Another week in the books. This new roundup packs dozens of new releases and news stories accross hardcore, punk, metal and alternative spectrum. Pick your style and dive in!
⤵ Hardcore / Metalcore
TIME IS THE RULER just dropped their new album Opt Out (Interstellar Smoke Records), and it’s a ripper. Crossover meets melodic, super fast, tight production—this thing sticks from the first spin. Made up of heads from SCHIZMA, PAIN RUNS DEEP, THE LOWEST, SORA!, and JAVVA, the band’s got that 90s hardcore/metal crossover vibe but sharpened and refined, balancing aggression with a more emotional edge. Straight fire.
GUILT TRIP just unleashed their official video for “Burn” via Roadrunner Records, a searing track built on venomous riffs and Jay Valentine’s furious delivery. Shot by Daniel Priess with production from Alexander Pahl, the visuals carry the same weight as the song’s themes—snakes, fire, and betrayal turned into fuel for destruction.
The release drops in the middle of a heavy touring schedule: first as support for KUBLAI KHAN TX in the U.S. with DRAIN and GIDEON, then a European headlining run in November alongside BIG BOY, WHISPERS, and COLDBRINGER, marking 15 years of Stronger Bookings.
New York hardcore wrecking crew MISSING LINK are back with Miracle Smile, a five-track EP out September 19 on Triple B Records. Recorded at Bricktop Studios with Andy Nelson and mastered by Brad Boatright, it follows last year’s debut LP Watch Me Bleed. “Dog Days” features Never Ending Game’s Mikey Petroski, bringing extra weight to the set.
The band—Mike Ryan, Jack Xiques, Evan Perino, Nik Hansen, Chris Mcarthy, and Paul Dove—are hitting Europe in October alongside Nasty, Dagger Threat, and Dogbite on the Taste of Anarchy tour.
Boston hardcore punks BILLY are back with a new three-track promo, Hell Is When I’m With You, out September 18. Recorded and mixed by Alex Allinson at the Bridge, it follows up their January EP Permanent Void, the record that carved out their anxious, pissed-off sound and still anchors their live sets.
Check out our full piece on the EP here.
Southampton metalcore outfit REALM OF TORMENT just put out their new single “Don’t Close Your Eyes” through TCS x Rage. Clocking in at over four minutes, the track carries their usual intensity, built for sweaty singalongs and hard swings in packed rooms.
DESMADRE have dropped their new single “Fool Wit’ It” today, a collaboration with N8NOFACE and Coyote. Clocking in at just over three minutes, the track comes via Desmadre World and blends their dark, street-level energy, clashig hardcore with old school rap and gang energy from both guests.
Baltimore hardcore crew OUSTED just dropped their debut EP How Do You Cope? on Ashtray Monument Records. Made up of players from Pulling Teeth, Ruiner, Neolithic, and Dosser, the band rides a line between bruising riffs and melodic hooks while circling themes of grief, anger, and burnout.
The record features guest shots from Justin Smith of SWEAT/Dangers and a harsh noise sample by Alex Cha of Pig Destroyer. It was cut at New Noise Recording Studio by Justin Day and mastered by Brad Boatright. OUSTED are hitting local stages soon, with dates alongside Death Threat, Shai Hulud, and a January fest spot with Hatebreed and End It.
Santa Cruz hardcore crew DRAIN just shared their fourth preview from the upcoming album …Is Your Friend. The new track, “Scared Of Everything And Nothing,” drops heavy crossover riffs from Cody Chavez while Sammy Ciaramitaro spits lines about chasing big dreams and staring down fear: “Shut the fuck up and remember who you are/And the reasons why you’ve made it this far.”
Ciaramitaro calls it “a reminder to enjoy the present and to just focus on the now,” noting that any life worth living comes packed with hurdles. The record lands November 7 through Epitaph.
BERTHOLD CITY are dropping a new EP, No Brotherhood, on October 31 through WAR Records. Preorders go live September 26, and you can already hear the opener “Engine of Lies” streaming on No Echo.
Tracked and mixed by Nick Jett, with Brad Boatright on mastering, the four songs keep it raw and straight to the point. Andrew Kline handled guitar, bass, and the writing, with crew vocals from friends and a scratch cut on “Take It in Blood” courtesy of Ammbush of Oakland Faders.
West Coast crossover wrecking crew DEAD HEAT just dropped the video for “By My Will”—a cut straight off their upcoming full-length Process Of Elimination, out October 10th on Metal Blade.
The track is nasty, fast, and vengeful as hell—Chris Ramos spits about flipping the script on those who tried to bury you, making sure they choke on the fact that you came out on top. The whole record, cooked up with Paul Fig (DEFTONES, TRIVIUM, JERRY CANTRELL), leans heavier into the metal side without ditching the hardcore grit. Eleven tracks built for circle pits, basement rage, and anyone fed up with the system.
HARLEY FLANAGAN isn’t pulling punches—again. The CRO-MAGS frontman blasted METALLICA, PANTERA, AVENGED SEVENFOLD, GREENDAY, TURNSTILE, and more in a recent Instagram post, calling out big-name bands for giving him props behind the scenes but never offering his band an opening slot.
“I’m good enough to inspire you just not good enough to open up for you??” he wrote, adding that after grinding since the ’80s, a little more than quiet respect would be nice. Meanwhile, DOWN have finally entered the studio to track their first new album in 17 years, the follow-up to 2007’s Over the Under. With no release date yet, the NOLA sludge crew is still keeping things mysterious, but they’ll be hitting the road in March with DANZIG, CRO-MAGS, and ABBATH, plus a stop at Milwaukee Metal Fest in May.
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Berlin-based band ONLY has released A Quiet Day, the first single from their upcoming full-length Eyes Wide Open, due in December. Clocking in under three minutes, the track blends chaotic hardcore with screamo intensity, showcasing Giulio Daverio’s sharp vocal delivery against a tight backdrop from Massimo Capobianco (drums), Keir Rodan (guitar), and Cesar Gutierrez (bass).
Cologne’s straight edge crew LOOK AHEAD just dropped their demo through DBNO Records, and it’s as raw as it gets. Five tracks, all short, sharp, and pissed-off, clocking in at barely over five minutes total.
POWER OF FEAR just dropped a two-song blast, N.O.F.W.Y. / Reduced to Ash, on September 19. The Pennsylvania crew leans into NYHC grit and thrash-driven hardcore, all jagged riffs and stomping aggression.
“N.O.F.W.Y.” brings in a feature from SOULLESS, keeping the energy sharp and collaborative, while “Reduced to Ash” keeps it short, fast, and punishing.
Melodic hardcore punk supergroup MIRRORLESS will release their debut self-titled EP on October 17 via Equal Vision Records. The Louisville-based lineup brings together Chris Higdon (ELLIOTT, FALLING FORWARD), Ryan Patterson (COLISEUM, FOTOCRIME), Brian Roundtree (BY THE GRACE OF GOD), and Ben Sears (BLACK GOD, XERXES, WHIPS/CHAINS).
Recorded at Patterson’s House of Foto studio, the six tracks channel DC hardcore energy, early West Coast pop-punk, and the melodic punch of 90s post-hardcore. Higdon’s lyrics wrestle with personal and political turmoil, while Sears and Roundtree lock in as a crushing rhythm section beneath sharp, interwoven guitar runs.
UK misery merchants MASTIFF have dropped a new single, “Decimated Graves,” via Church Road Records. It’s the second cut from their upcoming EP For All the Dead Dreams, out October 24.
The band describe the track as a grind/death hybrid with “nauseating riffs and blasts” that collapse into a crushing doom wall. Lyrically, it’s a direct attack on those enabling the ongoing genocide in Gaza. “Despite having every intention of writing a mostly hardcore-leaning EP, ‘Decimated Graves’ spewed itself out of us and all bets were off,” the band explain, calling it a spiritual successor to their Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack contribution, “Acid Breather.”
New uploads from hate5six capture recent hardcore scene, with full sets from Hamartia and Ends of Sanity at Hellphyra 2025, NORA, Discontent, Folly, and Bulldoze from Hellfest Presents: NJHC 2025, plus Steamroll at Tied Down 2025 and a wild Big Boy set from the same fest, all carrying the trademark sweat, singalongs, and pit intensity the videographer has been archiving since 2008.
From New York’s Hudson Valley, CAPE FADE just dropped their new EP A Dream We All Share via New Morality Zine. Out now, the 4-track release clocks in at just over 6 minutes, keeping things sharp and raw with tracks like Had It Coming, Sunshine Guide, Neverland, and Vanish.
Formed in 2022, CAPE FADE carry early ‘90s NYHC/post-hardcore DNA, pulling influence from STILLSUIT, BURN, and SHIFT—mid-tempo grooves built to move crowds. With members of MINDFORCE (Nick, plus Jay on drums), their early demo took on themes of curing human arrogance.
Salt Lake City hardcore crew SPENT just dropped a new single, “No Surprise,” a 2-minute burner tracked with Ian Fidance. The band — Ryan Guest, Tyler Jaquith, Jon Partridge, and Zane Waters — pulls influence from everything between Mindset and Burt Bacharach, so expect the unexpected. A full record lands October 3.
THE HOLY GHOST TABERNACLE CHOIR have shared a surprise release titled Three Covers, out now with renditions of “David De La Hoz,” “Psycho Killer,” and “The New Year.” The single arrives just as the Savannah-based band prepare for their farewell run, which will close the chapter on a project active since 2020.
The group announced last week that they’ll disband in early 2026 after two final shows: October 26 at The Wooly Fest in Gainesville, FL, and January 17 at District Live in Savannah, GA. In their farewell note, the band emphasized community, mutual care, and continuing activism beyond music, while leaving open the possibility of reconvening if the time ever feels right.
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DROP RATE have a new release out via Setterwind Records — Twin Charm Vol. 1. The two-track EP (“Familiar Glare” and “Edge Out”) clocks in under five minutes.
Hardcore punks HUMAN ISSUE out of Southern California just released a new single, “Inside.” Clocking in at a sharp 1:24, it landed September 19 through Dutch Flohr Park Music.
Orlando deathcore unit HEAVY//HITTER will drop their new EP Coming to Terms on October 10 via Blue Grape Music. The band just shared the title track and video, featuring a searing guest spot from Zayna Youssef of Sweet Pill. The track lurches between seasick distortion and a crushing breakdown, with Hayes’ guttural roar colliding against Youssef’s shouted “I don’t care what you think or say…you are coming to terms!”
According to Hayes, the song reflects fighting through backstabbing, bad relationships, and old demons to come out stronger. The EP also features Yasmine Liverneaux of Face Yourself and follows 2024’s Moments of Misery. HEAVY//HITTER hit the road this fall for a full U.S. run starting October 7 in Cleveland and wrapping November 2 in Miami.
Ukrainian death metallic hardcore unit OBRIJ have unveiled their new single “Час випробовує нас,” taken from an upcoming split with Merzotna Potvora.
Formed in Uzhhorod in 2013, the band remains one of the country’s fiercest heavy voices. The track reflects on the fourth year of full-scale war, addressing the moment when a Ukrainian, soldier or civilian, must accept that there’s no return to the life that once was.
Heavy Nashville crew STILL HERE just dropped their new EP Scars Like Chains. Formed in 2023, the band keeps things sharp and punishing really hard across seven tracks, from the opener “Crushed Under Lies” (with Rules Of Engagement) to the closer “It Lives Within.”
Kentucky metallic hardcore act STRAFE have just dropped their new EP Faith Through Hate via Transcendental Revolution. Out now on all streaming platforms, the release also comes in a limited run of just 25 cassettes.
The EP captures a blend of primal hardcore aggression and metallic precision, placing STRAFE firmly in the lineage of Louisville’s heavy underground. Fans of KNOCKED LOOSE, CODE ORANGE, and HARM’S WAY will find plenty to connect with.
Warsaw-rooted hardcore act REAGNITION are stepping out with their self-titled LP on Refuse Records, but the story goes back decades. The riffs trace to sketches written in 1996 for what was meant to be AGNI HOTRA’s second album, now revived, rearranged, and finally tracked at Mustache Ministry Studio. The lineup pulls veterans from Cymeon X, Sunrise, Iron To Gold, Last Item, Czerń, and After Laughter, with vocals cut by Art Jagódka at Waiting Room Studio in May 2024.
COMBUST bring raw NYHC energy to their Audiotree Live session, recorded May 27, 2025, in Chicago. Across a tight set including Belly of the Beast, Everyone’s Enemy, Swallowing Swords, and Police State Dynamo, the band deliver pure hardcore intensity with vocalist Andrew Vacante front and center.
SECRET WORLD have a new EP out now via LAST RIDE RECORDS, SUNDAY DRIVE (US), and ICE GRILLS (JP). Tomorrow Is A Mystery To Me carries six tracks of gritty, heartfelt hardcore threaded with rock ’n’ roll swagger and alt-rock melodies.
Produced and mixed by Fletcher Matthews and mastered by Mike Kalajian, the record balances sharp hooks with sweat-soaked aggression. Lead single “Good Faith” features Shogun (ROYAL HEADACHE, ANTENNA), while “Repeat Offender” leans into grit, and “Everywhere Now” reflects on friendship and loss within the hardcore scene.
BIOHAZARD have dropped a brand new single, “Death of Me,” another hard punch ahead of their comeback album Divided We Fall, due October 17.
They’ll be taking it on the road with ONYX this fall, joined by BAYWAY and SWOLLEN TEETH for a U.S. run kicking off October 3 in Pittsburgh and winding through major cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Montreal, and Brooklyn before wrapping up November 2 in New Haven. Tickets are available now via biohazard.com.
Ex metalcore hard rockers ATREYU have returned with their first new music in nearly two years, dropping the single “Dead.” Recorded with Matthew Pauling, the track rides the band’s trademark mix of crushing riffs, soaring melodies, and emotional weight.
Frontman Brandon Saller explains, “‘Dead’ asked the question I feel many ask. Do I matter? Would anyone actually notice if I was gone? Not speaking in the space of depression or suicidal thought, but more in the grand scheme of life. We all want and aspire to leave some sort of lasting legacy or impression, but do we really matter? I guess we all hope so.”
The band will hit the road November 4 in Mesa, Arizona, with a tour celebrating the 21st anniversary of The Curse, before wrapping December 11 in Pomona, California.
Las Vegas hardcore unit SNIPER’S NEST just dropped their debut EP via Fortress Records. Four tracks, under eight minutes, all grit and no polish.
Recorded at the Dr. Pepper Palace and mastered at Local Man Studios, cuts like Dropping the Bomb and Right Between the Eyes rip fast and leave nothing standing. Straight-up punk aggression with a metallic edge, blasted out quick and dirty.
New York hardcore vets GO! are back in the spotlight with “Just Say Go!” on Refuse Records. Formed in 1989, the band crammed a lot into two years — four 7-inches, relentless shows, U.S. and European tours, and a spot in the ABC-No-Rio scene alongside SFA, Born Against, Rorschach, and Citizen’s Arrest. Their songs tackled gay and lesbian rights, racism, and feminism, laced with humor and sarcasm.
Heavy hardcore punk outfit GOING OFF have dropped their new single “No One Loves You”. The track comes ahead of their upcoming EP Kill List II, due October 31, and digs into themes of self-destruction and isolation. As the band put it: “No one loves you is about losing everything and everyone around you, because of your own choices.”
Since their first blasts of noise in 2020, GOING OFF have carved a spot in the U.K. hardcore scene with relentless DIY drive and bruising live shows. They’ve torn through tours with Employed To Serve and Pupil Slicer, and shared stages with Terror, Slapshot, Zulu, Scowl, Spaced, and Gel, building a reputation as a raw, unyielding presence.
Philly crushers VARIALS are back with their first new track since 2022. I’ll Find the Dark introduces new frontman Skyler Conder, who says the song is about “ending it all abruptly.”
The single is pure suffocation—screeching feedback, deathcore-level growls, and riffs built like explosions. Conder calls it an expression of “the emotional distress of feeling lost within yourself… being terrified of existence and living,” while guitarist Shane Lyons sums it up bluntly: “The idea was to build a wall of sound that suffocates the listener.” VARIALS hit Australia next with Spite.
Metalcore wrecking crew SOULKEEPER just dropped their new EP Join Us In Creating Excellence. Four tracks, short and messy on purpose, splicing hardcore, nu-metal, electronics, and detuned chaos into something that swerves between brutality and weird pop turns.
Dutch hard-edge pranksters POINT OF NO RETURN are getting their 1990 demo reissued as the “Gloves Are Off” 7″ on Refuse Records. Active from 1989–1991 in Kerkrade-West, the short-lived crew mashed radical left politics with straight edge provocation, somewhere between Project X parody and Colt Turkey worship. Their shows, interviews, and lyrics all leaned into the gag — until it spun a little out of control and they called it quits in ’91.
Warsaw pioneers AHIMSA are getting a double LP reissue, “Słońce świeci dla wszystkich (1991–1994),” via Refuse Records. Active from 1989 to 1997, the band stood alongside Apatia, Inkwizycja, and Schizma as one of the cornerstones of the early ’90s Polish hardcore scene. They were among the first fully vegetarian and straight edge acts in the country, pushing animal rights, ecology, humanism, and non-violence in a time when violence dominated gigs and streets.
DEAF CLUB released We Demand A Permanent State of Happiness (out now via Southern Lord and Three One G), pure chaos bottled up and smashed against your ears. Blast beats firing like gunshots, riffs bent out of shape, and Justin Pearson spitting venom that feels less like lyrics and more like street slogans spray-painted at 3AM.
