One week, full overflow. In Shorts: New Releases, Sept 5–12th packs fresh cuts across the map: Hardcore/Metalcore, Screamo/Post-Hardcore, Post-Rock & Post-Metal, Punk/Pop-Punk, Alt/Indie Rock, Post-Punk/Shoegaze/Noise, Metal & Black Metal, plus a few curveballs in Electronic/Experimental and straight-up Industry News. Scroll fast, pick your poison, back the bands.
⤵ Hardcore / Metalcore
SPEED are back with a new EP, All My Angels, dropping October 23 on Flatspot Records and Last Ride Records. It’s three tracks deep, produced by Elliott Gallart, and written in the aftermath of losing three close friends. Heavy subject matter, heavier sound.
First single “Peace” landed this week with a video to match. Jem Siow keeps it straight: the track is about finding calm in the middle of grief, and turning that clarity into something sharp enough to cut back at life.
The band hit the road September 15 with Turnstile across North America—shows with Amyl & The Sniffers, Mannequin Pussy, Blood Orange, Jane Remover—before heading to Europe with Malevolence in November. No filler here, just SPEED at full weight.
For the first time in seven years, Polish metal/hardcore vets FRONTSIDE has checked into the studio.
Frontside – the pioneers of crossover and metalcore in Poland – are back with a new album. The band has just entered the recording studio to begin work on their next release, the successor to the acclaimed Zmartwychwstanie (Resurrection).
This is a unique moment in the band’s history – on the upcoming record we will hear the vocals of Mollie for the first time, marking a new chapter in the sound and energy of the group. The recording session began at the Prusiewicz Studio in Owczary, overseen by respected producer Tomek “ZED” Zalewski, known for working with some of the biggest names on the Polish metal scene.
“The new album will retain the uncompromising heaviness and aggression that have always defined Frontside. It combines refined arrangements and melodic contrasts with the brutality for which the band is known. For us, this is an entirely new stage. We feel hunger, we feel power – and there is no calculation here, only a pure need to create. This is material that has matured with us, and now explodes in a form that we ourselves expected from us.”
Las Vegas hardcore outfit ROMAN CANDLE unleash their new single Fire In The Night Sky Forever, accompanied by a striking video and the announcement of their signing to Sumerian Records. The track rips through betrayal, punishment, and self-resurrection, carried by Piper Ferrari’s searing vocals and Jonas Vece’s cutting guitar work.
“To us, Fire In the Night Sky Forever is not just the embodiment of rage, but also a harsh confrontation. We’ve been working on this release for quite some time, and we’re so stoked to finally be putting it out. Having the support from Sumerian is an honor and we would not be here without the love from everyone that has been on our side since day one,” the band shares.
Formed by Ferrari and Vece after the dissolution of sowithout., ROMAN CANDLE quickly became a defining force in the Las Vegas underground. Their debut EP Discount Fireworks (2022) laid the foundation, but it’s through relentless touring with Dying Wish, Boundaries, Militarie Gun, Foreign Hands, Pool Kids and appearances alongside Touche Amore, Botch, Better Lovers, that the band’s reputation as a volatile live act has exploded.
As a femme-fronted band, ROMAN CANDLE also bring a distinct perspective to the hardcore landscape. Ferrari’s presence reshapes expectations in a genre too often dominated by sameness, while the band’s mix of screamo lineage (Saetia, Poison the Well) and modern hardcore urgency marks them as a rare voice willing to push both sound and culture forward.
With a full-length album in the works, Fire In The Night Sky Forever serves as the ignition point for this new era — a clear signal that ROMAN CANDLE are set to burn far beyond their Nevada roots.
Hardcore punks PLANET ON A CHAIN have released the Poor Excuse EP through Revelation Records, offering three tracks ahead of their upcoming full-length Ritual Routine, out October 3. Recorded and mixed by Jack Shirley and mastered by Will Killingsworth, the new material sharpens their fast, politically-charged hardcore with frantic drums and breakneck riffs.
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The title track takes aim at the platforming of figures like Kyle Rittenhouse. “I don’t want these people to be looked up upon,” vocalist Dave Ackerman says. “I am not a fan of the prison system but I also don’t think cold blooded murder should be rewarded with lucrative speaking arrangements and book deals.” Ritual Routine will follow the band’s 2024 release Culture Of Death and cements PLANET ON A CHAIN’s place on Revelation’s roster.
KUBLAI KHAN TX just dropped their new single “The Mountain of Corsicana” via Rise Records, paired with a Max Moore–directed video shot in Kentucky. The track’s lyrics wrestle with mortality and legacy, framed as a call from the mountain and a reckoning with fate.
The release lands ahead of the band’s massive North American run kicking off September 18 at Louder Than Life in Louisville, KY. They’ll be joined by DRAIN, GIDEON, and GUILT TRIP, with many shows already sold out.
The official music video was directed by Max Moore (Knocked Loose, Spiritbox, A Day To Remember).
Chaotic grinders DEAF CLUB marked September 11 with the release of their new video “Pain In The Assery,” created in collaboration with activist collective Indecline. The track lands ahead of their second LP We Demand a Permanent State of Happiness, due September 19 via Southern Lord and Three One G.
Full write-up and context for “Pain In The Assery” is up now on IDIOTEQ.
Salt Lake City hardcore wrecking crew MASK are set to drop their debut LP Aggressive Contempt on October 3 via Convulse Records. The first track, “Heresy,” is already streaming and wastes no time in showing where the record’s headed — straight into hardcore devastation.
Tracked and mixed by Taylor Young at The Pit and mastered by Brad Boatright, the album packs ten cuts with titles like “Pestilence,” “Stalker,” and “Retrokill,” leaving little doubt about the tone.
MASK — Remington Wright, Ian Wright, McCabe Johnson, and Tre Steedman — keep it lean and brutal.
Dallas/OK straight edge hardcore band LIFE FORCE have dropped Tour Promo 2025, a three-song cassette released to mark their southeast U.S. run. Out now on Bandcamp, it features two new originals — “Alive and Well” and “The Difference” — plus a cover of CHAIN OF STRENGTH’s “True Till Death.”
French rock’n’roll infused rowdy hardcore punks TEENAGE HEARTS just dropped their new Quality Time EP through Tough Ain’t Enough Records, in collaboration with Primator Crew and Joe Pogo. The release packs four tracks, including the title cut alongside “Always Broke,” “Gotta Get Rid Of You,” and “T’es Sans Espoir.”
Hardcore legends INTEGRITY will tour Eastern Europe this December, hitting 11 cities including Krakow, Prague, Budapest, Vienna, Zagreb, Sofia, and Bucharest.
See the dates here.
Birmingham hardcore/noise unit BROKEN LUNGS have dropped their new single Funeral Envy. Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Myroslav Borys and paired with artwork by lifemoves.png, the track leans into the band’s heavy, chaotic energy with a macabre edge.
Marseille’s WAKE THE DEAD just put out a new one, “Your Last Stand,” through Useless Pride Records. Produced and mixed by Florent Salfati of Landmvrks, it’s three and a half minutes of straight-up hardcore—betrayal, anger, and payback laid bare in the lyrics.
The track doesn’t bother dressing things up. It’s sharp, pissed off, and to the point, exactly what you’d expect from a band that’s been grinding their way out of the south of France.
This should be in the ROCK section below, but… Baltimore’s TURNSTILE have reworked a batch of songs from their 2025 album Never Enough for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, delivering stripped-down takes on “Dreaming,” “Sunshower,” “I Care,” “Never Enough,” and “Birds.”
The performance lands just ahead of The Never Enough Tour, which kicks off September 15 in Nashville. The run stretches through October with SPEED and Jane Remover on all dates, plus select appearances from Amyl & The Sniffers, Blood Orange, and Mannequin Pussy.
Recorded between Los Angeles and Baltimore and produced by Brendan Yates, Never Enough stands alongside the companion film Turnstile: Never Enough, directed by Yates and guitarist Pat McCrory. Both extend the band’s ongoing push to reframe what hardcore can sound and look like in 2025.
Melodic hardcore sad boys from NO HOPE just dropped their new ripper “Countryside” — four minutes of sharp, melodic hardcore straight outta Bendigo, cooked up with their mate Leeroy at Yeehaa Studios and polished at Tide Studio London, out now on Set The Fire Records. Channeling The Carrier, Verse vibes, with their own take on emotional hardcore. Great listen.
Nashville heavy metal/hardcore hybrid STILL HERE have dropped a new track, Apathy,. Clocking in at just 1:43, the song hits fast and sharp, distilling the band’s raw aggression into a short blast.
Rotterdam-based international metal/hardcore act PROVISIONAL have unleashed their new EP Deep Vision, out now on all platforms. The record pushes their dark, crushing sound further, blending crawling, heavy passages with bursts of raw aggression.
The band celebrated with a release show on September 11th at Vessel 11, joined by CURSELIFTER and THRILLED, and they’ll also appear in the Bands finale at Rotown Rotterdam on September 20th.
Jacob Bannon has launched a Substack to chronicle the making of a new CONVERGE album, with his latest entry As I Come Into Focus, You Fade Away diving into themes of midlife, mortality, and creative urgency. He describes channeling grief, anger, and reflection into the recording process, capturing the raw energy behind the band’s current sessions.
CONVERGE will return to the stage this fall with a set at Furnace Fest in Birmingham, AL on October 5, followed by the Saddest Day 2025 event in Boston on December 13 alongside Touche Amore, Coalesce, The Hope Conspiracy, Soul Glo, Year Of The Knife, Stress Positions, and Wormwood, with more to be announced.
OVERTHROW have dropped their new single “End Complete,” the opener to their upcoming record Setting the Price, due October 3rd. The track kicks in with double bass drums before locking into riff-heavy shifts and a punishing breakdown.
Formed in 1995, the Long Island hardcore crew first made waves with a split on Stillborn Records and their 1999 full-length React via Triple Crown. After disbanding in 2001, they regrouped following a 2022 reunion show with Strife and Shutdown, leading to this new full-length. Recorded with Chris Fasulo and mastered by Dave Roman, the album carries nine cuts of metallic hardcore rooted in real-world struggles.
KING YOSEF has released Spire of Fear, his newest full-length on Bleakhouse, produced with Kurt Ballou and Zach Weeks at GodCity and mastered by Alan Douches.
The record spans eleven tracks that swing between industrial hardcore intensity and slower, atmospheric passages, with guest appearances from Holy Fawn, The Bleakhouse Choir, VTB, Slime NW, and Insula Iscariot. Lead single “Molting Fear,” filmed inside an abandoned nuclear plant, stripped instrumentation down to drums and warped electronics, pushing his sound into darker territory.
See our special feature posted this week at this location.
Sydney hardcore outfit CURSES just dropped their new single Snake, taken from the upcoming EP Born From Pain, out now via Kingpin Records. The track arrives with a video directed by Aaron Streatfeild and shot on Gadigal land, pairing raw intensity with lyrics about betrayal, rage, and survival.
Recorded at The Chameleon Studios with Elliott Gallart, the release also features the cut Born From Pain. Heavy, direct, and leaning into that “power slap in the face” vibe, CURSES keep their sound firmly rooted in the hardcore tradition of their scene.
COOKED dropped “Hard Luck”, a 2:25 blast of hardcore punk straight out of Burlington, Vermont. Fast, sharp, and wired with pure urgency — it’s the kind of track that throws you headfirst into the day.
New England hardcore punks RESTRAINING ORDER have released their third full-length Future Fortune. Out now, the record follows years of relentless shows and millions of streams, with the band doubling down on their no-frills approach.
