We’re wrapping up the last three weeks in one go this time — vacation trips and summer chaos got in the way, but the upside is nearly two hundred quick notes packed into one drop. Chances are most people have no idea how many exciting records land within just the handful of styles we usually dig into. There’s plenty of hardcore, post-hardcore, screamo, pop-punk, and punk rock, with melody running through it all. You’ll also find some alternative rock, a heavy dose of post-rock and post-metal, plus touches of death metal and metalcore. It’s all mixed up but loosely graded, so you’ll get the flow. Dive in, scroll through, and support independent artists.
Let’s go!
Stick To The Core unearthed a piece of hardcore history with Demonstration (Six songs with Damien singing: 1995), the first-ever vinyl pressing of SHAI HULUD’s debut recording session. Originally tracked three decades ago, this is also the only time Damien Moyal—known for MORNING AGAIN, CULTURE, and AS FRIENDS RUST—fronted the band.
The six-song set includes “Hardly,” “Orwell,” and “This Wake I Myself Have Stirred,” capturing the earliest raw form of what SHAI HULUD would later become. Out September 1, 2025, the drop marks 30 years since the band’s formation—an archival document pressed for the first time and given proper treatment by STICK TO THE CORE.
Emotive post-hardcore veterans LA DISPUTE have released their new full-length No One Was Driving The Car, out September 5, 2025. Produced by the band, engineered by Connor Massey, mixed by Scott Evans at Antisleep, and mastered by Heba Kadry, the record stretches across fourteen tracks with artwork by Adam Vass.
Australian hardcore commanders SPEED have just unveiled their new EP, ALL MY ANGELS, slated for release on 23 October via Last Ride Records in Australia and Flatspot Records worldwide. The three-track collection was born from a place of grief—prompted by the loss of a close friend and key figure in Sydney’s hardcore community—but it isn’t a eulogy. Instead, the band frames it as a raw meditation on learning to love without fear or regret, an exercise in how sorrow can forge deeper bonds.
This announcement lands amid a whirlwind of momentum: 2024’s debut album Only One Mode earned SPEED an ARIA Award and charted at #10; in 2025 they made history as the first Australian hardcore band to play Coachella. Next up, they’ll hit the US supporting Turnstile, then head to the UK on tour with Malevolence—building anticipation for ALL MY ANGELS everywhere they go.
Italian screamo veterans RAEIN return October 24 with forme sommerse, their first new recording in a decade, released through Persistent Vision Records. The full LP is streaming now on Bandcamp!
The band frame the record as a distillation of ten years of change and distance: “We moved instinctively, as we always have, condensing these ten years of shifts and distances into half an hour of music… this record, true to tradition, is a tribute to what can’t be seen and to what compels us.”
The LP will be available in multiple limited vinyl editions, with European and UK distribution handled by Dog Knights Productions, Deathwish Inc EU, Grind Promotions, Shove Records, and VOTU Records.
Hardcore vets MODERN LIFE IS WAR are back with Life On The Moon, their first studio album in over a decade, out today via Deathwish Inc and Iodine Recordings. The record moves through themes of grief, loss, union, and memory, produced alongside longtime collaborator Brooks Strause with sessions split between Electrical Audio in Chicago, Soundhouse in Seattle, and House of Foto in Louisville.
Legendary DC post-hardcore unit FUGAZI dropped two more live archive sets on Bandcamp: Live at DV8, Seattle, WA — 02/28/99 (FLS0900) and Live at Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY — 09/25/93 (FLS0594). Both DAT-sourced recordings include staples like “Waiting Room,” “Blueprint,” and “Glueman,” with the Seattle show taped by Nick Pellicciotto and the NYC set by Joey Picuri, each mastered by Jerry Busher.
END IT have dropped their debut full-length Wrong Side Of Heaven through Flatspot Records. Produced by Brian McTernan at Salad Days Studio, the 15-track album blends NYHC aggression, thrash crunch, skate-punk bounce, and flashes of soul. Lyrically, Akil Godsey keeps it sharp—lines like “Who must die, to keep you in your luxury?” on “Billion Dollar Question” and “Empires can not last. I hope the end comes quicker than that” on closer “Empire’s Demise” frame the record as both personal and political.
The release lands as the Baltimore band gears up for a heavy run of shows. They’ll link with Superheaven in early September, then launch The Wrong Side Of Heaven Tour with Ends Of Sanity, Soul Blind, Bracewar, Raw Brigade, Clique, Hold My Own, and more. Along the way, END IT step onto arena stages supporting Blink-182 in St. Louis and Kansas City, a crossover moment that underlines their momentum without pulling them away from hardcore’s core circuits.
Godsey, Chris Gonzalez, Ray Lee, and Patrick Martin have built a reputation on unapologetic delivery and chaotic live sets. With Wrong Side Of Heaven, they’ve put a definitive statement on record and lined up the roadwork to back it.
Swedish power hardcore pack FOX WOMB just dropped a new track titled Sing Of Ruin And Let Sunflowers Grow From Your Mouth, out August 29, 2025. The chaotic hardcore unit from Gothenburg pieced it together with music by Simon Romberg and Jonna Wiberg, and lyrics handled by Romberg.
WOLVES are finally dropping their debut full-length today via Ripcord Records. Ten tracks, four vocalists, and a barrage of Dillinger-style chaos, Every Time I Die swagger, and Poison The Well emotion, all sharpened into something that feels both cathartic and deliberate. The record pulls no punches, with themes running through fascism, fatherhood, heartbreak, and survival.
Formed back in 2016 from the wreckage of Bludger and a string of other projects like Finish Him!, Ashes Of Maybelle, and EFK, WOLVES have built this record on years of scars and unfinished business. The lineup—Mark Howes, Andy Price, Robbie Tewelde, Andy ‘Beard’ Rodger, and Ryan Tyrrell—first made noise under the name When The Wolf Comes Home with the Gone Are The White Flags EP in 2017, earning a reputation for chaotic, blood-soaked shows alongside Sectioned, Urne, Renounced, and others.
TIMES OF DESPERATION have released their new EP Vegan Manifesto, out now as of September 1. The Swedish vegan metallic hardcore act had already previewed it in July with the single “Denied,” and the full five-track blast now includes “Skinned Alive,” “Imposter,” “A World Beyond,” and “The Final War.”
The explosive record was mixed and mastered by Anthony Burke after sessions at Studio Rovljud, with artwork by Jacob Bondesson. Credits also nod to Genet and Bitter Melody Records and to the wider Swedish hardcore scene. The dedication is clear: “to everyone who risk their own freedom for the freedom of others.”
Metallic hardcore bruisers WITHPAPERWINGS have dropped their debut EP Six Thousand Days, out now through The Coming Strife Records in collaboration with Armageddon Recs. This is TCS152, a furious blast of 90s-style metalcore sharpened into a weapon — riffs like swinging steel, breakdowns like collapsing walls, and vocals that sound like they’re barked across a burning battlefield.
Tracked with Neil Westfall, produced and engineered by Griffin Nofun, and mixed/mastered by Jay Hoe, the EP comes with artwork by Crippled X Wings and live shots by Kevoscope.
DAISY CHAIN dropped their self-titled EP on August 27, pushing Newcastle screamo into heavier hardcore terrain. Written in parallel with their 2023 debut but refined by another year of shows, the four tracks — “Pig House,” “Meat,” “Betting,” and “Stranger in the Skin” — carried sharper riffs while keeping screamo’s trademark lurch between collapse and clarity.
The band acknowledged Conation’s early 2000s screamo-hardcore imprint on Newcastle as a key influence, while also pointing to connections with crews across Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne — GIL CERRONE, THE WORLD AT A GLANCE, DREAM INERTIA, KERATIN, BLIND GIRLS, and DORIS among them.
Wild hardcore punks FLORES Y FUEGO have dropped their new record Wabi-Sabi, released September 5, 2025. Clocking in at just over 15 minutes, the Guadalajara crew tear through seven tracks including “Control,” “Sacrificio,” “Guadaña,” and the title cut.
GRIDIRON just locked in their Poetry From Pain EU/UK run for spring 2026, dragging hardcore bruisers MISSING LINK along for the ride. The trek kicks off March 18 in Hamburg and winds through Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and the UK before closing April 5 in Norwich.
Support is split in two chunks: DEMONSTRATION OF POWER joins from March 18 to 26, while SPLITKNUCKLE jumps on from March 27 through April 5. Venues range from Urban Spree in Berlin to The Underworld in London and The Flying Duck in Glasgow, covering just about every stop that matters on the route.
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DISCOURAGE have signed to WAR Records and marked the move with two new tracks, “Gadsden” and “Clear,” streaming now ahead of their sophomore LP In Lieu of Flowers… due this fall. “Gadsden” features guest vocals from Meghan O’Neil of Punch and Super Unison, tying their sound even closer to the Bay Area’s hardcore lineage.
The Oakland crew last surfaced with their 2022 debut Disaster Fatigue, and the three-year gap came down to life logistics and a lineup shift, with bassist Alex stepping out and Israel Branson stepping in. Drummer Matt Tyler not only tracked drums but also handled production, while Alex Jacobelli at Sunsick Studios took on mixing.
Frontman Eric Pocock summed up their writing mindset for NoEcho: “make the fast parts faster, the slow parts heavier, and the whole thing meaner.” With that, DISCOURAGE seem set to sharpen their reputation for cutting, straight-to-the-throat hardcore just as the new record rolls out.
ZEGEMA BEACH RECORDS is putting out Disinformation Fix, the long-overdue vinyl edition of USURP SYNAPSE’s early material. Originally released as a double CD back in 2003, the collection finally sees a proper 2×12” treatment more than two decades later.
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The Lafayette, Indiana screamo unit crammed 50 tracks into the set, showcasing the short, abrasive, and chaotic blueprint they carved before their run of hiatuses and eventual 2023 return.
For a band whose jagged, sassy take on hardcore influenced plenty but was never quite replicated, Disinformation Fix stands as both a document and a reminder of just how off-the-rails USURP SYNAPSE could get.
Baltimore hardcore band TRIPPER have dropped a new single, “Puppet,” a two-minute blast recorded at Developing Nations with Kevin Bernsten (End It, Full of Hell), mixed by Matt Redenbo (Jivebomb, Praise), and mastered by James Plotkin.
The track runs on raw frustration, circling around control, regret, and the need to break free: “Hanging by a thread / said this wouldn’t happen again… Use me as you please.”
Vocalist Nic frames it bluntly: “The track focuses on heavy themes of dissociation and not feeling in control of my body or my mind.”
Fresh off the 2024 Faceless EP and shows alongside Loma prieta, Spaced, Mspaint, and Ekko astral, TRIPPER hit the road this month: Baltimore (9/13, Holy Frijoles), Durham (9/16, Rubies), Wilmington (9/17, Reggie’s), and Charlotte (9/19, The Milestone).
La Agonía de Vivir has issued the second press of TENUE’s Arcos, bóvedas, pórticos LP, originally released in 2024. The record blends epic crust and screamo across five long tracks (Inquietude, Letargo, Distracción, Enfoque, Unión) and is now available.
Recorded and mastered by Iván Ferro at Kollapse Studio, with artwork by Aritz Aramburu and trumpet by Gabriel Saito, the album channels themes of rupture, shared pain, and collective transcendence.
Finnish screamo/post-hardcore act ∞ (discovered on IDIOTEQ in 2012!) just unveiled Sydänkohtaus, a new single from their upcoming album Kuinka Löydän Luoksesi, out September 2.
The track circles around love as both burden and lifeline—“Sä lauloit mulle Elvistä / Ja tiesin selviin hengissä”—casting moments of fear, strength, and intimacy against the backdrop of city nights and personal collapse. Written, recorded, and mixed entirely by ∞, it’s described as a song “for all the happy ends, believers and never give uppers,” framing connection as the force that carries someone out of darkness.
Out today via Church Road Records, Recovery Language marks the debut full-length from STILL IN LOVE, a project pulling together musicians with past ties to Dead Swans, Throats, Brutality Will Prevail, Last Witness, and Bring Me The Horizon. The record follows the Withdrawal Symptoms EPs and expands on their mix of raw aggression and introspection, drawing comparisons to Cursed, Blacklisted, and Have Heart while carving out their own identity.
The band shared a list of five albums that shaped the record’s direction, citing Martyr Immortal by Pulling Teeth, Into Oblivion by Rise And Fall, Bushcraft by Baptists, Heavier Than Heaven, Lonelier Than God by Blacklisted, and A Life Less Plagued by Carry On.
Manchester wrecking crew GOING OFF have announced their new EP Kill List II, set for release on October 31 as a self-released effort. A follow-up to last year’s Die Fast, the record drops the tongue-in-cheek samples and punk flash in favor of something heavier, leaning into grief, rage, and survival. Each track circles themes of loss—whether of people, limbs, or the selves you leave behind.
Kerrang! called Die Fast “speedy and savage hardcore that feels live in a dive bar,” and this new cut builds on that chaos while sharpening the edges. “Every riff, break and vocal cut to the bone,” the band notes, making Kill List II less about bravado and more about raw exposure.
The group have kept busy tearing up the UK circuit, touring with Employed To Serve and Pupil Slicer, and sharing stages with Terror, Slapshot, Zulu, Scowl, Spaced, and Gel, alongside sold-out headline shows. The seven-track release lands just in time for Halloween.
PRIMITIVE MAN have announced their new album Observance, due October 31, 2025. The Denver trio call it their most crushing record yet — six tracks of trance-inducing doom and suffocating dread, written with what they describe as “obsession.”
Their first full-length since Immersion (2020) and following the Suffocation Hallucination collab with FULL OF HELL, the album drags Ethan Lee McCarthy’s disillusioned lyrics across sprawling arrangements shaped equally by drummer Joe Linden and bassist Jon Campos.
Lead single “Social Contract” sets the tone: a ticking-clock intro, authoritarian shadows, erased histories, and techno-feudal profiteers. McCarthy frames it as both personal and universal — fear, madness, anger, and the looming sense that “our time with life as we know it, is about to change drastically.”
WHOREFIED just put out their Don’t Back Down demo EP through ThrashTapes, marking release #18 for the label. The Sacramento crew hit with five tracks of metallic hardcore punk, from the title cut through “Failed State,” “Girls! Girls! Girls!,” “Little Bitch (Bitch Boy),” and “What You Seek.”
Francesca Cerrato fronts with raw vocals over Ruby Copher’s riffs, Bella Tutopoly’s bass, and Steven Mccurry’s frantic drumming.
ThrashTapes calls it “young, pissed and not backing down,” a snapshot of a new Sacramento generation channeling crossover riffs, breakdowns, and punk spirit into something sharp and immediate.
Shoegaze-drenched heavyweights FLESHWATER just released their new full-length 2000: In Search of the Endless Sky, out today via Closed Casket Activities. The record follows their 2022 debut We’re Not Here to Be Loved and sees the band leaning even harder into the mix of hazy vocals from Mirsy and metallic punch from Anthony DiDio.