It’s their second full-length and easily their sharpest — still weird, still ugly, but with enough hooks to keep the pit moving before the whole thing unravels into noise. Tracks like “Nihilism For Dummies” and “Frequency Illusion” don’t waste time, they tear straight through. Think DEAD KENNEDYS and BIG BLACK ghosts hovering in the background, but this is its own monster — nasty, sarcastic, and wired to self-destruct.
Boston crossover hardcore crew DEATH STRIDER have unleashed their new EP Total System Failure, out September 19 via DS Recordings. The three-track set runs just under ten minutes, packed with the fury and energy of their local scene.
GOUGE AWAY tore through a live session at KEXP on July 23, 2025, now streaming in full. The band hammered out a five-song set—“Deep Sage,” “Idealized,” “Maybe Blue,” “Consider,” and “The Sharpening”—with Christina Michelle’s raw vocals cutting over Mick Ford’s guitar, Tyler Forsythe’s bass, and Tommy Cantwell’s drums.
Metalcore act EMPLOYED TO SERVE have released the video for “Treachery,” a track from their April 2025 full-length Fallen Star. Directed by Murry Deaves, the clip dropped September 17 and adds new weight to one of the album’s standout cuts.
Brazilian action packed hardcore punks BUDANG just dropped their new EP Deixa Quieto .
THE GOOD DEPRESSION have dropped their latest single, Curse the Witch, now streaming everywhere. Out September 19, 2025, the track pushes further into the band’s blend of punk and metal-infused hardcore, marked by raw guitars, pounding rhythm, and gritty vocals.
Hardcore crushers TURN COLD just dropped their new single “Stab in the Dark,” out now through Upstate Records. The track clocks in just under three minutes and lands ahead of their next full-length.
Aggressive Cincinnati hardcore wreckers WOUNDED PAW are lining up their LP “Only Cowards Believe in Peace,” dropping through Refuse Records. The 22-track set compiles the band’s chaos from 2024–2025 — cuts off “Death, Noise & Chaos” and “Excruciating Pain,” plus three new unreleased blasts. Their sound tears powerviolence disorder into youth crew fury, sharpened by ex-members of Terror, Culture, On Bodies, and Today Is the Day.
Grind-heavy unit UNDERNEATH are back with In the Shadow of a Watchtower, dropping September 19. The record leans harder into grind than their past work, with tracks hitting under the two-minute mark and even a feature from See You Next Tuesday on “Building Buildings Where Buildings Are Built.”
Fans of It Exists Between Us will find this one sharper, more technical, and just as raw.
⤵ Screamo / Post Hardcore
Raw emoviolent skramz, melodic emo MySpace stuff, but also rockish 90s post hardcore.
Screamo-soaked chaos unit STARSDONTMEANANYTHING just dropped their debut full-length “Fire is Beautiful,” out September 19 through No Time Records. Born in Albuquerque from Adam Smith’s solo lockdown project, the band has since grown into a four-piece with Sasha Guleff, John Slinkert, and Hans Cruz.
The record carries the band’s ethos of powerlessness against modern decay and the relief of screaming back at it. We have the full stream here.
Dark screamo/post-hardcore outfit TRELKOVSKY surfaced from northern Italy’s fog with their debut “Le stesse cose ritornano,” released September 5. Born out of the ashes of La Voragine, the band started as a duo before pulling in bassist Fulvio, also of Konoha, and shaping their sound with producer Federico Ascari.
The record folds black and post-black metal influence into screamo, channeling what they call “screamo existentialism” through violent riffs, melodic arpeggios, and atmospheric blasts.
See more in our full piece here.
Emo post hardcore shapeshifter NOTHING,NOWHERE. just dropped will it emo (vol.1), a 10-track set of covers reimagined through his lens, ranging from “All Star” to “Unwritten.” The record landed September 19 via Nothing,Nowhere and Many Hats Distribution.
He’s not sitting still either—NOTHING,NOWHERE. is taking his “Return of the Reaper” tour across Europe this fall with SACE6 in tow, hitting cities from Glasgow and London to Paris, Prague, and Berlin.
California post-hardcore outfit NUZZLE just resurfaced with a remixed, remastered cut of “Newfoundland,” now streaming ahead of their Follow, For Now 30th anniversary reissue. The track, once a basement show closer, builds slow and heavy before breaking into soaring dual vocals from brothers Nate and Andrew Dalton.
Formed in Rosemead in 1991 and later rooted in Santa Cruz, NUZZLE carved their place alongside Evergreen, Unwound, Lync, Bikini Kill, Modest Mouse, and Clikatat Ikatowi. “Newfoundland” captures the sweaty, swaying release that made them staples of the West Coast underground.
Richmond’s TERROR CELL dropped a new release, Prayer to God / Live MIF ’24, pairing a sharp new track with a set of live recordings from Manchester International Festival 2024.
HARD TARGET just dropped their new three-track single Divinity, now streaming everywhere via Static Era Records. The release includes Intro, the crushing title track Divinity, and Echoes.
Fans heading to the Worcester Palladium for NEMH Fest on Saturday, September 20 can pick up a free CD directly from the band.
Boston post-hardcore veterans VANNA are back with a new EP, Time is Violence, out now through Inspirit Records. The four-track set runs just over 14 minutes, with songs like “Nails,” “This Melancholy,” “Quiet Place,” and “Creep Year.”
It’s the first proper batch of material since their reunion, following the earlier drop of “Quiet Place.”
WOLVES LIKE US are gone. The band called it quits with a note that hits like a punch to the chest—talking about unfinished songs, friendships that outlast tours, and a decade-plus of sweat and grit. No last record, just a hard drive full of what could’ve been. Maybe it’ll surface, maybe it won’t.
For us, they’ll always sit in that rare space where PLANES MISTAKEN FOR STARS and HOT WATER MUSIC bled into something uniquely their own—gritty, melodic, heavy-hearted. Watching them tear it up at Fluff Fest, or anywhere really, felt like being part of something that mattered. They weren’t just another band, they were one of those bands. Feels heavy to say goodbye.
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NEKS have officially released their debut full-length Point of No Return, a nine-track record running just over 22 minutes. The album was self-recorded between Sound Acres in Pilesgrove, NJ, and Archive Recordings in Salt Lake City, UT, before being mastered by Mike Kalajian at Rogue Planet Mastering.
The band brings together Gary Cioni (vocals), Matt Mascarenas (guitar), Wes Johnson (guitar), Robert Cheeseman (bass), and Derrick Flanagin (drums) — veterans from DAYTRADER, CRIME IN STEREO, CAPSULE, RILE, and SPIRITS. The record stays heavy and bleak while weaving in sharp melody, with opener MAGAt’s setting a defiant tone. The Land of Plenty tackles inequality and violence, while The Rubicon digs into personal collapse against a backdrop of societal decline. Other tracks like A Future Worth Fighting For and Eternal Servitude push further into political urgency and existential weight, giving Point of No Return the feel of both a protest document and a personal reckoning.
SECOND YOUTH return with Only Child, a five-track EP out now via Anchors Aweigh Records, recorded at Reef Studios and produced by Danusk. Formed between Italy and the UK, the band dives into themes of loneliness, trauma, and fractured identity with a rawer and more personal edge than their earlier releases. The record strips away filters, leaning into scars and uneasy memories rather than seeking redemption. Lead single Family Burden captures this vision in stark form, paired with a haunting video directed by Martina Pastori.
We’re running a full exclusive feature with streams of the EP this week on IDIOTEQ, where the band breaks down each track in detail—from the childhood-haunted opener The Orphan Lullaby to the stripped intensity of closer Heart Slowed Down. Upcoming European tour dates include stops in Germany and Italy, starting September 17 in Berlin.
Boston slowcore/post-hardcore survivors KARATE have rolled out If You Can Hold Your Breath, a five-LP retrospective released September 12 via The Numero Group. The box gathers their first five years, including the self-titled debut, In Place of Real Insight, The Bed Is in the Ocean, early singles, and a previously unissued 1993 demo, all remastered.
Frontman Geoff Farina annotates the set, which pulls together 41 tracks tracing the band’s shift from DC-inspired post-hardcore into jazz-inflected indie rock. Packaged in Numero’s trademark archival style, the release captures late-night bike rides, punk house floors, and the jagged edge of Karate’s earliest recordings.
NORTHEAST REGIONAL have released a digital two-song single, Echoes b/w Footsteps, available now on Bandcamp as a name-your-price download. Echoes comes from the sessions for their upcoming full-length In The Desert but didn’t fit the record’s overall flow, while Footsteps is a shelved home demo that never made it past the practice space.
Recorded across multiple sessions in 2024–25 with mastering by Brad Boatright (Audiosiege) and Will Killingsworth (Dead Air), the release serves as a stopgap ahead of In The Desert, planned for 2026 via Tor Johnson Records.
Metalcore infused post hardcore emo pranksters CHUGGABOOM are dropping a new track, “Music To Drown By”.
⤵ Post Rock / Post Metal
PORTISHEAD quietly reunited to take part in Brian Eno’s Together For Palestine benefit, recording a live version of “Roads” that played at London’s OVO Arena and streamed worldwide. It marked their first performance since a brief 2022 War Child set for Ukraine, this time with added keys and strings.
ANNIE LENNOX also contributed a pre-taped piano rendition of “Why?” and plans to release it as a benefit single for the Choose Love fund. On stage, GORILLAZ brought out OMAR SOULEYMAN and YASIIN BEY for “Damascus” from their upcoming album The Mountain, while PINKPANTHERESS used her slot to speak on the importance of refusing neutrality: “We have a responsibility to use our platforms. Neutrality or silence shouldn’t be an option.”
COASTLANDS have returned with “Drugblood,” the first cut from their self-titled LP out October 10 via Translation Loss Records. The Portland post-metal band digs into fractured faith, evangelical imagery, and the wreckage of spiritual detachment, twisting “save me from myself” into something raw and human rather than grandiose. Equal parts crushing and meditative, the track sets the tone for an album that doubles down on their heaviness while reshaping their sound.
MOGWAI have announced a full UK tour for February 2026, with dates spanning Scotland, England, and Wales.
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BASTIAN just dropped Impressions, a seven-track burner straight outta Vancouver. This one’s got all the weight of their story behind it — the band bounced back after a brutal two-year break, including a near-fatal motorcycle wreck, and you can hear that grit bleeding through every riff.
They’re pulling threads from all over — ARCHITECTS, NORMA JEAN, EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY, even that cinematic HANS ZIMMER vibe — and twisting it into something heavy, melodic, and raw. Tracks like “Currents” punch hard but still leave room for the kind of emotional release that sticks in your chest.
⤵ Punk Rock
Punk, Pop Punk, raw, fast, melodic, and more.
Spanish punk trio RATA NEGRA have dropped their new album Hawai, out now via Sonido Muchacho. The ten-track record runs just over twenty minutes and opens with “Pesadilla Adulta,” moving through cuts like “Antonio,” “Reza,” and the title track before closing on “Peligro.”
Philly emo punks ARMBITE just dropped their debut single “lucky penny” via We’re Trying Records. Born from a scrappy GarageBand demo back in 2022, the track spirals around burnout, bad luck, and a coin that won’t stop flipping you off.
It’s the first taste of their upcoming record dawg rock vol. 1, landing October 10, a collection stitched together from the band’s chaotic first year — flooded studios, basement takes, and all. Produced by Bridget Filiatrault and mixed by Jack Shirley, the album promises more of the same jagged irony.
Melodic hardcore pioneers DESCENDENTS have kicked off a full-scale reissue campaign with their 1982 debut Milo Goes to College, out now via Org Music. The record—long hailed as a blueprint for pop punk—gets a fresh restoration across LP, CD, and cassette, with multiple exclusive variants and a deluxe “Punk Note” edition designed by John Yates.
The campaign, which reclaims the band’s early catalog from New Alliance and SST, will roll on with I Don’t Want to Grow Up, Enjoy!, ALL, and more. As the band put it, this isn’t about nostalgia but preservation, keeping one of punk’s most influential catalogs alive for new generations.
Emo punk outfit NOGATO returned with Lo que he ganado, lo que he perdido (What I’ve Gained, What I’ve Lost), a record that circles endings, fractured bonds, and the uneasy calm of moving forward. Written between Madrid lineups and personal upheaval, the album folds in themes of long breakups, pressure to keep a band alive, and the small reliefs that come from friendship and stage connection. The opener 200X leans on a Final Fantasy X sample, tracing how the project held Roca and Micho together after their nine-year relationship collapsed, while songs like Al otro lado del andén and Esta lluvia sit with distance, detachment, and preventive grief.
We’re running a full feature on IDIOTEQ this week, including an exclusive track-by-track commentary where the band unpacks every layer of the record—from gaming odes like Reactor Mako to the tape-rewinding finale Las piezas que faltan, the only track written entirely by the current lineup. NOGATO frame the album as one about rebuilding even when the missing pieces remain absent—an album shaped by instability, but carried now by a lineup that feels steady.
THE BOUNCING SOULS are back with a new single, “Power,” dropping this Friday on all streaming platforms.
THE JUKEBOX ROMANTICS are back with a brand new single, “March 24, 1984,” out now via Sell The Heart Records and Engineer Records. It’s the first taste of their upcoming album This One Looks Cool, dropping October 17th.
The band’s been grinding since 2009, touring non-stop with sweaty, high-energy sets that hit somewhere between ALKALINE TRIO, SAMIAM, and THE BOUNCING SOULS. Their last full-length Sleepwalk Me Home landed in 2018, followed by 2021’s Fires Forming.
Canadian pop-rock outfit BEARINGS have dropped their new single “Float Away”, featuring Derek DiScanio of STATE CHAMPS. The track appears on their upcoming fourth album Comfort Company, out November 7, 2025 via Pure Noise Records. Built around a drum part by Mike McKerracher, the song carries what vocalist Doug Cousins calls “some obvious metaphor… about being lost on things going on in your own life at times. We all need someone to bring us back down to earth sometimes.”
Recorded back at Room 21 in Toronto with producer Kyle Marchant, Comfort Company finds BEARINGS reconnecting with their roots while pushing into sharper, more personal territory. Cousins describes it as “the record that feels like coming back home,” capturing the mix of honesty, tension, and urgency that has marked their sound since their 2017 debut.
Belgian garagecore punks MITRAILLE have dropped their new release EP IV, out September 19 on Belly Button Records. The five-track set includes the lead single “Fuck You I’m Going On Tour,” a short, blasting ode to ditching the grind for van life and basement shows.
The band is gearing up for an 18-day European tour running late October into November, hitting stops across France, Spain, Portugal, and Switzerland.
Indiana based MOONSIDE just premiered the video for “Drawn Out Goodbyes,” shot at Indiana Dunes State Park. The track spins between nintendocore, easycore, metalcore, and pop-punk edges, with lyrics stuck on love, self-worth, and the sting of parting words.
Pop hardcore rockers BLOOD COMMAND return with “Mariah’s Song”, a sharp mix of punk chaos, hardcore pace, and an emo-inflected chorus. Fronted by Nikki Brumen, the track channels forbidden love into a high-energy anthem that mirrors the band’s festival-stage intensity. With 60K+ monthly Spotify listeners and shows booked across Europe — including a slot at Wacken Open Air 2026 — the Norwegian “death-pop” outfit continue building momentum.
DIY pop punk emo outfit FINALBOSSFIGHT! dropped their new single “Tight as a Boiled Owl” on September 17, produced by Billy Mannino with artwork from Zack Zagula. The Flint band first showed up with The Light in Your Room EP in 2020, followed by the 2021 single House Rules.
They’ll play the track live soon, with shows lined up in Ferndale on September 27 and Grand Rapids on October 17.
Nashville punk rockers BE YOUR OWN PET are back with a new single, What A Btch*, out September 16 via Third Man Records. Written after frontwoman Jemina Pearl’s daughter was called the word at school, the track flips the insult into an anthem of defiance.
“This song is my rally cry for all the so-called ‘bitches,’” Pearl says. The video, directed by Snooper’s Blair Tramel, leans into a DIY artpunk chaos with multiple Jeminas tearing through scenes.
The band will tour North America this fall, joining ANAMANAGUCHI on select dates.
Melodic punk rockers STRUCTURE SOUNDS just dropped their new EP Stolen Sounds. The Providence crew blend high-energy punk with sugary hooks and a sonic palette shaped by blues, hardcore, and Americana.
The band—formed by members of The Scandals, Howl, The Down and Outs, and Stereoflower—has been carving out their own corner since 2023.
Midwest troublemakers HEART ATTACK MAN have resurfaced with “-99%,” a two-and-a-half-minute spiral that reads like a panic attack in real time. The track drags through questions of reality and self-worth—“I’m 99% convinced this isn’t real / Is this even real?”—before snapping back with lines about friendship, memory, and the urge to disappear into your own skin.
BIG PROBLEM have shared a live version of their track “Rowing”, recorded at their hometown Manchester show at Rebellion on September 5th, supporting SCOWL and MODERN COLOUR.
Originally the first song the band ever wrote and the opener of their debut EP Morbid Peace (2024), Rowing is described as a tug-of-war between frustration and fleeting pleasure, delivered through lyrics that lean into dream logic.
The new live cut serves as a bridge between BIG PROBLEM’s first two EPs while they prepare for fresh studio sessions later this year. In the meantime, they’re still pushing their last EP Grudge with more videos on the way and an active run of shows, including an upcoming Manchester date with HIGHER POWER, a Leeds appearance with SCAB (via Brainrotter Records), and a soon-to-be-announced hometown headline.