German melodic hardcore outfit OFFCELL have dropped their debut EP Still Here, recorded in 2024 with longtime scene ally Lari Eiden. The four–piece — Dirk Modrok, Eike Grams, André Liegl, and Julien Jung — pull decades of Darmstadt and Frankfurt underground experience into six sharp tracks rooted in reflection, disillusionment, and the grind of everyday life.
Since its release, OFFCELL has played Hamburg, Berlin, and Solingen, with a second EP already in the pipeline. We’ve got a full track-by-track breakdown with the band this week on IDIOTEQ.
Chaotic, crushing hardcore outfit SPLIT//BITE have unleashed a new two-track single Love-Letter-for-You.txt.vbs, out September 12, 2025 via Fucking North Pole Records. The release rips through in just over five minutes, led by the glitchy title cut and backed by the feral surge of “LOOK2ME.”
Hailing from Bergen, Norway, SPLIT//BITE push their sound with raw urgency and digital-edge menace, dropping short blasts that feel built for sweaty, collapsing rooms.
British metallic hardcore wrecking crew WOLVES have finally delivered their self-titled debut full-length, out now through Ripcord Records, featured here on IDIOTEQ earlier this week. Nearly a decade in the making, the record traces back to their 2016 formation from ex-members of Bludger, Finish Him!, Ashes Of Maybelle, and EFK. After cutting their teeth with the frantic Gone Are The White Flags EP in 2017 and years of chaotic live shows with Sectioned, Urne, and Renounced, the band hit pause during the pandemic before regrouping with a heavier, sharper vision.
Berlin hardcore crew DRINK DEEP have released their new EP Burning House today via Control Records. The four-song set runs just over six minutes, tearing through sharp blasts like “Ringer” and “Separation” before closing with the slightly longer “For.”
Formed in 2022, the band recorded the EP with David Deutsch at 1408 Productions in Hannover, with backing vocals from Lucas and Andrew. Raw, short, and direct, Burning House captures the stripped-down energy of Berlin hardcore in its purest form.
North Carolina hardcore crew FADING SIGNAL have released their new single “Misery Lane,” out now via Indecision Records. The track lands ahead of their debut full-length Only An Echo, due October 10, 2025.
Sacramento hardcore crew KIND EYES have returned with a new single, Ode to an Effigy, released September 11, 2025.
SCOWL have announced an Australian tour to close out 2025, bringing END IT and SECRET WORLD along for the ride. The run kicks off November 28 in Brisbane and hits major cities including Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, and Melbourne, with stops at festivals and clubs across the country.
SCOWL will also hit the road this fall with SUNAMI for a massive U.S. run, joined by MIDRIFT, NUOVO TESTAMENTO, NEVER ENDING GAME, and WHIPPED depending on the dates.
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SHAI HULUD will return to Australia and New Zealand in January 2026, their first visit since Soundwave 2013 and nearly two decades since last appearing in New Zealand. The run reunites the band with former vocalist Geert van der Velde, who rejoined them onstage at Furnace Fest 2024.
The setlist will focus on their 2003 album That Within Blood Ill-Tempered, alongside cuts from across their catalog. Tickets went on sale September 3 via Evil Eye Touring.
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Metallic death metal unit EPHEMERAL will release their debut full-length Envisaged Human Collapse on October 3 through Armageddon Records and Crows Nest Records. Recorded at The Crypt Studios by Nick Corcillo and mastered by Arthur Rizk, the eight-track record follows the band’s 2023 Tower Of Silence EP.
The new single “Bled Dry” is out now, built on shifty guitars, guttural vocals, and a groove-heavy breakdown at the 1:50 mark. “This song is about being bled dry in life, either from working your life away, or by the people in your life,” the band explains. EPHEMERAL—featuring members of Collateral, Domain, and Undercrypt—will bring the material to the stage at Blackheaven Fest in Hollywood, FL on October 18–19.
UNBROKEN’s closing chapters “Fall On Proverb” and “Absentee Debate” have been collected as the Fin 12″ EP, out now via Three One G. Originally marking the band’s final statements in the mid-90s, the records carried both raw intensity and emotional weight, setting them apart in hardcore with a darker, punk-inflected approach.
Formed in San Diego, the group—Dave Claiborne, Steven Andrew Miller, Eric Allen, Todd Beattie, and Rob Moran—built a reputation on unpredictability and refusal to conform, blending straight edge philosophy with eclectic punk and metal influences. Their legacy remains tied to Life.Love.Regret, still regarded as a touchstone of metalcore and hardcore, while the posthumous Fin underlines just how much of that spirit endures.
FIGHT FROM WITHIN and SAVING VICE just linked up on a wild collab that flips the script—two singles, two vocal swaps, each band stepping into the other’s skin.
“Trauma Souba” and “Full Send” capture the chemistry they built on tour, with Robbie from SV pushing the idea after nights of guest spots on stage. Mikey (FFW) says the lyrics lined up with their own story, while Tyler (SV) calls it a celebration of friendship and chaos. It’s DIY, heavy as hell, and a perfect crossover for both camps—metalcore kids, this one’s for you.
Pittsburgh grindcore crew UNDERNEATH are set to release their new EP In The Shadow Of A Watchtower on September 19. The record is up for pre-order now, with track four, “Building Buildings Where Buildings Are Built,” streaming in advance and featuring Chris Fox of See You Next Tuesday.
The six-track set also includes a guest spot from Chris Reese of Horsebastard, weaving into a lineup that pairs metallic hardcore aggression with breakneck grind. UNDERNEATH tag their approach as “Nü-Pittsburgh Style,” pushing a raw and chaotic sound ahead of the full drop later this month.
Hardcore dads AGNOSTIC FRONT keep the thrash-to-death pipeline alive with two full runs before year’s end. First up, the East Meets West Tour 2025 kicks off October 15 in Denver and tears through the West Coast with stops in Portland, Seattle, San Jose, Pomona, and San Diego before closing November 2 in Garden Grove.
Then it’s straight to the East Coast American Tour 2025, starting December 4 in Cambridge and rolling through NYC, Richmond, Atlanta, Miami, Tampa, Raleigh, and more before wrapping December 21 in Allentown.
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Portland’s DRY SOCKET and Tijuana’s VIOLENCIA have announced a split 7”, out October 10 on To Live A Lie Records, with vinyl colorways also available via Get Better Records. Two tracks are already streaming: VIOLENCIA’s “Síndrome del Impostor” and DRY SOCKET’s “Last Chance.”
The split was recorded on both coasts—VIOLENCIA tracked with Phil Vera at Veracuda Studio in Altadena, while DRY SOCKET recorded with Joe Anderson in Portland. Both sides were mastered by Nick Townsend at Infrasonic.
Ahead of release, VIOLENCIA head out on a UK/EU run through late September, while DRY SOCKET tour the US East Coast in October with Doubt before a Portland release show on October 22.
Belgian hardcore punks DEATH RATTLE have dropped their debut release Death Rattle, a six-track burst of crust, d-beat and raw aggression, out now via Loner Cult. Featuring members of Hiatus and Disaffect, the band delivers a sharp mix of speed and grit across tracks like “Free Your Fire,” “Witch,” and “Need Is Greed.”
Clocking in under fifteen minutes, Death Rattle captures the urgency of classic crust while pushing it through a modern, no-frills attack — a straight shot for fans of d-beat chaos and powerviolence energy.
Warsaw hardcore unit DEAD DUE have a new single out, “Make a Move,” pointing the way to an EP due in December. They’ve only been around since 2024, but already push a heavy mix of deathcore, nu-metal, and Polish hip hop grit.
The track circles around unity and sticking together when things get rough. As the band put it, it’s about “the polish hood, friendship, our origins, youthful rebellion with a touch of humor and madness.”
NEGATIVE PATH drop two blasts of raw hardcore punk on September 12 — both recorded back in November 2022 at Tone Deaf Studio, mixed by Giorgio Trombino at Big Rock Studio, and mastered by Will Killingsworth at Dead Air Studio.
The Palermo band contribute a furious 63-second cover of the BEASTIE BOYS’ “Egg Raid On Mojo” for the FAST//SLOW Compilation put together by COFFEETIMES ‘zine, and a stripped-to-the-bone 28-second version of DISCHARGE’s “Fight Back” for DISCHARGED VOL. 2, the tribute CD compilation.
Finnish fastcore/grind hardcore outfit HARMER just dropped “Breadlines,” the opening track from their upcoming album, out September 5. The song cuts straight into the political climate in Finland, calling out a government they describe as “the worst right-winged shit show of a government one could possibly imagine.”
Lyrically, “Breadlines” rages against rising unemployment, slashed public healthcare funds, and growing reliance on food aid, while private companies rack up record profits and the wealthy benefit from tax breaks. HARMER put it bluntly: “When it comes to people in power: there’s no such things as half-way crooks.”
Detroit’s SUPREME MYSTIC have released their new single “Jewels on the Hood of a Serpent,” taken from the upcoming debut full-length Kala Rupa (due Fall 2025).
Fronted by Chino Noir (Mike Couls, ex-COLD AS LIFE, SWORN ENEMY, MERAUDER, CRO-MAGS), the band blends post-hardcore, sludge, doom, grunge, and groove metal with themes rooted in Vedic philosophy and street-level realism. The track sets grinding riffs and heavy distortion against prophetic lyrics warning of temptation, collapse, and survival in the Kali Yuga.
Kala Rupa will feature nine tracks, weaving spiritual imagery and esoteric concepts into Detroit grit and hardcore pedigree.
Australian metallic hardcore force NICOLAS CAGE FIGHTER are streaming their new album I Watched You Burn in full via Decibel Magazine ahead of its September 12 release on Bleeding Art Collective and Blood Blast Distribution. Drummer Matt Davenport calls it “a confirmation of the sound and standing we have carved out over the years,” noting the expanded influence of death and black metal on their hardcore base.
Mixed and mastered by Christian Donaldson, the record pushes into concept territory, following what vocalist Nick Moriarty describes as “the tale of an immortal serial killer on a dying planet, coming to terms with life, death, and what it truly means to be human.” With Nicolas Cage himself recently revealed as a fan, quoting the band’s lyrics in an interview, NICOLAS CAGE FIGHTER continue to build a reputation for unrelenting brutality and incendiary live presence.
Paris hardcore unit HUNTDOWN will release This Is War on October 10 via Demons Run Amok Entertainment. The record collects six new tracks along with the first physical issue of their 2023 EP Chasing Demons, expanding it into a ten-song statement of metallic hardcore rooted in the early 2000s tradition.
Formed in 2022 by David and Pec and joined by Camille and Phil, the band has ties to acts like Angry Vets, HardxTimes, Wendy’s Surrender, and Dagara. Produced by Alexandre Mazarguil and mastered by Chris “Zeuss” Harris, the record channels influences from Morning Again, Ringworm, All Out War, and 100 Demons. “We play hardcore, plain and simple,” says vocalist Phil.
Norwegian crossover crew CULT MEMBER have dropped “Hammer to Crown,” the latest single from their upcoming second album Gore, due September 19 on Loyal Blood Records.
It’s the follow-up to their 2022 debut Infinite Death, which snagged a Spellemann nomination, and continues their mix of thrash riffing and hardcore D-beat drive. The record, tracked by Ruben Willem, is billed as a tongue-in-cheek shot at social unrest wrapped in ‘80s slasher aesthetics.
With Gore, CULT MEMBER aim squarely at fans of Cro-Mags, Power Trip, Slayer, and D.R.I.—pushing speed, blood, and blunt force crossover energy.
FURNACE FEST 2025 just dropped its full daily schedule and set times for October 3–5 at Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, AL.