SIGUR RÓS mark 20 years of Takk… with a newly announced anniversary edition, out later this month. Alongside remastered tracks, the release includes two previously unheard songs from the original sessions — Melrakki and Elfur.
The edition arrives in multiple formats: a limited 5×10” vinyl boxset via the band’s store, plus 3×12” vinyl and CD versions available widely.
Following 2023’s ÁTTA, their first record in a decade, the band are currently on an extended run of European and North American shows, including multi-night stands at London’s Royal Albert Hall, Paris’ Salle Pleyel, and Los Angeles’ Orpheum Theatre.
DEAF CLUB have unleashed new single “All Hot Dogs Are In-Bred”, a furious preview of their upcoming LP We Demand a Permanent State of Happiness, out September 19 via Southern Lord and Three One G.
The California hardcore unit — Justin Pearson (The Locust, Retox, Dead Cross), Brian Amalfitano, Scott Osment (Weak Flesh), and Jason Klein (Run With the Hunted) — tear through blastbeats, buzzsaw riffs, and banshee screams in what feels like a relentless industrial grind. Pearson frames it bluntly: “This is clearly a mean motherfucker world. I’m exhausted… so this one’s for you, humanity, or I guess lack of it.”
LOWHEAVEN have released their debut full-length Ritual Decay via MNRK Heavy. The Toronto band—formed in 2020 under pandemic isolation—stretch their sound between post-hardcore, screamo, blackened noise, and metal, grounding it less in genre than in sheer emotional intensity.
The record pulls from ’90s touchstones like Cave In and Deftones while digging into themes of isolation and loss of faith. Singles “Chemical Pattern,” “Mercy Death,” and “Amherst” previewed the album’s shifts between melody and abrasion, with production handled by Brett Romnes and mastering by Magnus Lindberg.
Tracked in a centuries-old New Jersey church, the sessions were steeped in exhaustion and bleak cinematic influence, from Cronenberg’s Crimes Of The Future to Julia Ducournau’s Titane. Vocalist Dan Thomson summed it up bluntly: “We’re not a happy listen. LOWHEAVEN is something that has got a lot of weight.”
Brighton emocore crew PROM just dropped two fresh cuts, Envoi and Rebirth, out now as BWR13. The release comes with a limited run of cassette singles—only 50 copies, each with a uniquely spray-painted, hand-numbered slipcover—available first on their mini tour kicking off today in Southampton.
Both tracks were recorded at Shaken Oak Studios and TIDALWAVE, with Kim Jarvis and Andrew Fisher assisting on engineering, and TIDALWAVE handling mixing and mastering. Any leftover tapes will surface online after the tour.
ABRUPT DECAY’s new full-length The Illusion of Our Choices In A World of No Options isn’t just another hardcore record—it’s a study in contradictions. Sparked by a conversation about privilege at vocalist Grant Matthews’ day job, the title encapsulates the gap between Western comfort and the loss of agency faced elsewhere. Across 45 minutes, tracked with Jordan Chase at Oodelally Studios, the band pour that tension into a deliberately sequenced whole, rejecting the single-driven model in favor of an uncompromising front-to-back listen.
We interviewed them this week about their beginnings, near-breakup, Gill’s impact, Calgary’s hardcore ecosystem, and how noise and heaviness will shape their next chapter. The full feature is live now on IDIOTEQ.
Buffalo hardcore oddballs SPACED have signed to Pure Noise Records and lined up their new EP No Escape for October 17. The band introduced the release with a lead single, “Cause and Effect,” dropped alongside a video featuring comedian Ian Fidance. Vocalist Lexi Reyngoudt framed the track as pushback against suffocating norms: “We’re told to be quiet and just obey but we really should be fighting back and speaking our minds. ‘Cause and Effect’ is an anthem for the times: ‘You pushed us too far; now it’s time we push back.’”
Recorded with producer Jay Zubricky, the five-song set channels the band’s own tag of “far out hardcore” while doubling down on Reyngoudt’s focus on frustration, work grind, and the looming sense of collapse. “I wrote the lyrics of this album as an outlet to express my current feelings about what is going on,” she said, adding that despite the bleakness, she still finds strength in hardcore’s sense of community.
The band—rounded out by Joe Morganti, Donny Arthur, John Vaughan, and Dan McCormick—will take No Escape on the road through the fall, hitting a long list of U.S. cities with Terror, Squint, Sissy Boys, and others.
Post-hardcore veterans BY A THREAD have dropped a new single, “Radiation,” ahead of their upcoming album Mirrored Life, due September 12th on Spartan Records. It’s their first full-length in 14 years, self-produced by the band, recorded at Raincity Recorders with Stuart McKillop, and mixed by John Franco.
The track itself circles existential territory, confronting the struggle to stay alive. In line with the rest of Mirrored Life, the lyrics move through loss, identity, and self-reflection while cutting into the way we treat each other in a fractured world.
Leeds-born nu hardcore band BODYWEB have released their new deadwired EP via Flatspot Records, a self-produced four-tracker that scrapes between nu-metal abrasion, ambient fractures, and hardcore breakdowns. Hardy explains the approach: “We still wanted it to sound very human… we recorded using all the same gear we use when playing live too to really capture the energy of how it feels when we jam together.”
The record follows 2023’s train_wreck_simulation and keeps the rawness intact — jagged riffs, live-tracked amps, and no click track. Press reactions range from Consequence noting their “modern hardcore” aesthetic to Revolver flagging the “tear-glazed chorus melodies” cutting through the noise.
Danish hardcore/crust quartet ANTI RITUAL have released their new EP 80 Years today through Indisciplinarian, accompanied by a video for the title track created by visual artist Morten Grønnegaard. The record takes its name from the eight decades since fascism’s defeat — and from the grim reality of its resurgence on today’s political stage.
After nearly a decade of silence, Alabama’s LATIN FOR TRUTH return with Southern Fantasia, their first full-length since 2013. The eight-song album, out September 5th, 2025, comes with an expanded Bandcamp edition that includes twelve extras—acoustic takes and raw demos from the writing period between late 2024 and spring 2025.
We just posted a huge new feature about the band here.
Punk trailblazers HÜSKER DÜ are getting a proper archival spotlight with 1985: The Miracle Year, a 4LP live box set arriving November 7 via Numero Group. The release restores the band’s complete January 30, 1985 First Avenue show—captured during a brutal -11° Minneapolis night—plus 20 more tracks from that year’s touring schedule. Alongside the vinyl comes a deluxe booklet chronicling what Bob Mould once called their “only thing that’s worth talking about this year.”
The recordings find Bob Mould, Grant Hart, and Greg Norton in full sprint, tearing through cuts from Zen Arcade, New Day Rising, and earlier material, while previewing songs that would land on Flip Your Wig. Covers of The Byrds, The Beatles, and the Mary Tyler Moore theme punctuated the set, with Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner joining in on “Helter Skelter.” “It was three guys doing what they loved, having fun, and basically showing other people that you can be true to yourself, true to your music, and not have to bow down to fashion or expectations,” Norton reflects.
Chaotic Bergen deathcore wreckers SPLIT//BITE just dropped their new track LOOK2ME, released August 29. The song lashes out with imagery of corruption, demolition, and sleepless terror, turning inner collapse into guttural rage.
San Diego emo misfits AREN’T WE AMPHIBIANS are rolling out their debut Parade! Parade! piece by piece, and the seventh track from the record, “This Is Teamwork!,” just landed September 26. The album drops later this year through Punk Rock Theory.
Formed by vocalist Joshua Talbot with brothers Brandon and Tyler Cunningham, the trio spins emo tropes into something more celebratory than self-pity. Across the tracklist — from early single “Dunce Hat” to the confetti-strewn closer “Parade” — they frame past missteps as fuel to keep moving, urging listeners to “celebrate the progress that you’ve made.”
Australian hardcore crew DEEZ NUTS have dropped their new EP 5 Gold Chains via Century Media, out September 5. Produced by Andrew Neufeld (Comeback Kid) and mixed/mastered by Jon Markson (Drug Church, Kharma, One Step Closer), the release packs four tracks, three of which were already streaming ahead of today.
Polish screamo unit MOJAPOŁOWA have dropped “działa zabrane,” the opening strike from their upcoming EP 13.1, due by the end of September. Known for welding together hardcore, punk, and screamo, the band lean on chaotic dynamics, sharp turns, and the clash of male and female vocals to cut through the noise.
The lyrics, screamed in Polish, paint fractured human ties and societal collapse — lines about lost light, absent gods, and enemies at the door make the track a bleak snapshot. The band themselves call it raw and visceral, and 13.1 promises four such songs stitched together in the same vein.
MOJAPOŁOWA’s year has already seen them share stages with pg.99, Frail Body, Hiatus, and Instigators, carrying their intensity from DIY spaces in Poland into lineups alongside international names. This new material continues that same push, unfiltered and direct.
New York melodic punks THE JUKEBOX ROMANTICS have announced their new album This One Looks Cool, set for release on October 17 via Sell The Heart Records and Engineer Records.
The first banger single, Honolulu Sun, is streaming now and arrives as a tribute to their late bandmate Bob Gibson. Pre-orders for the record go live today through Sell The Heart.
Belgian genre-benders BRUTUS just issued 2015 Collected, out August 29 via Unison Drive Records. The release gathers six tracks originally spread across three 7-inches back in 2015, now remixed, remastered, and wrapped with new artwork, plus an unreleased cut titled “Shame” from the same sessions.
Los Angeles screamo/crust act LÁGRIMAS just kicked off their U.S. tour at the Roxy in Hollywood, running through October with stops from San Francisco to New York and back west. Every show comes with a free tour poster of the striking raven design.
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The run follows the release of their new EP Like When I Was a Kid, out September 2 and packed into four cuts — “Yelling at the Sky,” the title track, “Say It Really Loud,” and “Devil Wind.” Alongside it, the band also dropped a re-recorded version of their first demo, this time played faster. Both releases were recorded by LÁGRIMAS and mixed and mastered by Patrick Alexander at Cacho Studio in Tijuana, MX.
German beatdown bruisers PEACE OF MIND just dropped their full-length Blood Is The Price, out September 5, 2025. Recorded with Taylor Young at The Pit in LA and mastered by Brad Boatright, the record brings ten cuts of heavy hardcore straight from Sonneberg.
The title track features SPEED’s Jem Siow, a cross-continental link-up that locks the German and Australian scenes together. Other guests include Emely Finke (Blossom Decay) and Gregor Lesky (Risk It).
Aussie punk grit with rock ’n’ roll swagger—SECRET WORLD have dropped their new single Everywhere Now, a glimpse of their upcoming EP Tomorrow Is A Mystery To Me, out September 19 via Last Ride Records (AU/NZ), Sunday Drive Records (US), and Ice Grills (JP).
Formed out of the Sydney and Newcastle hardcore scenes in 2023, the band features members tied to SPEED, TROPHY EYES, and DOWNSIDE. Their 2024 debut EP Guilt Is Good marked them as ones to watch, and the follow-up sharpens that mix of hardcore urgency, alt-rock hooks, and raw storytelling into something both earnest and anthemic.
California deathcore bruisers SPITE have set October 31 as the release date for their next full-length, New World Killer, coming via Rise Records. Alongside the announcement, they’ve dropped a video for the first single “Lights Out,” packed with blasphemous visuals, figure-eight headbanging, and riffing as vicious as the imagery.
“‘Lights Out’ is a depiction of lack in social awareness,” explain the Tehrani brothers. “Not everyone’s boundaries are shared. The most dangerous person is the one who has nothing to lose.”
Pop-punk vets STATE CHAMPS return with their new single Common Sense via Pure Noise Records. The track keeps the band’s signature hooks and punch intact but leans heavier, lyrically circling the contradictions of giving everything to someone only to realize there was never real common ground.
It’s the first new music since their self-titled record in late 2024, which featured songs like Light Blue, Too Late To Say, and Silver Cloud and drew praise for its mix of Warped-era nostalgia and modern polish. Produced by Anton DeLost, Common Sense extends that arc, showing the band still restless almost 15 years on.
Folk americana punk rocker DAVE HAUSE just dropped a new single, “Yer Outta My Hair”, streaming now. He’ll also hit the road this September with JOEY CAPE and TIM HAUSE for a run of Western Canada dates, including stops in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and more.
The documentary ÖS – The Story of Linköping Hardcore finally went live online, tracing how punk energy in late-’70s Östergötland laid the groundwork for one of Sweden’s most vital hardcore scenes. At the center is Linköping’s Skylten, the abandoned factory-turned-DIY venue where international acts rolled through and the local scene exploded through the ’80s and ’90s.
Watch HERE.
Directed by Anders Carlborg, the film also brings it forward to the present, showing how Skylten still anchors the city’s underground and fuels the annual Dunderfest. A portion of every rental supports Dunderjorden, the collective keeping that tradition alive. A great watch, with the raw street vibe of Linköping captured throughout.
Polish post-hardcore/metal outfit ASTERIÆ have dropped a new single, “1 – 4 – 8,” ahead of their upcoming album set for release in the second half of 2025.
The track’s title nods both to the Polish penal code article on murder and to a practical in-studio mishap — the band initially struggled with the 148th bar while writing, only later realizing the darker resonance of the number.
Combining blast beats, spacious guitar layers, distorted bass, and harsh vocals, ASTERIÆ continue to carve out a sound steeped in both aggression and atmosphere, with “1 – 4 – 8” marking the next step toward their most ambitious work yet.
Groovy post-hardcore crew EXCIDE have announced their second album Bastard Hymns, out November 28 via SharpTone Records. Alongside the news, the band dropped a video for the new single “Worth Your Salt,” a tongue-in-cheek Lethal Weapon–style spoof directed by Anthony Altamura.
Frontman Tyler Washington explained the track: “Some people just aren’t worth the attention that others pay to their opinions or general disdain for things. If I’ve learned anything, a closed mind is usually an ignorant or insecure one.”
Pulling influence from late ’90s heavyweights like Snapcase and Quicksand while bending toward grunge and desert rock tones, EXCIDE describe the record as a “fuzzy, rocky, groovy, angry” document of growing up in a “hillbilly hellscape.” Bastard Hymns follows their 2022 debut Deliberate Revolver and marks their first full-length with SharpTone.
Thai metallic hardcore outfit WHISPERS dropped their Audiotree Live session, capturing the band’s intensity in a stripped-down studio setting. Alongside the performance, they sat with host Jason to break down what “Bangkok Evilcore” means, their local scene, and life on the road.
Signed to Flatspot Records in 2024 and coming off their Yom-Ma-Lok EP, WHISPERS now set sights on heavy touring. They’ll join SUNAMI and SCOWL across North America starting October 16, then hit Europe in November with GUILT TRIP and BIG BOY, before closing the run with festival stops including Revolution Calling and FYA Fest.