Oslo’s SLUG BOYS have released their new EP War Boys, out September 19 via Oslo Syndrome Records. The four-track set includes “The War,” a song dedicated to a man who survived near-misses in World War II, tended his garden for loved ones, and lived humbly in England.
The band describe the track as both personal tribute and unintentional shift into heavier themes: “I miss him terribly, hope he would be proud (if not slightly confused that I’m hanging from the ceiling, in my undies in Norway).” War Boys also features “Dear Life” with Ida Dorthea Wiken-Brandt and “Glasnost.”
Irish folk punk crew THE O’REILLYS AND THE PADDYHATS have teamed up with Malte from Versengold on their new single “Paint the Town Green,” released September 19, 2025. The collaboration pulls both camps together in a playful mash-up they’ve dubbed “Versenhats or Paddygold,” bringing Malte’s voice into the mix.
The single also features “Slingshot Girl” with Jenny Woo, keeping the band’s rowdy, party-ready energy intact. Active since 2011, THE O’REILLYS AND THE PADDYHATS continue to stretch their Irish folk punk sound into new corners, setting up momentum for their 2025 tour.
Indie rock punk rocker PETEY USA has rolled out a fresh single, “Anything In-Between,” just as his We’ve Got the Yips tour hits the road with Alex Cameron. The track lands in the middle of a run that’s already pulling low-ticket alerts in cities across the U.S.
Indie-punk crew BANQUETS have dropped a new video for Who Will Inherit Us?, the first song written for their upcoming record Petty Relics. Shot and directed by Eric Luszcz, the clip ties straight into the album’s theme of relics—objects heavy with meaning to some, trash to others.
Guitarist/vocalist Travis put it blunt: “‘Who Will Inherit Us?’ was the first song written in the collection of songs that makes up Petty Relics. What becomes of our remnants and the relics that mean so much to us, but are mere trash to those that unknowingly inherit it?” Petty Relics lands October 17 on Black Numbers, with a second reunion show set for December 13 at Part-Time PR Fest in Philadelphia.
⤵ Post Punk / Shoegaze
TV CULT have unleashed their new single “Overpressure”, released September 16, 2025, alongside a stark video and artwork featuring Palestine’s national flower, the Iris haynei. The Cologne post-punks wrote the track in response to blast overpressure injuries suffered by children in Gaza, turning their outrage into a furious condemnation of wartime atrocities. The band stated: “It expresses our pure anger and disgust at the treatment of all children in war zones.”
Brooklyn’s dark-edged collective CLONE have released a new single, “Care to Try?”—a sharp cut of their egalitarian, jam-born songwriting approach. The track, recorded and mixed by Martin Bisi, leads into their upcoming three-song EP and 7” vinyl arriving October 3rd via Little Cloud Records.
The EP will also feature “Libras at Dusk” as the B-side, with visuals shot by longtime Pixies collaborator Simon Larbalestier. CLONE continue to build their reputation off word-of-mouth live shows and a chemistry that feels raw, instinctive, and carved straight from their New York roots.
Swedish shoegaze post hardcore dreamers YOUNG MOUNTAIN dropped a new single, “Heavenly Skin,” on September 19 via Anti Earth. The track carries a heavy political shadow — first written after the 2022 election, when the band saw “extremists taking more and more control.” Originally titled “Valdag” (“election day”), the song has now taken on a sharper name and release.
The band called it their “sexiest song to date” on socials, though the weight behind it runs darker. “The demo was called Valdag, which is a really bad name for a song. Now it’s called Heavenly Skin instead. And you can listen to it today,” they wrote.
VITILIGOES have dropped their debut EP “Rapakivi” through VOX PROJECT, backed by a coalition of French DIY labels. Limited vinyl is already available, with just 250 black 12″ copies pressed.
The trio — Antoine, Thomas, and Clément — are childhood friends from Brittany now based in Paris, refining their sound since 2011 before arriving at this final form in 2023. Their bond shows in the maturity of this first release: five tracks that merge pop sensibility with post-rock structures, psych textures, and hints of math-driven rhythm.
Vienna’s TRAUMA GLOW return with their new single “million in one,” , produced with dreamgaze artist Sakura Katsuura Chow. Since forming in 2023, the band’s been pushing through shoegaze and alt-rock textures, and this track tilts between acoustic intimacy and pop-driven haze.
Mixing fragile everyday lines with shimmering guitars, “million in one” drifts between nostalgia and unease — a small-room reflection stretched into something that feels like a post-digital anthem. It’s a late-summer snapshot, equal parts fragile and restless, hinting at where Viennese alternative music might be headed.
Detroit-via-Boston post-punk outfit FIGURES ON A BEACH have resurfaced with “Play,” their first new track in 34 years. Out now through Boston imprint The Sound Cove, the pulsing synth-pop cut was originally recorded in 1991 at Q Division with the late engineer Mike Denneen, but shelved after the band split and their Sire deal dissolved.
Lost to time until a recent revival effort, “Play” arrives as both a snapshot of their final chaotic years and a reminder of how seamlessly the band fused guitars with electronics.
New Jersey/Toronto trio THE SHAPE have dropped their new single “Body & Mind,” out September 19 via À La Carte Records. It’s the fifth track from their upcoming self-titled debut album, set for release October 17, 2025.
The band—Kevin Iavaroni, Ben Waugh, and Autumn Easterbrook—pull sharp pop edges into a synth-heavy framework while keeping the grit of their hardcore roots intact. “Body & Mind” carries that peculiar tension the album thrives on, balancing clarity and unease in equal measure.
⤵ Metal
Alt Metal, Death Metal, Heavy Metal, Black, Thrash, Sludge, Nu Metal, and more.
Death metal legends DYING FETUS just dropped a new single, Into The Cesspool. Clocking in at just under four minutes, it’s pure Fetus—tight, grinding, and brutal to the bone.
The track lands right ahead of their Into The Cesspool North American headline run, kicking off September 24 in Norfolk with GATES TO HELL and MUGSHOT along for the ride. Dates stretch through October, with stops from Charlotte and Fort Worth to Seattle, Calgary, and back down again.
Swedish death metal icon TOMAS LINDBERG has died at 52 after a long fight with adenoid cystic carcinoma. His band AT THE GATES confirmed the news, remembering him as “a true friend, both compassionate and sympathetic.” Diagnosed in late 2023, Lindberg underwent surgery and radiation but the cancer returned earlier this year, leaving him in long-term care.
Even through treatment, he made sure to finish vocals for the band’s upcoming album, cutting them in one day just before surgery. He described the record as a return to roots, “a mix between Slaughter of the Soul and At War With Reality.” In one of his last messages, Lindberg urged: “Take care of yourself, your loved ones and the time you have on this earth.”
BLINDFOLDED AND LED TO THE WOODS just dropped a new one called “Cafuné”, and man, it hits different. They’re still coming with that proggy, twisted death metal, but this track feels like a love song flipped inside out. It’s tender for a second, then it’s all obsession, violence, and collapse — like the soundtrack to passion going straight off the rails.
It’s the first crack of dynamite from their upcoming record The Hardest Thing About Being God Is That No One Believes Me, out October 10th on PROSTHETIC RECORDS. The whole thing’s shaping up to be a wild ride — they’re pulling intimacy into the blast-beat grinder and making it feel dangerous, heavy, and alive.
Texas death metal outfit CALCRAFT will release their debut album Reborn Through Torture on November 21 via Lifeforce Records (physical release follows January 30). Rooted in the brutality of IMMOLATION, SUFFOCATION, and INCANTATION, the band sharpen their sound with thrash aggression and a horror-fueled atmosphere inspired by giallo and slasher cinema.
The first single, “Satisfying Strangulation,” is out now, setting the tone for a record described as a blood-soaked execution—each track steeped in madness, torture, and cinematic violence.
ÆL-FIERLEN just dropped their debut LP All Is Far Away — a dense, blackened shoegaze trip blending black metal, folk, and dreamlike textures into something heavy and sprawling. Out now via self-release, the record closes with the epic “Ællmiht,” which arrives with a sun-soaked video.
Written by guitarist Rob Melville and fronted by Stephanie Moffatt’s spectral vocals, the album draws on Anglo-Saxon imagery, eerie folklore, and the contrasting landscapes that shaped the band across the English and American south. Release show hits London’s Hope & Anchor on Sept 21 with SIGILS and DISLYCAN. Looking forward to it.
Canadian progressive blackened death crew ANCIENT THRONES have dropped their second album Melancholia, out now on vinyl and digital. Clocking in at 42 minutes, the record follows a concept where a colorblind protagonist takes hallucinogens in a desperate bid to see color, only to spiral into a kaleidoscopic nightmare.
The band call it “the sound of existential exhaustion” — jagged, abstract, and emotionally devastating. Tracks like A Moon Fused Key and Vacant drive the narrative through blasts of speed, cinematic atmosphere, and suffocating heaviness, pulling from black, death, and tech death while pushing into surreal territory.
British heavy outfit CONJURER have dropped a new single and video, “Let Us Live,” taken from their third album Unself, due October 24 via Nuclear Blast Records. The track follows August’s “Hang Them In Your Head” and cuts straight into themes of oppression and survival.
Co-vocalist/guitarist Dani Nightingale explains the song as “a plea, to let us live,” adding that it reflects how trans and gender non-conforming people are demonized despite having existed across all cultures for thousands of years. The song is framed as a dialogue between the oppressed and oppressor, questioning the hostility when “all we want to do is survive.” CONJURER will tour the UK in November.
Independent heavyweights HALOCENE have dropped a new single, “Violent Nature.” The track, running just over two minutes, landed September 19.
The band has been fully DIY since forming in 2008, steering their sound through a fan-led approach and building a massive online following that now spills into sold-out rooms worldwide.
Apocalyptic metal heavyweights BEASTWARS are back with their sixth album The Ship // The Sea, set for release on November 7 via Destroy Records. The first glimpse comes with the video for “Levitate,” a track that locks into their trademark hypnotic heaviness while leaning on water imagery — the ship as body, the sea as life.
Frontman Matt Hyde frames the record as a reflection of war and upheaval, calling it “like Picasso’s Guernica — a reflection of war and horror, of endings and upheavals.” Recorded by the ocean at Studio 11b and finished in Wellington with longtime collaborator James Goldsmith, the album strips things back to the raw weight of their early years. Artwork comes from Nick Keller, and November brings a full Australia/New Zealand tour in support.
Polish post-black metal band GORYCZ have unveiled “Wybacza”, the second and final single from their upcoming third album Zasypia. Out October 3, 2025, via Piranha Music, the record marks the closing chapter of a trilogy that began with their earlier Pagan Records releases.
Zasypia will be available on CD, LP, and digital formats, with GORYCZ set to promote the release on a seven-date Polish tour this autumn.
Southern Poland’s AWAKENESS drop their latest track today — a chaotic blend of deathcore, metalcore, black metal, and thall. The single follows their debut album Low Spirits and appears alongside their split The Suffering Continues with HERESY DENIED and STIGMA MORTIS.
LAS TRUMIEN and O.D.R.A are joining forces for a split release titled Breslau Spleen, due out September 26th, 2025 via Arcadian Industry. Each band has contributed five tracks, with artwork handled by CLLK Artwork. The release pairs the cellar-dwelling sludge and doom of LAS TRUMIEN with O.D.R.A’s grim sludge metal, continuing both groups’ tradition of channeling violence, decay, and human cruelty into suffocating heaviness.
To support the split, the two bands will embark on a Polish tour starting October 3rd in Kraków, with stops in Rzeszów, Wrocław, Katowice, Łódź, and Warsaw. Opening the shows will be Odyum, a newer project formed by members of LAS TRUMIEN. For LAS TRUMIEN, Breslau Spleen follows their 2024 full-length Budowniczowie grozy, while O.D.R.A returns to recorded output after the Duhgor EP in 2021.
Canadian heavy icons KITTIE have dropped a new video for “Do You Think I’m A Whore? XXV,” pulled from their upcoming Spit XXV EP, out September 19. The release re-records four tracks from their 1999 debut Spit, with producer Garth Richardson returning from the original sessions.
Morgan Lander calls the project “an emotional and empowering journey,” saying the reworks honor their roots while showcasing who the band is today. Alongside “Do You Think I’m A Whore?,” the EP features new takes on “Brackish,” “Charlotte,” and the title track “Spit,” marking 25 years since the album that first made KITTIE a force.
JORDSJUK just dropped their debut full-length “Naglet til livet” (Indie Recordings, Sept 19), and it’s as raw and unforgiving as the title suggests.
Following last year’s EP Råtner på rot, the Norwegian crew — Renton (drums), Mannevond (vocals), Sagstad (guitars), and Larsen (bass) — hammer through twelve cuts in 36 minutes, blending death, black, thrash, punk, and straight-up filth.
Portugal’s filthy noise cocktail goes by the name SPIN THE SKULL, and their self-titled debut just landed via Morbid And Miserable Records.
Seven tracks rip through garage rock, psychedelia, doom, and punk—“the rampaging rhythm of an angry goat on LSD,” guitars screaming like they’re possessed, flipping from deranged ecstasy to raw dread. As the band puts it: “Congratulations, you’ve just made SPIN THE SKULL.”
Portland’s death-grinding force TITHE drop their new record Communion In Anguish. The trio—Matt Eiseman, Alex Huddleston, and Kevin Swartz—expand on 2023’s Inverse Rapture, stacking Huddleston’s guttural lows on top of Eiseman’s tortured screams and Swartz’s pounding rhythms. The result is darker, heavier, and more unrelenting, pushing their hypnotic death metal into harsher territory.
Dark metallers NOVEMBERS DOOM just dropped their twelfth record Major Arcana. Six years after Nephilim Grove, the Chicago crew turn to tarot and divination for a concept that bleeds through the lyrics, the artwork, the whole atmosphere.
Formed in 1989, they’ve carried death-doom roots into a style they call “dark metal,” bending it with prog, folk, and classic rock shadows. Major Arcana plays that hand—ethereal openings, crushing weight, and the same bleak pulse they’ve ridden for three decades.
BARREN PATH (ex-GRIDLINK) just dropped their new single and video “Horizonless,” the second preview from their upcoming debut album *Grieving*, out October 31 via Willowtip Records. The track features Takafumi Matsubara, Bryan Fajardo, and Mitchell Luna, with Luna also directing the video.
Progressive death metal unit BLINDFOLDED AND LED TO THE WOODS just unveiled Cafuné, the latest single from their upcoming album The Hardest Thing About Being God Is That No One Believes Me, out October 10 via Prosthetic Records. Vocalist Stace Fifield calls it “a poetic ode to new love, expressed through confrontational progressive death metal… the lit fuse before the bomb.”
The concept record unravels a story of obsession turning to delusion and violence, ending in a twisted fatal union. Self-produced with mixing and mastering by Forrester Savell, the release follows 2023’s Rejecting Obliteration and arrives alongside a US tour with Volcandra kicking off October 10 in Los Angeles.
Heavy metal’s prince of darkness takes a final bow on screen. OZZY OSBOURNE will be the subject of Ozzy: No Escape From Now, a Paramount+ documentary filmed in the last months of his life, set to premiere October 7. The trailer shows Osbourne, his family, and close friends reflecting on his later years, the 2019 accident that forced him off his farewell tour, and a one-off BLACK SABBATH reunion in Birmingham.
Directed by Tania Alexander with full involvement from the Osbourne family, the film pulls in voices from Tony Iommi, Duff McKagan, Slash, James Hetfield, Tom Morello, and Billy Corgan. Another project, Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home, will air on BBC on October 2 after being delayed at the family’s request.
Danish progressive black metal outfit ORM just shared a lyric video for their new single “Undfangen,” lifted from the upcoming album Guld, due out October 31 via Indisciplinarian.
They’ll mark the release with a Copenhagen takeover — starting October 30 at the sold-out Ideal Bar, hitting Lille Vega on release day with Heksproces and Lysbærer, and closing the run with a 10th anniversary finale at Store Vega on November 1.
New Jersey experimental metal force TOMBS have dropped a new single, “Last Days,” ahead of their sixth album Feral Darkness, out October 17 via Redefining Darkness Records. Sitting fifth on the tracklist, the song blends black metal aggression with gothic and death rock textures, leaning into apocalyptic themes and self-reflection.
The record was tracked in 2024, mixed by Justin Spaeth, mastered by Andreas Rosczyk, and features artwork by Seldon Hunt. “Last Days” follows earlier preview “The Sun Sets,” giving another glimpse into TOMBS’ bleak, atmospheric vision.
Avant death/grind crew DEFIGUREMENT just dropped their latest track, Open Veins/Visceral Tapestry, ahead of the debut LP Endbryo landing October 17 on Nefarious Industries. The band pulls together lifers from MALIGNANCY, FEAR FACTORY, LACK OF INTEREST, and ROTTENNESS, hammering out a mess of grind, death, prog, and straight-up weird.
Polish technical thrash trio SPECIES are streaming their second LP Changelings in full ahead of its September 19 release on 20 Buck Spin — the label’s first from a Polish act. The record pushes their unorthodox songwriting further, mixing angular thrash aggression with death-tinged twists, dystopian paranoia, and a raw “live in the studio” feel.
Produced by the band with Filip Pągowski, Changelings closes on the 10-minute sprawl “Biological Masterpiece” and features artwork by Aleksandra Pawłowska. SPECIES recently supported Dark Angel in Wroclaw and Warsaw, and will play a hometown release show at New Vegas Club Ursynów on October 11 with Gallower and Pandemic.