Friday packs JIMMY EAT WORLD headlining the main stage with MOM JEANS, SAVES THE DAY, and HOT WATER MUSIC leading into the night, while the Shed closes with KUBLAI KHAN TX after COMEBACK KID and MADBALL. FROM FIRST TO LAST top the Pond.
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Saturday sees DROPKICK MURPHYS, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, and SAY ANYTHING anchoring the main stage, with COUNTERPARTS closing the Shed and ROLO TOMASSI, TEEN SUICIDE, and PETEY USA filling the Pond.
Sunday turns heavier: KNOCKED LOOSE headline after THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, CONVERGE, and TERROR, while BIOHAZARD and SANGUISUGABOGG hit the Shed, and CITIZEN closes the Pond.
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California powerviolence unit IMPERMANENCE have dropped their latest release 8-Song Eulogy via No Time Records. Clocking in at just over six minutes total, the record rips through titles like “Condemned System,” “Can’t Care Enough,” and “Live, Suffer, Die”.
Raw SGV hardcore with a swing — VILE LIFE just dropped their new single Pay The Price, clocking in at 1:26 of straight Los Angeles chaos.
HELLBOUND return with Seventh Seal, their most punishing release yet on NORTHERN UNREST. The Glasgow crew drag the Holy Terror sound through the gutter, fusing hardcore grit with metallic chaos across five tracks that hit like a steel boot. For fans of INTEGRITY, IRON AGE, and IN COLD BLOOD.
Tokyo fun hardcore veterans SMASH YOUR FACE are back with Sayonara Smash Your Face, produced by Atsuo of Boris and wrapped in cover art from actor-artist Tadanobu Asano. The record drags their late ’80s basement spirit into the present, pulling crossover thrash, scratches, and guest spots from Cypress Ueno, Roberto Yoshino, Kaori Masukodera, and Tsuyoshi of Fuck On The Beach into one stitched-up statement.
Full article here.
Polish hardcore crew BALLKICK just dropped their third album Metallic Taste of Betrayal (Sept 10, 2025), recorded at Nest Studio in Katowice. Six tracks of unpolished rage, written by Kuba and Voi, with artwork by Muzykografika and photos from Filip Szustorowski and Dzoli.
Guest spots tie Katowice grit to New Jersey’s legacy: James “Stikman” Ismean (25 Ta Life, Fury of Five) and Chris Rafalowich (Shattered Realm, Blackest Dawn). The band takes the release on tour starting in the UK Sept 12, before hitting Polish dates with Onesta.
Full feature on Metallic Taste of Betrayal is up now on IDIOTEQ.
Swedish hardcore institution REFUSED have announced their final European run, marking the end of a touring era that began 31 years ago. The UK & EU 2025 tour kicks off October 1 in Glasgow and closes October 29 in Madrid, with stops in Manchester, London, Dublin, Paris, Cologne, Leipzig, Munich, Barcelona, and more.
They’re bringing a stacked roster along for the ride, with QUICKSAND, CRIM, SPEEDWAY, VIVA BELGRADO, BLEAKNESS, THE CHISEL, BELA LA RADA, NOWAX, SAFI, SHOOTING DAGGERS, STRONG BOYS, and ZEIDUN spread across the dates. In their words: “We won’t be happy until we’ve blown each and every one of your minds, as per usual.”
San Diego groovy hardcore outfit THE UNDERTAKING! have dropped a new track, Forever Remember, accompanied by a live-footage video montage. The band handled every step themselves—writing, recording, mixing, mastering, and editing the clip—keeping true to their DIY drive.
The song’s bridge cuts with the line, “I once was happy and then I found you…,” while the closing breakdown lands bluntly: “This is hell and I believe it will get worse than this.”
Lisbon-based noise rock infused hardcore punk rockers outfit JUNKBREED return with “Faulty Stereo”, the first single from their upcoming full-length Sick of the Scene, set for release on October 10 via Raging Planet Records.
The track pushes their blend of melodic punk rock, noise, post-hardcore and metallic grit into sharper focus — urgent guitars, pummeling drums, and raw shouted vocals, all wrapped in a dark yet anthemic energy. Lyrically, it confronts chaos, superstition, and collapse, building to the refrain: “Voices oozing out the faulty stereo.”
⤵ Screamo / Post Hardcore
Raw emoviolent skramz, melodic emo MySpace stuff, but also rockish 90s post hardcore. You know the drill.
NOYÉ teams up with screamo staples GILLIAN CARTER on new track “Figure,” a raw and beautiful collaboration blending Italian lyrics with Logan Rivera’s piercing delivery. The words shift between images of time slipping away, isolation, and quiet despair, amplifying the track’s emotional weight.
See full feature here.
German hardcore veterans RITUAL have returned with Songs for the Haunted, out now via Through Love Records. It’s their first release since going on hiatus in 2012, following years of heavy touring across 19 countries and three albums that earned them cult status in the European hardcore scene.
Founding members Julian Laur de Manos, Deni Pavičić, and Philipp Wulf reunite here with a renewed sense of purpose. The lead single “Silver Lining” pushes into more melodic territory while retaining the band’s unmistakable edge, carrying a hopeful undercurrent that signals both continuity and rebirth: a statement that, as they put it, “feels good to be back.”
Asheville’s SERRATE have dropped Even the Wind Sounds Dead via Zegema Beach and Bitter Melody, a harsh screamo full-length tracked by Matt Michel (MAJORITY RULE) at Viva Studio and mastered by Will Killingsworth (ORCHID, AMPERE) at Dead Air.
The standout “Kill for the Ones You Love” was written after Hurricane Helene, inspired by a roadside sign that read Be kind. Be gentle. Take care of the ones you love. Vocalist Brandon Gaddis says it felt hollow against the scale of devastation. The album channels that unease into blistering screamo, rooted in East Coast lineage (CITY OF CATERPILLAR, INFANT ISLAND, OSTRACA) but sharpened for now.
IODINE RECORDINGS has reissued Barbaro, the self-titled debut EP from Boston’s BARBARO. Originally out in November 1999 via Curve of the Earth and Polterchrist Records, the seven-song release was recorded at New Alliance and fuses noise, hardcore, and indie rock.
Finnish screamo act ALAS, Istanbul blackened screamo crew JORNADA DEL MUERTO, and internationalist outfit KARNABAHAR (Argentina, Netherlands, Turkey, UK) have joined forces for a new release, simply titled 3-Way Split. Out now via No Funeral Records, the EP collects six tracks spread across the three projects.
JORNADA DEL MUERTO open with “Hatsuyume” and “Izanami,” channeling their hardcore aggression and black metal edges, before ALAS deliver the starkly titled “Epäsymmetria.” KARNABAHAR close things out with a trio of cuts — “Zien,” “Horen,” and “Spreken” — showcasing the group’s multinational blend.
The split arrives September 9, 2025, supported by a web of DIY labels including Dancing Rabbit Records, Daydream Records, Dead Red Queen Records, Dingleberry Records, Entes Anomicos, Fireflies Fall, Friendly Otter DIY, Jean Scene, Khya Records, Mevzu Records, New Knee Records, No Funeral, Salto Mortale Music and more.
Vancouver post-hardcore veterans BY A THREAD return today with Mirrored Life, their first new album since 2011, released via Spartan Records. Built on the renewed partnership of Sean Lande and John Franco and joined by drummer Gabe Mantle and bassist Carl McBeath, the record balances atmosphere and weight, carrying themes of grief, growth, and perspective. Franco calls it “the best record I’ve ever been part of.”
LA DISPUTE just dropped a new documentary piece, NOWDTC – Chapter V: The Polysyllabic, directed by Martin, diving deeper into the process and atmosphere around their latest record No One Was Driving the Car. The short film landed September 12 on the band’s YouTube channel and sits alongside the album’s release through Epitaph.
Italian noise-wreckers NORSE have just dropped their new LP H via The Ghost Is Clear Records in collaboration with several European labels including New Knee, Shove, Vina, Sonatine Produzioni, Kono Dischi, and Flames Don’t Judge. Recorded in Biella with Andrea Bertoli and Alessandro Finotello, mixed by Salvatore Aricò, and mastered by Simon Uter-Kirschey, the record is described as a tribute to beat poet Harold Norse, the band’s namesake.
Released September 12, 2025, H churns through eight tracks of hardcore-soaked noise rock and sludge, pulling from the same jagged edges that defined the group’s past work while grounding it in raw lyricism and outsider spirit.
Albuquerque’s STARSDONTMEANANYTHING have their new record Fire Is Beautiful landing September 19, and three cuts are already streaming—“Controlled Burn,” “National Forest,” and “Warm Water.” It’s a wild ride from the start, tearing through hardcore, screamo, and noise without slowing down.
Virginia post-hardcore veterans SLEEPYTIME TRIO will release Memory Minus Plus Minus this October via Lovitt Records and Solid Brass Records. The single LP collection pulls together all of the band’s studio recordings, newly remixed by J. Robbins at Magpie Cage and remastered by TJ Lipple. A remixed version of “Butterfly Scaries” is streaming now.
Formed in Harrisonburg in 1995 out of the ashes of Maximillian Colby, the band quickly earned a reputation for volatile live shows and chaotic energy, sharing stages with Shotmaker, Rye Coalition, Lungfish, Hot Water Music, and others before going on hiatus in 1998. Members later moved on to projects like Engine Down, Rah Bras, Bats & Mice, and Milemarker, while SLEEPYTIME TRIO remained a cult name that resurfaced for one-off runs, including a Japan tour in 2014.
In April the band confirmed appearances at Richmond’s Dark Days Bright Nights festival and three reunion shows with Policy of 3 and Frail in late September, followed by a slot at Several States Fest in Chicago this January. Memory Minus Plus Minus locks their scattered catalog into one definitive release.
New Jersey post-hardcore/screamo act STENTIAL released their new single Act II: Instant Recognition//Effortless Comfort on September 9, ahead of their upcoming EP tracked with Josh Jakubowski at Bird Watcher Studio.
The record threads themes of mental health, self-harm, and recognition of what’s real, with Kris writing lyrics rooted in small personal details: “how we have all this silly inside jokes and how she makes me happy.” Full feature and details are live now on IDIOTEQ.
A new anonymous collective called THE FRAILTY OF EVERYTHING dropped their debut EP on September 12th, carving out what they describe as industrial grief — electronic music run through the teeth of hardcore, metal, and noise. Built from demos that didn’t fit any of the members’ existing projects, the lineup morphed into six contributors handling everything from vocals to design, with equal weight given to the art and the sound.
Influences stretch from DEATH GRIPS and NINE INCH NAILS to FULL OF HELL and MAMALEEK, and the result is abrasive, grief-ridden electronics with the tension of extreme music at its core. Today we’re premiering “Faint // Fading Fast,” a track centered on the regret of final goodbyes.
INTERCOURSE return with How I Fell In Love With The Void, their fourth LP, out September 12 via Brutal Panda Records. The Connecticut noise rock outfit—Tarek Ahmed, Sean Prior, Caleb Porter, and Pete Stroczkowski—deliver ten tracks where corrosive noise rock collides with metallic hardcore, recorded by Chris Teti at Silver Bullet Studios and mastered by George Richter. The cover image, shot by Sherilyn Furneaux and featuring dancer Clementine, sets the tone: stark, unflinching, and impossible to look away from.
NEW BRUTALISM just dropped their full EP Requiescat Record today via Computer Students™, closing out a long cycle that started back in 2021 with Steve Albini behind the board at Electrical Audio and Bob Weston mastering. Three tracks—088, 087, 089—all cut from the same sessions, all pressed onto a heavyweight 12-inch (45rpm, both sides mirrored).