Alt-metal legends DEFTONES just dropped their first album in five years, Private Music, out now everywhere. The record reunites the band with producer Nick Raskulinecz, who previously helmed Diamond Eyes and Koi No Yokan, and marks the studio debut of bassist Fred Sablan. Written across scattered sessions over the last year and a half, the 11 tracks find the Sacramento crew leaning back into heavier territory after 2020’s Ohms.
Chino Moreno admits the push to write came less from label pressure than from a surge of younger fans discovering DEFTONES online. One cloud hangs over the release: longtime guitarist Stephen Carpenter hasn’t toured overseas since 2022, leaving live duties to Lance Jackman and Shaun Lopez.
Vermont hardcore friends THE PATH have dropped a new track, “Yes, All Churches,” while confirming that their upcoming LP Godless Vermont will be their last. Out September 3 via State of Mind Recordings, the record closes a ten-year run that guitarist Matt Kimball says won’t stretch any further: “We began to realize a couple of years ago that we were becoming the dinosaurs in the scene… life has caught up with many of us.”
We have the full feature here.
GUN GHAOL — the world’s only Gaelic metalcore band — dropped their debut EP Sgrios on August 29. Clocking in at 13 minutes, the four-track release pushes metalcore into new territory, delivered entirely in Gaelic and produced by Kieran Smith (TO KILL ACHILLES, BITTERWOOD).
The band strip away any clichés of Celtic instrumentation, instead leaning into bouncy, turntable-laced riffs and relentless heaviness. Comparisons land somewhere between EMMURE, FOX LAKE, and MAKE THEM SUFFER, though the Gaelic vocals set them apart instantly.
UK noise extremists BELIEVE IN NOTHING (featured on IDIOTEQ earlier this year) announced their debut full-length Rot, set for release on October 31 via Church Road Records. Alongside the news, the band dropped their new single “Gut,” a track vocalist Caine Hemmingway described as “about cutting your guts out and giving them to your work coach after another heartless and mechanical sanction by the state. What the extremes of desperation and humiliation can do to people.”
Formed in Eastbourne in 2023, the band quickly built a reputation for suffocating live shows and bleak sonic ritual, eventually landing on the Church Road roster after a string of harrowing singles. Rot pushes their vision further—weaponising restraint, tension, and oppressive soundscapes rather than relying on brute force.
The record’s release will be followed by BELIEVE IN NOTHING’s first headline tour, running late November through mid-December, with dates in London, Bristol, Nottingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, York, Norwich, and more.
RECESSION have dropped Demo 2025 through Collective Memory. Five tracks of heavy, stripped-down hardcore that run just under ten minutes: One With Pain, Recession, Undertow, Interlude, and Reign Supreme. Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Simon Amrhein, with artwork by Justus.
Italian-English punks SECOND YOUTH resurface tomorrow with Only Child, a five-track EP cut from scars rather than nostalgia. Born out of Italy and the UK by scene veterans, the band strip things down to loneliness, family trauma, failure, and identity—no gloss, no easy redemption.
The lead single “Family Burden” sets the tone, a raw look at inner weight and daily shadows. Its video shows an isolated figure lost in ritual gestures, a stark metaphor for fragility and pain. “Only Child is not a record looking for excuses or redemption. It’s dirty, it’s direct, and maybe that’s why it’s our most genuine work so far,” the band said.
WAR Records have reissued the self-titled EP from melodic hardcore group TURNED DOWN, originally released in 2000 and now available on all streaming platforms.
The record carries five tracks — “Broken Necklace,” “Eight Five Three,” “River Street,” “Pawns and Kings,” and “Montana Sky” — pulling from influences like Dag Nasty, Lifetime, Samiam, and Big Drill Car. It features members of Strife, Fury 66, Man Will Surrender, and The Art of Safecracking.
Recorded at Desert Dog Studios back in the day, the 2025 remaster was handled by vocalist Joe Clements, with cover art by Nate Scott.
Denver hardcore crew DESTINY BOND just put out the first track from their upcoming LP The Love, streaming now on Bandcamp. “Peace as a Punchline” is the early glimpse, with the full record landing October 17 via Convulse Records.
The Love follows 2023’s Be My Vengeance and pushes a bigger, more melodic sound while keeping plenty for the pit, pulling as much from Dag Nasty as Crown of Thornz.
Leeds noise-scorched hardcore unit MASS HALLUCINATION have dropped their first demo, a short blast of ugly energy formed earlier this year. Influenced by the chaos of GISM, the bite of Negative Approach, and the filth of Secretors, the band’s debut keeps it abrasive and dangerous.
Three tracks — “Suppressors,” “Nerve Ending,” and “The Flood” — rip past in under four minutes, harsh, raw, and grime-soaked. It’s the kind of hardcore that leaves you feeling filthy after the last note cuts out.
Mathy emo rockers THE POLAR BEARS just released their debut full-length Threadbare on September 1 via Haum Entertainment. The Malang-based trio—Reffyga aka Peyek on bass and vocals, Lilo on guitar and backing vocals, and Marcel on drums—have been part of the city’s Midwest emo/math rock push since 2022, carrying a playful twinkle sound shaped by both contemporary influences and the roots of the genre.
Threadbare runs ten tracks deep, each tied together around the band’s own emotional experiences. The record deals with themes of vulnerability and growth, told through down-to-earth lyrics and twinkly arrangements that lean into both mathy intricacy and emo heart.
CASAMATTA have a new record out titled Tempi Duri, released August 28, 2025 through Dischi Decenti alongside 1a0, Controcanti, Nonmipiace*, and Kosmica Dischi. The Bologna-based math rock duo throw down eleven tracks, from the quick hit of “Casa” to the longer sprawl of “Megamare” and “Nasdaq.”
The band strip things to guitar and drums, pushing frenzy and agitation as their core language. Tempi Duri keeps that energy sharp, a soundtrack for unsettled moments with little room to breathe.
Northeast hardcore mob MISSING LINK have announced their new EP Miracle Smile, recorded with Andy Nelson at Bricktop Studios and out next month.
First single “Dog Days” is a slab of guttural punishment featuring guest vocals from NEVER ENDING GAME’s Mikey Petroski, keeping up the band’s tradition of pulling in heavy-hitting friends.
Following last year’s full-length Watch Me Bleed, the band will take Miracle Smile on the road with AGE OF APOCALYPSE, MONGREL, and HAYWIRE before linking up with NASTY for a European run.
Houston death-grind unit TERROR CORPSE have unleashed their debut EP Systems of Apocalypse via Me Saco Un Ojo and Dark Descent.
Eight tracks, twenty minutes — nothing but blast-beat punishment, grinding riffs, and psychotic vocal rage stitched together with brief, groove-laden hooks. The record never lingers, flipping between head-caving pace and suffocating atmospherics, each track another variation of disgust in a gore-soaked blur. Create/Destroy, Pulverized, and Extinction hit like rusted blades, while False Prophet Genuflect drags things into darker territory before spitting you back out in chaos.
Soon after their August blast, Los Angeles blackened speed punks CHAIN WOLF are back with Lamentations Turned Resentment, the follow-up to their debut Dark Premonitions. The new record, tracked and produced by the band themselves, drops via Motorpunk Records and Fucking Kill! Records, with digital release handled by MSH Music Group.
Preorders opened on September 3, alongside the second single and video. Expect a barrage of black/thrash ferocity, shaped by the band’s DIY ethos and sharpened through a relentless, no-frills production.
Norwegian crust newcomers UAAR have announced their debut album Galger og brann (“Gallows and Fire”), due October 17 via Fysisk Format. Written and produced by Jon Schaug Carlsen together with the band, the record promises a blackened d-beat assault steeped in bleak atmosphere and relentless force.
Alongside the announcement, UAAR dropped a video for the track “Galgeås,” premiered at No Clean Singing, who called it “a vertebrae-cracking, d-beat-driven attack of boiling blackened riffage that savages and screams.”
Fans of Tragedy, Skitsystem, and From Ashes Rise will recognize the terrain—pulverizing rhythms, searing riffs, and a suffocating darkness that mirrors collapse in real time. Pre-orders are live now through Fysisk Format.
Chicago post-hardcore outfit NEW GRASS dropped their new release 4 on August 27, recorded at Electrical Audio’s Studio A. The four-song set includes “MIAB2,” “CYOA,” “4,” and “Sinking Heart,” tracked with engineer Seth Engel and mastered by Carl Saff.
The third round of the NOT JUST A PHASE compilation just landed through Zegema Beach Records, packing 24 tracks of unreleased material from nearly every band involved. Dropping August 22, this tape lines up names like CAPTAIN JAZZ, CLAIRE VOYANCÉ, DEMERSAL, DROUGHT, HUNDREDS OF AU, YOUTH NOVEL, and more, all stitched together into one heavy document of the current screamo/emo underground.
There’s also a curveball exclusive: HEAVENS BLINDING HUE (formerly Heavenly Blue) contributing an At The Drive In cover that won’t hit the internet, reserved strictly for tape buyers. With 300 cassettes pressed across six variants, the collection is as limited as it is stacked.
Curated by Rob Reid of Not Just A Phase and with artwork by Sammy Gurule, Vol.3 pulls in bands from across continents—MÓDULO LUNAR, MOURN RECIF, RETRATOS DE HEROÍNA, MYHATEISABEAUTIFULEXISTENCE, among others—making it one of those deep-cut gatherings that reads less like a sampler and more like a snapshot of an era.
Sydney hardcore veterans NO APOLOGIES dropped their long-awaited second album Life on August 29, via Last Ride Records. Their first full-length since 2007’s Survival, the record arrived nearly two decades into their run, heavy with themes of mortality, acceptance, and resilience.
The lineup of Pete Abordi, Peter Bursky, Andres Hyde, Chris Wilson, and Patrick Taylor pushed their sound with thrash-leaning riffs, searing solos, and groove-driven hardcore. Guest spots from Jem Siow of Speed and Todd Jones of Nails, Carry On, Terror added sharp edges to tracks like “Grief” and “Eternal.”
Life stood as a career-defining statement, merging aggression and melody into a deeply personal narrative—one rooted in loss and confrontation but delivered with the band’s trademark intensity.
Madrid’s melodic punks BARRENFIELDS have released their second album ain’t feeling right through La Agonía de Vivir (LADV199).
Made up of members from Accidente, Hyena, and Regicidio, the band deliver 11 new tracks of mid-tempo punk with female vocals and a touch of Misfits-style edge.
Baltimore hardcore unit OUSTED dropped their new single “Reflections” on August 27, a track tangled in suffocating doubt and the pull between numbness and self-destruction. The lyrics spit images of cutting tongues, blood filling lungs, and the gnawing sense of extinction, all delivered with their metallic hardcore bite.
Galician edge-metal crew FACED OUT have dropped their second full-length, out now via Cruzade Records (CD) and The Coming Strife (vinyl).
The eight-track record digs deep into late ’90s/early ’00s metallic hardcore, pummeling with heavy riffs and a strained, cutting vocal delivery that keeps everything wired with tension.
German emo/screamo hardcore band TWINS will release their second album It’s Complicated on November 21 through a coalition of labels including Through Love Records, Zegema Beach, No Funeral, Fireflies Fall, Clever Eagle, and Desperate Infant.
Two tracks are already streaming: “Goodbye,” a sharp return after years of silence, and “Cuts,” first shared on a Zegema Beach sampler. The eight-song record arrives five years after Soon, carrying the band’s mix of raw intensity and layered atmosphere into a darker, more unsettled space.
Polish anarcho-punk veterans BARAKA FACE JUNTA have released their new album Do piekła (To Hell) via Nikt Nic Nie Wie.
Recorded live at Dobra 12 Studio in Białystok, the nine-track set captures the band’s raw intensity, driven by abrasive guitars, heavy rhythm section, and a saxophone that takes a central role this time around. The result leans into cold-wave unease, anarcho-punk urgency, and flashes of avant-jazz chaos in the vein of James Chance and John Zorn.
Massachusetts metallic hardcore bruisers CONCRETE TIES dropped their new record This Broken World via Upstate Records. The band, built from parts of Full Blown Chaos, Fear For Your Life, and Blood Has Been Shed, leaned into their thrash-meets-beatdown DNA—fast drumming, palm-muted riffs, and Leyla Eileen’s cutting vocals front and center.
Formed in 2017, the crew already carved a place in the hardcore trenches with releases like Twisting the Knife (2018), Unrecognizable (2022), and a cover of Agnostic Front’s “For My Family.” This Broken World landed as their most recent slab, adding to a catalog forged alongside names like Sheer Terror, Sworn Enemy, and Death Threat.
Long Island hardcore veterans OVERTHROW return with their first album in over two decades, Setting the Price, due out October 3.
The new single “Tribute” lands today, a sharp and energetic cut celebrating lost friends and the bonds that remain. It follows earlier tracks “The Calling” and “Anywhere But Here,” first shared last summer.
Florida’s SOUTHPAW FLHC marked their signing to Spinefarm with a new single and video, “Torches.” The track locked onto a theme of legacy and responsibility, with frontman Daryn LaMontagne stating, “To be the example, you must live the example and hold the line. ‘Torches’ reminds us: Legacies aren’t inherited; they are forged.”
The band first broke out with their 2020 self-titled EP and have kept a constant pace since, releasing seven standalone singles and touring hard alongside With Blood Comes Cleansing, Tracheotomy, Bodysnatcher, Surfaced, and Hoods. Their Jacksonville hometown roots showed strong earlier this year when they headlined the first-ever gig at new venue Hardlove.
SOUTHPAW FLHC’s Spinefarm debut full-length is set for 2026.
Swiss noise/post-hardcore unit COILGUNS have released a new single and video, “Nightshifter,” the first track from their upcoming Lost Love EP, out September 26 via Humus Records.
Recorded and mixed by Scott Evans (Kowloon Walled City) and mastered by Magnus Lindberg (Cult of Luna), “Nightshifter” drags at a frozen tempo, low-tuned and heavy with fatigue.
Vocalist Louis Jucker frames it as a snapshot of the post-tour crash: “Anyone who has been on tour has experienced this at least once… you’re standing in front of your apartment door trying to find your keys in a bag full of stench. No one’s home and your fridge is empty, except maybe for that poor limp carrot you forgot there when you left.”
Pulled from the same sessions as last year’s Odd Love but deemed too dark for that record, the two-track Lost Love EP digs into the burnout, loneliness, and catharsis of keeping a band alive. COILGUNS are currently in the middle of an 80-date European and UK run, with Mexico lined up next.
SLOW CRUSH have released their new album Thirst today through Pure Noise Records, their first outing on the label. Tracked with producer Lewis Johns at The Ranch in Southampton, the ten songs push heavier riffs against dreamlike vocals, carrying themes Isa Holliday describes as “the fragility of human connection, and the complexity of love and self-identity.”
It’s the follow-up to Aurora (2018) and Hush (2021), both of which established the band’s place at the front of the modern shoegaze wave. Singles like “Bloodmoon,” “Thirst,” and “While You Dream Vividly” already hinted at the record’s denser textures and emotional reach.