Los Angeles black metal screamo experimentalists AGRICULTURE have released their new single “Dan’s Love Song,” lifted from the upcoming album The Spiritual Sound, out October 3 via The Flenser. Positioned at the heart of the record, the track continues the group’s dive into themes of suffering, joy, identity, and community.
Songwriters Dan Meyer and Leah Levinson drive the album’s contrasts — his pieces pushing into spiritual and existential intensity, hers grounding in queer history and collective survival. The Spiritual Sound threads those voices into a whole, following earlier singles “The Weight” and “Bodhidharma.” The band kick off touring tomorrow in Haarlem before a run of European and U.S. dates through the end of the year.
Polish death metal legends VADER have wrapped up their summer 2025 run, closing with three final shows in late August. Those marked their last European appearances this year, with the band now heading into the Carnival of Death Tour across the USA and Canada in October. Peter Wiwczarek hinted at a possible extra Polish weekend run in December, while 2026 will bring special shows for the 20th anniversary of Impressions In Blood, a reissue of Kingdom, and “something special” yet to be revealed. A new full-length is in the works, but fans should expect it in early 2027.
The band also recently issued Litany (25th Anniversary Reissue) on Metal Blade and dropped the three-track EP Humanihility via Nuclear Blast, their first recording as a quintet with returning guitarist Mauser and new drummer Michael. The EP includes the Mystic Festival anthem “Unbending.”
SUNBURSTER drop their second single “Exile To Elba,” another cut from their upcoming debut full-length No Semblance of Peaceful Existence. The track hits like a slab of NOLA-stained sludge—riff after riff buried under grit, strangled vocals pushing the weight down even further.
The record promises ten pieces of dark, filthy descent with no room for light, just groove and punishment. As the band puts it, this is “a deep dive into the lowest trenches of all things dark, filthy, and depressing as ever,” leaving no sense of hope in sight.
DYING REMAINS just dropped their debut full-length Merciless Suffering via MAGGOT STOMP. Recorded at Colossus Audio Productions and mixed/mastered by Scott Oliphant, the Canadian trio deliver ten tracks of old-school brutal death metal with grooves, whammy dives, and short, punishing bursts of violence.
THE TONY DANZA TAPDANCE EXTRAVAGANZA made their live return on September 13 at WorkPlay Canteen in Birmingham, AL — their first show since May 2011. Fan-shot video confirms guitarist Josh Travis was absent from the lineup.
The band tore through a set stacked with classics, including I Don’t Mean To Oppose, But I Am The Ocean, 5 Deep on Charlie, Yippie-Kay-Yay Mother!, and closer Go Greyhound.
⤵ Rock
Alternative, Indie Rock, Hard Rock, Emo, Noise Rock, Experimental and more
Mid-Norwegian emo crew PROBLEMAN just dropped “Stille søndag,” the third and final single before their upcoming full-length Eg vannæ plantæ sjøl om di e død, out October 17 via Banditt Media. The track leads a three-song set that also includes “4. juli” and “Drøm uten drømmae,” released September 19.
Frontman Mathias Østrem keeps it raw in his local dialect, pushing through themes of daily struggles, longing, and identity. Since their 2022 debut EP, the band’s been grinding through Trondheim, Oslo, Malmö, and Copenhagen, carving out a loyal following while landing slots at festivals like Trondheim Calling and Klubbøya.
KARNIVOOL have finally confirmed details of their long-awaited fourth album In Verses, set for release on February 6th, 2026 via Forrester Savell. Alongside the announcement, the band shared a new single, Aozora, a track already familiar to fans from live sets.
Vocalist Ian Kenny explains the song’s concept: “The whole theme for that song is escaping, or waiting to escape… trying to find freedom amongst the complications of just being human.” With ten tracks forged over more than a decade of experimentation and life experience, In Verses promises a return that balances frustration, catharsis, and rediscovery of identity.
Arena-sized alt-rockers BIFFY CLYRO release their 10th album, Futique, out 19 September via Warner. The record leans reflective and uplifting, with cuts like “A Little Love,” “Hunting Season,” “Goodbye,” and “Two People In Love.” Simon Neil frames it as embracing the present after therapy and a rough patch with the band: “the album is about embracing whatever’s happening now.” As the opener puts it, “this ain’t utopia, but it’s better than hell.”
MULE JENNY have dropped their new album Take Enough Leeway via Vicious Circle Records, an eight-track release that stretches across jagged noise rock, grunge tension, and sprawling indie atmospheres. Songs like “Liberty’s for Sale” and “Second Thoughts” push past the six-minute mark, balancing sharp dissonance with drawn-out grooves, while shorter cuts like “Outsiders” and “You’re Trying to Tell Me Something” hit with raw immediacy.
To support the record, the band is hitting the road across France this fall, with stops in Paris, Rennes, Grenoble, and more, plus a handful of open dates in the south and west they’re looking to fill.
ALL TIME LOW have released a new track, “Butterflies,” which serves as the closer for their upcoming record. Fans on are calling it one of the strongest songs of the cycle so far, with many comparing it to the heavier, darker edges of Don’t Panic.
LIFE BETWEEN SLEEP have dropped their new single “Drifter”, out September 19, 2025. The Long Island alt-rock band lean into a dynamic, hard-hitting sound that balances powerful hard rockin’ with great production. At over five minutes, the track carries weight while keeping a melodic core, showcasing the band’s ability to move between atmosphere and drive without losing intensity. Great listen.
Emo/alt rock crew ARMBITE are rolling out their debut full-length dawg rock vol. 1, set for October 10 via We’re Trying Records. The record was tracked by Bridget Filiatrault of Lil Slugger and run through Jack Shirley’s Atomic Garden for mixing and mastering.
Emo/math rock outfit FOR EXAMPLE JOHN just dropped a new single, When the Birds Stop Singing, out September 15 via Studio Widnokrag. The track comes with an instrumental version featuring Jan Ostalski.
The Łódź band, started by guitarist Piotr Pietrzak as an international online project, grew into a full lineup after early collaborations with musicians from Australia, Japan, the UK, and the US. Their 2024 debut Hello Stranger set the tone, and now they’re moving into rougher, more energetic territory blending math rock, emo, and pop. This fall they’ll take the Stranger or Friend? tour through Opole, Wrocław, Berlin, Drezno, Herford, Warszawa, Kraków, and Łódź.
WICCA PHASE SPRINGS ETERNAL has released his new album Mossy Oak Shadow via Run For Cover Records. The record spans eleven tracks, including the singles “Horseback,” “Enchantment,” and the duet “Meet Me Anywhere” with ETHEL CAIN.
The LP leans into acoustic and slide guitar textures, pulling loosely from country archetypes without fully claiming the genre: “As long as I have the Wicca Phase Springs Eternal name, I can do whatever I want… the genre doesn’t totally matter.”
Norwegian outfit CLOSING EYES return today with their third album Searching for Shangri-La, recorded live at Studio Paradiso with Markus Forsgren. Stripped of heavy overdubs, the record leans on raw interplay and a newly defined band dynamic, steering their alternative rock into a more open, organic direction. A release party is set for October 10 at Revolver in Oslo.
Also out today is “Tenk om de venter på oss,” the second single from KRISTI BRUD’s upcoming album Et fall, due October 31. The track pushes their post-punk edge further while keeping the band’s melodic pull intact, following up the success of their Spellemann-winning debut.
THE CRANBERRIES’ “Empty (Live MTV Unplugged)” dropped on September 19, 2025, giving new life to a performance that had sat in the vaults for decades. Recorded in 1995 during their Unplugged set, the song now arrives ahead of the full MTV Unplugged release, set for November 7 in multiple formats, including limited “Alabaster White” vinyl.
French indie rock band PRETTY INSIDE have released their new single and video “The Person That I Hate,” the first taste of upcoming album Ever Gonna Heal, due December 12 via a coalition of French indie labels.
Frontman Alexis Deux-Seize pushes snarling vocals against hypnotic rhythms and gritty guitars, with the track balancing humor and darkness as it jabs at screen-age narcissism and self-loathing. The video was co-directed by Deux-Seize and Eddie FZone.
FINGER ELEVEN just dropped the title track from their upcoming album Last Night On Earth, out November 7 via Better Noise Music. The ballad—originally without a chorus—came together during a last-hour acoustic jam in the studio, with Steve Molella pushing for a stripped-down take. Scott Anderson’s lyrics circle around the uneasy weight of unresolved conflict, giving the track its emotional center.
FRANK TURNER announces The Next Ten Years triple vinyl set, out November 7th, 2025. The follow-up to his coveted The First Ten Years box (2015), this new 3LP release collects rare cuts, B-sides, covers, live sessions, collabs, and acoustic versions spanning 2015–2024. Each numbered set (limited to 4000) comes on clear vinyl with die-cut artwork, photo collages, and an etched side.
Turner previewed the set with a cover of Janis Ian’s “Better Times Will Come”, originally recorded at Ian’s invitation. Alongside this release, Turner continues a packed touring year, including a fall European arena run with DROPKICK MURPHYS and a December UK tour with his old band MILLION DEAD.
French math-rock oddballs TOTORRO have dropped “New Music,” a first taste from their upcoming album due October 3. The track arrives with a video by Aurélien Le Beau and sets the stage for a run of shows across France, Belgium, and Switzerland this fall.
The band will celebrate the release with a Paris release party on October 14 before hitting stages alongside Zombie Zombie and Mouse On The Keys on select dates.
Queer indie (punk) rockers BRUTALLIGATORS just dropped their new single Hold Fast. The track was produced with Rich Mandell, a long-time wish list collaborator for the band, who they called “an absolute dream.”
Alongside the single comes the announcement of their new album Still Here, set for release November 21 via Fika Recordings. The Hitchin group, known for their raw and emotional edge, say they’re grateful to finally get the record into the world after years of work.
L.A. indie-pop crew MASSAGE have shared “No North Star,” the third single from their upcoming album Coaster, out October 10. The track started with guitarist Andrew Romano aiming for something like The Clean or The Radio Dept., but it wound up a spaced-out duet with Gabrielle Ferrer, driven by Natalie Dealmeida’s standout drum work.
Coaster marks the band’s first new music in four years, following Oh Boy and Still Life. Romano says the record embraces their “in-betweenness,” adding, “We’re a pop group, plain and simple. We don’t want to just remind you of some other band. We want to write songs you can’t shake.”
ABANDCALLEDLOVE. have shared their new single The Love I Can’t Let Go, the second track to preview their debut EP Thriving Season, arriving September 26 via Valiant Sound Co. Written by frontman Ryan Chandler Love, the song began as a dark synth-rock sketch in 2019 before evolving into what he now calls his favorite cut on the record.
Lyrically, it confronts his past struggles with alcoholism, framed through the metaphor of a toxic relationship: a cycle of dependence he couldn’t escape despite recognizing the damage. Love recalls breaking down in front of his studio computer as the lyrics came together, and now, after two years of sobriety, he points to the track as his proudest moment on the EP.
Philadelphia emo cult heroes ALGERNON CADWALLADER have released a video for “noitanitsarcorP,” a track from their first new album in 14 years, Trying Not to Have a Thought, out now on Saddle Creek. The clip was directed by Darby Irrgang and Ricky Christian.
The record marks the band’s return with their original lineup and was written during retreats in Washington and Pennsylvania before being recorded at Joe Reinhart’s Headroom Studios. ALGERNON CADWALLADER will head out on a North American tour starting November 6 in Portland, Oregon, and wrapping December 15 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Post-punk rockers THE CHAMELEONS have returned with Arctic Moon, their first new studio album in 24 years, out now via Metropolis Records. The record finds the band shifting slightly from their earlier sound but still rooted in the same emotional depth, layered guitars, and intricate lyricism that marked their catalog. Vox summed it up simply: “ARCTIC MOON is finally finished and we’re all really pleased with how it has turned out!”
The album closes on “Saviours Are a Dangerous Thing,” where Vox critiques the current political climate: “I just see too many echoes of the 1930s in what’s been going on in the world.” With the lineup of Vox, Reg Smithies, Stephen Rice, Danny Ashberry, and Todd Demma back in sync, the band is also set to hit the road this fall, with U.S. dates running from late September through October.
Swiss artist ELIE ZOÉ has shared “the whole of the moon,” the fourth and final single ahead of their upcoming album shifting forms, out October 10 via Humus Records. The track pushes the duo format to its limits, with Luc Hess’s drumming driving alongside Zoé’s raw guitar work. Recorded and mixed by Louis Jucker and mastered by Johann Meyer, it arrives with a video edited by Zoé from live adaptation footage.
The single, written as a song of reconciliation for Emilie Zoé, frames the record’s themes of transformation and continuity. ELIE ZOÉ will tour Europe this fall with THE YOUNG GODS.
GREYHAVEN dropped their final single “Where The Light Leaves Us” today, tying directly into their upcoming full-length Keep It Quiet, due October 10 via Solid State Records.
Frontman Brent Mills calls the track a self-check: “Last year was a bit of a struggle for me… It’s a conversation I was having with myself. I’m saying, ‘You’ve got to dial it back. It’s not going in the right direction.’” After touring the UK and Europe with Better Lovers, GREYHAVEN hit the road across the U.S. this November and December.
Berlin trio PABST have unveiled a new single, “twenty three,” featuring Blush Always. Out now via Alcopop! Records and Ketchup Tracks, the track is a nostalgic anthem about moving past your twenties and the tension between youth and adulthood.
The song is accompanied by a video shot in the Brandenburg dunes, where both artists perform among mirrors reflecting the landscape. “twenty three” is the third cut from PABST’s upcoming album This is normal now, set for release on November 28, 2025.
MIKE PATTON has joined forces with Scott and Seth Avett of THE AVETT BROTHERS for a new project called AVTT/PTTN. Their self-titled album of original songs arrives November 14 through Thirty Tigers in association with Ramseur Records and Ipecac Recordings. The first single, “Eternal Love,” is streaming now.
Patton calls his role “a long distant cousin… a brother that was orphaned,” while Scott Avett describes the collaboration as “what making is supposed to be: in secret and with no ambition.” The nine-track record marks a full-circle moment for the Avetts, who once studied and imitated Patton’s work in their youth.
Los Angeles alt-metal hard rockers AEGES have dropped their new single “Do You Really Wanna Know.”
Formed in 2011, the band carved out a sound that fuses post-hardcore grit, prog touches, and desert rock weight. Built on jagged riffs and heavy vocal harmonies, their catalog has stretched from the raw force of The Bridge to the sharpened punch of Weightless. The new track carries that same drive forward, pushing their mix of melody and crunch into darker, heavier corners.
Pop-punk easycore crew STAY THE COURSE just dropped a video for “Post Traumatic,” a stripped-back ballad built on acoustic guitar and strings played by frontman Joseph Meador’s wife and daughter. Guitarist Colby Munn wrote the track and takes lead vocals, with Meador calling it “a far cry from what we normally do” and “a little extra special” because of the family contributions.
The single lands ahead of Red Flag, the Wichita band’s debut full-length, due December 12 on Punkerton Records. Mixed and mastered by Christopher H. Fogal, the record grew from an EP into a ten-song LP, blending the band’s usual heavy hooks with new doses of reflection.
Experimental noise rock trio IRK just dropped a new video for Wedding, Berlin, now streaming via Everything Is Noise. The track is a jagged preview of their second LP The Seeing House, out September 26 on Nefarious Industries.
Filmed in Leeds with longtime collaborator John Figler, the video mirrors the song’s hypnotic churn. Bassist Ed Snell calls it “a great job of matching the visuals to the jagged, hypnotic feel of the track,” while drummer Matthew Deamer adds, “if Born Under Punches by Talking Heads and Acres Of Skin by Zs had some sort of awful mutant baby, it would hopefully sound kind of like this.”
SHINER have been at it for over thirty years, twisting heavy, melodic rock into something layered and strange, always chasing honesty over polish. Their new record BelieveYouMe lands September 26, pulling from instinct, contradiction, and the kind of wear that comes with time. Recorded mostly live at Paul Malinowski’s Massive Sound and mixed by Mario Quintero of Spotlights, the band leans into weight and vulnerability all at once.
The latest single, So Far So, follows Asleep In The Trunk and The Alligator, each showing SHINER still restless, still sharp. Lyrically the album runs through aging, deception, connection—raw themes delivered with the same off-kilter heft that’s kept them weird and vital all this time.
CAMP TRASH are back with their second full-length, Two Hundred Thousand Dollars, out October 31, 2025 via Count Your Lucky Stars Records. Two tracks are already streaming—Signal Them In and Between the X’s—showcasing the band’s knack for writing sharp, short bursts of emo-inflected indie punk.
The album, recorded and mixed by James Palko and mastered by Zach Weeks at God City Studios, introduces Kyle Meggison (ex-WORST PARTY EVER) on drums. Built around loose character sketches of hustlers, gamblers, and small-time dreamers, the songs draw from the band’s obsessions with FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE and GUIDED BY VOICES. Vinyl and digital pre-orders are live now through Bandcamp, with limited 12” editions shipping on release day.
RADIOHEAD’s upcoming UK and European arena run sold out instantly after going on sale September 12, leaving fans scrambling. The band confirmed that an official resale will open on October 13, urging fans not to buy through third-party sites, warning: “Those tickets are not real.”
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The tour marks RADIOHEAD’s first performances since 2018, with residencies set for Madrid, Bologna, Copenhagen, Berlin, and four nights at London’s O2 Arena this November and December. Philip Selway explained that the band’s 2024 rehearsals “felt really good” and sparked the decision to play shows again after seven years away.
