped a new EP, Shimmer, and lined up a West Coast run for early 2026. The project—Damián Antón Ojeda’s long-running solo world turned full live band—has spent a decade piling up releases and pulling together atmospheric black metal, shoegaze, and post-rock into one drifting, emotional blur. Ojeda, now based in Baltimore and playing with Billy Jarboe, calls the tour “a genuine dream come true,” with dates stretching from Los Angeles to Vancouver. The EP is streaming now.
French slacker-punk outfit SWIRLS are back with “Powerstation,” a new single ahead of their 2026 album. Formed in Nantes and wired into that Aussie-leaning, loose-grit punk pulse, they describe the track as an anthem for anyone running on fumes and refusing to stall out — “a last-push song about scraping the bottom of the tank.” The band shot the accompanying video themselves, trailing a denim-clad mannequin who thinks he’s a rockstar through roadside Spain, backstage corners, and service-station limbo. It’s scrappy, dry-humored, and fits the song’s frayed energy.
SoCal rap-rock vets P.O.D. rolled out a video for their cover of The Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down,” a low-key clip built from a live jam session — nothing fancy, just the band playing it straight and soaking in the moment. They described it as “live heart and soul. Beatles magic.”
They kick off their Brazil run tonight, with dates in São Paulo, Rio, Recife, Curitiba, Belo Horizonte, Brasília, and back to São Paulo, joined by Demon Hunter and Living Sacrifice.
⤵ Metal
Alt Metal, Death Metal, Heavy Metal, Black Metal, Thrash, Sludge, Nu Metal, Grindcore, and more.
MONOLITH return with “The Price of Their Heaven,” a self-recorded, self-released blast of melodic hardcore and punk that rewinds their entire sci-fi mythos back to the moment before collapse. Tracked live with no overdubs and issued through Nightmarcher Records, the album drops the cosmic scale for a ground-level narrator watching his world erode under work, war, climate breakdown and political decay — the point where the story’s universe fractures long before The Monolith God wakes.
See our massive new feature on that beast of an album here.
Vicious progressive death metal unit FARSON just dropped the first single “Ohne Jede Erinnerung,” a quick taste of the upcoming full-length Ein stumpfes Instrument, set for release next year through Revolvermann Records and Total Dissonance Worship. The Hanover/Göttingen group has been drifting from its early black-metal-meets-post-rock days since Erode, pushing further into avant-garde territory after Kreatürlich, and this new album keeps that crooked line going with odd meters, dissonant bends, and the kind of jazz-fusion detours that feel more like unstable weather than songwriting. The band frames the record around isolation and the hunt for some kind of harmony, letting fragmentary, everyday-life lyrics ground all the shifting noise while the whole thing moves like a single organism—breathing, collapsing, twitching, starting again.
The veteran deathcore unit DESPISED ICON appear on a new in-person episode of the Garza Podcast, where Alex Erian and Eric Jarrin walk through the band’s lineup changes, early origins, and the long road leading to their new album Shadow Work, which is out now. The discussion moves through everything from formative drumming and guitar days to the project’s breakup, rebuilding, and broader scene history, touching on names like Suicide Silence, Animosity and Dillinger Escape Plan as they trace what the hosts frame as the real roots of the genre.
Old-school death metallers IMMORTALIS are dusting off their lone full-length Indicium De Mortuis for a reissue via Hammerheart Records on February 20, 2026. The 1991 album gets a vinyl and 2xCD treatment, backed by a full demo disc (Final Death ’93). The press notes frame the record as a warped, cryptic slab drawing lines to Possessed, Slayer, Deicide, Massacre and even the oddball Austrian fringe, with Andy Classen engineering and the vocals compared to Barney Greenway. It’s the band’s one shot from that era, now resurfacing with its original menace intact.
Chicago extreme unit WRETCHED BLESSING dropped a new track called “Histrionic Martyr,” a Bandcamp-only cut for now. KV and RA handle vocals and instruments, with Pete Grossmann engineering, mixing, and mastering the session at Bricktop Recording. The song lands in their usual black-/death-leaning chaos, circling themes of control, blood, and self-inflicted ruin, built around KV’s lyrics and Adam Yates’ artwork. It won’t hit Spotify, though they might slide it onto Tidal later.
Saskatoon death-thrash unit PYTHONIC fired off a new single, “Liturgy,” as they gear up for Slaughterfest in Edmonton and the December 19 release of their EP Decomposition. The band lays out the track’s appeal in plain terms — “the riffs rip, the drums rip, the bass rips” — framed by lyrics about demon-summoning and pushed harder by new vocalist Morgan Warriner’s guttural edge. The EP digs into heavier territory with songs touching corruption, addiction, and toxic fallout, backed by Reid Paraszczynec’s mix and Danya Lawton’s decayed artwork concept.