The Brussels-based quartet—Holliday, Frederik Meeuwis, Jelle Ronsmans, and Nic Placlé—will take Thirst on the road this fall, launching an EU tour October 31 at Ancienne Belgique and closing November 30 in Cologne.
Atlanta’s noise-scarred quartet MALEVICH have unleashed their new album Under a Gilded Sun, out today via Church Road Records.
The record opens with “Blossom In Full Force,” a punishing statement piece, before shifting into the sludge-heavy murk of “Delirium And Confidence.” Midway through, “Illusion Never Changed” offers a ghostlike pause, setting up the crushing weight of “Into Bliss,” featuring Lex Santiago of Sunrot. The closer, “Supine, Under the Gilded Sun,” stretches to seven minutes of beauty and devastation colliding.
Billed by the band as “weird heavy music for the end of the world,” Under a Gilded Sun thrives on that tension—bleak, furious, but also searching for community in the collapse.
Indie/emo four-piece GUEST ROOM STATUS have unveiled their new single “Stall At The Start,” circling themes of hesitation, self-doubt, and the eventual push through. The track hinges on restless momentum, with guitars and rhythms cutting in and out to mirror the feeling of being stuck before making a move.
Lyrically it hits straight on paralysis and delay: “I have the time, what am I waiting for? / Longing to write, failing to send.” That sense of pause before the jump sits at the heart of the song, giving it both tension and release.
Baltimore hardcore crew OUSTED dropped their second single “Reflections,” lifted from the upcoming How Do You Cope? EP due September 19 on Ashtray Monument Records. Made up of members from Pulling Teeth, Ruiner, Neolithic, and Dosser, the band pushed a mix of urgency and melody here—doom-laced drums and jagged riffs anchored by Sean Reilly’s raw vocal spill.
Reilly said the track came from “getting older, being closer to death, and the feeling of hanging on for dear life some days,” adding that it also deals with “accepting and rejecting certain inherited aspects of personality and behaviors.”
The full EP leaned on themes of grief in all its forms, with guest appearances from Justin Smith of Sweat/Dangers and noise work from Pig Destroyer’s Alex Cha. Recorded and mixed by Justin Day at New Noise Recording Studio and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege, How Do You Cope? is now up for vinyl preorder.
UK alt noise punks VOLK SOUP have announced their debut album 10p Jazz, arriving October 3 via Dipterid Records (vinyl/digital) and Cruel Nature (cassette). The Leeds six-piece — blending wiry post-punk, dissonant noise, and brass-fueled free-jazz bursts — also shared a new single, Professionalism Debunked, premiering through New Noise Magazine.
Frontman Harry Jones explains: “It’s a song with a simple sentiment: don’t take your job too seriously… it’s important to remember that you have a moral imperative to take from a place that so persistently takes from you.” The track’s absurdist edge is underlined by animalistic “hoo’s and ha’s,” turning critique into chaotic release.
Wellington hardcore unit SHURIKEN have dropped their new EP 6021, out now via Existence Productions.
The five-track release follows their earlier demo and doubles down on speed, anger, and weight, written as what the band calls a hate-fueled love letter to their city. Every track ties back to Wellington’s grit and loyalty, reflecting the roots of the 04 hardcore scene.
MASTIFF will release their new EP For All the Dead Dreams on October 24 via Church Road Records. The Hull band’s latest five-track effort was recorded and mixed by Joe Clayton at Nø Studio and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege.
True to form, it’s a short, punishing blend of sludge and hardcore, leaning into the band’s reputation for sheer spite and abrasion.
Chaotic post-hardcore veterans HUNDREDS OF AU returned August 22 with their fourth album Life in Parallel, out now via Iodine Recordings. The record marks their most expansive effort yet, pulling together jagged melody and raw urgency while tracing political unrest, personal loss, parenthood, and aging.
Formed in 2017 by members of You and I, Saetia, The Assistant, and Hell Mary, the current lineup also features Brian (Lesser Minds) on vocals and Buzz (Pellinore/The Banner) on bass for their first recordings with the band. Guest appearances come from Geoff Rickley (Thursday/United Nations), Jon Tumillo (Folly), Ryann Slauson (Sonagi/Closer), and Adam Kaniper (Stress Spells).
The full feature on HUNDREDS OF AU, including track insights and commentary from the band and collaborators, was published in August on IDIOTEQ — you can read it here.
Italian hardcore unit 217 have officially signed with Time To Kill Records and are preparing to drop their debut full-length in the coming months. Formed in Pescara in 2018, the band started out channeling old-school hardcore in the vein of Slapshot and Judge while pulling thrash influences from outfits like Slayer and The Haunted.
Their first release, Atheist Agnostic Rationalist, came out in 2019 through Indelirium Records and quickly sold out its 300-copy run. After lineup changes and a pandemic shutdown that cut 18 shows from their schedule, 217 regrouped in June 2024 as a four-piece. The new record promises a mix of classic hardcore urgency with nods to mid-’90s new school acts like Snapcase and 108, as well as darker textures inspired by Bauhaus, Botch, and Killing Joke.
Dreamy post-rock outfit SECRET GARDENS have finally put the instrumental version of The Impermanent Amber up on Bandcamp. It’s a long-shelved cut that never made it to the platform until now, landing just in time for Bandcamp Friday.
Budapest hardcore unit TOUCH have dropped a new EP titled Seasons, released September 5, 2025. The four-track set includes “The Essence of Life,” “Light Goes Out,” “Facing the Unknown,” and “Rejoice.”
Recorded between Grenma Studio and ÓL Recording, the EP was mixed and mastered by Miklós Nagy. Clocking in at under ten minutes, Seasons delivers a compact blast of raw punk energy straight out of Hungary’s hardcore scene.
Michigan post-hardcore outfit LA DISPUTE have laid out plans for a 2026 UK and European tour in support of their upcoming album No One Was Driving The Car, out September 5 via Epitaph Records. The run kicks off in Glasgow on February 18 and stretches across 21 cities in 13 countries, with VS SELF and PIJN joining as support.
Frontman Jordan Dreyer confirmed the tour while noting an initiative to make tickets more accessible: “we borrowed an idea from the folks in Los Campesinos! and set aside a portion of low income tickets at each show for those in need of a more affordable price point to attend. No barrier to qualify or proof required, but there are a limited number of them each night, so we’d ask you exercise judgment when considering which you’re able to purchase.”
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Post-punk punks STREET EATERS have dropped their new album Opaque, out now via Dirt Cult Records.
Starts out like a WHITE STRIPES beat, but don’t get comfortable—HEARING TESTS flip it into something else entirely. Their new single “Bully,” recorded at Mowlem Street Studios with Steve Twomey, lands September 3 via Grapes of Wrath Records.
The London sludge-punk four piece—Kuba Starzynski, Ed Harper, Mark Cairns, and Bill Duffy—drag noise and dissonance through hardcore speed and aggression. Lyrically it’s bleak, paranoid, and weirdly cutting, dropping lines about fear, surgery, and even Simon Cowell’s face.
Formed in 2022 out of a former ear, nose and throat hospital in central London, HEARING TESTS sound like they’re still carrying the dust, sweat, and sickness of those walls straight into their songs. We featured the band earlier this year at this location.
Kyiv progressive alt rock trio VØVK have unveiled their new single “Mur,” the third preview from upcoming album Litera (out October 3 via Kontrabass). Released with a stark monochrome video, the track channels the atmosphere of the first days of the Russian full-scale invasion, when daily life shrank to apartment corridors and fragile illusions of safety.
“In the first days of the invasion, our lives narrowed to the corridors of our apartments, where between two walls we built our own fortresses,” the band said. “Every evening, scrolling through the news feed, we believed that the night would erase the horror, and the morning would bring a different reality, like waking up from a nightmare. These feelings shaped the song ‘Mur’ – our naïve, almost childlike faith that tomorrow is near, just one dream away.”
Built on shifting rhythms and contrasts, “Mur” embodies both fear and hope, aggression and calm. Its title plays with layered meanings: wall, ants, and murmur. Very good listen.
Norwegian post-black metal collective SUNDROWNED revealed their new single “Ilex” on August 27 via Heavy Blog Is Heavy. The track was the third preview of their upcoming album Higanbana, which landed September 26. Heavy Blog described the cut as “black metal fury without ever losing sight of the song’s sparkling warmth.”
Four years after their debut Become Ethereal, the band returned with a record that dug into cycles of life and death through an alchemical lens. Written by J.A. Piscopo and G.L. Innocent, produced with Ørjan Kristoffersen Lund and Morten Fjeld, and tracked at Bridge Burner Recordings in Stavanger, Higanbana moved between barren stillness and melodic rebirth.
PLANET ON A CHAIN have released their new three-song EP Mangled and Twisted on Revelation Records, recorded by Jack Shirley and mastered by Will Killingsworth.
The title track takes on the ongoing horror of landmines as both a physical and psychological weapon, while the video mixes performance footage with violent imagery from entertainment culture. The EP also features “Reveal the Worst” and “One Step.”
MIRRORLESS — a new melodic hardcore project featuring members of ELLIOTT, FALLING FORWARD, COLISEUM, FOTOCRIME, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, and XERXES — have announced their debut self-titled EP, due October 17 via Equal Vision Records.
The six-track release was engineered and mixed by Ryan Patterson (Coliseum, Fotocrime) at his Louisville studio, The House of Foto. First single “Ultraviolent” is out now, a fast and punishing cut that sets the tone for the band’s mix of DC-inspired hardcore, melodic punk, and sharp post-hardcore dynamics.
French hardcore punks JODIE FASTER just dropped their new LP Saint Lundi via La Agonía de Vivir.
The album takes its name from the old working-class tradition of skipping Mondays — and eventually more days — to gather, drink, debate politics, and spark wildcat strikes. A nod to a time when reclaiming free time was an act of rebellion against both the church and industrial discipline.
Post-hardcore with a sharp emotional edge—fractured melody against heavy riffs, clean vocals unraveling into screams. Out of Manchester, NH, SINK WITH ME return September 5 with My Own Doomsday on Theoria Records. The song looks back at growing up inside an abusive home, a personal reckoning written with the weight of survival and distance.
The band, active since 2020, shape their sound from the lineage of Underoath, Silverstein, Defeater, and Counterparts, carving something both punishing and reflective. Their latest single follows tracks like Bound By Blood, Marionette, and Misfortune, pushing deeper into themes of inner collapse and resilience.
The video for My Own Doomsday is streaming now, with merch and preorders live through Theoria.
Leipzig garage punks AMBULANZ put out word on their third album III, set for release September 26 via Cargo Records and It’s Eleven. The record keeps their messy art-punk core intact, sliding between kraut-inspired repetition, jagged grooves, and sing-along hooks, always on the verge of collapse but never quite falling apart. Dual vocals cut across bouncing bass and synth swells, with lyrics circling loss, anxiety, fleeting highs, and flashes of hope.
They also dropped a video for “Joy,” directed by Gonzillah & Dragon, which shows off the band’s knack for balancing raw energy with a strange, off-kilter edge. AMBULANZ still sound like they’re operating somewhere between the garage and the art house—accessible but skewed, playful but dark.
Post-hardcore noise veterans DRILL FOR ABSENTEE have re-emerged with their first new material in more than 25 years. Expert Work Records just issued The Bad Days of Blonde, Black Nails, introducing the group’s latest lineup with Okinawa-based drummer Ken Kuniyoshi.
Once part of the same orbit as SLINT, JUNE OF 44, and SHELLAC, DFA carved out a more fevered, hard-to-pin-down presence in the ’90s. Fecking Bahamas called Nace’s delivery “immediately engrossing” and noted that the band’s prose and precision feel “only more urgent and relatable” today.
Their return continues later this fall with Strand of A Lake, Volume 1 and Volume 2, set for release on October 24.
Screamo/post-hardcore unit ALKUPERÄ just dropped their debut full-length Sendero Desesperanza via La Agonía de Vivir.
Formed in Bilbao in 2024, the four-piece pulls from decades in the DIY underground, with members tied to projects like DIANA LAGARTO, INSERTA, DREI AFFEN, ELFO NEGRO, 1991, NEILA, and more. What comes out is raw screamo, dark post-hardcore, and noise-driven anger — rooted in long history, but sharpened into something new.
German melodic rock’n’roll infused punk outfit NO SUGAR have dropped their second LP Last Call through La Agonía de Vivir.
The record’s title plays on both the late-night ritual at the bar and the more pressing emergencies shaping daily life — from climate collapse to the rise of right-wing politics in Europe. Across the album, the band folds urgency into self-reflection, pushing listeners to confront privilege, internalized biases, and the creeping normalization of hate.
Tampa hardcore-thrash outfit COLD STEEL will release their debut album Discipline & Punish on November 7 via Spinefarm, produced by Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Blood Incantation). The announcement lands alongside a new single and video, “No Escape.”
The band describe the track as a look at identity under pressure: “We build walls so high that we can no longer see our way out. There’s a lot in this track about identity, pressure, control, and realizing that if you don’t confront what you’ve been running from, it will eventually catch up to you.”
Chicago trio BELMONT have dropped their new EP Last To Love via Pure Noise Records. The band describe it as “a step into a place where we solidify who we are as raw and as purely as possible,” pulling from their thrash-leaning technical pop-punk roots while pushing into less familiar territory. Lead cut “Live A Lie” leans back into a more anthemic, classic pop-punk feel, laced with their trademark shredding.
The EP follows last year’s Liminal and continues BELMONT’s shift from local beginnings into something more eclectic and unpredictable. They’ll take Last To Love on the road this fall with a U.S. headline tour running November 17 through December 12, joined by Avoid, Super Sometimes, and Unwell.
Los Angeles experimentalists LOCH introduced themselves this year with their debut EP Invisible Hand — a five-track dive into glitchy, psychedelic post-punk. Built from instinct and accident, the record fuses electronic chaos, heavy bass, and krautrock drive with vocals that shift into seance-like territory. Check out out review here.
Carolina emo-rock outfit TOURNEFORTE have returned with their third LP Make Good, out September 5, 2025. The nine-track record, featuring cuts like “Fig,” “Minnesota,” and closer “Epilogue,” was recorded in Farmingdale, New Jersey in July 2024 and produced, mixed, and mastered by Matteo Debenidetti.
Florida’s DIKEMBE return October 17 with King, a new five-song EP on Skeletal Lightning. The title track is streaming now, alongside earlier preview “Haymakers.”
Written under scattered circumstances — members in different states, trading demos online, piecing songs together over Discord — the material took shape in fits until the band regrouped in a farmhouse outside Gainesville. With Scott Carr stepping in on lead guitar and Trevor Reddell producing, the sessions at Pulp studio pushed them into new ground.
King carries grunge-streaked emo punk bent through distance, disruption, and resilience, showing DIKEMBE still at ease in chaos, fifteen years on.