UK alt-rock veterans WHITE LIES have unveiled a new video for “Keep Up,” the latest cut from their upcoming seventh record Night Light, out November 7 via Play It Again Sam. The song rides a motorik pulse and carnival-like choruses, with the band describing it as “a headstrong pop song – uncomplicated and eager for purity and no speedbumps.”
The trio—Harry McVeigh, Charles Cave, and Jack Lawrence-Brown—are also set to hit the road in early 2026 for a European tour, with multiple sold-out dates already in London, Manchester, and Brussels.
FOO FIGHTERS made their live return September 13 with an intimate 900-capacity show at the Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo, California. The 25-song set introduced new drummer Ilan Rubin, stepping in after Josh Freese’s departure earlier this year.
The band pulled from nearly their entire catalog, skipping only Sonic Highways and avoiding any new material. A snippet of Motörhead’s Ace Of Spades slipped into No Son Of Mine, and their socials later teased producer Rick Rubin, hinting that fresh recordings may be on the horizon.
The band also dropped a tongue-in-cheek AI promo teasing a tour, with Dave Grohl promising the “100 percent real, raw, human element of rock ’n’ roll” before flashing a fake setlist and ending with “Stay tuned… there’s more to come.”
The clip follows their first gig with new drummer ILAN RUBIN, formerly of NINE INCH NAILS, who officially joined this summer after Josh Freese’s exit. At the California show, Grohl introduced him as “the most badass motherfucker,” while the band mixed staples like “Everlong” with rarities like “Exhausted” and “Winnebago.”
Dreamy indie duo BEAUTY SLEEP have dropped a new single, “Send It Out To Sea.” The Derry pair describe the track as “the most dreamy Beauty Sleep moment yet,” a song about spilling your darkest secrets to the ocean.
The single arrives as they gear up for their sophomore album The Whole Damn Cake, due in a month, following earlier singles “Big + Bad” and “Unfamiliar.” A video for “Send It Out To Sea,” shot at Kinnego Bay with local collaborators, is also out now.
Montreal noise rock outsiders ANTENNA93 just put out their new single “Jack in the Green” via Long Vowel, dropping it right before their Pop Montreal slot and an Ontario run. The track leans into folk horror, drawing on Robin Hardy’s “The Wicker Man” while smashing black metal tremolo, noise grit, and art punk tension into one anxious mess. See our full feature on this release here.
Norwegian noise rock misfits HARABALL finally drag their new album “Fear of the Plow” into daylight, landing September 19 through Fysisk Format. What began as a follow-up to 2019’s “Hypno” twisted into something darker and more absurd, pulling in scraps of 60s psych, post punk flashes, and odd lyrical fixations — a year-old loaf of bread, a 900-year-old man, and the grind of life past forty.
See our full feature on Haraball at this location.
FRIGHTFUL PLACES just shared “Third Wheel,” a track that leans into the awkwardness of not fitting in. Written by Kevin Tiernan and cut with drummer Antonio Mastroianni, it was produced by Chris Teti at Silver Bullet Studios and mastered by Kris Crummett. We premiered the track earlier this week.
Tiernan says he wanted raw energy in the vein of Movements and Thrice, even pulling from Tubular Bells for its off-kilter timing. The song avoids neat layering, letting the uneven edges stand, with lines like “I’m the third wheel tripping at your heels / Step on back, I’m just happy to be here” pushing straight into that unease.
EVAN GREER has just released the new album AMAB/ACAB via Get Better Records. Out September 19, 2025, the record blends punk, folk, and political urgency with a wide roster of collaborators including Max Collins (EVE 6), Liz Berlin, Victoria Ruiz (DOWNTOWN BOYS), Ryan Cassata, and Emma’s Revolution. Across twelve tracks, Greer ties personal and collective struggles together—songs like “Protect Trans Kids (WTFIWWY)”, “Pinkwashing”, and “Hellraiser” push forward the activist core of the record.
Rock legends AEROSMITH have announced One More Time, a new EP made with Yungblud — their first fresh music in 13 years. The five-track release lands November 21 and includes a remix of the 1976 cut “Back in the Saddle.”
The first single, “My Only Angel,” drops this Friday. The collab follows Steven Tyler and Joe Perry’s onstage link-up with Yungblud at Ozzy Osbourne’s farewell concert in July and their joint tribute at the MTV VMAs earlier this month.
Grunge heavyweights SOUNDGARDEN are still working to finish the eight tracks they began with Chris Cornell before his 2017 death, but drummer Matt Cameron says the record won’t drop before the band’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction on November 8. “There’s not a set release date or anything as of yet… I’m excited for people to hear it,” he told *Billboard*.
Cameron described the project as both empowering and gut-wrenching: hearing Cornell’s voice blasting through unfinished hard rock songs while being reminded he’s gone. Guitarist Kim Thayil is still refining his parts, and the band plans to perform at the Los Angeles ceremony, which will stream via Disney+.
⤵ Experimental / Other
TREPANERINGSRITUALEN has released Diadem of Fire, a new work channeling ritualistic death industrial into a dense, occult-driven experience. Out September 19, 2025 via Ant-Zen and Raubbau, the release is available digitally and in limited physical formats, including a numbered 7” vinyl with a 48-page art book and a 3” CD with postcard set.
Tracks like A Diadem of Fire and With Hand and Heart draw on tribal percussion, metallic textures, and guttural invocations, evoking both Scandinavian black metal ferocity and the oppressive weight of industrial ritual music. Accompanied by stark visuals, the release positions itself as a heretical hymn and immersive descent into apocalyptic soundscapes.
Spanish pianist and vocalist ANTINOË has unveiled Threshold, the first single from her upcoming album The Fold, out November 21 via Dark Essence Records.
Built around stark piano and her resonant, ethereal voice, the track drags neoclassical beauty into a shadowed space—what she calls “a desperate cry for mortality,” twisting panic and suffocation into a single suspended moment on the edge of life.
Genre-twisting madman IGORRR just let loose a new full-length, Amen. Twelve cuts that veer from grind and glitch to absurd beauty, flipping between chaos and fragile detail in the blink of an eye.
Experimental hip-hop agitators CLIPPING. just reloaded Dead Channel Sky into Dead Channel Sky Plus. The record’s been reshuffled, stretched to 24 tracks, and packed with new cuts like “Night of Heaven” with Counterfeit Madison and Kid Koala, “Forever War,” “Hard-Eyes,” and “Mirrorshades Pt. 1.”
Synthpop shapeshifters NATION OF LANGUAGE just dropped their fourth record, Dance Called Memory. Frontman Ian Richard Devaney wrote the songs in stripped-down solitude, describing it as “a great way to distract yourself… when you are depressed.” The result leans spectral and spacious, a guitar-born meditation stretched through synths into something both ghostly and human.
The band has been building steady since Introduction, Presence and A Way Forward, with Strange Disciple in 2023 landing Rough Trade’s Album of the Year. This one carries that trajectory—personal melancholy refracted into widescreen collective mourning.
SANAM are back with Sametou Sawtan (“I Heard a Voice”), their second album arriving September 19, 2025 via Constellation Records.
Recorded between Beirut, Byblos, and Paris with producer Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, the record bends free rock and jazz into Arabic folk traditions, carried by the sextet’s mix of vocals, buzuq, guitars, synths, and percussion. Lyrics draw on Omar Khayyam, Imam Ali, Ibn Nubata, and Egyptian folk songs, while the sound moves between haunted ballads and explosive improvisation. Mastered by Heba Kadry and wrapped in artwork by Omar Khouri, it’s a dense, restless work that extends SANAM’s vision of experimental Arabic rock.
⤵ Pop
Pop, Synth Pop
THE XX are officially gearing up for their comeback, dropping rehearsal footage just days after being confirmed for Coachella 2026. In the clip, Romy, Oliver Sim, and Jamie xx are back in the studio, captioning it with “Picking up our instruments again. See you in the desert?” Their return follows recent festival appearances and a guest spot together on Jamie’s 2024 single “Waited All Night.” With a fourth album in the works—their first since I See You (2017)—the trio say they’re blending lessons from their solo projects while keeping the unmistakable xx sound intact.
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London agit-pop voice MUSTBEJOHN just dropped his new EP Hope Came Last on September 19, a six-track sprint that barely cracks 15 minutes but leaves plenty of marks. Tracks like “Drugs Don’t Work,” “Wheelspin,” and “Will You Call?” hit with the same scrappy energy you’d catch at a bus stop argument or a smoke break outside the club.
KENNYHOOPLA drops his second EP of the year, conditions of an orphan//, out September 19 via The Orchard/Garbagehill. Produced with Zac Farro of Paramore and Mike Elizondo, the record dives into 2000s dance-punk chaos, balancing jagged riffs and pogo rhythms with raw grief and sharp self-awareness.
Kenny frames the project around abandonment and survival, saying, “A lot of the time, I just feel very alone, like an orphan. I’m just trying to find a home, literally and metaphorically — as a person, and as someone in the music industry.” The lead cut “orphan//” snaps back to 2004 energy while keeping its focus tight and personal.
PEOPLE R UGLY roped in MARK HOPPUS for their new video “Wake Up”, and he shows up as a hilariously clueless high school principal running a talent show gone wrong. The BLINK-182 bassist leans into the role with cringey pep talks and bad puns before the clip flips into full-on Napoleon Dynamite territory, with drummer Tristan Kevitch delivering an awkward but committed dance routine. Things escalate with pyrotechnics and a fiery climax, only to reveal the chaos as fantasy. The track, written during a retreat in Oakhurst, CA, captures that dizzy moment of locking eyes on a dancefloor, while Hoppus’ totally improvised dialogue adds an unpredictable edge. It lands ahead of PEOPLE R UGLY’s debut album Garage, out October 24th.
DAMON ALBARN took part in Brian Eno’s Together For Palestine benefit at Wembley Arena, performing first with Eno, Paul Weller, and others on a specially composed piece, then joining the London Arab Orchestra and Juzour Dance Collective for a medley of Palestinian songs. Later, GORILLAZ debuted a new track, “Damascus,” with Yasiin Bey and Omar Souleyman, previewing their upcoming album The Mountain (out March 20, 2026). The night, which raised nearly £1.5m for Gaza relief, also featured speeches from Florence Pugh, Nicola Coughlan, Richard Gere, and Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos.
⤵ General / Industry
MASSIVE ATTACK have announced they’re pulling their entire catalog from Spotify, citing CEO Daniel Ek’s $700 million investment in AI military startup Helsing.
The Bristol group, long outspoken against militarism and Israel’s campaign in Gaza, said artists’ labor and fans’ money “ultimately funds lethal, dystopian technologies.” Alongside more than 400 other artists and labels, they’ve also joined the No Music For Genocide campaign, blocking their music in Israel while urging majors to follow. In a statement, they drew parallels to artist boycotts of apartheid South Africa, calling for musicians to “transfer their sadness, anger and artistic contributions into a coherent, reasonable & vital action.” Spotify responded in their Instagram comments, stressing no direct link to Helsing’s work in Gaza and claiming its tech is focused on Ukraine. MASSIVE ATTACK currently still appear on Spotify as the label processes the takedown.
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LIVE NATION and TICKETMASTER are back under fire—this time hit with a fresh lawsuit from the FTC and seven states accusing them of working hand-in-hand with scalpers to bleed fans dry.
The complaint says they’ve been running a “bait and switch” game on ticket prices, hiding fees until checkout, while also letting brokers blow past purchase limits to scoop up thousands of tickets and flip them on Ticketmaster’s own resale platform at inflated prices. The kicker? The feds say the company’s been “triple dipping” fees—when brokers buy, when they relist, and when fans buy again—racking up billions between 2019 and 2024. The move stacks onto last year’s DOJ antitrust suit aiming to break up the giant, adding even more heat on a company already accused of monopolizing live music at the expense of artists and ordinary fans.
A new player just dropped into the streaming wars. CODA MUSIC has launched in the US and Canada, calling itself the first fully licensed on-demand premium service to arrive in nearly a decade. Unlike the usual algorithm-heavy suspects, it leans on user-made playlists and social feeds, putting curation back in human hands.
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CEO Randy Fusee says, “True discovery happens in those unexpected moments – not through recycled recommendations like ‘If you like artist A, here’s artist B.’ Algorithms can’t replicate that. Only humans can.” CODA also pushes a “FanDirect” model, letting subscribers funnel a dollar of their monthly fee straight to an independent artist. Expansion to Europe and Asia is set for 2026.
YOUTUBE just dropped a batch of AI tools aimed squarely at the Shorts crowd, rolling them out first in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The standout is a Speech to Song feature built on Google DeepMind’s Lyria 2 model, which flips spoken dialogue from videos into full-on musical soundtracks. Users can pick styles like “chill,” “danceable,” or “fun,” while SynthID watermarks mark the AI’s fingerprints.
The platform also teased Edit with AI, using DeepMind’s Veo 3 to auto-cut footage, add transitions, and even crank out voiceovers. Other experiments include motion transfer for cloning dance moves, style transformations, and object insertions. YOUTUBE says it’s leaning hard into remix culture, positioning these tools as ways for creators to twist everyday dialogue into new soundtracks for Shorts.
Five members of PUSSY RIOT — Maria Alyokhina, Diana Burkot, Taso Pletner, Olga Borisova, and Alina Petrova — have been sentenced in absentia by a Moscow court to between eight and thirteen years in prison. The charges center on anti-war performances, including the 2022 video Mama, Don’t Watch TV and a 2024 protest in Munich involving Putin’s portrait.
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The activists, all exiled, rejected the sentences as politically motivated. Diana Burkot issued a statement underscoring the absurdity of receiving eight years for free expression while violent offenders in Russia serve far less, often returning from military service in Ukraine. She reaffirmed her anti-war stance, condemned the Russian government as patriarchal and abusive, and declared: “Fortunately, they have no access to my physical body. And even if I were in Russia, I would say the same thing: go fuck yourself.”
Previous roundups:
- Sept 5-12
- August 14 – September 5
- August 8-14
- August 1-8
- July 25 – August 1
- July 23-25
- July 21-23
- July 19-21
- July 16-18
- July 12-15
- July 9-11
- July 5-9
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HARD TARGET just dropped their new three-track single Divinity, now streaming everywhere via Static Era Records. The release includes Intro, the crushing title track Divinity, and Echoes.
Fans heading to the Worcester Palladium for NEMH Fest on Saturday, September 20 can pick up a free CD directly from the band.
WOLVES LIKE US are gone. The band called it quits with a note that hits like a punch to the chest—talking about unfinished songs, friendships that outlast tours, and a decade-plus of sweat and grit. No last record, just a hard drive full of what could’ve been. Maybe it’ll surface, maybe it won’t.
For us, they’ll always sit in that rare space where PLANES MISTAKEN FOR STARS and HOT WATER MUSIC bled into something uniquely their own—gritty, melodic, heavy-hearted. Watching them tear it up at Fluff Fest, or anywhere really, felt like being part of something that mattered. They weren’t just another band, they were one of those bands. Feels heavy to say goodbye.
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NEKS have officially released their debut full-length Point of No Return, a nine-track record running just over 22 minutes. The album was self-recorded between Sound Acres in Pilesgrove, NJ, and Archive Recordings in Salt Lake City, UT, before being mastered by Mike Kalajian at Rogue Planet Mastering.
The band brings together Gary Cioni (vocals), Matt Mascarenas (guitar), Wes Johnson (guitar), Robert Cheeseman (bass), and Derrick Flanagin (drums) — veterans from DAYTRADER, CRIME IN STEREO, CAPSULE, RILE, and SPIRITS. The record stays heavy and bleak while weaving in sharp melody, with opener MAGAt’s setting a defiant tone. The Land of Plenty tackles inequality and violence, while The Rubicon digs into personal collapse against a backdrop of societal decline. Other tracks like A Future Worth Fighting For and Eternal Servitude push further into political urgency and existential weight, giving Point of No Return the feel of both a protest document and a personal reckoning.
SECOND YOUTH return with Only Child, a five-track EP out now via Anchors Aweigh Records, recorded at Reef Studios and produced by Danusk. Formed between Italy and the UK, the band dives into themes of loneliness, trauma, and fractured identity with a rawer and more personal edge than their earlier releases. The record strips away filters, leaning into scars and uneasy memories rather than seeking redemption. Lead single Family Burden captures this vision in stark form, paired with a haunting video directed by Martina Pastori.
We’re running a full exclusive feature with streams of the EP this week on IDIOTEQ, where the band breaks down each track in detail—from the childhood-haunted opener The Orphan Lullaby to the stripped intensity of closer Heart Slowed Down. Upcoming European tour dates include stops in Germany and Italy, starting September 17 in Berlin.
Boston slowcore/post-hardcore survivors KARATE have rolled out If You Can Hold Your Breath, a five-LP retrospective released September 12 via The Numero Group. The box gathers their first five years, including the self-titled debut, In Place of Real Insight, The Bed Is in the Ocean, early singles, and a previously unissued 1993 demo, all remastered.
Frontman Geoff Farina annotates the set, which pulls together 41 tracks tracing the band’s shift from DC-inspired post-hardcore into jazz-inflected indie rock. Packaged in Numero’s trademark archival style, the release captures late-night bike rides, punk house floors, and the jagged edge of Karate’s earliest recordings.
NORTHEAST REGIONAL have released a digital two-song single, Echoes b/w Footsteps, available now on Bandcamp as a name-your-price download. Echoes comes from the sessions for their upcoming full-length In The Desert but didn’t fit the record’s overall flow, while Footsteps is a shelved home demo that never made it past the practice space.
Recorded across multiple sessions in 2024–25 with mastering by Brad Boatright (Audiosiege) and Will Killingsworth (Dead Air), the release serves as a stopgap ahead of In The Desert, planned for 2026 via Tor Johnson Records.