The Knoxville crew—Shane Elliott, Matt Hall, David Basford, Carey Balch—are still locked into that no-frills, minimal rock ethos they started with back in ’98. Aluminum instruments, sharp precision, zero ornament. The title hits harder now with Albini gone, but the band’s take is blunt: “shattered and kinetic, forged by time and tragedy, with god-given sonic quality.”
Lead single 089 shows the whole playbook in one track—big riff, jagged turns, bass-and-drum dropouts, noise breaks, accidental tape-splice guitar chaos. Ends in distortion and cuts cold. Lyrics? Something about ancient boat making, but really it’s about the grind and collapse. Great listen!
New Jersey’s NEKS have dropped two advance tracks, “The Land Of Plenty” and “The Rubicon,” ahead of their debut full-length Point Of No Return, due September 16.
Lyrically, “The Land Of Plenty” tackles inequality and societal violence, while “The Rubicon” focuses on inner conflict and disillusionment against the backdrop of global decline. Recorded across New Jersey and Utah and mastered by Mike Kalajian at Rogue Planet Mastering, the record blends aggression with melody.
NEKS bring together members of DAYTRADER, CRIME IN STEREO, CAPSULE, RILE, and SPIRITS, spread across New Jersey, Salt Lake City, Denver, and Spain.
DANCE GAVIN DANCE have released their 11th album Pantheon via Rise Records, marking their first full-length since 2022’s Jackpot Juicer. The record pulls the Sacramento band back toward heavier, more experimental ground while keeping their melodic edge, with tracks like “Trap Door,” “All the Way Down,” and the George Clinton–featuring “Space Cow Initiation Ritual.” The new video for “The Stickler” is also out now.
Frontman Jon Mess described the process as “reminded me of making Death Star and *Acceptance Speech… albums that feel a bit more all over the place as the band figures out how it wants to sound again,” calling Pantheon one of their strongest efforts. Andrew Wells added that the album reflects “tension without resolution,” balancing chaos, commentary, and the absurd streak that has long defined the band.
French indie noise punks PAMPLEMOUSSE just dropped their new single and video “Bad Penny,” pulled from the duo’s upcoming fourth album Porcelain, due September 26 via A Tant Rêver du Roi. The track rolls out like a grunge-tainted noise bomb, wrapped around the absurd image of a couch-bound showdown with a lightning-fast spider — a domestic scene turned into a merciless battle.
Recorded analog at Black Box Studio in Angers with Peter Deimel (Shellac, Chokebore, Cows, Anna Calvi, dEUS), Porcelain follows their 2023 album Think Of It and marks another jagged chapter since the band’s shift to a two-piece lineup. Sarah on drums and Nico on guitar/vocals continue to dig into raw, abrasive territory while threading in melodic twists.
“Bad Penny” lands as the second preview of Porcelain after the first single “More Beautiful Than Madonna,” with the full record promising their sharpest mix yet of noise, punk, and grunge abrasion.
Philly emo/post-hardcore crew JOHNNY FOOTBALL HERO have a new single out now—The Struggler, released September 10 via Lonely Ghost Records. Clocking in just under four minutes, it leans into the band’s mix of aching melodies and vulnerable delivery that nods back to the Myspace-era wave while carving out its own space.
British rockish, emotional post-hardcore quintet LASTELLE close their ‘Exist’ project with the release of new EP Exist – vol ii. Its title track, “Exist,” arrives with a video built around loss and memory. Bassist Freddie Whatmore explains, “When I was a child, my mother passed away, and this song is an exploration into the effect that has had on my life. As well as being a discussion of vulnerability, it is partially a tribute to her memory.”
French outfit PARLOR have introduced “Cement Diktat,” the first single from their upcoming album Tears For Everything, out October 24 via Source Atone Records.
The track confronts dread and the fear of failure, themes mirrored in a music video directed by Guillaume Quincy. Dancers Alexandre Nadra and Kyaa of Compagnie DCA embody the struggle, locked in a tense choreography that plays out as a fight against fear and confinement.
Described as both a cry of resilience and a call to rise beyond shadows, “Cement Diktat” sets the tone for Tears For Everything, now available for preorder.
Chicago industrial post-punk / post hardcore unit BLACK CROSS HOTEL will release Songs for Switches on October 31 via Someoddpilot Records. The album was tracked at Electrical Audio and finished at Sanford Parker’s Hypercube studio, pulling together members of The Atlas Moth, Stabbing Westward, Earthburner, Broken Hope, and Whipped into one lineup.
First single “The House God Doesn’t Visit” comes with a video directed by John Scott, framing the band’s mix of Wax Trax-inspired industrial grit, gnarled guitars, and cold synths. Vocalist Dee DeEmme calls the record “a collection of lessons learned, from the joy of finding someone who truly gets you to the importance of asking for what you want and preserving a part of yourself in the process.” Andrew Ragin adds that most tracks start as “alternate movie scores,” with horror films shaping much of the tone.
Touring follows the release, with shows from October 29 through November 3, including dates alongside Blood Lemon. Limited vinyl editions are up now through Someoddpilot Records.
Montreal post-hardcore act SPITE HOUSE have released their sophomore album Desertion today via Pure Noise Records. Across 11 tracks and 29 minutes, the record dives into grief and survival, pulling directly from vocalist/guitarist Max Lajoie’s experiences with the loss of both parents.
Opening cut “Ashen Grey” sets the tone with distortion-heavy urgency, while songs like “Deafening Calls” and “Desert” revisit formative moments of loss head-on. Later tracks, including “Ten Days” and “Coma Dream,” confront guilt and memory with raw honesty before closing on the unresolved question of “Safe Haven.” Self-produced by Lajoie, Desertion draws from ’90s influences like Jawbreaker and Seaweed while carrying the weight and urgency of today’s hardcore scene.
Melodic emo post-hardcore outfit SINK WITH ME have lined up their new EP I Thought I Missed You for October 17 via Theoria Records. The band are already giving a taste with “My Own Doomsday,” a track that leans heavy into emo-laced hooks and ear-catching anthemic vibe.
⤵ Post Rock / Post Metal
SEIMS have shared Chaos Within A Construct, the second video single from their upcoming album V, due October 10 via Bird’s Robe and dunk!records.
Led by multi-instrumentalist Simeon Bartholomew, the Australian project blends cinematic math rock with orchestral flourishes and sharp rhythmic turns. The track follows the path carved on Four but ups the intensity, pulling influence from AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR and DELTA SLEEP while retaining SEIMS’ knack for widescreen experimentation.
DOG KNIGHTS PRODUCTIONS have unveiled “Shinkirou,” the second single from KIAS’s upcoming debut LP Swatantra. The track features guest vocals from Tetsuya Fukagawa of ENVY, marking a rare collaboration that bridges generations of screamo and post-hardcore.
Label founder Sean describes hearing Fukagawa’s raw takes as “one of the most surreal moments” in Dog Knights’ 15-year history. Swatantra is out October 24, 2025, with pre-orders launching September 18.
TOWN PORTAL have announced their fourth album Grindwork, out November 7. The Copenhagen trio recorded the ten-track instrumental release with Mark Roberts at Black Tornado Studio, later mastered by Carl Saff.
The first preview, Crushed Under Something Gentle, is already streaming and shows their blend of math rock precision and post-metal weight.
Alongside the core lineup — Christian Henrik Ankerstjerne (guitar), Malik Breuer Bistrup (drums), and Morten Ogstrup Nielsen (bass) — the record features string arrangements from Nicole Hogstrand (cello) and Lisa Marie Vogel (violin), adding depth to tracks like Mammal and Grinding the Margins.
Belgian post-metal trio PSYCHONAUT have unveiled a visualizer for “And You Came With Searing Light,” the latest track from their upcoming album World Maker, out October 24 via Pelagic Records. Written shortly after guitarist/vocalist Stefan de Graef became a father, the song reflects the intense joy of that period. “The lyrics were written a few weeks after my son was born and radiate the intense feelings of joy I felt during my first weeks as a father,” he explains.
Initially intended as the album’s opener, the track anchors the record’s shift toward more personal themes, balancing towering riffs and polyrhythms with moments of clarity and warmth. World Maker was shaped during a period marked by both new life and profound loss, with members navigating fatherhood alongside their fathers’ cancer diagnoses, making the album a direct meditation on presence, grief, and legacy.
IDIOTEQ-featured CARVED INTO THE SUN are back with a new single, “Catastrophist,” the first preview of their upcoming album Silent Tower, out October 10.
The project — led by Eric Reifinger with contributions from Artem Molodtsov (bass), Kakophonix (cello), and Gabriel Reifinger (keys) — was tracked across California, Switzerland, and Los Angeles, then mixed by Beau Burchell and mastered by Magnus Lindberg.
At over seven minutes, “Catastrophist” unfolds slowly, layering guitar textures, cello lines, and programmed drums into a dense, cinematic build. The album will be available digitally and on vinyl via a limited pink vortex 12” pressing, with European distribution through De Mist Records and a later release through Tomato Records in China.
Ufomammut’s Urlo has unveiled the first chapter of his solo project THE MON, announcing the album Songs Of Abandon, set for release November 7 via Supernatural Cat. The record, born from an exercise of writing one song a day for nine days with only acoustic guitar and voice, channels a raw and stripped-down atmosphere, later expanded with subtle layers to preserve its fragility.
The first single “Your Eyes” arrives with a video and closes the album’s cycle. Urlo calls it “the perfect ending, the closing of a circle… a time when abandonment became a confrontation with myself.” Songs Of Abandon stands as an intimate counterpoint to Ufomammut’s heaviness, with a second, darker instrumental volume titled Songs Of Embrace due in spring 2026.
BARRENS return with their sophomore full-length Corpse Lights, released September 12, 2025 via Pelagic Records. Recorded and produced by Kristofer Jönson and mixed/mastered by Cult of Luna’s Magnus Lindberg, the nine-track set stretches to nearly 43 minutes, weaving shimmering synths, sprawling guitars, and percussive surges with an almost ritualistic patience.
The title references a folk belief of ghostly lights appearing near the dying, guiding souls toward their resting place—a concept mirrored in BARRENS’ sound, where weight and silence carry equal force. Having previously shared stages with Mogwai and God Is An Astronaut, and opening ArcTanGent’s main stage in 2023, the trio here channel both heaviness and release, shaping atmosphere as if it were another instrument.
South African solo project AS TRUE AS THE SKY has shared “Songbird,” the first single from the debut album The Shadows That Consume Us, out November 28.
Created by musician Derik Nieman, the project leans into darker post-rock and post-metal territory, weaving influences from Caspian, If These Trees Could Talk, and God Is An Astronaut with progressive shades of David Maxim Micic and Sithu Aye.
Written over the span of a decade and recorded across the last five years, the record traces themes of grief, loss, and the quiet weight people carry, moving between stark minimalism and heavy distortion without ever settling into one clear release.
Upstate NY duo DAYBURN have unveiled “Anemoia,” the lead cut from their upcoming split album Hollow Sounds, Part II, due October 24 via Deep Elm Records. The track stretches past six minutes and digs into the band’s post-hardcore roots, blending emo, post-rock, and heavier edges into a dense, emotional surge.
Hollow Sounds arrives in two halves—Part I already out, Part II set to follow—splitting the weight of material into separate six-song releases. DAYBURN, made up of John Luby (ex-Athletics) and John Glenn, handle all instruments, vocals, and production themselves, shaping what the label calls their “stunning split-album debut.”
Polish post-rock unit AYDEN have returned after eight years with their new album Seadrift, released August 24.