THE WORLD IS A BEAUTIFUL PLACE & I AM NO LONGER AFRAID TO DIE have released their fifth full-length Dreams Of Being Dust via Epitaph, a record that pushes their sound into heavier, proggier terrain. Opening track “Dimmed Sun” flips between metalcore weight and expansive prog-emo, while “Beware The Centrist” clocks in at 104 seconds of straight hardcore energy.
Produced by Chris Teti and Greg Thomas, the album features guest spots from Mike Sugars (Church Tongue), Dylan Walker (Full of Hell), and Brendan Murphy (END, Counterparts), adding grit to a record already defined by shifting extremes. Tracks like “December 4th, 2024” and “Se Sufre Pero Se Goza” showcase both their post-hardcore edge and their embrace of sludgier, blackgaze textures.
Lyrically, David Bello turns outward, framing political and social collapse through metaphor and imagery—references to Gaza, militarism, and systemic decay recur across the album. It’s TWIABP at their most technically ambitious, their emo origins now only faintly visible under layers of noise, weight, and political urgency.
Noise rock wrecking crew CHAT PILE teamed up with Texas/Oklahoma guitarist and composer Hayden Pedigo for a collaborative album In the Earth Again, set to land October 31 via Computer Students™. The first single, “Radioactive Dreams,” dropped alongside a Riley Stearns–directed video, pulling inspiration from the Albert Pyun cult film of the same name.
The track stitched Pedigo’s panoramic guitar work into CHAT PILE’s industrial rot, creating what the press call an eerie, melodic elegy for a world left behind. Rather than compromise styles, the five musicians operated as a single unit, chasing a sound equal parts intimate and apocalyptic.
In the Earth Again will be available in multiple editions, from heavyweight black, silver, and gold vinyl to a deluxe aluminum-sleeved pressing with poster, plus CD, cassette, and digital. A limited oxblood vinyl packaged in matt aluminum with oxblood print will be exclusive to the label’s site.
Maryland emo veterans HAVE MERCY released their sixth album the loneliest place i’ve ever been on August 29 via Rude Records. Written in the aftermath of frontman Brian Swindle’s five years of sobriety, the record pulls from absence, apology, and reflection rather than collapse itself. Self-produced by Swindle, it was mixed by Paul Leavitt and mastered by Nick Townsend.
Our full interview with Swindle, covering sobriety, writing “after the storm,” Baltimore’s shifting scene, and the confessional pull of songs like “old selfish me,” was published this week.
Vermont hardcore punks OUTNUMBERED have dropped a quick-hit new promo track, “Sellout,” ahead of their upcoming EP.
Clocking in at just over a minute, the song was recorded and mixed by Kevin Gustafson, mastered by Will Hirst, with visuals handled by Alex and Jon Berg.
Serbian hardcore punks STATICØ have dropped their debut LP Absurdity of This World, a 12-song blast clocking in at just over 20 minutes. Released with support from Out of the Darkness (Serbia), Onesnaževanje Uma (Slovenia), Refuse Records (Germany/Poland), and Ayran Sounds, the record captures the chaos of their homeland — channeling themes of genocide, political tension, and mass demonstrations straight into furious riffs and breakdowns.
The response has already been sharp. Tadzio of Golpe called it a record that leaves “no one feeling safe,” while Jonah from Fucked Up and Carrer Suicidere described it as “a harsh light shed on our reality with equal parts motivation and helplessness.”
London mathcore wrecking crew PUPIL SLICER announced their third album Fleshwork, due out November 7 through Prosthetic Records. Recorded at Nø Studio in Manchester with producer Joe Clayton and mastered by Grant Berry, the record followed 2021’s raw Mirrors and 2023’s more polished Blossom, combining sharpened songcraft with their original feral bite.
Now joined by bassist Luke Booth, the trio leaned into an industrial hellscape both sonically and thematically. Frontwoman Kate Davies framed the record as “conceptual” without being a concept album—an excavation of how political and economic systems grind down the poor, disabled, queer, and people of color. Across nine tracks, the record moved from mechanical oppression toward deeply human fallout, a process Davies described as turning “the weight of subjection into ash.”
Underpinned by Josh Andrews’ precision drumming, Fleshwork pushed melody and hooks against abrasive industrial textures, carrying what the band called their brand of “trans inclusive radical hatred.” For PUPIL SLICER, imperfection itself became proof of life.
Indie emo pop punks ORIGAMI ANGEL just dropped a new track, “Back to Life.” The song appears on Cosmic Debris, vol. 2, a compilation marking 10 years of Counter Intuitive Records.
The Washington D.C. duo add their cut to the label’s anniversary release, sitting alongside other contributions that celebrate a decade of DIY-driven emo and punk.
Atlanta rap-rock troublemakers SILLY GOOSE rolled out their new single “Neighbors” alongside a video ahead of their upcoming album Keys to the City, due October 17 via Blue Grape Music. Frontman Jackson Foster summed it up plainly: “It’s a classic house party song. You’re having fun, and you’re not worried what anybody else thinks.”
The band already caused a stir at Lollapalooza this summer, and they lined up a stacked tour schedule — supporting Landmvrks across North America this fall, hitting Europe in November with headline shows and select dates with Hot Milk, and then closing out the year with U.S. headline gigs in December. Keys to the City features tracks like “Cowboy,” “Traffic,” and “Now Dance,” promising more of the band’s signature chaos.
San Diego wrecking crew NEGATIVE BLAST have signed on with Three One G, who will release their new album Destroy Myself For Fun alongside Vitriol.
Tracked at Sunsick Studios by guitarist Alex Jacobelli and mastered by Brad Boatwright at Audiosiege, the record finds the band stretching West Coast hardcore to its limit. The bedrock of Black Flag and Adolescents is still there, but it’s warped by post-punk flourishes, bursts of guitar heroics, and choruses built to stick.
Skramz Demon Audio just dropped a blistering split between GAS LIT and IWISHYOUCAMEBACK, out August 25. Two tracks, “Karma Link” and “You Asked For This,” are all it takes to show how unhinged and volatile this pairing is.
The release is short but brutal — vocals drilling straight through the mix, jagged riffs cutting almost without pause. Wild, chaotic, and very much the kind of split that leaves you reeling after less than six minutes.
Dreamy surf indie trio STRAY FOSSA released their third album Blossomer on August 22 via Broken Palace Records, written and recorded back in the Evans brothers’ childhood home in Sewanee, Tennessee. The record ties together two decades of friendship, time spent abroad, and the shifting focus of memory, using photography as a recurring metaphor for how moments sharpen and blur.
The full feature on STRAY FOSSA and Blossomer — including the band’s reflections on growth, memory, and making a homecoming record — was published in August here on IDIOTEQ.
Alt-rock veterans CHEVELLE have returned with Bright As Blasphemy, their first new album in four years, out now via Alchemy Recordings. Alongside the release comes a new single, Pale Horse, paired with an animated visualiser.
The record follows the earlier single Rabbit Hole (Cowards, pt.1), which climbed to number two on US rock radio. On the album’s themes, the band keeps it simple: “Human existence encompasses both inherent challenges and potential. It’s up to you how to pass the time. Enjoy.”
NY grungegaze outfit GLIMMER rolled out “Slow Saturday,” another preview from their debut LP Get Weak, which lands October 3 via Abandon Everything Records. The new track leaned fully into the band’s shoegaze side—lush, hazy, and drifting—following up the earlier single “Dissolve.”
Get Weak was recorded with Jeff Berner at Brooklyn’s Studio G and mastered by Will Yip, pairing heavier alt-rock cuts with dreamier textures. Vinyl pre-orders went live through Bandcamp, with a US run of dates set to kick off October 9 in Philadelphia and wind through Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, and more.
Cincinnati indie/emo crew SCARLET STREET just shared a new single, “Warning Sounds,” out now via We’re Trying Records. Recorded with Gary Cioni at Sound Acres and mastered by Brett Romnes, the track leans into everyday collapse and self-medication, set against lines about “checking bank accounts” and “Kubrick stares.”
BANE and STICK TO YOUR GUNS have announced a Latin America tour for spring 2026. The run kicks off April 30 in Florianópolis, Brazil, and continues through May with stops in Curitiba, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Lima, Bogotá, and San José.
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The band noted that the Florianópolis and San José dates will be STICK TO YOUR GUNS only, with extended two-hour sets each night.
Progressive post-hardcore trio MURALS — featuring Shane Gann (Hail The Sun, Sufferer), Blake Dahlinger (Sufferer), and Tony Bautista (slenderbodies, Sufferer) — have announced their self-titled debut EP, due November 14 via Equal Vision Records.
First single “they’re there” arrives with a video directed by Alex Bemis, centering on what the band calls “the unimaginable horrors being broadcast globally in real-time, and the estranged survivor’s guilt that coincides… ‘stolen power; no light; broken backbones; no rights.’”
Richmond noise-punk wreckers PRAYER GROUP put out their new 10” Strawberry on August 29 via Reptilian Records, a release they themselves called “a weird kid of a record – a bit simple, stuck in an in-between size, and with some mood swings.”
The full track-by-track commentary on how PRAYER GROUP pieced together the record, from the stumbling start of “Plagiarism” to the chaotic closer “Meatgrinder,” was published this week in our magazine — you can dive into it here.
Madrid emo punks NOGATO have finally dropped their full second album Lo que he ganado, lo que he perdido, out now with ten tracks clocking in at just over half an hour. Back in July we covered their singles “No me digas” and “Al otro lado del andén” (feature here), which already set the tone for a record about time, absence, and rebuilding.
Now the whole picture is here — and it comes with surprises. Right from opener “00X” you’ll hear how NOGATO fold unexpected elements into emo-punk, even scratches layered over guitars. That willingness to bend form continues across tracks like “Reactor Mako” and closer “Las piezas que faltan,” pushing their sound while keeping the raw emotional thread intact.
It’s an album that will likely catch listeners off guard in the best way — messy, sharp, and inventive, proving just how far NOGATO have come since their debut.
UK heavy hardcore bruisers SWARMS dropped their new single Talk Shit Get Hit!. Straight from the North East, the track pulls from beatdown and UKHC’s nastier corners, landing somewhere between Knocked Loose, Street Soldier, and Kublai Kahn TX.
The band calls it their most refined release so far — “a fight anthem for the pit,” aimed at channeling frustration and hammering home the idea that actions have consequences.
Portland metalcore unit DYING WISH dropped their new single and video “Revenge In Carnage,” pulled from their upcoming album Flesh Stays Together, out September 26 via SharpTone Records. The clip was co-directed by Imani Givertz and guitarist Pedro Carrillo, following last month’s lead single “I’ll Know You’re Not Around.”
Emma Boster described the track as “an anthemic moment of man-made apocalyptic violence,” adding, “our final moments on this earth will not be peaceful. There’s no time for reflection, only survival.” Carrillo noted the video’s theme as “the disillusion of self,” confronting cycles of violence and complicity: “We continue to pretend that evil isn’t formed within our soul. If there is hope, it won’t be found in this lifetime.”
Canadian songwriter Drew Thomson (Single Mothers, The Drew Thomson Foundation) has rolled out his new solo venture SMUG LLC with the single Little Gusts. It leads into the debut EP New Exciting Doom, due October 3 via Anxious and Angry.
The project grew out of pandemic-era isolation, with Thomson trading full-band dynamics for loops, drum machines, and a laptop as his main instrument. “The concept of a ‘laptop band’ was born during those months and years when going out wasn’t really an option,” he says. Songs like Shoulda Died revisit past addictions from the perspective of long-term sobriety, while Campaign Finance taps into frustrations with control and power. Little Gusts was the spark that reignited his passion for songwriting, setting the tone for the EP.
SMUG LLC will take the new material on the road this fall, joining Off With Their Heads for a U.S. tour that kicks off October 9 in Colorado and runs through late November with stops across the Midwest, South, and West Coast.
Aberdeen trio PALEJOY dropped their new single “What a Sad Little Life, Jane” on August 28, marking a darker turn in their writing. Bassist Jamie Reid, who takes lead vocals, explained that it was written after the loss of his mother to cancer: “It dives headfirst into the pain, confusion, and numbness of grief.”
Alongside the release, the band shared a list of underrated acts they think deserve more attention, from Terminals and Crashes to Sleep Outside and Slowmove. The full feature with all of PALEJOY’s recommendations ran this week right here on IDIOTEQ.
Grungy UK alt-rockers BASEMENT are gearing up for a September run across the UK and Europe. The band kicks things off in Dublin before moving through Glasgow, Manchester, London, and Bristol, then crossing over to Antwerp, Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne, and wrapping in Amsterdam.
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Johannesburg melodic hardcore crew LOWER HOLLOW just dropped a redux of their track “Social Disease,” pulled from Threnody: Songs Of Perseverance. Out now via Mongrel Records, the single features newly recorded vocals and marks the first taste of the record’s updated take.
Dreamy London outfit WILDERNESSES released their new single “English Darkness” last week, carrying with it years of personal history and the weight of lived experience. The track pulled together threads from members’ past work in Late Night Fiction, We Never Learned To Live, and If Heroes Should Fail, shaping a sound that leaned on post-hardcore, post-rock, and dream-pop textures.
The song’s lyrical core drew on vocalist Phill’s work as an Approved Mental Health Professional, where the harsh realities of the system — from patients held in police-guarded suites to the toll on staff themselves — fed directly into the writing. “Got stoned again. No feeling. Palpitating heartbeat,” he sings, framing coping as a thin line between relief and collapse.
The full feature on WILDERNESSES and “English Darkness,” including their recording process with Joe Clayton at No Studio and the lineup shifts that shaped the release, was published this week.
Philadelphia sludge crew SUNBURSTER are set to release their debut full-length No Semblance Of Peaceful Existence on October 24 via Knife Hits Records. The record drags through ten tracks of blues-drenched sludge, strangled vocals, and what the band calls “no sense of hope whatsoever,” doubling down on the dirt and despair that define their sound.
Tracked across Barowtone Studios and Retro City Studios between May and November 2024, the album features extra contributions from John Jones, Phil Parenti, Eric Benites, and Harry Lannon, with mastering handled by Dan Randall at Mammoth Sound. The first taste comes in “Jinn,” a bleak preview of what SUNBURSTER promise is a deeper dive into everything dark, filthy, and suffocating.
Finnish grind/powerviolence outfit HARMER dropped their new single “Breadlines”. It opens their upcoming album and takes direct aim at the country’s current political climate.
The band point to soaring unemployment, cuts to public health and social care, and a government pushing people into food aid while the wealthy benefit from tax breaks. “‘Breadlines’ is about those forced to rely on social benefits just to survive,” they explain, adding, “when it comes to people in power: there’s no such thing as half-way crooks.”
UK southern rockin’ hardcore unit FANGS OUT have released their new single “This Place Is Dead,” now streaming everywhere.
The track comes in fast and stripped, described by the band as “a hard-hitting commentary on decay, detachment, and the slow suffocation of toxic environments.” No frills, just a direct hit of aggression in the vein of Every Time I Die, Cancer Bats, and Norma Jean.