⤵ Post Rock / Post Metal
PORTISHEAD quietly reunited to take part in Brian Eno’s Together For Palestine benefit, recording a live version of “Roads” that played at London’s OVO Arena and streamed worldwide. It marked their first performance since a brief 2022 War Child set for Ukraine, this time with added keys and strings.
ANNIE LENNOX also contributed a pre-taped piano rendition of “Why?” and plans to release it as a benefit single for the Choose Love fund. On stage, GORILLAZ brought out OMAR SOULEYMAN and YASIIN BEY for “Damascus” from their upcoming album The Mountain, while PINKPANTHERESS used her slot to speak on the importance of refusing neutrality: “We have a responsibility to use our platforms. Neutrality or silence shouldn’t be an option.”
COASTLANDS have returned with “Drugblood,” the first cut from their self-titled LP out October 10 via Translation Loss Records. The Portland post-metal band digs into fractured faith, evangelical imagery, and the wreckage of spiritual detachment, twisting “save me from myself” into something raw and human rather than grandiose. Equal parts crushing and meditative, the track sets the tone for an album that doubles down on their heaviness while reshaping their sound.
MOGWAI have announced a full UK tour for February 2026, with dates spanning Scotland, England, and Wales.
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BASTIAN just dropped Impressions, a seven-track burner straight outta Vancouver. This one’s got all the weight of their story behind it — the band bounced back after a brutal two-year break, including a near-fatal motorcycle wreck, and you can hear that grit bleeding through every riff.
They’re pulling threads from all over — ARCHITECTS, NORMA JEAN, EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY, even that cinematic HANS ZIMMER vibe — and twisting it into something heavy, melodic, and raw. Tracks like “Currents” punch hard but still leave room for the kind of emotional release that sticks in your chest.
⤵ Punk / Punk Rock / Pop Punk
Raw, fast, melodic, and many more styles.
Dark-hearted punk vets ALKALINE TRIO just dropped a new single, “Bleeding Out,” produced by Travis Barker. It’s the second of three cuts the band tracked with the Blink-182 drummer, following “Oblivion” earlier this year.
Matt Skiba called the sessions “absolute heaven,” saying working with Atom and Travis felt like having “two of my favourite drummers” in the room. Barker returned the praise, saying the studio time “never feels like work, just a magical place to create,” adding that he could’ve kept going forever.
Spanish punk trio RATA NEGRA have dropped their new album Hawai, out now via Sonido Muchacho. The ten-track record runs just over twenty minutes and opens with “Pesadilla Adulta,” moving through cuts like “Antonio,” “Reza,” and the title track before closing on “Peligro.”
Emo punk outfit NOGATO returned with Lo que he ganado, lo que he perdido (What I’ve Gained, What I’ve Lost), a record that circles endings, fractured bonds, and the uneasy calm of moving forward. Written between Madrid lineups and personal upheaval, the album folds in themes of long breakups, pressure to keep a band alive, and the small reliefs that come from friendship and stage connection. The opener 200X leans on a Final Fantasy X sample, tracing how the project held Roca and Micho together after their nine-year relationship collapsed, while songs like Al otro lado del andén and Esta lluvia sit with distance, detachment, and preventive grief.
We’re running a full feature on IDIOTEQ this week, including an exclusive track-by-track commentary where the band unpacks every layer of the record—from gaming odes like Reactor Mako to the tape-rewinding finale Las piezas que faltan, the only track written entirely by the current lineup. NOGATO frame the album as one about rebuilding even when the missing pieces remain absent—an album shaped by instability, but carried now by a lineup that feels steady.
BAD COP/BAD COP’s fourth LP Lighten Up landed September 19 via Fat Wreck Chords and Hopeless Records. Written out of brunch sessions that blurred into songwriting marathons, the record digs into resilience, recovery, and finding light in the grind.
Stacey Dee lays it out bluntly on “Dead Friends,” a song years in the making: “So try to love your life, while you can.” Elsewhere, Linh Le pulls strength out of grief on “See Me Now,” Dee recounts a pivotal night in “Straight Out of Detox,” and “Note to Self” leans into dub textures with a guest verse from LA underground mainstay 2mex.
THE BOUNCING SOULS are back with a new single, “Power,” dropping this Friday on all streaming platforms.
THE JUKEBOX ROMANTICS are back with a brand new single, “March 24, 1984,” out now via Sell The Heart Records and Engineer Records. It’s the first taste of their upcoming album This One Looks Cool, dropping October 17th.
The band’s been grinding since 2009, touring non-stop with sweaty, high-energy sets that hit somewhere between ALKALINE TRIO, SAMIAM, and THE BOUNCING SOULS. Their last full-length Sleepwalk Me Home landed in 2018, followed by 2021’s Fires Forming.
Canadian pop-rock outfit BEARINGS have dropped their new single “Float Away”, featuring Derek DiScanio of STATE CHAMPS. The track appears on their upcoming fourth album Comfort Company, out November 7, 2025 via Pure Noise Records. Built around a drum part by Mike McKerracher, the song carries what vocalist Doug Cousins calls “some obvious metaphor… about being lost on things going on in your own life at times. We all need someone to bring us back down to earth sometimes.”
Recorded back at Room 21 in Toronto with producer Kyle Marchant, Comfort Company finds BEARINGS reconnecting with their roots while pushing into sharper, more personal territory. Cousins describes it as “the record that feels like coming back home,” capturing the mix of honesty, tension, and urgency that has marked their sound since their 2017 debut.
Indiana based MOONSIDE just premiered the video for “Drawn Out Goodbyes,” shot at Indiana Dunes State Park. The track spins between nintendocore, easycore, metalcore, and pop-punk edges, with lyrics stuck on love, self-worth, and the sting of parting words.
DIY pop punk emo outfit FINALBOSSFIGHT! dropped their new single “Tight as a Boiled Owl” on September 17, produced by Billy Mannino with artwork from Zack Zagula. The Flint band first showed up with The Light in Your Room EP in 2020, followed by the 2021 single House Rules.
They’ll play the track live soon, with shows lined up in Ferndale on September 27 and Grand Rapids on October 17.
Nashville punk rockers BE YOUR OWN PET are back with a new single, What A Btch*, out September 16 via Third Man Records. Written after frontwoman Jemina Pearl’s daughter was called the word at school, the track flips the insult into an anthem of defiance.
“This song is my rally cry for all the so-called ‘bitches,’” Pearl says. The video, directed by Snooper’s Blair Tramel, leans into a DIY artpunk chaos with multiple Jeminas tearing through scenes.
The band will tour North America this fall, joining ANAMANAGUCHI on select dates.
BIG PROBLEM have shared a live version of their track “Rowing”, recorded at their hometown Manchester show at Rebellion on September 5th, supporting SCOWL and MODERN COLOUR.
Originally the first song the band ever wrote and the opener of their debut EP Morbid Peace (2024), Rowing is described as a tug-of-war between frustration and fleeting pleasure, delivered through lyrics that lean into dream logic.
The new live cut serves as a bridge between BIG PROBLEM’s first two EPs while they prepare for fresh studio sessions later this year. In the meantime, they’re still pushing their last EP Grudge with more videos on the way and an active run of shows, including an upcoming Manchester date with HIGHER POWER, a Leeds appearance with SCAB (via Brainrotter Records), and a soon-to-be-announced hometown headline.
Oslo’s SLUG BOYS have released their new EP War Boys, out September 19 via Oslo Syndrome Records. The four-track set includes “The War,” a song dedicated to a man who survived near-misses in World War II, tended his garden for loved ones, and lived humbly in England.
The track, produced by Morten Øby and mastered by Emily Lazar, builds from a quiet intro of guitar and a phone call with vocalist Jake’s grandfather, a WWII veteran, into a sharp, anthemic chorus. Lyrically, it connects inherited trauma to present-day conflict, balancing vulnerability with post-punk aggression.
Irish folk punk crew THE O’REILLYS AND THE PADDYHATS have teamed up with Malte from Versengold on their new single “Paint the Town Green,” released September 19, 2025. The collaboration pulls both camps together in a playful mash-up they’ve dubbed “Versenhats or Paddygold,” bringing Malte’s voice into the mix.
The single also features “Slingshot Girl” with Jenny Woo, keeping the band’s rowdy, party-ready energy intact. Active since 2011, THE O’REILLYS AND THE PADDYHATS continue to stretch their Irish folk punk sound into new corners, setting up momentum for their 2025 tour.
Indie rock punk rocker PETEY USA has rolled out a fresh single, “Anything In-Between,” just as his We’ve Got the Yips tour hits the road with Alex Cameron. The track lands in the middle of a run that’s already pulling low-ticket alerts in cities across the U.S.
Indie-punk crew BANQUETS have dropped a new video for Who Will Inherit Us?, the first song written for their upcoming record Petty Relics. Shot and directed by Eric Luszcz, the clip ties straight into the album’s theme of relics—objects heavy with meaning to some, trash to others.
Guitarist/vocalist Travis put it blunt: “‘Who Will Inherit Us?’ was the first song written in the collection of songs that makes up Petty Relics. What becomes of our remnants and the relics that mean so much to us, but are mere trash to those that unknowingly inherit it?” Petty Relics lands October 17 on Black Numbers, with a second reunion show set for December 13 at Part-Time PR Fest in Philadelphia.
⤵ Post Punk / Shoegaze
TV CULT have unleashed their new single “Overpressure”, released September 16, 2025, alongside a stark video and artwork featuring Palestine’s national flower, the Iris haynei. The Cologne post-punks wrote the track in response to blast overpressure injuries suffered by children in Gaza, turning their outrage into a furious condemnation of wartime atrocities. The band stated: “It expresses our pure anger and disgust at the treatment of all children in war zones.”
Brooklyn’s dark-edged collective CLONE have released a new single, “Care to Try?”—a sharp cut of their egalitarian, jam-born songwriting approach. The track, recorded and mixed by Martin Bisi, leads into their upcoming three-song EP and 7” vinyl arriving October 3rd via Little Cloud Records.
The EP will also feature “Libras at Dusk” as the B-side, with visuals shot by longtime Pixies collaborator Simon Larbalestier. CLONE continue to build their reputation off word-of-mouth live shows and a chemistry that feels raw, instinctive, and carved straight from their New York roots.
VITILIGOES have dropped their debut EP “Rapakivi” through VOX PROJECT, backed by a coalition of French DIY labels. Limited vinyl is already available, with just 250 black 12″ copies pressed.
The trio — Antoine, Thomas, and Clément — are childhood friends from Brittany now based in Paris, refining their sound since 2011 before arriving at this final form in 2023. Their bond shows in the maturity of this first release: five tracks that merge pop sensibility with post-rock structures, psych textures, and hints of math-driven rhythm.
Vienna’s TRAUMA GLOW return with their new single “million in one,” , produced with dreamgaze artist Sakura Katsuura Chow. Since forming in 2023, the band’s been pushing through shoegaze and alt-rock textures, and this track tilts between acoustic intimacy and pop-driven haze.
Mixing fragile everyday lines with shimmering guitars, “million in one” drifts between nostalgia and unease — a small-room reflection stretched into something that feels like a post-digital anthem. It’s a late-summer snapshot, equal parts fragile and restless, hinting at where Viennese alternative music might be headed.
New Jersey/Toronto trio THE SHAPE have dropped their new single “Body & Mind,” out September 19 via À La Carte Records. It’s the fifth track from their upcoming self-titled debut album, set for release October 17, 2025.
The band—Kevin Iavaroni, Ben Waugh, and Autumn Easterbrook—pull sharp pop edges into a synth-heavy framework while keeping the grit of their hardcore roots intact. “Body & Mind” carries that peculiar tension the album thrives on, balancing clarity and unease in equal measure.
⤵ Metal
Alt Metal, Death Metal, Heavy Metal, Black, Thrash, Sludge, Nu Metal, and more.
Swedish death metal icon TOMAS LINDBERG has died at 52 after a long fight with adenoid cystic carcinoma. His band AT THE GATES confirmed the news, remembering him as “a true friend, both compassionate and sympathetic.” Diagnosed in late 2023, Lindberg underwent surgery and radiation but the cancer returned earlier this year, leaving him in long-term care.
Even through treatment, he made sure to finish vocals for the band’s upcoming album, cutting them in one day just before surgery. He described the record as a return to roots, “a mix between Slaughter of the Soul and At War With Reality.” In one of his last messages, Lindberg urged: “Take care of yourself, your loved ones and the time you have on this earth.”
BLINDFOLDED AND LED TO THE WOODS just dropped a new one called “Cafuné”, and man, it hits different. They’re still coming with that proggy, twisted death metal, but this track feels like a love song flipped inside out. It’s tender for a second, then it’s all obsession, violence, and collapse — like the soundtrack to passion going straight off the rails.
It’s the first crack of dynamite from their upcoming record The Hardest Thing About Being God Is That No One Believes Me, out October 10th on PROSTHETIC RECORDS. The whole thing’s shaping up to be a wild ride — they’re pulling intimacy into the blast-beat grinder and making it feel dangerous, heavy, and alive.
Texas death metal outfit CALCRAFT will release their debut album Reborn Through Torture on November 21 via Lifeforce Records (physical release follows January 30). Rooted in the brutality of IMMOLATION, SUFFOCATION, and INCANTATION, the band sharpen their sound with thrash aggression and a horror-fueled atmosphere inspired by giallo and slasher cinema.
The first single, “Satisfying Strangulation,” is out now, setting the tone for a record described as a blood-soaked execution—each track steeped in madness, torture, and cinematic violence.
ÆL-FIERLEN just dropped their debut LP All Is Far Away — a dense, blackened shoegaze trip blending black metal, folk, and dreamlike textures into something heavy and sprawling. Out now via self-release, the record closes with the epic “Ællmiht,” which arrives with a sun-soaked video.
Written by guitarist Rob Melville and fronted by Stephanie Moffatt’s spectral vocals, the album draws on Anglo-Saxon imagery, eerie folklore, and the contrasting landscapes that shaped the band across the English and American south. Release show hits London’s Hope & Anchor on Sept 21 with SIGILS and DISLYCAN. Looking forward to it.
Canadian progressive blackened death crew ANCIENT THRONES have dropped their second album Melancholia, out now on vinyl and digital. Clocking in at 42 minutes, the record follows a concept where a colorblind protagonist takes hallucinogens in a desperate bid to see color, only to spiral into a kaleidoscopic nightmare.
The band call it “the sound of existential exhaustion” — jagged, abstract, and emotionally devastating. Tracks like A Moon Fused Key and Vacant drive the narrative through blasts of speed, cinematic atmosphere, and suffocating heaviness, pulling from black, death, and tech death while pushing into surreal territory.
British heavy outfit CONJURER have dropped a new single and video, “Let Us Live,” taken from their third album Unself, due October 24 via Nuclear Blast Records. The track follows August’s “Hang Them In Your Head” and cuts straight into themes of oppression and survival.
Co-vocalist/guitarist Dani Nightingale explains the song as “a plea, to let us live,” adding that it reflects how trans and gender non-conforming people are demonized despite having existed across all cultures for thousands of years. The song is framed as a dialogue between the oppressed and oppressor, questioning the hostility when “all we want to do is survive.” CONJURER will tour the UK in November.
Apocalyptic metal heavyweights BEASTWARS are back with their sixth album The Ship // The Sea, set for release on November 7 via Destroy Records. The first glimpse comes with the video for “Levitate,” a track that locks into their trademark hypnotic heaviness while leaning on water imagery — the ship as body, the sea as life.
Frontman Matt Hyde frames the record as a reflection of war and upheaval, calling it “like Picasso’s Guernica — a reflection of war and horror, of endings and upheavals.” Recorded by the ocean at Studio 11b and finished in Wellington with longtime collaborator James Goldsmith, the album strips things back to the raw weight of their early years. Artwork comes from Nick Keller, and November brings a full Australia/New Zealand tour in support.
Polish post-black metal band GORYCZ have unveiled “Wybacza”, the second and final single from their upcoming third album Zasypia. Out October 3, 2025, via Piranha Music, the record marks the closing chapter of a trilogy that began with their earlier Pagan Records releases.
Zasypia will be available on CD, LP, and digital formats, with GORYCZ set to promote the release on a seven-date Polish tour this autumn.
LAS TRUMIEN and O.D.R.A are joining forces for a split release titled Breslau Spleen, due out September 26th, 2025 via Arcadian Industry. Each band has contributed five tracks, with artwork handled by CLLK Artwork. The release pairs the cellar-dwelling sludge and doom of LAS TRUMIEN with O.D.R.A’s grim sludge metal, continuing both groups’ tradition of channeling violence, decay, and human cruelty into suffocating heaviness.
To support the split, the two bands will embark on a Polish tour starting October 3rd in Kraków, with stops in Rzeszów, Wrocław, Katowice, Łódź, and Warsaw. Opening the shows will be Odyum, a newer project formed by members of LAS TRUMIEN. For LAS TRUMIEN, Breslau Spleen follows their 2024 full-length Budowniczowie grozy, while O.D.R.A returns to recorded output after the Duhgor EP in 2021.
Canadian heavy icons KITTIE have dropped a new video for “Do You Think I’m A Whore? XXV,” pulled from their upcoming Spit XXV EP, out September 19. The release re-records four tracks from their 1999 debut Spit, with producer Garth Richardson returning from the original sessions.
Morgan Lander calls the project “an emotional and empowering journey,” saying the reworks honor their roots while showcasing who the band is today. Alongside “Do You Think I’m A Whore?,” the EP features new takes on “Brackish,” “Charlotte,” and the title track “Spit,” marking 25 years since the album that first made KITTIE a force.