The Poznań-based instrumental band recorded the six-track effort between 2019 and 2024 in both professional studios and outdoor locations, with mixing handled by Maciej Karbowski at Nebula Studio. The record balances calm, spacious passages with heavier moments, favoring contrast and open interpretation over fixed structures.
AYDEN describe the release as “a journey into the depths of ourselves, a symbolic drift into the abyss and space,” marking the close of a creative chapter.
⤵ Punk / Punk Rock / Pop Punk
Raw, fast, melodic, and many more styles.
SoCal melodic skate-punk staples PULLEY have teamed up with FIRE SALE for a new split release, Split Personality, out now via Negative Progression Records. PULLEY drop in with two fresh cuts, “Torn Apart By Time” and “Write A Note If You Leave,” recorded and mixed by Jon Graber, while FIRE SALE deliver “An Archaic Construct” and “Call Of The Void,” mixed by Bill Stevenson. All tracks were mastered at The Blasting Room by Jason Livermore.
Formed back in 1994, PULLEY have five full-lengths on Epitaph under their belt and remain a constant presence on the road, with the new songs carrying that long-running drive forward. FIRE SALE, once tagged a punk rock supergroup with ties to Face to Face, No Use for a Name, and The Ataris, continue building on their run of two-song singles and festival spots across Europe, Canada, and the US.
London streetpunks BOOZE AND GLORY have released their new album Whiskey Tango Foxtrot today via Mystic. It’s the band’s first full-length in six years and a straight return to their raw streetpunk roots. Recorded across Italy, Poland, and Mexico, the record follows their 2022 EP Raising The Roof.
Formed 15 years ago, BOOZE AND GLORY built their name on anthemic singalongs and a tough, street-level energy, previously heard on 2019’s Hurricane. Over the years they’ve shared stages with Bad Religion and Dropkick Murphys and hit festivals from Punk Rock Holiday in Slovenia to Punk Rock Bowling in Las Vegas. The new album packs eleven tracks built for live crowds—loud, direct, and written to be shouted back from the floor.
NYC street-punks THE CASUALTIES get a gritty look-back in our latest “Recalling” entry — a first-person slice of 90s DIY and recovery that runs from mail-ordering the 1992 40 Oz Casualty 7″ (plus a busted Benefit For Beer freebie) to blood-on-the-floor gigs with Naked Aggression and Drop Dead, and a nod to why the band carries a new singer today. Full article is up now on IDIOTEQ.
Pop-punk force IN BALANCE have dropped their new single “Forget Me,” recorded and produced by Kyle Black, known for work with New Found Glory and Paramore. Written to be short and sharp, the track hints at the direction of their debut full-length, already in pre-production with Black and slated for early 2026.
Formed in Bakersfield in 2023, the band grew from Chris’s pandemic demos and Marcel’s role in The Millenium Kids, later joined by Anthony and Zeke to complete the lineup. Their sound pulls from ’90s Fat Wreck grit, 2010s pop-punk, grunge, and even metal, blending raspy, emotive vocals with tight energy. “Forget Me” arrives as their next step, with another single and a 7″ on Transcendental Revolution Records coming before the album.
THE IRON ROSES have dropped a new three-song single Agitpop (Sept 11, 2025), packed with energy and message. Led by “Class War Cheer Squad,” alongside “Fight Back” and “Burn,” the release blends sharp hooks with radical optimism — a mix of protest spirit and undeniable catchiness.
“Burn,” in particular, is framed by the band as both an anthem of defiance and a reminder of resil
THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE ZUGLY have released their new album November Boys via Indie Recordings. Recorded in Oslo with producers Eirik Melstrøm and Anders Nordengen, the LP carries on the band’s trademark mix of bitter humor, self-deprecation, and Scandinavian punk attitude. The songs tackle themes of midlife crises, social absurdities, and the band’s ongoing dance with failure and excess.
Welsh pop-punk mainstays NECK DEEP have dropped Neck Deep (Dumbfuck Edition) via Hopeless Records. Out September 12, the release pulls together the band’s 2024 self-titled album, two standalone singles, and two previously unreleased tracks. It kicks off with “Dumbstruck Dumbf**k,” a sardonic, high-energy blast already hailed online as “the ultimate blast of summer pop-punk.”
The set swings between biting anthems like “Sort Yourself Out” and “STFU” and more reflective cuts such as “Take Me With You” and “This Is All My Fault.” Tracks like “We Need More Bricks” and “Heartbreak Of The Century” keep the hooks massive while circling themes of regret and vulnerability. Over a decade since first emerging from Wrexham, NECK DEEP channel their sharpened edge into a record built for sweaty singalongs and late-night drives.
Brooklyn punk rockers OBITS will see their long out-of-print L.E.G.I.T. collection issued on vinyl for the first time this November via Outer Battery Records. Out November 7, the set gathers early singles, covers, and live cuts that trace the band’s trajectory from their first self-released 7” through their 2012 Red 7 performance in Austin.
Previously only available as a Japanese tour CD, the compilation includes tracks like “One Cross Apiece,” “Put It in Writing,” and covers of Graham Nash’s “Military Madness” and The Kid’s punk classic “The City Is Dead.” Several live versions of “New August,” “Talking to the Dog,” and “Refund” also appear.
The release features artwork by late vocalist and guitarist Rick Froberg, packaged with an obi strip in tribute to the original edition. Alongside standard black vinyl, a clear pressing limited to 300 copies will be available, with an optional hand-carved block print inspired by Froberg’s design.
Bruce “Loose” Calderwood, frontman and bassist of San Francisco punk legends FLIPPER, has died at 66 from an apparent heart attack. The band confirmed the news, with a post on Who Cares Anyway SF noting it followed “a prolonged struggle with life.”
Calderwood led FLIPPER through all four of their studio albums, starting with 1980’s Album – Generic Flipper, a record whose slow, crushing sound would go on to shape NIRVANA, MELVINS, and countless others. Kurt Cobain famously sported a hand-drawn FLIPPER shirt during Nirvana’s 1992 SNL performance and in the “Come As You Are” video.
Calderwood stepped away from the band permanently in 2015 due to a back injury, with David Yow of THE JESUS LIZARD taking over vocal duties.
CF98 have announced their new album Stupid Punk, out October 24, 2025 via SBÄM Records (EU) and Double Helix Records (US). The release will be available on vinyl and digital formats worldwide.
The Krakow pop-punk band, relaunched in 2017, has built a reputation through high-energy shows and relentless touring across Europe, the UK, and Japan, as well as sharing stages with DIE TOTEN HOSEN and appearing at Punk Rock Holiday, Brakrock, and SBÄM Fest.
After years of silence, SECOND YOUTH are back with Only Child, a five-track EP released via Anchors Aweigh Records. Formed between Italy and the UK by veterans of the hardcore and punk scenes, the band built its name on fast, melodic, high-energy songs.
With Only Child, they take a darker, more intimate turn — confronting loneliness, family trauma, failure, and identity without seeking easy redemption. The result is raw, mature, and urgent, proving that intensity doesn’t fade with age but reshapes into something sharper and more conscious.
FINANCE EXECUTIVE, a Melbourne/Naarm outfit, have dropped their debut self-titled EP — a jagged mix of fast computer punk, egg punk, and post-punk.
The record channels the manic edge of modern work-life absurdity, with lyrics bouncing between generational attitudes toward labor and the escapism of computer games. It’s wiry, oddball, and intentionally restless, landing somewhere between satire and social commentary while still leaning into raw hooks.
TEENAGE BOTTLEROCKET have hit a milestone with Ready to Roll, their tenth album, released today via Pirate Press Records. After more than 25 years, the Wyoming pop-punk lifers still deliver fast, fun, and sharp songs that channel their roots while slipping in a few surprises. Recorded at The Blasting Room with Andrew Berlin and mastered by Jason Livermore, the record balances Ramones-inspired energy with touches of new wave and even sees bassist Miguel Chen step up to the mic for the first time, adding a fresh layer to the band’s sound.
The album also carries a strong sense of perseverance. Marking a decade since the loss of drummer Brandon Carlisle, the band reflect on survival, growth, and family balance, all while keeping their trademark humor intact. Singles like She’s the Shit set the tone—catchy, loud, and self-aware—while cuts like Taquero bring personal storytelling into the mix. Ready to Roll stands as proof that TEENAGE BOTTLEROCKET are still here for the long haul, writing music that’s as spirited as ever.
Detroit ska/punk outfit THE BOY DETECTIVE return with their new single “Good Year,” out September 13 via Punkerton Records. It’s the second preview of their upcoming album Disco Lunch, set for release on November 7.
Recorded with Roger Lima of Less Than Jake, the track pairs upbeat ska energy with lyrics about personal change and finding hope. “Just when you thought that the person in the mirror can’t change for the best, The Boy Detective gives you a template for how to turn things around and have a … pretty good year,” says vocalist Benny Capaul.
MILITARIE GUN have dropped their new single “Throw Me Away”, premiering with an official video directed by Ian Shelton. The track lands ahead of their upcoming album God Save The Gun, out October 17 via Loma Vista.
Throw Me Away is backed by “BADIDEA” and “Thought You Were Waving”, showcasing the band’s mix of raw melody and biting intensity. The video pairs the song’s desperate edge with stark, surreal imagery — a fitting visual for its lyrical themes of self-doubt, anger, and isolation.
MILITARIE GUN have announced their “God Save The Gun” European & UK Tour 2026, joined by WHITE REAPER and SPITE HOUSE.
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Punk rock legends FEAR are back with a new 7” single, For Right And Order, out now via Atom Age Industries. The release includes the title track plus non-LP cut Behind Bars, featuring Jimmy The Robot (The Aquabats) on saxophone.
Both songs were recorded in 2023 with Lee Ving on vocals, Eric Razo on guitars, Geoff Kresge on bass, and original drummer Spit Stix.
Los Angeles melodic punks FOR CLOSURE have dropped their new EP Take Two via Mindpower Records. Produced by Michael Rozon, known for his work with Ministry, Jerry Cantrell, Melvins, and The Jesus Lizard, the three-song set includes two originals alongside a cover of Doughboys’ 1989 track “In My Head.”
Fronted by Gizz Lazlo, former drummer of Dr. Know, U.K. Subs, and The Freeze, the band leans into melody and grit, with New Noise calling it “a punk tribute full of melody, emotion, and power.” Take Two follows their 2024 full-length Cliffside Serenades and arrives after a busy year of touring the West Coast.
Atlanta punks BILLY BATTS & THE MADE MEN just dropped their new full-length …For The Surly Types via Rad Girlfriend Records. Still barely out of their teens—with a drummer not even there yet—the trio play it straight: no scene-chasing, no frills, just sharp-edged punk pulled from instinct.
Tracked and produced by Joe Queer of The Queers, the record pushes through 18 songs that sit somewhere between the frantic pace of early 80s hardcore and the loose, melodic grit of 90s punk.
Buffalo hardcore punk rockers BESTA QUADRADA drop their self-titled debut LP on September 13 via Swimming Faith Records. Following last year’s The First Four Weeks EP, the record slams through 10 tracks that hit fast, noisy, and to the point—short bursts that balance catchiness with grit.
Billed as a rust belt mix of bitter, broke, and bratty, BESTA QUADRADA carve out their space with a style that doesn’t lean on polish, instead going straight for sharp, tough-edged punk delivered at speed.
Kent garage punks THE MONTGOMERY’S have shared a live cut of their track “Reform,” recorded with The Attic Group at the Criterion Theatre on the Isle of Sheppey.
The band push their message with humor, sharp commentary, and bursts of chaotic energy. “Yes you should be angry, you should hate, but not the most vulnerable but the most powerful,” they explain, pulling in the medieval poem The Goose & The Common as a Molotov aimed at tax havens and those holding the reins.