Explosive metal-hardcore hybrid PAINS chart their path from KINGMAKER to a lean trio, recently tracking an unreleased debut LP at Bricktop Studios with Andy Nelson (Weekend Nachos) after earlier sessions with Zack Farrar (Choir Room Audio). See our full feature here.
Originally a five-piece, they pared down when Alex took vocals and guitar, pushing to “pack the intensity of a 5 piece into 3” after watching Dying Fetus at New England Hardcore Metal Fest 2018. Influences moved from Trap Them, Black Breath, Full of Hell, Nails and All Pigs Must Die toward Decapitated, Morbid Angel, Cryptopsy, Dismember, with Converge a constant and bigger ambitions shaped by Gojira, Meshuggah, Machine Head, and Sepultura. Songwriting has leaned on distance-built demos, with a shift toward more collaborative starts now on the table.
LOCH step in with their debut EP Invisible Hand, a jagged five-track trip through psychedelic electronic post-punk, reviewed this week right here on IDIOTEQ.
The Valle brothers – Nathan and Andres – drive the chaos with synths and bass, joined by Derek Holub’s kraut-leaning drums and Kristine Nevrose’s demonic, incantatory vocals. It’s a fractured but intentional record, channeling Throbbing Gristle, The Pop Group, and PIL into a ritual of delay swirls, big-beat weight, and raw volatility that feels as instinctive as it is designed.
Gritty post-hardcore punks SPARES have dropped the video for “New Indignities”, taken from their split EP with TREASURE PAINS, out September 26 via Council Records and Wiretap Records. The track lands digitally on September 5, with both bands set to play The Fest in October.
The split features two cuts each: “Joke” and “New Indignities” from SPARES, plus “Left to Give” and “Strike” from TREASURE PAINS. A 12” vinyl edition is up now for pre-order. Full article with more details just went live this week.
Swiss post-metal force ABRAHAM have unveiled a video for their new single I Am the Vessel and the Vessel Is Me, taken from their upcoming album idsungwüssä, due September 26 via Pelagic Records.
The record marks their fifth full-length and the closing chapter of a conceptual trilogy that began with Look, Here Comes the Dark! and continued with Débris de mondes perdus. This time, the band frame it as a “jump in space, a journey away from Earth,” building walls of stacked guitars, catastrophic drums, and vocals in Swiss-German dialect, offset by melodic interludes and melancholic passages.
Recorded between late 2024 and early 2025, the album also introduces Farfisa organ alongside contributions from Kevin Galland of Coilguns on Moog and piano. ABRAHAM describe it as a work shaped by urgency and personal strain, threading change and transformation into an hour-long immersion that drifts between devastation and fleeting glimpses of something ethereal.
Bristol’s math/post-rock shapeshifters LAST HYENA will drop their third EP Suspect Your Elders on September 26 via Middle Farm Studios, recorded with Mark Roberts (Delta Sleep, Black Peaks, Poly-Math, Jamie Lenman).
The trio lean into heavier territory this time, weaving drop-tuned riffs, bursts of aggression, and ambient textures into their signature intricacy. “We’ve definitely maintained our core math/post-rock identity, whilst venturing into heavier territory,” drummer Rory explains. Bassist Max adds that the increased intensity reflects “the growing anger and division we see in the world today,” with the EP’s title acting as a thematic anchor for that distrust and tension.
Ahead of the full release, final single Surfer lands September 19, channeling explosive riffs and seductive guitar lines into a critique of time lost to endless internet scrolling.
Copenhagen hardcore quartet ANTI RITUAL are back with a new EP, 80 Years, out September 5 via Indisciplinarian. The band just shared the title track, a piece that ties the return of fascist ideology to the decades since its supposed defeat.
Compared to 2023’s Green Terrorism, the new material drops grindcore and blast beats in favor of D-beat, sharp dissonance, and big melodic riffs—what the band jokingly called “stadium crust.” Across its four tracks, 80 Years takes aim at fascist politicians, U.S. scapegoating, and the broader struggle for survival in a collapsing society.
Slowcore act FINE BEFORE YOU CAME have released their new album C’è ancora amore, recorded in just five days of spring 2025 between Baito and Cabinessence with Marco Giudici, joined by Elia Guglielmi and Adele Altro. Mixing was handled by Giudici and the band, with mastering by Giovanni Versari.
The seven-track record, streaming now on Bandcamp, includes songs like Amici miei, Piccola luce accesa, Vecchi cantanti, and Via ragazzi del ’99. Physical editions (LP/CD) will follow on September 26 via La Tempesta Dischi.
Indie emo crew TIBERIUS are gearing up for their new record Troubadour, written during a stretch of shifting relationships and what Brendan Wright calls “complete ego death.” The songs swing between blunt confessions and half-tender reflections, stitched together by the band’s self-dubbed “farm emo” sound.
Ahead of the release, Wright and Pat King took the stripped-down duo setup across the midwest, trading long drives, basement shows, and tequila doubles for what Wright calls “some of the biggest bummer songs I’ve ever written.” The tour diary reads like a companion to the album—scrappy, exhausted, but locked in on what keeps the whole thing worth carrying.
Denver post-pop punks RELATE. dropped their new single “Disdain”, taken from their upcoming EP Have I Ever Done Anything, recorded last summer in Massachusetts with Jay Maas and due out in October.
Belgian post-metal outfit JUNEAU dropped their new single “Heave,” the first glimpse of their upcoming second full-length Scraps of the Final Lights, set to arrive via Tokyo Jupiter Records, A Cheery Wave Records and De Mist Records.
The track leaned into haunting melodies and crushing instrumentation, showing a more refined and dynamic approach while keeping the raw emotional edge that shaped their debut Cloack.
To mark the release, JUNEAU announced a show at De Wommel in Wommelgem on October 25, with Walfgang joining the bill.
Midwest emo energy threaded with pop shimmer—BEN QUAD return November 14 with their second album Wisher on Pure Noise Records. The first single, It’s Just A Title, arrives with a video full of silk robes and tongue-in-cheek swagger, pushing beyond the band’s usual emo/punk frameworks into synths, guitar solos, and brighter hooks.
Produced by Jon Markson (The Story So Far, Drug Church) at his New Jersey farm studio, Wisher flips the tone of 2022’s debut—where that record leaned into uncertainty, this one searches for optimism, framing the album title as a nod to hope for better days.
BEN QUAD will tour Europe in February supporting Arm’s Length, with stops in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany.
Brighton two-piece H_NGM_N are finally dropping their debut Paper Street on October 17 through Sugar-Free Records. Before that, they’ve put out “Ghosts,” a follow-up to their 2018 track “Ghost,” built on restless guitars and a pull between collapse and holding on.
The record takes its name from a street that exists only on maps—planned, never built—and it leans into that same sense of unfinished business. Across ten tracks it traces fractured trust, missed chances, and the dull ache of growing older, without smoothing over the rough edges.
They’ll take it on the road from October 24, hitting small rooms across the UK, and playing their biggest hometown show at Chalk on October 29 with Free Throw and Prince Daddy & The Hyena.
AARON STAUFFER released a new single, “Caught Behind Your Luck,”. The track is part of his ongoing long-haul project aiming for 100 songs, with this one clocking in as number 30. Stauffer, who’s been active since his teens and is now 54, joked that at his current pace the project could take about 25 years to finish, slowed by time spent surfing but fueled by ideas formed out on the water.
The song deals with predicting the future just enough to brace for what’s coming, and features new collaborator Ollie Werner, who, in Stauffer’s words, “really pushed the song to a new level while still preserving my original tracks.” Alongside the solo project, he recently recorded backup vocals with 84 Tigers (ex-Small Brown Bike) for a track due out in early October.
Long Island grungegazers SAINTHOOD REPS dropped a new single, “Surfer,” featuring Balance and Composure, ahead of their upcoming album Dull Bliss, out September 26 via Smartpunk Records. The track pairs the band’s blend of grunge, shoegaze, and post-hardcore with guest vocals from Jon Simmons and guitar work from Erik Petersen.
Frontman Derrick Sherman explained the collab came naturally: “Jon Simmons from Balance & Composure and I have a demo-listening support group… he always knows how to ignite confidence and creativity. When I was writing ‘Surfer,’ I always heard someone else singing the second verse, so it only made sense to ask my demo buddy to do it. I always admired Erik’s guitar playing too, so I thought it would be fun to get him in the mix. They both absolutely crushed it.”
Shoegaze-drenched black metal and post-rock intensity—DEAFHEAVEN are set for a massive run of shows in 2025. First, the band will sweep across the U.S. this fall with HARMS WAY and I PROMISED THE WORLD, hitting everywhere from Chattanooga to Albuquerque through September and October.
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Then, November brings them back to the UK and Europe with PORTRAYAL OF GUILT and ZERUEL. Stops include Damnation Festival in Manchester, Sala Apolo in Barcelona, and Electric Ballroom in London, before closing out in Athens. Both tours go on sale this week, with early access available for U.S. dates.
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French hardcore doesn’t come subtle, and SPLIT’s debut Violence Breeds Violence makes that clear. Out October 10, the record is seven tracks of raw, uncompromising fury—part catharsis, part manifesto.
The themes are as heavy as the riffs: domestic abuse, police brutality, precarity, addiction, death. It’s music written to confront, not console, and it lands like a first strike rather than a cautious introduction.
Alongside the album, the band will release a video for I Feel Nothing More. Live shows follow in November and December, including dates with COILGUNS and BEURRE, plus stops at Rise & Fall Fest in Niort and Nôs Rêves Font du Bruit Fest in Troyes.
THE HIVES have dropped their new album The Hives Forever Forever The Hives via Play It Again Sam, arriving just two years after The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons. The record carries thirteen tracks produced with Pelle Gunnerfeldt and Mike D (Beastie Boys), with Josh Homme also offering input.
Texas indie punk unit FAULTY COGNITIONS are gearing up to release their second LP They Promised Us Heaven on September 26 through Dead Broke Rekerds (US) and Shield Recordings (EU). Limited vinyl preorders are up now, including 100 on opaque red.
The record pairs sharp, melodic songwriting with Chris Mason’s socio-political lyrics, confronting themes like hypernormalization, global capitalism, domestic inequality, and the genocide in Gaza. Tracks such as “Worse Than Any Bomb” and “Don’t Let Them See You Suffer” balance grief with clarity, while the band leans into shimmering tones and layered vocals without losing their punk edge.
Recorded at San Antonio’s Jett Bass Studios with Joshua Bloodsworth, mixed by Jesse Gander, and mastered by Carl Saff, the album expands on their 2024 debut Somehow, Here We Are. With roots in LOW CULTURE, SHANG-A-LANG, and NOCTURNAL PROSE, the quartet draw equally from the Dunedin sound and American punk lineage, landing somewhere between The Clean, early R.E.M., Hüsker Dü, and Jawbreaker.
After a seven-year pause, RADIOHEAD are stepping back onto European stages this winter. The band announced a run of shows across November and December 2025, with stops in Madrid, Bologna, London, Copenhagen, and Berlin.
Philip Selway explained that the idea came after the group reunited to rehearse last year “just for the hell of it,” rediscovering a shared identity and deciding to play together again. Tickets will only be available through registration at radiohead.com, opening September 5.
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Melodic metalcore veterans THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA have announced their ninth album Flowers, set for release November 14 via Solid State. Alongside the news, they’ve shared two new tracks, “Where the Flowers Never Grow” and “Wave,” plus a short film tied to the former.
Jeremy DePoyster frames “Where the Flowers Never Grow” as “a reckoning with how you can receive everything you thought you wanted, but you still have to reckon with the intrusive thoughts of emptiness and old wounds.” He adds, “My hope is that anyone who hears the song feels seen, that they’re not alone in the darkest corners of their mind.”
The record follows a packed summer tour and continues the band’s twentieth-year run, with international dates lined up this winter alongside Ice Nine Kills and Creeper.
Norwegian post-rock trio LES DUNES have shared “Den Hopsack,” the second single from their upcoming album From Etne To The Edge of Space, out September 5 via Kapitän Platte.
Compared to the expansive “Vangen,” this one cuts leaner and sharper — a driving, hypnotic track built on cinematic tension and melodic focus. It nods back to the band’s Low Frequency in Stereo days, while standing firmly on its own.
UK post-rock outfit MILLION MOONS just stepped into new territory with their first appearance at Hangzhou’s Offside Festival, where they also signed a three-year deal with Chinese label AnGoal. The partnership goes beyond shows—AnGoal will handle the band’s local distribution and social media while laying groundwork for tours tied to their third album in 2026.
We interviewed the band here.
HER GANG — the new solo project from Gabriel (formerly of YARAMISO) — has unveiled the German Graffiti Demo. Self-released through Cardigan Punk and available now on Bandcamp, the tape gathers new material alongside fragments left over from past projects.
Rooted in the punk and indie rock of the ’80s and ’90s, the demo channels the DIY spirit of Riot Grrrl and labels like K Records, Sub Pop, Matador, and Merge. It’s a raw, unpolished snapshot of songs that bridge Gabriel’s past and present work, leaning into the lo-fi immediacy of demo recordings while sketching out Her Gang’s identity.
SILVERSTEIN have unveiled their latest single “Autopilot,” tapping in Cassadee Pope for a feature that bridges eras of emo. Out today, the track arrives exactly 20 years after the release of Discovering the Waterfront and just days after “Smile in Your Sleep” was certified Gold.
Frontman Shane Told called the song “modern and vintage at the same time,” noting its roots in Discovering the Waterfront while pointing out how Pope’s performance elevated it: “She absolutely crushed this guest vocal.” Pope echoed the sentiment: “Silverstein was such a big part of my formative years so to be on a song with them is surreal. I’m a sucker for a huge catchy chorus coupled with angsty lyrics so as soon as I heard the song I knew I needed to sing on it!”
“Autopilot” is the third single from Pink Moon, the second half of the band’s 16-track double LP conceived in Joshua Tree. Out September 12 via UNFD, the album follows Antibloom and completes a sequence designed to stand alone yet intertwine, with Rory Rodriguez (Dayseeker) and Pope providing the only guest features across the project.
French rap-metal bruisers RISE OF THE NORTHSTAR have announced their fourth record, Chapter 04: Red Falcon Super Battle! Neo Paris War!!, due out November 14. The band just dropped a new single, “A.I.R. Max,” following earlier tracks “Neo Paris” and “Back 2 Basics.”
Frontman Vithia frames the song as pure attitude: “Attitude, Integrity, Respect… Taken to the max. That’s what my band is about. I’ve never changed my stance, never followed trends, never watered down our style to fit in.” Guitarist Eva-B adds that writing the track was about going back to the WelcAme era — “catchy, groovy riffs with a laid-back attitude.”
The album packs 13 cuts, including “Nemesis” with Aaron Matts of Ten 56 and “Back 2 Basics” with Landmvrks, produced alongside Florent Salfati in Paris and Marseille. RISE OF THE NORTHSTAR will support the release with a 2025 headline run across Europe and Latin America joined by Deez Nuts, Get The Shot, and Half Me.