JORDSJUK just dropped their debut full-length “Naglet til livet” (Indie Recordings, Sept 19), and it’s as raw and unforgiving as the title suggests.
Following last year’s EP Råtner på rot, the Norwegian crew — Renton (drums), Mannevond (vocals), Sagstad (guitars), and Larsen (bass) — hammer through twelve cuts in 36 minutes, blending death, black, thrash, punk, and straight-up filth.
Portugal’s filthy noise cocktail goes by the name SPIN THE SKULL, and their self-titled debut just landed via Morbid And Miserable Records.
Seven tracks rip through garage rock, psychedelia, doom, and punk—“the rampaging rhythm of an angry goat on LSD,” guitars screaming like they’re possessed, flipping from deranged ecstasy to raw dread. As the band puts it: “Congratulations, you’ve just made SPIN THE SKULL.”
Portland’s death-grinding force TITHE drop their new record Communion In Anguish. The trio—Matt Eiseman, Alex Huddleston, and Kevin Swartz—expand on 2023’s Inverse Rapture, stacking Huddleston’s guttural lows on top of Eiseman’s tortured screams and Swartz’s pounding rhythms. The result is darker, heavier, and more unrelenting, pushing their hypnotic death metal into harsher territory.
Dark metallers NOVEMBERS DOOM just dropped their twelfth record Major Arcana. Six years after Nephilim Grove, the Chicago crew turn to tarot and divination for a concept that bleeds through the lyrics, the artwork, the whole atmosphere.
Formed in 1989, they’ve carried death-doom roots into a style they call “dark metal,” bending it with prog, folk, and classic rock shadows. Major Arcana plays that hand—ethereal openings, crushing weight, and the same bleak pulse they’ve ridden for three decades.
BARREN PATH (ex-GRIDLINK) just dropped their new single and video “Horizonless,” the second preview from their upcoming debut album *Grieving*, out October 31 via Willowtip Records. The track features Takafumi Matsubara, Bryan Fajardo, and Mitchell Luna, with Luna also directing the video.
Heavy metal’s prince of darkness takes a final bow on screen. OZZY OSBOURNE will be the subject of Ozzy: No Escape From Now, a Paramount+ documentary filmed in the last months of his life, set to premiere October 7. The trailer shows Osbourne, his family, and close friends reflecting on his later years, the 2019 accident that forced him off his farewell tour, and a one-off BLACK SABBATH reunion in Birmingham.
Directed by Tania Alexander with full involvement from the Osbourne family, the film pulls in voices from Tony Iommi, Duff McKagan, Slash, James Hetfield, Tom Morello, and Billy Corgan. Another project, Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home, will air on BBC on October 2 after being delayed at the family’s request.
New Jersey experimental metal force TOMBS have dropped a new single, “Last Days,” ahead of their sixth album Feral Darkness, out October 17 via Redefining Darkness Records. Sitting fifth on the tracklist, the song blends black metal aggression with gothic and death rock textures, leaning into apocalyptic themes and self-reflection.
The record was tracked in 2024, mixed by Justin Spaeth, mastered by Andreas Rosczyk, and features artwork by Seldon Hunt. “Last Days” follows earlier preview “The Sun Sets,” giving another glimpse into TOMBS’ bleak, atmospheric vision.
Polish technical thrash trio SPECIES are streaming their second LP Changelings in full ahead of its September 19 release on 20 Buck Spin — the label’s first from a Polish act. The record pushes their unorthodox songwriting further, mixing angular thrash aggression with death-tinged twists, dystopian paranoia, and a raw “live in the studio” feel.
Produced by the band with Filip Pągowski, Changelings closes on the 10-minute sprawl “Biological Masterpiece” and features artwork by Aleksandra Pawłowska. SPECIES recently supported Dark Angel in Wroclaw and Warsaw, and will play a hometown release show at New Vegas Club Ursynów on October 11 with Gallower and Pandemic.
Los Angeles black metal screamo experimentalists AGRICULTURE have released their new single “Dan’s Love Song,” lifted from the upcoming album The Spiritual Sound, out October 3 via The Flenser. Positioned at the heart of the record, the track continues the group’s dive into themes of suffering, joy, identity, and community.
Songwriters Dan Meyer and Leah Levinson drive the album’s contrasts — his pieces pushing into spiritual and existential intensity, hers grounding in queer history and collective survival. The Spiritual Sound threads those voices into a whole, following earlier singles “The Weight” and “Bodhidharma.” The band kick off touring tomorrow in Haarlem before a run of European and U.S. dates through the end of the year.
Polish death metal legends VADER have wrapped up their summer 2025 run, closing with three final shows in late August. Those marked their last European appearances this year, with the band now heading into the Carnival of Death Tour across the USA and Canada in October. Peter Wiwczarek hinted at a possible extra Polish weekend run in December, while 2026 will bring special shows for the 20th anniversary of Impressions In Blood, a reissue of Kingdom, and “something special” yet to be revealed. A new full-length is in the works, but fans should expect it in early 2027.
The band also recently issued Litany (25th Anniversary Reissue) on Metal Blade and dropped the three-track EP Humanihility via Nuclear Blast, their first recording as a quintet with returning guitarist Mauser and new drummer Michael. The EP includes the Mystic Festival anthem “Unbending.”
SUNBURSTER drop their second single “Exile To Elba,” another cut from their upcoming debut full-length No Semblance of Peaceful Existence. The track hits like a slab of NOLA-stained sludge—riff after riff buried under grit, strangled vocals pushing the weight down even further.
The record promises ten pieces of dark, filthy descent with no room for light, just groove and punishment. As the band puts it, this is “a deep dive into the lowest trenches of all things dark, filthy, and depressing as ever,” leaving no sense of hope in sight.
German stoner doom collective BUNSENBURNER have dropped a final track on Spotify titled “Hey friends — huge thanks to all of our followers <3 But we’re leaving this shithole here,” released September 19 via bensnburner records. The band made it clear their catalog will remain elsewhere but no new music will appear on the platform.
Founder Ben Krahl explained the move, saying Spotify “devalues music, underpays artists, and pushes algorithm-driven consumption.” Future releases will be available on other services, with Bandcamp highlighted as “the best way to truly support independent music.”
THE TONY DANZA TAPDANCE EXTRAVAGANZA made their live return on September 13 at WorkPlay Canteen in Birmingham, AL — their first show since May 2011. Fan-shot video confirms guitarist Josh Travis was absent from the lineup.
The band tore through a set stacked with classics, including I Don’t Mean To Oppose, But I Am The Ocean, 5 Deep on Charlie, Yippie-Kay-Yay Mother!, and closer Go Greyhound.
⤵ Rock
Alternative, Indie Rock, Hard Rock, Emo, Noise Rock, Experimental and more
Mid-Norwegian emo crew PROBLEMAN just dropped “Stille søndag,” the third and final single before their upcoming full-length Eg vannæ plantæ sjøl om di e død, out October 17 via Banditt Media. The track leads a three-song set that also includes “4. juli” and “Drøm uten drømmae,” released September 19.
Frontman Mathias Østrem keeps it raw in his local dialect, pushing through themes of daily struggles, longing, and identity. Since their 2022 debut EP, the band’s been grinding through Trondheim, Oslo, Malmö, and Copenhagen, carving out a loyal following while landing slots at festivals like Trondheim Calling and Klubbøya.
KARNIVOOL have finally confirmed details of their long-awaited fourth album In Verses, set for release on February 6th, 2026 via Forrester Savell. Alongside the announcement, the band shared a new single, Aozora, a track already familiar to fans from live sets.
Vocalist Ian Kenny explains the song’s concept: “The whole theme for that song is escaping, or waiting to escape… trying to find freedom amongst the complications of just being human.” With ten tracks forged over more than a decade of experimentation and life experience, In Verses promises a return that balances frustration, catharsis, and rediscovery of identity.
Arena-sized alt-rock lifers BIFFY CLYRO release their 10th album, Futique, out 19 September via Warner. The record leans reflective and uplifting, with cuts like “A Little Love,” “Hunting Season,” “Goodbye,” and “Two People In Love.” Simon Neil frames it as embracing the present after therapy and a rough patch with the band: “the album is about embracing whatever’s happening now.” As the opener puts it, “this ain’t utopia, but it’s better than hell.”
MULE JENNY have dropped their new album Take Enough Leeway via Vicious Circle Records, an eight-track release that stretches across jagged noise rock, grunge tension, and sprawling indie atmospheres. Songs like “Liberty’s for Sale” and “Second Thoughts” push past the six-minute mark, balancing sharp dissonance with drawn-out grooves, while shorter cuts like “Outsiders” and “You’re Trying to Tell Me Something” hit with raw immediacy.
To support the record, the band is hitting the road across France this fall, with stops in Paris, Rennes, Grenoble, and more, plus a handful of open dates in the south and west they’re looking to fill.
LIFE BETWEEN SLEEP have dropped their new single “Drifter”, out September 19, 2025. The Long Island alt-rock band lean into a dynamic, hard-hitting sound that balances powerful hard rockin’ with great production. At over five minutes, the track carries weight while keeping a melodic core, showcasing the band’s ability to move between atmosphere and drive without losing intensity. Great listen.
MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK are back with The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World, out now on Epitaph. Produced by Sean O’Keefe, the album finds the Minneapolis crew revisiting their signature blend of sharp pop-punk hooks and lyrical oversharing, this time with help from Patrick Stump on “Particle Physics,” Mat Kerekes on “Your Days Are Numbered,” and Sincere Engineer on “Things Like This.”
The record pulls no punches on themes of self-doubt, mental health, and growing older, pairing Justin Pierre’s biting honesty with the band’s tightened instrumentation. From the aching lines of “Downer” to the full-body sting of “Your Days Are Numbered,” it’s classic MCS—familiar yet freshly cut.
Emo/alt rock crew ARMBITE are rolling out their debut full-length dawg rock vol. 1, set for October 10 via We’re Trying Records. The record was tracked by Bridget Filiatrault of Lil Slugger and run through Jack Shirley’s Atomic Garden for mixing and mastering.
Emo/math rock outfit FOR EXAMPLE JOHN just dropped a new single, When the Birds Stop Singing, out September 15 via Studio Widnokrag. The track comes with an instrumental version featuring Jan Ostalski.
The Łódź band, started by guitarist Piotr Pietrzak as an international online project, grew into a full lineup after early collaborations with musicians from Australia, Japan, the UK, and the US. Their 2024 debut Hello Stranger set the tone, and now they’re moving into rougher, more energetic territory blending math rock, emo, and pop. This fall they’ll take the Stranger or Friend? tour through Opole, Wrocław, Berlin, Drezno, Herford, Warszawa, Kraków, and Łódź.
Norwegian outfit CLOSING EYES return today with their third album Searching for Shangri-La, recorded live at Studio Paradiso with Markus Forsgren. Stripped of heavy overdubs, the record leans on raw interplay and a newly defined band dynamic, steering their alternative rock into a more open, organic direction. A release party is set for October 10 at Revolver in Oslo.
Also out today is “Tenk om de venter på oss,” the second single from KRISTI BRUD’s upcoming album Et fall, due October 31. The track pushes their post-punk edge further while keeping the band’s melodic pull intact, following up the success of their Spellemann-winning debut.
French indie rock band PRETTY INSIDE have released their new single and video “The Person That I Hate,” the first taste of upcoming album Ever Gonna Heal, due December 12 via a coalition of French indie labels.
Frontman Alexis Deux-Seize pushes snarling vocals against hypnotic rhythms and gritty guitars, with the track balancing humor and darkness as it jabs at screen-age narcissism and self-loathing. The video was co-directed by Deux-Seize and Eddie FZone.
Fake-emo rocker SUMMERBRUISE just dropped their new album Infinity Guise through SideOneDummy Records. The 12-track set features cuts like “Making It Worse,” “Raptured Trax, pt. 4,” and “Cookie Monster Snapback,” the latter roping in Tades Sanville of Hot Mulligan. There’s also a collab with Carpool on “VAN.”
They’re taking the record on the road with Dear Maryanne and Moosecreek Park for the Fake Emo Fight Night tour starting November 6 in Pittsburgh, running through Baltimore on November 23.
FRANK TURNER announces The Next Ten Years triple vinyl set, out November 7th, 2025. The follow-up to his coveted The First Ten Years box (2015), this new 3LP release collects rare cuts, B-sides, covers, live sessions, collabs, and acoustic versions spanning 2015–2024. Each numbered set (limited to 4000) comes on clear vinyl with die-cut artwork, photo collages, and an etched side.
Turner previewed the set with a cover of Janis Ian’s “Better Times Will Come”, originally recorded at Ian’s invitation. Alongside this release, Turner continues a packed touring year, including a fall European arena run with DROPKICK MURPHYS and a December UK tour with his old band MILLION DEAD.
French math-rock oddballs TOTORRO have dropped “New Music,” a first taste from their upcoming album due October 3. The track arrives with a video by Aurélien Le Beau and sets the stage for a run of shows across France, Belgium, and Switzerland this fall.
The band will celebrate the release with a Paris release party on October 14 before hitting stages alongside Zombie Zombie and Mouse On The Keys on select dates.
Queer indie (punk) rockers BRUTALLIGATORS just dropped their new single Hold Fast. The track was produced with Rich Mandell, a long-time wish list collaborator for the band, who they called “an absolute dream.”
Alongside the single comes the announcement of their new album Still Here, set for release November 21 via Fika Recordings. The Hitchin group, known for their raw and emotional edge, say they’re grateful to finally get the record into the world after years of work.
L.A. indie-pop crew MASSAGE have shared “No North Star,” the third single from their upcoming album Coaster, out October 10. The track started with guitarist Andrew Romano aiming for something like The Clean or The Radio Dept., but it wound up a spaced-out duet with Gabrielle Ferrer, driven by Natalie Dealmeida’s standout drum work.
Coaster marks the band’s first new music in four years, following Oh Boy and Still Life. Romano says the record embraces their “in-betweenness,” adding, “We’re a pop group, plain and simple. We don’t want to just remind you of some other band. We want to write songs you can’t shake.”
ABANDCALLEDLOVE. have shared their new single The Love I Can’t Let Go, the second track to preview their debut EP Thriving Season, arriving September 26 via Valiant Sound Co. Written by frontman Ryan Chandler Love, the song began as a dark synth-rock sketch in 2019 before evolving into what he now calls his favorite cut on the record.
Lyrically, it confronts his past struggles with alcoholism, framed through the metaphor of a toxic relationship: a cycle of dependence he couldn’t escape despite recognizing the damage. Love recalls breaking down in front of his studio computer as the lyrics came together, and now, after two years of sobriety, he points to the track as his proudest moment on the EP.
Philadelphia emo cult heroes ALGERNON CADWALLADER have released a video for “noitanitsarcorP,” a track from their first new album in 14 years, Trying Not to Have a Thought, out now on Saddle Creek. The clip was directed by Darby Irrgang and Ricky Christian.
The record marks the band’s return with their original lineup and was written during retreats in Washington and Pennsylvania before being recorded at Joe Reinhart’s Headroom Studios. ALGERNON CADWALLADER will head out on a North American tour starting November 6 in Portland, Oregon, and wrapping December 15 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Post-punk rockers THE CHAMELEONS have returned with Arctic Moon, their first new studio album in 24 years, out now via Metropolis Records. The record finds the band shifting slightly from their earlier sound but still rooted in the same emotional depth, layered guitars, and intricate lyricism that marked their catalog. Vox summed it up simply: “ARCTIC MOON is finally finished and we’re all really pleased with how it has turned out!”
The album closes on “Saviours Are a Dangerous Thing,” where Vox critiques the current political climate: “I just see too many echoes of the 1930s in what’s been going on in the world.” With the lineup of Vox, Reg Smithies, Stephen Rice, Danny Ashberry, and Todd Demma back in sync, the band is also set to hit the road this fall, with U.S. dates running from late September through October.
Swiss artist ELIE ZOÉ has shared “the whole of the moon,” the fourth and final single ahead of their upcoming album shifting forms, out October 10 via Humus Records. The track pushes the duo format to its limits, with Luc Hess’s drumming driving alongside Zoé’s raw guitar work. Recorded and mixed by Louis Jucker and mastered by Johann Meyer, it arrives with a video edited by Zoé from live adaptation footage.
The single, written as a song of reconciliation for Emilie Zoé, frames the record’s themes of transformation and continuity. ELIE ZOÉ will tour Europe this fall with THE YOUNG GODS.
GREYHAVEN dropped their final single “Where The Light Leaves Us” today, tying directly into their upcoming full-length Keep It Quiet, due October 10 via Solid State Records.
Frontman Brent Mills calls the track a self-check: “Last year was a bit of a struggle for me… It’s a conversation I was having with myself. I’m saying, ‘You’ve got to dial it back. It’s not going in the right direction.’” After touring the UK and Europe with Better Lovers, GREYHAVEN hit the road across the U.S. this November and December.
Berlin trio PABST have unveiled a new single, “twenty three,” featuring Blush Always. Out now via Alcopop! Records and Ketchup Tracks, the track is a nostalgic anthem about moving past your twenties and the tension between youth and adulthood.
The song is accompanied by a video shot in the Brandenburg dunes, where both artists perform among mirrors reflecting the landscape. “twenty three” is the third cut from PABST’s upcoming album This is normal now, set for release on November 28, 2025.