LA VIDA ES UN MUS DISCOS just dropped word of Watch It Die, the new LP from Edmonton’s HOME FRONT, out November 14th. First taste comes with “Light Sleeper”, streaming now with a video on YouTube.
HOME FRONT’s second full-length sharpens their mix of THE CURE, BLITZ, EURYTHMICS, and SUICIDE—punk edges tangled up with synth-pop gloss, drum machines colliding with screaming guitars. The record pushes between themes of death, rebirth, dreams, and community, carrying equal weight in melody and abrasion.
Watch It Die lands November 14th on LP/CD/cassette/digital, with editions on white, green, and black vinyl up for preorder now.
Gdańsk DIY label Close Call just dropped Między nami dobrze jest – 3G Sampler, a 17-track live compilation pulling from their favorite local spot, 3G. Twelve bands are featured, recorded straight through the label’s own gear, raw but tight enough to catch the chaos intact.
The lineup mixes local names like Wracaj, bo ciemno, Pisuar, Sieczkarnia, Arizona Ghost Radio, and Milion Lat Przestępnych with guests from abroad—LAST AFFRONT and WARHEAD 97 out of the UK, plus Norway’s MOLBO and AG-3. Each band gets its own lyric sheet, tying the set together as more than just a live document.
Hardcore-bred political punk rocker RISE AGAINST aren’t dialing it back anytime soon. Talking on the JJO Discover New Music Podcast, TIM MCILRATH said the band has always been “all opinion all the time,” pointing to the ‘90s punk and hardcore scene—where he first heard about sweatshops, climate change, and environmental justice—as the foundation. “When someone gave me a microphone when I came of age, this was already at the tip of my tongue,” he explained.
The new album Ricochet, produced by Catherine Marks and mixed by Alan Moulder, dropped August 15 via Loma Vista. Its title track is the latest single, following “I Want It All,” “Prizefighter,” and “Nod,” while the rest of the record cuts through themes like false promises (“Gold Long Gone”), blind allegiance (“Soldier”), and algorithm-driven chaos (“State Of Emergency”). McIlrath frames it simply: “We never checked our politics at the door, ’cause we came from a scene where it was very accepted—and maybe even normal—to have music that was very political.”
Seasoned punk veterans HORACE PINKER drop their new full-length Now and the Future this Friday, September 12, via People of Punk Rock Records—their first album since 2011’s Local State Inertia and the follow-up to the 2022 EP House of Cards.
Recorded at Bombshelter Recording Studio in Chicago with Dan Precision, the record finds Scott Eastman, Bryan Jones, and Greg Mytych pushing sharp melodies and punchy rhythms across tracks like “Three Against Me” and “Call It a Day.” The latter is described by the band as distilling their melodic punk and hardcore leanings into a fast, two-and-a-half-minute burst.
Formed in Tempe and now based in Chicago, HORACE PINKER have shared stages with everyone from Fugazi to Jawbreaker, toured across more than 20 countries, and appeared at fests from Groezrock to Pouzza. This fall, they’ll bring the new material to the stage, including a set at FEST 23 in Gainesville.
LOSING STREAK’s new album Last Place is out now via People of Punk Rock.
Built from a father-son collaboration between Brixton (guitar) and his dad Rob (drums), the project grew into a full band with Charlie (vocals/lyrics) and Jer (bass/production), both longtime friends and ex-bandmates from Freestyle and Setback. The result is fast, melodic punk that keeps things raw and straightforward while carrying the weight of multiple generations of influence.
French punk/garage quartet TECHNOPOLICE have dropped “…Regretter Après,” the final single from their debut album Chien de la casse, landing September 26 via Howlin’ Banana Records, Ganache Records, and Idiotape.
The track translates to “…Regretting afterwards” and rides on tension, tracing the silence and fallout after a never-ending party.
Formed in Marseille from members of La Flemme, Flathead, and Avenoir, TECHNOPOLICE built their sound out of the city’s rising underground—fast, weird, and joyfully off-kilter, channeling influences from R.M.F.C, Prison Affair, and Gee Tee into a raw, live-recorded debut.
MOTÖRHEAD have announced Killed By Deaf – A Punk Tribute To Motörhead, a 14-track collection dropping October 31 via BMG Recordings.
The set pulls in heavyweights like Rancid, Pennywise, The Bronx, Lagwagon, GBH, and FEAR alongside younger names such as Slaughterhouse. Each band tears into their pick from the Motörhead catalog — from “Ace of Spades” to “Iron Fist” — with the lone outlier being a previously unreleased 2002 collaboration between MOTÖRHEAD and The Damned on “Neat Neat Neat.”
Seattle power pop punk rockers APPALOOSA have released their new single “Get It Together, Kid,” a sharp two-minute burst laced with punk grit and glam shimmer. Fronted by Erica Rose, formerly of New York’s punk and indie circuits, the band spins a tight mix of melodic punch and emotional clarity that lands somewhere between The Shivvers and The Courettes.
Recorded by Johnny Sangster at Crackle and Pop and mastered by Kurt Bloch, the track captures the contradictions of growing up with fast hooks and raw urgency. Rose says the song “was five minutes long at first, more of a ballad… but once we started playing it together, it wanted to be fast. It wanted to move.”
PRINCE DADDY & THE HYENA have returned to Counter Intuitive Records with their new single “Mr. Transistor.” The track is part of the label’s 10-year anniversary compilation Cosmic Debris Vol. 2 (available for preorder now), with an exclusive /50 vinyl variant up for grabs. Running just 1:37, the song is sharp, chaotic, and perfectly in line with the band’s scrappy emo-punk rock energy.
“Mr. Transistor” marks PRINCE DADDY’s first new music since their self-titled 2022 record, and kicks off more announcements to come, with Counter Intuitive teasing new band/single drops every Tuesday until November.
Dutch outfit VERA & THE SLEEPOVER CLUB have released their new single “Hit (Something)”, a sharp break from frontwoman Vera Baldé’s earlier work as a singer-songwriter. Built on a single chord, the track strips away polish in favor of raw immediacy, leaning into punk’s blunt edges rather than indie rock’s vibes.
The song functions as a self-referential experiment — a punk track about the difficulty of writing one — channeling frustration and irony in equal measure. Lines like “Maybe I should hit something, or something? Can I be someone, someone like that?” frame the track less as rebellion than as a restless attempt at release.
Road-tested emo outfit FREE THROW has released a new single, “Mike Nolan’s Long Weekend” featuring Dom Fox, out September 10, 2025 via Wax Bodego.
The band follows it with a late-September run: Sept 18 Columbus (low tickets), Sept 20 Chicago at Riot Fest, Sept 22 Indianapolis (low tickets), plus Pittsburgh, Rochester, and Asbury Park through Sept 27—with support from CHASE PETRA and TRSH.
German pop punk band INDECENT BEHAVIOR have released the video for their new single “Grown Up”, taken from their upcoming fourth album Sick, out September 26, 2025 via Long Branch Records.
The track is a defiant ode to staying young at heart despite adult expectations. Frontman Henrik Bergmann puts it plainly: “We’ve gotten older, but deep down, we’re still those pop-punk kids who’d do anything for a good time.”
Following appearances at Rock am Ring, Rock im Park, and tours with NECK DEEP, ZEBRAHEAD, and THE DONOTS, the band are set to push further with Sick. The record channels feelings of being overwhelmed in a chaotic world, offering an outlet for those searching for connection.
⤵ Post Punk / Shoegaze
AFI dropped “Holy Visions”, the newest single off their upcoming twelfth record Silver Bleeds the Black Sun…, out October 3. Directed by Gilbert Trejo, the video throws the band into pink-and-blue haze that matches the track’s shimmering guitars, airy synths, and Davey Havok’s ghostly delivery.
Where the earlier single “Behind the Clock” leaned heavy and shadowed, this one drifts into atmosphere — ethereal, cinematic, but still unmistakably AFI. After three decades of shifting from hardcore to gothic punk to widescreen alt-rock, they’re pushing further into dreamlike territory without losing that edge. Silver Bleeds the Black Sun… marks another reinvention, a record the band call “dark and otherworldly, but also grandiose and stately.”
Belgian shoegazers MAQUILLAGE released their debut album ArMOR on September 5 via Silverback Artist Collective and Shore Dive Records. Built on walls of reverberated guitars, pulsing bass, and vocals that drift between sharp urgency and ghostly echoes, the record shifts between shoegaze, post-punk, and dream pop without locking into a single frame.
The title folds together amor and armor, mirroring the band’s fixation on love as both defense and disguise. Recorded, mixed, mastered, and even visually designed by the group themselves, ArMOR was conceived as a total aesthetic—its artwork sourced from a marble statue in Mechelen’s cathedral, reinforcing themes of fragility pressed into stone.
CRIPPLING ALCOHOLISM just dropped their third full-length, Camgirl, and it’s a sleazy neon fever dream you can’t shake off. The Boston crew lean into their self-dubbed “murder pop” lane—half noise rock chaos, half synth-drenched goth pop—with hooks sticky enough to pull you in before the whole thing unravels into screaming breakdowns and panic-button drumming. It’s unsettling, it’s catchy, it’s kinda gross, but you’ll keep hitting repeat.
Guests like Juliet Gordon (LUXURY SKIN) and Aki McCullough (AMEOKAMA) add extra layers of menace and allure, fleshing out the record’s cast of unhinged characters—pay pigs, serial creeps, doomed romantics. Tracks swing from Cure-ish shimmer (bedrot) to straight-up meltdowns (Pay Pigs, Camgirl) without warning. Think Bowie stuck in a dive bar hellscape with PORTRAYAL OF GUILT running the jukebox. If you’re into twisted storytelling dressed up in pink neon, this record’s your new addiction.
HARABALL have shared their new single Pink Tiles, a chaotic cut from their upcoming album Fear of the Plow, due Sept 19 on Fysisk Format.
Premiered via Decibel Magazine, the track follows Prison Cheese and sharpens the band’s off-kilter mix of hardcore, 60s psych, and post-punk. “‘Pink Tiles’ is about being 900 years old, waking up dead every morning, and how living that way offers a different perspective on life,” the band explains.
Fear of the Plow pushes HARABALL further into noise-soaked territory, produced and mixed by Trond Mjøen at PLEASE! Studio. Lyrical themes veer between bleak humor and absurdity — from turning 40 to apocalyptic internet lore. The result is unpredictable, abrasive, and, in the band’s own words, “almost pretty” at times.
Shoegaze trio BLOOM EFFECT have released their new single “Surreal,” previewing the upcoming EP Oscilón, out September 19 via Vancouver label Kingfisher Bluez. The track is described by the band as “an ascending journey with a pop skeleton and post-rock lungs,” building through waves of movement and climax before easing into a calm outro.
Sludgy, dream-drenched shapeshifters NYXY NYX have dropped their first full-band studio record, Cult Classics Vol. 1, out now via Julia’s War Recordings. The Philadelphia outfit, featuring members of Sun Organ, Midwife, Knifeplay, Luna Honey, and A Sunny Day In Glasgow, folds gritty intensity into waves of distortion and reverb, a sound that Treble Zine called “dense and richly textured, but with a sense of weightlessness.”
The album includes the singles “ashtray” and “in haze,” showing the band’s range from sludgy clashes to fuzzed-out, layered guitar haze. Recorded by Dan Angel, Cult Classics Vol. 1 captures the heavy, transcendent energy that has made NYXY NYX a cult fixture in Philly’s DIY circuit since their beginnings as a performance art project in 2014.