Brazilian groove-metal lifers SOULFLY have announced their 13th album Chama, out October 24 via Nuclear Blast, and dropped its first single “Storm the Gates.”
The track channels the band’s early tribal-heavy bounce, laced with world-music flourishes and big-groove heft, arriving with an animated lyric video by Costin Chioreanu. Max Cavalera calls the record “the sound of Soulfly’s fire,” adding: “Chama is the Brazilian word for flame. It also means a ‘calling’… This record is inspired by the energy of this moment.”
The lineup features Cavalera alongside sons Igor Amadeus (bass) and Zyon (drums), plus guitarist Mike De Leon. Zyon notes that Chama also marks his first deep dive into production: “Trying to take the band to places we have never been before was a blast.”
Ohio crossover bruisers UNHOLY SWARM have dropped their new EP Hymn Of The Low God, out now via Head2Wall Records.
The band set the tone last month with lead single “Enemy Within,” a track vocalist Tucker Lappi described as blunt self-interrogation: “Why do we feed the parts of ourselves that take away from our lives? Why do we change only when we hate ourselves enough to do so? And if we don’t change, what then?” That focus on corrosion—personal and cultural—runs through the record.
Tracked again at Mercinary Studios with Noah Buchanan, the EP pulls from Entombed, Strife, and the Ohio hardcore lineage while bleeding horror into its visuals and themes. Lappi’s “top 10” of cult films—from The Thing to Phantasm—is as much part of the band’s DNA as the riffs themselves.
Indonesian indie rock group WUSS released their new single “Where It Begins” on August 22, the first step toward their upcoming full-length album. The track reflected on the uncertainty of life’s path — “journey is a blind box, you never know…” — while urging openness to whatever outcomes lie ahead.
Formed out of casual jams in Malang, East Java, the band — Sabiella Maris, Brilyan Pratama, Rara Harumi, and Rufa Hidayat — built the song early in their existence, with its mid-tempo drive matching the theme of new beginnings. The single followed their debut EP We Undercover Super Softie and came alongside the news that 13 tracks have been completed for their forthcoming album.
Midwest emo torchbearers HOT MULLIGAN have released their fourth full-length The Sound a Body Makes When It’s Still, out now.
Following 2024’s Warmer Weather EP, the new record finds the band moving between high-energy pop-punk bursts and stripped-back melancholia, sharpening their lyrical focus in the process. Tracks like “Bon Jonah” and “Moving to Bed Bug Island” highlight the balance of humor, grief, and raw emotional weight that has become their calling card.
Two years removed from their breakthrough Why Would I Watch, HOT MULLIGAN sound heavier, sharper, and more assured—still biting, still restless.
Hawai‘i punks EL SANCHO have dropped their new album Roll Right Over You, out now on vinyl, CD, and digital. Since 2019 the Waikoloa trio have leaned on three chords, loud amps, and sharp humor, carving out their spot both in local DIY shows and alongside names like TSOL, FEAR, and Strung Out.
Mixed by Craig Billmeier (The Love Songs) and mastered by Jack Endino, the record closes with The Kids Are Gonna Roll Right Over You — a track aimed at right-wing culture warriors targeting LGBTQIA+ youth. As the band frames it, the kids just roll on, leaving the noise behind.
BANQUETS are back with “Episodes,” their first new single in nearly a decade and the lead preview from their upcoming LP Petty Relics, out October 17. The track, described by guitarist/vocalist Travis as “a letter to my former self,” digs into regret and missed moments with a mix of self-reflection and driving melody.
The album marks their first full-length since 2015’s Spit at the Sun, recorded with longtime friend Andy Clarke at Retro City Studios in Philadelphia. BANQUETS will celebrate their return with their first show in nine years, August 30 at Crossroads in Garwood, NJ alongside Bad Boys, ERRTH, and MakeWar.
Petty Relics finds the New Jersey band reconnecting with their melodic punk roots while leaning into a more natural, indie-tinged sound.
Emo/indie outfit I THINK I NEED MORE SUN have dropped a new six-track EP titled Beauty Will Fade. The record traces its roots back to living room demos and basement practices—songs first sketched out by frontperson Elijah and later shaped collectively in the band’s DIY rehearsal spaces.
The title came before the songs were finished, circling around the idea that beauty, youth, and certainty inevitably shift. Recorded with producer Ryan Staples at Dead River Sounds in Marquette, the EP leans on melodic guitar lines, vulnerable lyricism, and a nostalgic warmth. “We took our time with these songs,” the band shares. “At the end of the day, we just want to make music we love – and help each other out along the way.”
Louisville heavy-hitters GREYHAVEN have shared a new video for “Cemetery Sun,” taken from their upcoming album Keep It Quiet, due out October 10 on Solid State and produced by Will Putney.
The track cuts between jagged riffing and eerie melodies, with vocalist Brent Mills explaining its message: “I love you so much that if I had to, I would totally obliterate myself for you to shine… ‘Cemetery Sun’ is the opposite of what a vampire does. I’d willingly not drain your life, because I know how draining I can be.”
Ahead of the release, GREYHAVEN will hit Europe alongside Better Lovers from September 24 to October 13, with stops in Antwerp, Warsaw, Milan, and more.
Melodic rock infused metalcore dreamers DAYSEEKER have dropped a video for their new single “Shapeshift,” taken from their forthcoming album Creature in the Black Night, due October 24 via Spinefarm.
“This song is about the anxiety I live with on a daily basis,” vocalist Rory Rodriguez explains. “An open letter to myself about how it shifts and molds me into a different version of me.”
The track follows earlier singles from the record, produced by Daniel Braunstein and mixed by Zakk Cervini, with the band leaning heavier into riffs and screams while threading in a horror-inspired atmosphere.
French post hardcore unit HOURGLASS are gearing up to release their debut EP The Beast Is a Boy on September 26. Formed in 2024 by four longtime friends with deep ties to the French punk and hardcore underground, the band call their sound “a punk-hardcore hand in a post glove,” nodding to influences ranging from Comeback Kid and Converge to Rancid and Gojira.
See our full feature on the band here.
Belgian post-metal crew JUNEAU just put out “Heave,” the first cut from their upcoming second record Scraps of the Final Lights, due through Tokyo Jupiter Records, A Cheery Wave Records, and De Mist Records.
The track drags between heavy haze and sharper melodic edges, still rooted in their raw undercurrent but pushing into wider territory than their debut Cloack. It’s more refined, but no less brooding.
Instrumental wanderers COMPREHENDING have released their debut full-length The Perils and Rewards of an Unknown Path. The Uppsala duo — guitarist John Pettersson and drummer Andreas Valdna — shaped the record after years of detours, false starts, and re-recordings.
See our full feature on the band here.
DOWNSWING announced their signing to MNRK along with the release of their new single For What It’s Worth, featuring Travis Moseley of COLORBLIND. The track arrived with a video and set the tone for the band’s upcoming full-length And Everything Was Dark, due out October 24, 2025.
Vocalist Harrison Seanor described the song as a favorite heading into the studio, driven by its immediate energy and heavy riffing. Lyrically, it carried themes of betrayal and fallout.
Formed in Albany in 2018, DOWNSWING built their reputation on metallic hardcore aggression and groove, with previous releases including Dark Side of the Mind (2017), Good Intentions (2020), New Lows (2022), and Let This Life Devour You (2024). The new record emphasized big hooks, atmospheric touches, and a sense of clarity in their direction, with guest features from Elijah Witt and Chris Roetter.
The band supported the release with a September 2025 tour alongside HE IS LEGEND, EYES SET TO KILL, and TEETH, coinciding with HE IS LEGEND’s 20th anniversary of Suck Out the Poison.
Instrumental mathy post-rockers COMPREHENDING have released their debut full-length The Perils and Rewards of an Unknown Path, out August 27, 2025.
What started with a bedroom demo in Uppsala six years ago has grown into a patient, winding journey shaped by re-recordings, label troubles, and deliberate persistence. Guitarist John Pettersson and drummer Andreas Valdna weave nature-inspired song titles, intricate riffs, and reflective themes into a record about finding value in setbacks and detours. See full feature here on IDIOTEQ.
Experimental masked collective THE SOUND OF ANIMALS FIGHTING return with The Maiden, their first full-length since 2008’s The Ocean and The Sun, set for release on September 12 via Born Losers Records. Ahead of the album, the group has dropped two singles, “Bangladesh” and “Chrysanthemum,” landing August 26.
“Bangladesh” is described by the band as “the ominous prelude to our previously released single ‘Lady of the Cosmos,’ casting a long, foreboding shadow over the album’s unfolding narrative… a harbinger—a warning siren echoing through a world teetering on the edge of ideological self-destruction.” In contrast, “Chrysanthemum” turns to grief and memory, “a mournful reflection and a mysterious reawakening,” named after the flower tied to remembrance and reincarnation, marking a sonic shift in the album toward electronic and found sounds.
To mark the release, the band is hitting the road across the US with support from This Will Destroy You, The Casket Lottery, Hard Chiller, and Soft Blue Shimmer, with dates running from late September through mid-October.
Indie punk urgency with a melodic punch—THE CAROLYN just dropped Routines, the latest preview of their upcoming album Pyramid Scheme of Grief, out October 3 via 59 X Records (US) and Disconnect Disconnect Records (UK). Known for writing concise, hook-heavy anthems, the Atlanta trio’s new single digs into the grind of burnout while still bursting with energy.
The record follows earlier singles White Russians and and the Infinite Void, each clocking in under two minutes, continuing the band’s sharp, no-frills approach. Mixed and mastered by Peter Catalano, the album promises choruses built to stick while spiraling through unresolved thoughts and late-night reflections.
Grind unit BENT SEA will finally drop their long-awaited debut full-length The Dormant Ruin this Friday, September 5, via Give Praise Records. A new track, “A Scopic Radiance,” is streaming now.
Formed in 2011 by Dirk Verbeuren (Megadeth) with Sven de Caluwé (Aborted) and later joined by Shane Embury (Napalm Death), the band cut early splits with Torture Division, Usurpress, and To Dust. Their Noistalgia EP even featured Devin Townsend on bass.
Tracked with producer Daniel Bergstrand, The Dormant Ruin has been over a decade in the making. “I’m extremely proud of these songs,” Verbeuren says. “Sven, Shane and I were able to reach new creative ground without sacrificing the urgency and spontaneity that BENT SEA thrives on.”
TRUDGER have resurfaced after eleven years with Void Quest, their second full-length, out now via Floodlit Recordings. The Barnsley death-sludge outfit—Chris Parkinson, Jack Kavanagh, Richard Matheson, and Chris Leak—picked up where 2014’s Dormiveglia left off, distilling their sound into nine dense tracks clocking in at 35 minutes.
Recorded with longtime collaborator Joe Clayton at No Studio in Manchester and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege, the record leans into what the band call “neo-crust sci-fi death sludge,” weaving progressive structures with blunt-force riffs. Cuts like “Merciless Sabre,” “Illusory Path,” and “Wind Cleaver” keep momentum sharp, while “Sleep Purge” and “Bile Elixir” close the set with suffocating weight.
Lyrically, Void Quest folds in themes of humanity’s collapse through pollution and repeating atrocities, filtered through the dark fantasy lens of Poe and FromSoftware’s Soulsborne games. Though TRUDGER have no live plans at the moment, they frame the album as a strictly recording-focused return—one that reminds listeners of their grip on the UK heavy underground.
Japanese post-rock veterans MONO will release Forever Home: Live in Japan with Orchestra Pitreza on October 31, marking their return to orchestral performance on home soil after more than 15 years. Captured at a sold-out show at Spotify O-EAST in Tokyo during their 25th Anniversary ‘Oath’ Orchestral World Tour, the set features a 12-piece ensemble led by Chad McCullough and includes the full performance of Oath alongside “Ashes in the Snow” and “Everlasting Light.”
Recorded and mixed by longtime engineer Matt Cook, the release arrives on 2xCD with Blu-ray and as a 3xLP, both packaged with a 28-page photo book. The concert film, directed by Yusaku Mitsuwaka, documents the full 100-minute performance. An oxblood colored vinyl edition is limited to 500 copies.
Touring behind the release, MONO will play throughout the UK and Europe from late October through December, with dates in cities including Manchester, Dublin, Amsterdam, Milan, Vienna, and Warsaw.
Noise-metal veterans TODAY IS THE DAY have premiered a new video for “Secret Police” via Metal Injection. The track appears on their upcoming fourteenth LP Never Give In, due October 3rd on SuperNova Records, the label run by band founder Steve Austin.
“Secret Police” features trumpet and trombone from Mac Gollehon (David Bowie, Onyx, Blondie) and synth/background vocals from David Brenner (Gridfailure), who also created the video. Austin explains the song as “when you have nothing to believe in, nothing left to give… ‘The Machine is out of control.’”
Post-rock artist ATONALITA has released a live session video for “Waiting Eyes,” a piece dedicated to late British musician Ashley Owens, the force behind The Glass Pavilion.
Owens, who passed away in 2024 after years of health struggles, left behind two albums that carved out a distinct, atmospheric space within post-rock and shoegaze. ATONALITA collaborated with him on the track “Departure” and now frames “Waiting Eyes” as both tribute and farewell: “He is no longer among us, and our eyes will wait for him forever. RIP Ash, this is for you.”
UK post-hardcore band ACRES will drop The Host Part 2 on September 26 via Solid State Records, completing and expanding their earlier 2025 release. The continuation adds three new tracks, closing the loop on an already weighty record.
Most of the expanded edition is streaming now, including the new cut “Welcome to the Family” alongside “Push Me Away” featuring Landon Tewers.
MARTRE just dropped a new EP titled Too Scarred To Resist – Too Scared To Exist, released August 31, 2025. The Danish one-man project, run by Michael Andersen, leans into blackened and death-soaked atmospheres across four tracks: “Too Scarred To Resist,” “Delusional Divine,” “Swarm Of Incomprehension,” and “Too Scared To Exist.”
The release draws inspiration from the strange case of Sheryl Ruthven and the Freedom Fire Ministries/Eva’s Eden cult, threading that narrative into its suffocating soundscapes. A full-length follow-up is already on the horizon, with MARTRE set to unveil the next album in early 2026.
Brazilian post-metal unit THROE have unveiled “giz,” the first single from their upcoming album Silver Blue, due in October via Burning London and Deathtime Records. Nearly ten minutes long, the track drifts between weighty distortion, post-rock atmosphere and shoegaze haze — described by Subsensor as “The Cure playing with distortion.”
“giz” also marks the debut of a new lineup around founder Vina, joined by Guix (guitar) and Juliana Fernandes (drums) from Lōtico, plus Vellozo (bass) of Huey. Recorded in São Paulo’s Gotan Studio and mixed/mastered by David Menezes, the song pairs heavy textures with lyrics circling memory, loss, and the struggle against erasure — “written in chalk,” as the refrain insists, fragile and fading.