Deathcore veteran ADAM WARREN just rolled out “Endless Cycle,” the debut single from his new project CODE NAME: QUANTUM, made with guitarist Michael Butler. It’s a sharp pivot: Warren steps into clean vocals for the first time, marking a clear break from the blunt force he was known for in Oceano. The timing lands right before Oceano’s billed “final show” on December 6 at the West Chicago Social Club, with a lineup pulled from the Depths and Contagion eras and support from Monsters, The Last Ten Seconds Of Life, Hold My Own, and Filth.
Southampton’s new industrial-noise presence SUNSWARM arrive with their debut single “Sunswarm,” a bleak, pressure-cooked slab that treats heaviness less like theatre and more like a fact of life. The duo pull from GODFLESH, AMENRA, THE BODY and ORANSSI PAZUZU, but they keep it stripped to their own pulse — early ’90s sampling grit, scorched guitars, black-metal-stung vocals. The lyrics barely bother with narrative, more like a mantra muttered in the dark: “Sunswarm. How to die. Sunswarm. Look into the light.” It sits in that tight space between dread and revelation, exactly where they seem most comfortable.
Melodic metalcore band SEMPER ACERBUS just dropped a new single, “One Day at a Time,” a straight, no-decorations look at addiction and recovery, delivered through a lyric video by Marc Coronado. It’s the second preview from their upcoming LP Following Omens (January 9, 2026 on Eclipse Records), and the band keep the setup honest — plans for a bigger concept clip fell apart, so they leaned into something simple that carries the message without dressing it up.
Black metal mainstay NERGAL weighed in on the future of heavy music during an interview with Australia’s Metal On Tap, saying the classic arena giants are nearing the end of their era and nothing in the newer wave fills that space for him. He points to GUNS N’ ROSES, AC/DC, METALLICA, and IRON MAIDEN as bands he still shows up for because “this era is getting to an end,” and fans will regret missing them while they still can.
Texas black-metal outfit NECROFIER just announced their new album Transcend Into Oblivion, landing February 27, 2026 via their new label home, Metal Blade Records, and shared a first cut, “Servants Of Darkness, Guide My Way I.” The single sits inside a larger three-act concept built around a Luciferian “dark night of the soul,” with Bakka framing this section as the moment where awakening turns into struggle and descent.
Sumerian Records founder ASH AVILDSEN dropped a long, pointed statement calling out tech companies — and major labels — for embracing AI-generated music. In his view, the push has nothing to do with art and everything to do with closed-door equity deals and minimum-guarantee payouts that benefit corporations, not musicians. He compares AI tracks on streaming platforms to playing a door-deal show where you’re forced to split your cut with a computer that went on before you.
Avildsen calls for a “velvet revolution” of artists and labels refusing to play along, promising some kind of alternative release model early next year. He ends by inviting any major-label or tech executive to debate him publicly on what he calls the “AI crisis.”
View this post on Instagram
Previous roundups:
- Nov 21-28
- Nov 14-21
- Nov 7-14
- Nov 1-7
- Oct 24-31
- Oct 17-24
- Oct 10-17
- Oct 3-10
- Sept 26 – Oct 3
- Sept 19-26
- Sept 12-19
- Sept 5-12
- August 14 – September 5
- August 8-14
- August 1-8
- July 25 – August 1
- July 23-25
- July 21-23
- July 19-21
- July 16-18
- July 12-15
- July 9-11
- July 5-9
Keep in the loop!
🗞️ Subscribe on Substack
🔔 Join our Messenger and WhatsApp
📜 Get daily news via Instagram Stories
Your support keeps us alive!
IDIOTEQ is a one-man DIY operation, tirelessly spotlighting the local cultural scenes and independent bands that often go unreported elsewhere. Born in the early 00s, this platform has been committed to giving hard-working artists the high-quality coverage they truly deserve.
No ads, no distractions—just pure inspiration and a genuine focus on independent artists and their stories.
Please consider helping keep IDIOTEQ ad-free and in tune with the indie scene by donating today.
DONATE via PayPal 𝗈𝗋 SUPPORT via Patreon
100% of the funds collected go toward maintaining and improving this magazine. Every contribution, however big or small, is super valuable.
Your support ensures that we continue to be a place where you can discover, learn, and get inspired, without any advertising noise. Thank you for being a part of this musical journey.