Darkwave outfit HEIMBERG have unveiled the video for their new single “Fragrance,” released September 12 through Icy Cold Records. The track is the second preview of their upcoming album Faceless, due October 31, and comes with lyrics steeped in bleak imagery: “I hate myself – Send me back to hell – Love is just a spell – That shattered my shell.”
Recorded at Kawati Studio by Antoine “Sam” Ramadour and finished by Mathis Kolkoz at Golden Claws Studio, the song leans into coldwave and post-punk territory with a sharp, haunted edge. “Fragrance” follows the band’s earlier single, setting the tone for the full record to arrive this fall.
⤵ Metal / Alt Metal / Death Metal / Thrash / Black Metal
BEHEMOTH have released a new video for “Avgvr (The Dread Vvltvre),” the closing track from their thirteenth album The Shit Ov God, which dropped in May. Each song from the record has been paired with its own distinct, high-concept video, and this one pushes the same tailored, atmospheric approach.
The timing lines up with the band’s next run of shows — on September 19 they head out across Latin America with DEICIDE and NIDHOGG on The Unholy Trinity tour.
DESPISED ICON are back just in time to ruin your Halloween with Shadow Work, their first LP in six years, dropping October 31 on Nuclear Blast. They just put out Death of an Artist with a video by Jessy Fuchs, and it’s a straight-up blast beat panic attack—speed, riffs, collapse, rebirth, the whole cycle. Try not to wreck your desk while listening.
Alex Erian and Eric Jarrin handled production, Christian Donaldson (CRYPTOPSY) dialed in the mix/master, and Eliran Kantor slapped on the cover art. It’s deathcore DNA sharpened to a blade—grooves, speed, grit, no filler. They’ll be out with SANGUISUGABOGG, DEFEATED SANITY, and CORPSE PILE tearing through North America, then shutting it down with two sold-out Montreal gigs in December.
SLIPKNOT are marking 25 years of their self-titled debut with a deluxe anniversary reissue, out now via Roadrunner Records. First released June 29, 1999, the album has since gone triple platinum and remains one of the most influential debuts in metal.
The 25th Anniversary Edition arrives across multiple formats—2CD, digital, several limited 2LP variants, and a 6LP blood-splattered box set limited to 1,899 copies. A highly restricted run of 100 blood-filled LPs was sold exclusively through the band’s secret site, 742617000027.net, and sold out instantly.
Alongside the reissue, SLIPKNOT dropped an official video for “Scissors” from Welcome to Our Neighborhood, Pt. 2. Depending on format, the anniversary set includes not only the original Ross Robinson-produced album but also unreleased takes, alternate versions, and test mixes from Indigo Ranch, SR Audio, and other sources, documenting the formative process behind a record that reshaped heavy music.
While we’re at it, COGNITIVE will release their cover of SLIPKNOT’s People=Shit on September 15 via Metal Blade Records. The New Jersey technical death metal unit approached the track with their trademark precision and brutality, pushing the classic into extreme territory while retaining its raw venom.
The single lands just as COGNITIVE embark on The Underground Awaits Tour 2025 with NILE, CRYPTOPSY, and THE LAST TEN SECONDS OF LIFE. Running from September 12 through October 11, the run supports their 2024 album Abhorrence, a record praised for its balance of technicality, aggression, and melodic depth.
Warsaw modern metal crew PALE PATH have unveiled their new single “HVM4N,” out this month as part of their ongoing push of fresh stuff.
Formed as a four-piece and unsigned, the band cite current waves of heavy music as their influence, aiming to balance emotion with sheer weight. The track arrives ahead of a short run of German shows, with stops in Chemnitz, Jena, and Halle this September.
MOTHERLESS, the new Chicago project featuring members of THE ATLAS MOTH and WITHOUT WAVES, have unveiled their single “Reptile Dysfunction” alongside a video. The track is part of their debut album Do You Feel Safe?, due September 12 via Prosthetic Records.
Formed by Stavros Giannopoulos, Alex Klein, Gary Naples, and Anthony Cwan, the band strips heavy music back to its raw form—riff-driven, bleak, and direct. As Giannopoulos explains, the song serves as a mission statement about being left behind, forgotten, and finding purpose again through music.
Alt-metal agitators MALLAVORA just dropped their new single and video “Smile,” out today. The track zeroes in on society’s mistreatment of Disabled people, with the band calling it “urgency, fury, and righteous rage” wrapped in sound. Released on September 10, the song marks three decades since the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act, tearing into tokenism, pity, and the barriers still faced.
The band’s process stays rooted in lived experience: guitarist Larry Sobieraj writes from his own struggles with chronic illness, while vocalist Jessica Douek, who lives with fibromyalgia, channels the grief and rage of losing a healthier version of yourself. “There’s a lot of rage about societal barriers and being treated differently,” she says, underscoring the song’s confrontational weight.
MALLAVORA’s current lineup is rounded out by bassist Ellis James and drummer Sam Brownlow, whose ferocious energy underpins “Smile.” The single arrives with a new video and lands ahead of their autumn run supporting THECITYISOURS across the UK.
EMBRACED BY DARKNESS have signed with Non Serviam Records for the release of their debut full-length Ex Inferis, arriving October 31, 2025.
The Dutch black metal band previously released the EP MMXXII in 2022, which gained international attention and surpassed 50,000 Spotify streams. Now, with Ex Inferis, they push deeper into raw, blackened violence — twelve tracks produced by Anders Backelin (Lord Belial, Vassago, Trident).
Formed in the Dutch underground, the group combines ferocity with haunting atmospheres, adding touches of death metal. The lineup features Schmerz (guitars), Schrat (guitars), Vålnad (bass), Mort (drums), and Thimron (vocals). Their logo was created by Christophe Szpajdel, known for his work with Emperor, Moonspell, and Dimmu Borgir.
LORNA SHORE have released their fifth full-length I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me, out September 12, 2025 via Century Media. Produced by Josh Schroeder, the album pushes their symphonic deathcore further into maximalist extremes—ten tracks spanning over an hour of orchestral flourishes, blast-heavy breakdowns, and unrelenting intensity.
DAZE just dropped three new PEELINGFLESH releases: Human Pudding, Slamaholics Mixtape, and PF Radio.
With a roster including Pain Of Truth, XWeaponX, Final Resting Place, Sanction, King Nine, Contention, and more, DAZE has been responsible for putting out some of the hardest hitting releases across hardcore and metal in the past six years
FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY have dropped a new standalone single, “It Comes For You,” ahead of their run with Killswitch Engage across the UK and Europe.
Produced by guitarist Will Putney, the track arrives as a sharp follow-up to last year’s The Nothing That Is. “An aggressive offering from our camp felt like an appropriate response to the current climate of class disparity and political overreach,” Putney explains. “Sometimes I feel like we’re beating a dead horse over here but it’s important to consistently remind the listener to remain intolerant of such authoritarian rule. Believe it or not, but one day, it comes for you.”
The band will bring the new track to European stages starting September 29 in Lisbon, with shows stretching through December across Spain, Italy, the UK, Ireland, Germany, and Scandinavia.
New York death metal lifers PYREXIA return with Unholy, out now via Time To Kill Records in all territories outside the U.S. and Canada. A re-recorded, re-mixed overhaul of 2018’s demo-era Unholy Requiem, it leans on crushing riffs, punishing groove, and a stark, clarified production.
Guests underline the pedigree: RON KACHNIC (MALIGNANCY) on the opener “Unholy Requiem,” DEVIN SWANK (SANGUISUGABOGG, BLUDGEONED BY DEFORMITY) on “Wrath,” and DOUG CERRITO (SUFFOCATION, HATE ETERNAL) on “The Anointed,” which also arrives with a lyric video. Guitarist Chris Basile calls it “the most accomplished PYREXIA album… a journey into the seven chambers of hell.” Time To Kill has also secured the band’s full back catalog.
Brutal death metal pioneers SUFFOCATION stormed back to Summer Breeze 2025 after an eight-year absence, with the full set now streaming via ARTE Concert.
Swedish grindcore pioneers NASUM are revisiting their 1998 debut with Inhaled/Exhaled/Revived, an expanded edition of Inhale/Exhale remixed and remastered by Dan Swanö. The release comes with new artwork reimagined by Anders Jakobson, plus unreleased tracks from the original sessions.
The record, long hailed as a cornerstone of grindcore, is being reframed nearly three decades later with both a sharper sound and bonus material that digs further into its creation. Decibel once called the album “one of the cornerstones of the international grindcore scene in the early years of the 21st century,” and its renewed form is aimed at carrying that same weight into 2025.
Ghent sludge collective MODDER will release their third album Destroying Ourselves for a Place in the Sun on October 3 via Consouling Sounds and Lay Bare Recordings. Known for combining oppressive riffs with psychedelic layers and industrial electronics, the band’s new work refines their mix of brute force and hypnotic atmosphere.
The six-track record follows 2022’s The Great Liberation Through Hearing, expanding MODDER’s range with suffocating heaviness punctuated by electronic flourishes. Recorded at Star Farm Studios and Place Of Residence Studios, mixed by Mathlovsky and mastered by Brad Boatright, the album presents a visceral yet cerebral journey, built on crushing sludge but shaded with eerie, otherworldly textures.
Pennsylvania death metal unit PILE OF KNIVES will unleash their second EP Driven By The Blade on October 31, with the first single “Stabbed” now streaming alongside a lyric video.
Formed in the Pocono Mountains by former Existence members Chett Kolakoski, Lee Messerschmidt, and Dylan “Pickle” Jaludi, the band later added bassist Jay Stromeyer and ex-Grimus vocalist Bryan Martinez. Their debut No Light dropped in 2024, and the follow-up sharpens the mix of brutal death metal, slam, and metallic hardcore influences.
Thrashers SLYTHER unleash new single “Flask N’ Bone” ahead of debut album Chronicles of Despair (out October 10 on Time To Kill Records).
The Pescara-based thrash/crossover unit — all born between 2005 and 2007 — mix razor-cut riffing with hardcore aggression and groove, channeling the bite of OVERKILL and the reckless energy of MUNICIPAL WASTE.
Northern Alberta metal force DEVOLVER dropped their second album Non Compos Mentis in August, the result of six years of waiting to make it exactly right. Recorded with producer Mark Lewis (Whitechapel, Trivium, DevilDriver, The Black Dahlia Murder) and dressed in Travis Smith artwork, the record digs into both personal and historical weight — its title track referencing a bloody 1805 murder by guitarist Devin Babcock’s ancestor.
Full feature on Non Compos Mentis and DEVOLVER’s long path is up now on IDIOTEQ.
MUDVAYNE have dropped their second new single in under a month, “Sticks and Stones”, following the release of “Hurt People Hurt People” — their first new music in 16 years.
Where the comeback track was a raw, feral outburst, “Sticks and Stones” leans on quiet-loud tension before detonating into a crushing breakdown. A full video is on the way, with a visualizer already online.
BRAINWAVE are set to unleash their debut full-length Ill Intent on October 22, 2025. Self-released but anything but restrained, the Wellington five-piece weld crossover thrash chaos to hardcore’s raw edge, channeling TOXIC HOLOCAUST, MINDFORCE, and DRAIN while forging a sound grounded in their own scene.
Written through trauma and upheaval, the record dives into hopelessness, loss, and daily brutality — but also into resilience. Now a solidified five-piece with Ian Moore joining earlier this year, the band describe the album as both a personal summit and a rallying cry. Ten tracks, no compromise — violent riffs, teeth-grinding pace, and hardcore that means every word.