London doom voyager OENOS has dropped a new full-length, Mavro V, out now. The record unfolds as a single 39-minute piece, written mostly in two weeks of isolation back in 2020 and only revisited this year.
The album circles around the idea of healing, moving between mellow stretches, crushing riffs, blast beats, and orchestral passages. It also weaves in a spoken word sample from the 1959 short film The Faces of Depression.
WINDS OF PLAGUE have announced a reunion with their original lineup, marking their first shows together in years. The symphonic deathcore outfit will return on September 16 at The Forge in Joliet, before hitting major stages at Louder Than Life (Sept 18, Louisville, KY) and Aftershock Festival (Oct 3, Sacramento, CA).
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Formed in 2002 as Bleak December, the Los Angeles band rose with Decimate the Weak (2008) and Against the World (2011), blending symphonic elements with crushing deathcore and drawing guest spots from hardcore and metal heavyweights. Their last studio effort was Blood of My Enemy in 2017.
Prog-metal shapeshifters BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME have dropped the title track from their upcoming record The Blue Nowhere, out September 12 via InsideOutMusic. Guitarist Paul Waggoner calls it “perhaps the most glaringly peculiar track on the album,” adding that it was built around “a very basic chordal vamp” with subtler dynamic shifts than fans might expect.
Earlier singles “Things We Tell Ourselves In The Dark” and “Absent Thereafter” showcased the band’s genre-bending extremes, drawing nods from outlets like Consequence, Knotfest, and Revolver. Produced by Jamie King and mixed by Jens Bogren, the album also marks the first BTBAM release with a full horn and string section.
BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME hit the road September 14 for a North American run with Hail The Sun, joined by Delta Sleep and The World Is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die on select dates.
Danish experimentalists HEATHE have dropped their new single Uproar Taking Shape, taken from the upcoming double album Control Your Soul’s Desire for Freedom, out October 3 via Empty Tape and Virkelighedsfjern. The track premieres today on IDIOTEQ.
German four-piece SEOI NAGE are stepping in with their debut album No Retreat, No Surrender, due October 10 via This Charming Man Records. The group — Jakob Hersch, Anton Zimmermann, Pascal Schaumburg, and Pogo McCartney — lean on their martial arts roots and take their name from a judo throw.
The record moves like an imaginary crime film, somewhere between funk grooves and retro-futurist noir. McCartney mixed it, Alexander von Hörsten handled mastering, and Benny Demmer took care of the cover art. A visualizer for “Brotherhood of the Wolf” pulls directly from martial arts cinema, stitching its sound to the hypnotic pace of 1970s film grit.
We welcomes the project on IDIOTEQ this week.
Post-metal/sludge unit CRANIAL are set to release their new album Structures this October through Moment Of Collapse Records. It marks their first full-length in almost six years, following 2019’s Alternate Endings.
The label describes the record as “every else than easy listening,” shaped by several emotional confrontations over the past years and delivered as a dense, heavy longplayer.
Connecticut’s corrosive noise rock crew INTERCOURSE have dropped a lyric video for Cryptid Divorce Court, the latest cut from their upcoming fourth LP How I Fell In Love With The Void, due September 12 via Brutal Panda Records. Recorded with Chris Teti at Silver Bullet Studios and mastered by George Richter, the record twists metallic hardcore into the band’s already hostile, self-deprecating noise attack.
California experimental rock band HAIL THE SUN have announced their seventh full-length cut. turn. fade. back., set for release on October 24 via Equal Vision Records. Produced and engineered by Pete Adams alongside Grammy-winner Johnny Kosich of Beach Noise, with mixing and mastering by Zakk Cervini, the record takes on themes of war, addiction, lost love, and death.
The new single War Crimes comes with a video directed by Alex Bemis. Vocalist Donovan Melero explains: “Like clockwork throughout modern human history, we attack each other to control each other. To rule each other. To own each other. We do horrific things in the name of ‘liberation’ and making the world a ‘better’ place … But who gains from these wars of carnage and death? Who always comes out on top?”
HAIL THE SUN will be touring North America this fall, co-headlining with Between The Buried And Me through September and October, including a slot at San Antonio’s Kill Iconic Fest on October 5.
SANGUISUGABOGG have released the NSFW video for “Repulsive Demise”, taken from their upcoming album Hideous Aftermath, due out October 10 via Century Media. The Ohio death metal unit describe the track as one of their strangest yet—groovy, pummeling, and what they consider the theme song of the record.
Hideous Aftermath marks the band’s third full-length and their most death metal-focused effort to date, recorded at God City Studios with Kurt Ballou. Vocalist Devin Swank calls it their most personal and brutal work so far, stepping beyond the “caveman death metal” tag into sharper, more deliberate territory.
The record features collaborations with members of Nails, Defeated Sanity, Cattle Decapitation, Peeling Flesh, and Full of Hell, and will be issued in multiple vinyl variants alongside CD and digital formats. SANGUISUGABOGG will headline a U.S. tour this November with support from DESPISED ICON, DEFEATED SANITY, and CORPSEPILE.
Finnish death metal punks GRAVE HEX have unleashed their debut album Vermian Death, officially out August 22 through Night Terrors Records (cassette) and Cavernous Records (CD).
Written in a quick burst after their formation in Helsinki in 2024, the record drags through festering riffs and diseased grooves, lining the band up alongside the rotten tradition of Autopsy, Acephalix, Undergang, and Morbific.
Tracked over three sessions last sum
Deathgrind disruptors THE RED CHORD are marking twenty years of Clients with its first-ever vinyl release, set for October 17 through Metal Blade Records.
Originally dropped in 2005 and hailed by Decibel with a perfect score, the album has long stood as a benchmark in chaotic, crossover extremity — fusing grind, hardcore, death metal, and math-metal turns into one jagged blast.
Merseyside modern nu metal newcomers ROZEMARY have dropped their debut EP the lies they made me believe, out September 1. The six-track release includes “prey,” “starlit ballroom,” and “reckoning,” produced by Bailey Wilson and mixed/mastered by Matt Ellis, with artwork by Izabel Shart.
They’ll be playing the EP in full across six shows this month, kicking off September 6 at No Play Fest in Liverpool before hitting Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent, Rockferry, Birmingham, and wrapping up back in Liverpool on September 27 at District.
Danish duo AABENBART have released their new album Hvem Græder Når Du Dør? (Who Cries When You Die?), a 40-minute dive into post-punk, industrial noise rock, and fogged-out electronics. The record comes as the latest incarnation of a project long centered on vocalist/lyricist Julius Bjørn Honoré and instrumentalist Oliver Hovgaard Beck, who now carry the band as its sole members.
Written and recorded in a DIY setup on a laptop with whatever gear was at hand, the album embraces lo-fi grit as part of its identity. It moves through grief, legacy, and the stark landscape of northern Jutland, tying desolate soundscapes to questions of meaning, love, and what remains after loss.
Doom heavyweights PALLBEARER will revisit their 2014 landmark this fall with Foundations of Burden (2025 Redux), dropping digitally on November 7 and physically December 5 through Profound Lore. The record has been fully reconstructed from the original sessions, mixed by Mario Quintero and mastered by Adam Gonsalves, with new cover art by Benjamin Vierling.
Bassist/vocalist Joseph D. Rowland recalls the original chaos: “We had no real practice space, we barely had a single working computer between the four of us… some parts of the album being recorded many times over. The guitars in particular mutated into something Sisyphean.” He adds that while they always held love for the 2014 version, “we also gained a fuller understanding of how we would want to re-present them if we had a chance.”
German grindcore unit CONSTRICT will unleash their new EP Kadavergehorsam on October 3 via 7Degrees Records (GER), Loner Cult Records (BE), and 783Label (UK). The onesided 12” arrives on black vinyl with white-marble inlay and digital formats.
Fast, abrasive, and uncompromising, the EP delivers a furious critique of exploitation, capitalism, and systemic inequality, with tracks like “Rats,” “Bloom,” and “Cattle” painting dystopian portraits, while “Fight Back” injects resistance and solidarity.
A stacked new compilation is out today — Merciless Accelerating Rhythms: Artists United for a Free Palestine Vol. 2 drops September 5 via Bandcamp, right on Bandcamp Friday. All proceeds go directly to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF).
The 63-track set brings together names like TONSTARTSSBANDHT, COLIN MILLER, VILLAGERRR, ANDY LOEBS, MaryLeigh Roohan, Self-Help, YOUBET, and many more, mixing demos, live cuts, covers, and one-offs into a sprawling document of DIY support. Among the highlights: villagerrr taking on Arthur Russell’s “A Little Lost,” Andy Loebs with “Mechanism,” and Colin Miller’s “Hasbeen.”
The first volume of Merciless Accelerating Rhythms made waves earlier this year, and this follow-up doubles down with a wildly varied lineup united by purpose — raising funds and awareness while pushing out music that feels raw, immediate, and unfiltered.
“I grew up in the USA in the 90s and 00s, subject to as much American imperial and Zionist propaganda as anyone else from that time and place, says Andy Boay of Tonstartssbandht. “I feel like all of my earliest encounters with a perspective that was in any way oppositional to the “this is just the way things are and anti-zionism = anti-semitism” canard came in the form of activist musicians, people that I related to and found myself listening to them clearly. Some of them were Jews, some of them were Arabs, but all of them artists, refusing to say “This is just the way things are.” If there’s anything that we can humbly contribute to hasten the end of this nightmare that my country’s government enables and openly applauds, then we should do it.”
Emo outfit LAKES have released their new Slower Fade EP, out today September 5, 2025. The release features acoustic versions of songs from their recent album Slow Fade, including “Peach Fuzz” and “Edge of Reason.”
SERJ TANKIAN has announced Covers, Collaborations & Collages, a new compilation landing October 24 via Serjical Strike Records/Create Music Group. The project launches today with the first single, “Electric Dreams,” and will roll out weekly with a new track dropping every Friday until the full release.
The record stitches together reinterpretations, partnerships, and archival pieces. Tankian teams up with Deadmau5 on “A Seed,” pairs his voice with Bic Runga on “Things Unspoken,” and delivers lines like “There are no more empires / Just burning campfires” over Lucas Vidal’s sweeping score in “Apocalyptic Dance.” Other highlights include a Chris de Burgh cover (“I’m Counting On You”) and a take on Ruben Hakhverdyan’s “When Death Arrives.”
Deathcore mainstays THE ACACIA STRAIN have dropped a video for their new single Holy Moonlight, a preview of the upcoming album You Are Safe From God Here, out October 24 via Rise Records.
“This record is unapologetically The Acacia Strain; take that however you want. It’s angry, it’s sad, it’s us. We made a record that made us feel uncomfortable. We hope it makes you feel the same way,” the band shared when announcing the release.
Following 2023’s dual effort Step Into The Light and Failure Will Follow, the new full-length promises another round of bleak, punishing heaviness, with Vincent Bennett’s lyrics locked on misanthropy, nihilism, and existential dread.
Polish black metal act MGŁA have marked the 10th anniversary of Exercises in Futility with the release of “World-without-us,” a previously unreleased track from the original sessions.
The song was recorded in 2015 alongside the rest of the album but cut when the band decided to keep the record compact for a single-vinyl release. Drums and guitars were tracked at the time, while bass and vocals were only added this August to complete the piece.
NU metalcore band DED have released a new video for “Purpose: Be Myself,” a track from their upcoming album Resent, which drops September 19 via UNFD.
Written late in the recording process, the song leans into a hybrid of rave-inspired electronics and Ded’s trademark heaviness. Vocalist Joe Cotela explained that the lyrics deal with embracing one’s purpose and identity without compromise.
Resent was recorded over three years, mostly at the band’s own Trash Island Studios in Phoenix, with mixing and mastering by Zach Jones and KJ Strock. The record features guest spots from Chad Gray (Mudvayne), Danny Leal (Upon a Burning Body), and Chris Motionless (Motionless in White).
DED will support Resent on tour this fall with In This Moment and Dayseeker, beginning September 18 in Pennsylvania and running through late October.
Cinematic post-rock collective THE COLOR OF CYAN have released their third album As Human, out today via A Thousand Arms and Dunk! Records. The seven-track record drifts between fragility and force, circling themes of identity, memory, and social expectation.
Helsinki post-rock collective KAUAN have released “outline / pave,” the third and final single from their upcoming album Wayhome, due November 7 on Artoffact Records.
The track circles the idea of inertia — how motion sustains what’s already moving yet hinders the idle from beginning. Opening lines set the album’s tone: “On a map, outline your route – draw a line to a place you used to call home. Put out your campfire – you rested enough, dissolve all the concerns into an echo.”
Stockholm grotesque-jazz punks SLUTAVVERKNING have returned with Skräp, a four-track EP out now on Feral Cuts. Following 2023’s Skruva, spika, hamra and their debut LP Levande Charader, the new release sharpens their jagged noise-punk sound with clarinet chaos from Isak Hedtjärn and melodic undercurrents from Per Wiberg, recorded raw and live by guitarist Pelle Andersson.
CRYPTOPSY confirmed a 2026 European tour marking 30 years of None So Vile. The run, branded All So Vile, stretched from January 15 in Hannover through February 15 in Paris, with over 30 shows across Germany, Belgium, the UK, Scandinavia, Central Europe, and Spain. Support came from 200 STAB WOUNDS, INFERI, and CORPSE PILE.
The band said they would honor the anniversary by revisiting cuts from the 1996 album alongside material from An Insatiable Violence, released June 20, 2025 via Season of Mist. The record followed 2023’s As Gomorrah Burns, which earned CRYPTOPSY their first Juno Award in 2024.
The European dates were part of a broader year-long celebration, with Asia, Australia, and New Zealand tours also scheduled for late 2025.
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MUDVAYNE have returned with their first new track in two decades, dropping Hurt People Hurt People via Alchemy Recordings. The single arrives just ahead of the band’s L.D. 50 25th Anniversary Tour, running September 11–October 26.
Chad Gray frames the track as both personal reminder and broader commentary: “The endless cycle of projecting our pain onto others. I think I wrote this song as a reminder to myself to break the cycle. We create our own suffering, our own hurt. It’s time for us to create self-love and let go of the pain. It was never ours to begin with.”
Emerging from Peoria, IL in 2000 with L.D. 50, MUDVAYNE carved their place in the early-’00s nu and alt metal landscape with their mix of chaotic precision, bruising heaviness, and theatrical intensity.
EA Sports has revealed the NHL 26 soundtrack ahead of the game’s September 12 release, with a mix of alt, punk, and heavy hitters making the cut.
Harder edges come via TURNSTILE (“Dreaming”), SCOWL (“B.A.B.E.”), SILVERSTEIN (“Skin & Bones”), and SPIRITBOX (“Perfect Soul”), alongside entries from PUP, NEW FOUND GLORY, JAPANDROIDS, and THE HIVES.
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Previous roundups:
- 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
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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.
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