MIKE PATTON has joined forces with Scott and Seth Avett of THE AVETT BROTHERS for a new project called AVTT/PTTN. Their self-titled album of original songs arrives November 14 through Thirty Tigers in association with Ramseur Records and Ipecac Recordings. The first single, “Eternal Love,” is streaming now.
Patton calls his role “a long distant cousin… a brother that was orphaned,” while Scott Avett describes the collaboration as “what making is supposed to be: in secret and with no ambition.” The nine-track record marks a full-circle moment for the Avetts, who once studied and imitated Patton’s work in their youth.
Los Angeles alt-metal hard rockers AEGES have dropped their new single “Do You Really Wanna Know.”
Formed in 2011, the band carved out a sound that fuses post-hardcore grit, prog touches, and desert rock weight. Built on jagged riffs and heavy vocal harmonies, their catalog has stretched from the raw force of The Bridge to the sharpened punch of Weightless. The new track carries that same drive forward, pushing their mix of melody and crunch into darker, heavier corners.
Experimental noise rock trio IRK just dropped a new video for Wedding, Berlin, now streaming via Everything Is Noise. The track is a jagged preview of their second LP The Seeing House, out September 26 on Nefarious Industries.
Filmed in Leeds with longtime collaborator John Figler, the video mirrors the song’s hypnotic churn. Bassist Ed Snell calls it “a great job of matching the visuals to the jagged, hypnotic feel of the track,” while drummer Matthew Deamer adds, “if Born Under Punches by Talking Heads and Acres Of Skin by Zs had some sort of awful mutant baby, it would hopefully sound kind of like this.”
SHINER have been at it for over thirty years, twisting heavy, melodic rock into something layered and strange, always chasing honesty over polish. Their new record BelieveYouMe lands September 26, pulling from instinct, contradiction, and the kind of wear that comes with time. Recorded mostly live at Paul Malinowski’s Massive Sound and mixed by Mario Quintero of Spotlights, the band leans into weight and vulnerability all at once.
The latest single, So Far So, follows Asleep In The Trunk and The Alligator, each showing SHINER still restless, still sharp. Lyrically the album runs through aging, deception, connection—raw themes delivered with the same off-kilter heft that’s kept them weird and vital all this time.
CAMP TRASH are back with their second full-length, Two Hundred Thousand Dollars, out October 31, 2025 via Count Your Lucky Stars Records. Two tracks are already streaming—Signal Them In and Between the X’s—showcasing the band’s knack for writing sharp, short bursts of emo-inflected indie punk.
The album, recorded and mixed by James Palko and mastered by Zach Weeks at God City Studios, introduces Kyle Meggison (ex-WORST PARTY EVER) on drums. Built around loose character sketches of hustlers, gamblers, and small-time dreamers, the songs draw from the band’s obsessions with FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE and GUIDED BY VOICES. Vinyl and digital pre-orders are live now through Bandcamp, with limited 12” editions shipping on release day.
RADIOHEAD’s upcoming UK and European arena run sold out instantly after going on sale September 12, leaving fans scrambling. The band confirmed that an official resale will open on October 13, urging fans not to buy through third-party sites, warning: “Those tickets are not real.”
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The tour marks RADIOHEAD’s first performances since 2018, with residencies set for Madrid, Bologna, Copenhagen, Berlin, and four nights at London’s O2 Arena this November and December. Philip Selway explained that the band’s 2024 rehearsals “felt really good” and sparked the decision to play shows again after seven years away.
UK alt-rock veterans WHITE LIES have unveiled a new video for “Keep Up,” the latest cut from their upcoming seventh record Night Light, out November 7 via Play It Again Sam. The song rides a motorik pulse and carnival-like choruses, with the band describing it as “a headstrong pop song – uncomplicated and eager for purity and no speedbumps.”
The trio—Harry McVeigh, Charles Cave, and Jack Lawrence-Brown—are also set to hit the road in early 2026 for a European tour, with multiple sold-out dates already in London, Manchester, and Brussels.
FOO FIGHTERS made their live return September 13 with an intimate 900-capacity show at the Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo, California. The 25-song set introduced new drummer Ilan Rubin, stepping in after Josh Freese’s departure earlier this year.
The band pulled from nearly their entire catalog, skipping only Sonic Highways and avoiding any new material. A snippet of Motörhead’s Ace Of Spades slipped into No Son Of Mine, and their socials later teased producer Rick Rubin, hinting that fresh recordings may be on the horizon.
The band also dropped a tongue-in-cheek AI promo teasing a tour, with Dave Grohl promising the “100 percent real, raw, human element of rock ’n’ roll” before flashing a fake setlist and ending with “Stay tuned… there’s more to come.”
The clip follows their first gig with new drummer ILAN RUBIN, formerly of NINE INCH NAILS, who officially joined this summer after Josh Freese’s exit. At the California show, Grohl introduced him as “the most badass motherfucker,” while the band mixed staples like “Everlong” with rarities like “Exhausted” and “Winnebago.”
Dreamy indie duo BEAUTY SLEEP have dropped a new single, “Send It Out To Sea.” The Derry pair describe the track as “the most dreamy Beauty Sleep moment yet,” a song about spilling your darkest secrets to the ocean.
The single arrives as they gear up for their sophomore album The Whole Damn Cake, due in a month, following earlier singles “Big + Bad” and “Unfamiliar.” A video for “Send It Out To Sea,” shot at Kinnego Bay with local collaborators, is also out now.
Montreal noise rock outsiders ANTENNA93 just put out their new single “Jack in the Green” via Long Vowel, dropping it right before their Pop Montreal slot and an Ontario run. The track leans into folk horror, drawing on Robin Hardy’s “The Wicker Man” while smashing black metal tremolo, noise grit, and art punk tension into one anxious mess. See our full feature on this release here.
Norwegian noise rock misfits HARABALL finally drag their new album “Fear of the Plow” into daylight, landing September 19 through Fysisk Format. What began as a follow-up to 2019’s “Hypno” twisted into something darker and more absurd, pulling in scraps of 60s psych, post punk flashes, and odd lyrical fixations — a year-old loaf of bread, a 900-year-old man, and the grind of life past forty.
See our full feature on Haraball at this location.
FRIGHTFUL PLACES just shared “Third Wheel,” a track that leans into the awkwardness of not fitting in. Written by Kevin Tiernan and cut with drummer Antonio Mastroianni, it was produced by Chris Teti at Silver Bullet Studios and mastered by Kris Crummett. We premiered the track earlier this week.
Tiernan says he wanted raw energy in the vein of Movements and Thrice, even pulling from Tubular Bells for its off-kilter timing. The song avoids neat layering, letting the uneven edges stand, with lines like “I’m the third wheel tripping at your heels / Step on back, I’m just happy to be here” pushing straight into that unease.
EVAN GREER has just released the new album AMAB/ACAB via Get Better Records. Out September 19, 2025, the record blends punk, folk, and political urgency with a wide roster of collaborators including Max Collins (EVE 6), Liz Berlin, Victoria Ruiz (DOWNTOWN BOYS), Ryan Cassata, and Emma’s Revolution. Across twelve tracks, Greer ties personal and collective struggles together—songs like “Protect Trans Kids (WTFIWWY)”, “Pinkwashing”, and “Hellraiser” push forward the activist core of the record.
Rock legends AEROSMITH have announced One More Time, a new EP made with Yungblud — their first fresh music in 13 years. The five-track release lands November 21 and includes a remix of the 1976 cut “Back in the Saddle.”
The first single, “My Only Angel,” drops this Friday. The collab follows Steven Tyler and Joe Perry’s onstage link-up with Yungblud at Ozzy Osbourne’s farewell concert in July and their joint tribute at the MTV VMAs earlier this month.
Grunge heavyweights SOUNDGARDEN are still working to finish the eight tracks they began with Chris Cornell before his 2017 death, but drummer Matt Cameron says the record won’t drop before the band’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction on November 8. “There’s not a set release date or anything as of yet… I’m excited for people to hear it,” he told *Billboard*.
Cameron described the project as both empowering and gut-wrenching: hearing Cornell’s voice blasting through unfinished hard rock songs while being reminded he’s gone. Guitarist Kim Thayil is still refining his parts, and the band plans to perform at the Los Angeles ceremony, which will stream via Disney+.
⤵ Experimental / Electronic / Other
TREPANERINGSRITUALEN has released Diadem of Fire, a new work channeling ritualistic death industrial into a dense, occult-driven experience. Out September 19, 2025 via Ant-Zen and Raubbau, the release is available digitally and in limited physical formats, including a numbered 7” vinyl with a 48-page art book and a 3” CD with postcard set.
Tracks like A Diadem of Fire and With Hand and Heart draw on tribal percussion, metallic textures, and guttural invocations, evoking both Scandinavian black metal ferocity and the oppressive weight of industrial ritual music. Accompanied by stark visuals, the release positions itself as a heretical hymn and immersive descent into apocalyptic soundscapes.
Icelandic collective MÚM have returned with History of Silence, their first full-length since 2013’s Smilewound. Out September 19 via Morr Music, the eight-track record was pieced together over two years across Italy, Reykjavík, Berlin, Athens, Helsinki, New York, and Prague, with strings recorded by Sinfonia Nord in Akureyri.
The album drifts between electronic textures and acoustic fragments, voices and feedback, quiet string passages and fractured melodies—songs that move unpredictably, like weather patterns. Limited vinyl, CD, and cassette editions accompany the release, with tour dates set in the US around launch.
Spanish pianist and vocalist ANTINOË has unveiled Threshold, the first single from her upcoming album The Fold, out November 21 via Dark Essence Records.
Built around stark piano and her resonant, ethereal voice, the track drags neoclassical beauty into a shadowed space—what she calls “a desperate cry for mortality,” twisting panic and suffocation into a single suspended moment on the edge of life.
Genre-twisting madman IGORRR just let loose a new full-length, Amen. Twelve cuts that veer from grind and glitch to absurd beauty, flipping between chaos and fragile detail in the blink of an eye.
Experimental hip-hop agitators CLIPPING. just reloaded Dead Channel Sky into Dead Channel Sky Plus. The record’s been reshuffled, stretched to 24 tracks, and packed with new cuts like “Night of Heaven” with Counterfeit Madison and Kid Koala, “Forever War,” “Hard-Eyes,” and “Mirrorshades Pt. 1.”
Synthpop shapeshifters NATION OF LANGUAGE just dropped their fourth record, Dance Called Memory. Frontman Ian Richard Devaney wrote the songs in stripped-down solitude, describing it as “a great way to distract yourself… when you are depressed.” The result leans spectral and spacious, a guitar-born meditation stretched through synths into something both ghostly and human.
The band has been building steady since Introduction, Presence and A Way Forward, with Strange Disciple in 2023 landing Rough Trade’s Album of the Year. This one carries that trajectory—personal melancholy refracted into widescreen collective mourning.
SANAM are back with Sametou Sawtan (“I Heard a Voice”), their second album arriving September 19, 2025 via Constellation Records.
Recorded between Beirut, Byblos, and Paris with producer Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, the record bends free rock and jazz into Arabic folk traditions, carried by the sextet’s mix of vocals, buzuq, guitars, synths, and percussion. Lyrics draw on Omar Khayyam, Imam Ali, Ibn Nubata, and Egyptian folk songs, while the sound moves between haunted ballads and explosive improvisation. Mastered by Heba Kadry and wrapped in artwork by Omar Khouri, it’s a dense, restless work that extends SANAM’s vision of experimental Arabic rock.
⤵ Pop
Pop, Synth Pop
THE XX are officially gearing up for their comeback, dropping rehearsal footage just days after being confirmed for Coachella 2026. In the clip, Romy, Oliver Sim, and Jamie xx are back in the studio, captioning it with “Picking up our instruments again. See you in the desert?” Their return follows recent festival appearances and a guest spot together on Jamie’s 2024 single “Waited All Night.” With a fourth album in the works—their first since I See You (2017)—the trio say they’re blending lessons from their solo projects while keeping the unmistakable xx sound intact.
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KENNYHOOPLA drops his second EP of the year, conditions of an orphan//, out September 19 via The Orchard/Garbagehill. Produced with Zac Farro of Paramore and Mike Elizondo, the record dives into 2000s dance-punk chaos, balancing jagged riffs and pogo rhythms with raw grief and sharp self-awareness.
Kenny frames the project around abandonment and survival, saying, “A lot of the time, I just feel very alone, like an orphan. I’m just trying to find a home, literally and metaphorically — as a person, and as someone in the music industry.” The lead cut “orphan//” snaps back to 2004 energy while keeping its focus tight and personal.
PEOPLE R UGLY roped in MARK HOPPUS for their new video “Wake Up”, and he shows up as a hilariously clueless high school principal running a talent show gone wrong. The BLINK-182 bassist leans into the role with cringey pep talks and bad puns before the clip flips into full-on Napoleon Dynamite territory, with drummer Tristan Kevitch delivering an awkward but committed dance routine. Things escalate with pyrotechnics and a fiery climax, only to reveal the chaos as fantasy. The track, written during a retreat in Oakhurst, CA, captures that dizzy moment of locking eyes on a dancefloor, while Hoppus’ totally improvised dialogue adds an unpredictable edge. It lands ahead of PEOPLE R UGLY’s debut album Garage, out October 24th.
DAMON ALBARN took part in Brian Eno’s Together For Palestine benefit at Wembley Arena, performing first with Eno, Paul Weller, and others on a specially composed piece, then joining the London Arab Orchestra and Juzour Dance Collective for a medley of Palestinian songs. Later, GORILLAZ debuted a new track, “Damascus,” with Yasiin Bey and Omar Souleyman, previewing their upcoming album The Mountain (out March 20, 2026). The night, which raised nearly £1.5m for Gaza relief, also featured speeches from Florence Pugh, Nicola Coughlan, Richard Gere, and Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos.
⤵ General / Industry News
MASSIVE ATTACK have announced they’re pulling their entire catalog from Spotify, citing CEO Daniel Ek’s $700 million investment in AI military startup Helsing.
The Bristol group, long outspoken against militarism and Israel’s campaign in Gaza, said artists’ labor and fans’ money “ultimately funds lethal, dystopian technologies.” Alongside more than 400 other artists and labels, they’ve also joined the No Music For Genocide campaign, blocking their music in Israel while urging majors to follow. In a statement, they drew parallels to artist boycotts of apartheid South Africa, calling for musicians to “transfer their sadness, anger and artistic contributions into a coherent, reasonable & vital action.” Spotify responded in their Instagram comments, stressing no direct link to Helsing’s work in Gaza and claiming its tech is focused on Ukraine. MASSIVE ATTACK currently still appear on Spotify as the label processes the takedown.
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LIVE NATION and TICKETMASTER are back under fire—this time hit with a fresh lawsuit from the FTC and seven states accusing them of working hand-in-hand with scalpers to bleed fans dry.
The complaint says they’ve been running a “bait and switch” game on ticket prices, hiding fees until checkout, while also letting brokers blow past purchase limits to scoop up thousands of tickets and flip them on Ticketmaster’s own resale platform at inflated prices. The kicker? The feds say the company’s been “triple dipping” fees—when brokers buy, when they relist, and when fans buy again—racking up billions between 2019 and 2024. The move stacks onto last year’s DOJ antitrust suit aiming to break up the giant, adding even more heat on a company already accused of monopolizing live music at the expense of artists and ordinary fans.
A new player just dropped into the streaming wars. CODA MUSIC has launched in the US and Canada, calling itself the first fully licensed on-demand premium service to arrive in nearly a decade. Unlike the usual algorithm-heavy suspects, it leans on user-made playlists and social feeds, putting curation back in human hands.
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CEO Randy Fusee says, “True discovery happens in those unexpected moments – not through recycled recommendations like ‘If you like artist A, here’s artist B.’ Algorithms can’t replicate that. Only humans can.” CODA also pushes a “FanDirect” model, letting subscribers funnel a dollar of their monthly fee straight to an independent artist. Expansion to Europe and Asia is set for 2026.
YOUTUBE just dropped a batch of AI tools aimed squarely at the Shorts crowd, rolling them out first in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The standout is a Speech to Song feature built on Google DeepMind’s Lyria 2 model, which flips spoken dialogue from videos into full-on musical soundtracks. Users can pick styles like “chill,” “danceable,” or “fun,” while SynthID watermarks mark the AI’s fingerprints.
The platform also teased Edit with AI, using DeepMind’s Veo 3 to auto-cut footage, add transitions, and even crank out voiceovers. Other experiments include motion transfer for cloning dance moves, style transformations, and object insertions. YOUTUBE says it’s leaning hard into remix culture, positioning these tools as ways for creators to twist everyday dialogue into new soundtracks for Shorts.
Five members of PUSSY RIOT — Maria Alyokhina, Diana Burkot, Taso Pletner, Olga Borisova, and Alina Petrova — have been sentenced in absentia by a Moscow court to between eight and thirteen years in prison. The charges center on anti-war performances, including the 2022 video Mama, Don’t Watch TV and a 2024 protest in Munich involving Putin’s portrait.
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The activists, all exiled, rejected the sentences as politically motivated. Diana Burkot issued a statement underscoring the absurdity of receiving eight years for free expression while violent offenders in Russia serve far less, often returning from military service in Ukraine. She reaffirmed her anti-war stance, condemned the Russian government as patriarchal and abusive, and declared: “Fortunately, they have no access to my physical body. And even if I were in Russia, I would say the same thing: go fuck yourself.”
Previous roundups:
- Sept 5-12
- August 14 – September 5
- August 8-14
- August 1-8
- July 25 – August 1
- July 23-25
- July 21-23
- July 19-21
- July 16-18
- July 12-15
- July 9-11
- July 5-9
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