Lublin post-sludge outfit OPTICAL SUN have released their new album Diabeł, a work that blends heavy stoner-doom textures with samples from Polish cinema and poetry. The record features spoken fragments from Andrzej Żuławski’s film Diabeł and the series Przyłbice i kaptury, used with permission from Żuławski’s son Xawery. It also incorporates verses from Kazimierz Ratoń and Zbigniew Jerzyna, tying music, film, and literature into a layered narrative.
Known for weaving old film samples into their sound, OPTICAL SUN continue this approach on Diabeł with dual bass guitars and guttural vocals shaping the core. “We’d like listeners to try experiencing Diabeł in different ways—sometimes focusing on the music, other times on the texts and samples,” the band note. “It may not be a cheerful record, but it reflects our response to the harsh prose of life.”
Helsinki’s dark metal unit MØRKET unveiled their new single “Dissosiaatio” on September 5, a stark preview of their third album Del III: Dödsångestens fågelsång, due October 3. The track extends the bleak narrative laid out in earlier singles “Kirottu maa” and “Högar av lik,” tracing a descent into trauma and disintegration of the mind.
“The narrator has reached a point where the structures of reality no longer feel real, and the non-existent piles of corpses haunt the vision more and more often,” bassist-vocalist Janne Leskinen explains. “The journey must go on and the end is already looming ahead, but as the mind escapes further from the body, the choices may prove fatal.”
Sung in Finnish, “Dissosiaatio” carries the same balance of weight and fury that defines the band’s sound—dark metal colliding with raw rock intensity. Leskinen notes that while the tempo pulls back at moments, the track still culminates in what he calls “proper Mørket-style blasting fury.”
Italian post-black/post-hardcore project LUCYNINE returns October 3 with Melena, out via Talheim Records Germany. Written in a short burst during a period of acute personal crisis, the record is described as an “intimate and brutal expression” of desperation—claustrophobic production, suffocated vocals, and compression that drains the air from the mix.
The first preview, “Narciso Non Muore,” is streaming now with a video on the label’s channel. Unlike 2020’s Amor Venenat, which stretched over years and multiple concepts, Melena comes off raw, immediate, and unfiltered. Its centerpiece, the 15-minute “Opera al Nero,” pushes the suffocating approach to its limits.
Even the imagery reinforces the theme: the cover shows a dead magpie, a bird tied to freedom, love, and myth but here flipped into a symbol of hopelessness, mourning, and bad omens. It’s an album born from suffering, designed to pass that weight directly onto the listener.
Savage Manchester black metal unit WODE have dropped “Under Lanternlight,” the latest track ahead of their fourth album Uncrossing The Keys, out October 3rd through 20 Buck Spin.
The record builds on their feral black metal roots while drawing in jagged post-punk/goth shades on cuts like “Saturn Shadow” and the trance-like instrumental “Phantom.” Recent single “Transmutation” leans into doomier ground with echoes of Paradise Lost and Amorphis, while “Under Lanternlight” pushes toward a morose, melodic territory reminiscent of Sentenced.
WODE will mark the album’s arrival with a hometown release show at The Bread Shed in Manchester on September 27, followed by UK and European dates through the fall, including Berlin’s De Mortem et Diabolum in December.
Wisconsin industrial death metal veterans CRAWL have unveiled a new lyric video for “No Way Out,” the title track from their latest album released June 27 via THC: Music/Virgin Music Group. The video highlights the record’s defining traits, tying together the band’s long-running industrial-metal ethos with their first full-length in nearly three decades.
Formed back in 1989 under the name Nothing Sacred before becoming BLEED and finally CRAWL, the group carved a reputation in the Midwest with machine-driven rhythms, grotesque samples, and a brutal industrial edge. They shared stages with Godflesh, Entombed, Malevolent Creation, and Grave, before a long hiatus put things on ice after the late ’90s.
Black-thrash wreckers MERZOTNA POTVORA and metallic punks Обрій are teaming up for a split, set to drop September 25 via Neformat Family. The first taste is “Spotvorenyj Obrij,” a track from MERZOTNA POTVORA that leans back into the early chaos of their debut EP Suča maty and first album Halas z pekla.
On the other side, Uzhhorod’s Обрій deliver their first proper studio cuts with ex-Pušča vocalist Сейра, offering a raw slab of metallic punk rock. The split will hit all streaming platforms, with cassette editions to follow.
Polish blackened heavy metal crew NARRENWIND have unveiled “I-II-I-II,” a cover of the classic 80s track by Maanam, ahead of their new album Gorzkie Plony (Bitter Harvest), due September 22 via Pagan Records.
The reimagining carries Olga “Kora” Sipowicz’s lyrics into NARRENWIND’s metallic framework, rooted in the traditions of Bathory, Armia, and Kat. The band calls it both a tribute and an homage to one of Poland’s most important alternative acts of the decade, adding with tongue in cheek: “And remember, big sunglasses are very important, always big sunglasses!”
METALLICA marked the launch of their Maximum Metallica SiriusXM station with a rare, stripped-down show on August 28 at The Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, NY. Just 500 people packed into the outdoor tent, mixing die-hard fan club winners with heavy hitters like Paul McCartney and Sylvester Stallone. The band ripped through a 14-song set that leaned on staples and deep cuts alike.
On September 10, METALLICA dropped pro-shot footage of the night’s penultimate number—“Master Of Puppets”—giving everyone who couldn’t squeeze into that tiny room a chance to feel the sweat and volume from one of their most legendary records.
Philadelphia death metal unit CAESAREAN have dropped their debut EP Wretched Decrepitude through Horror Pain Gore Death Productions. Formed in 2024, the band mix elements of ’80s Teutonic thrash with ’90s deathgrind, delivering six tracks built on dense riffs, pounding drums, heavy bass, and a tri-vocal assault.
The EP was mastered by Leon Del Muerte of Impaled, anchoring CAESAREAN’s first statement alongside reference points like Carcass, Kreator, Exhumed and Cryptopsy.
Dutch black metal collective TERZIJ DE HORDE have shared “The All-Consuming Work Of The Soul’s Foreclosing,” the second single from their upcoming album Our Breath Is Not Ours Alone, out October 10 on Church Road Records.
Vocalist Joost Vervoort explained the track’s concept: “Most of the world’s creative energy is constantly expended to keep dominant and destructive systems alive… The All-Consuming Work of the Soul’s Foreclosing deals with this gigantic outpouring of effort to close off the soul and instrumentalize life.”
The record, mastered by Arthur Rizk, expands on the band’s blend of black metal, doom, post-metal, and screamo, with themes confronting the pressures of modern systems and the struggle to keep resonance and connection alive.
Groove-death pioneers INTERNAL BLEEDING are set to drop their seventh album Settle All Scores on October 17 via Maggot Stomp, with the crushing title track now streaming.
The Long Island crew — Steve Worley, Chris McCarthy, Chris Pervelis, Kyle Eddy, and Ryan Giordano — funnel three decades of frustration, betrayal, and resilience into eight tracks that expand their slam-rooted legacy. Guest appearances include Sherwood Webber (Skinless), Mikey Petroski (Never Ending Game), and former band vocalists Joe Marchese, Jay Lowe, and Frank Rini.
Produced by the band, mixed by Taylor Young at The Pit, and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege, the record hits with full force. Ahead of release, INTERNAL BLEEDING will storm the Northeast with Bodybox, plus a slot at Salt City Death Fest on September 19.
SOMETHING IS WAITING have unveiled a live video for Unholy Alliance, the second single from their upcoming live album Livelick, due October 24 via Learning Curve Records. Captured at Chicago’s Empty Bottle in 2023, the record presents an unedited full set from the trio, rejecting the disposable phone-clip culture in favor of a raw, old-school live document.
The band’s self-styled “nu roll” sound—somewhere between noise rock, glam, and groove metal—comes through with unrelenting force. Vocalist Eddie Gobbo frames Unholy Alliance as a song about transactional relationships shaped by money, status, and convenience, while the stripped-down lineup of Gobbo, Idin Alexzander, and William T. Fay proves its power in a live setting, with a mix and video treatment by longtime collaborators Pete Grossmann and Blake Bickel.
⤵ Rock
Alternative, Indie, Hard Rock, Emo, Noise Rock, Experimental and more
BURIAL WAVES have dropped a new single, “Fresh Nerve,” out September 10 via Dark Operative. The track runs 3:27 and continues the band’s approach of issuing standalone songs outside the standard album cycle.
Formed from members of BLACK CLOUDS, PIANOS BECOME THE TEETH, CAVERNS, and THE EFFECTS, the DC/Baltimore group fuse amp-driven heaviness with expansive, space-soaked textures. “Fresh Nerve” carries the emotional weight and sonic intensity reminiscent of PIANOS BECOME THE TEETH, balancing atmosphere with cathartic edge.
A PERFECT CIRCLE are marking 25 years of their debut Mer de Noms with two special editions. Out September 25 via Virgin Records/Ume, the 2LP zoetrope version features four distinct animations — including glyphs, original band photos, and imagery from the David Fincher-directed “Judith” video. On October 10, the album also arrives as a One-Step Definitive Sound Series audiophile pressing, limited to 3,000 hand-numbered copies and mastered from 96kHz/24bit transfers of the analog masters.
Released in May 2000, Mer de Noms entered the Billboard Top 200 at #4, the highest-charting debut from a rock band at the time, driven by songs like “Judith,” “3 Libras,” and “Rose.” Maynard James Keenan has described the sessions as “really emotional,” while Billy Howerdel recalled “getting goosebumps” upon hearing Keenan’s first takes. A PERFECT CIRCLE will also appear at Louder Than Life on September 20 and Aftershock on October 2.
ALGERNON CADWALLADER have released Trying Not to Have a Thought, their first album in 14 years, out now on Saddle Creek. The record reunites the original lineup of Peter Helmis, Joe Reinhart, Colin Mahony, and Nick Tazza for the first time since their 2008 debut. Written across retreats in Washington and Pennsylvania and recorded largely at Reinhart’s Headroom Studios in Philadelphia, the 11-song set blends political edge and personal weight, with lead single “Hawk” already highlighted for its meditation on grief.
The band will hit the road this fall for a North American headline tour beginning November 6 in Portland and wrapping December 15 in Cambridge. Dates include stops in New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Los Angeles, with support still to be announced.
French indie rockers NOT SCIENTISTS have released their new album Voices, out now via Kicking Records, easily one of my favorite well-balanced rock albums this month.
The 12-track record—featuring songs like Caught in a Web, Maze, Burnout, and the title track—marks the band’s first with guitarist Federico, whose addition brings fresh textures to their melodic punk-infused sound.
Nu-metal veterans LIMP BIZKIT have returned with their first new material since 2021’s Still Sucks. The single, Making Love To Morgan Wallen, dropped today after being teased last week with a snippet featuring drummer Kristina Rybalchenko.
Produced by Zakk Cervini, the track was written and composed by Fred Durst with contributions from John Otto, Sam Rivers, Leor Dimant, Wes Borland, and Joel Eriksson. It arrives after a year of heavy teasing and follows the band’s chaotic Reading & Leeds Festival set in August, described as “a takeover of red snapbacks” with Durst on “an urgent mission to make this Limp Bizkit set as bonkers as possible.”
Hudson Valley alt-grunge outfit SOUL BLIND have dropped their second single “Dyno,” complete with a new video, ahead of their upcoming album Red Sky Mourning, due October 10.
The release hits just as the band kick off a tour rolling through the South and East Coast alongside Superheaven, Cloud Nothings, and End It, with additional dates later in the fall including stops with Bracewar, Raw Brigade, and Better Lovers.
Between the single, the full record on deck, and a heavy touring calendar stretching into December, SOUL BLIND are locking in a busy close to 2025.
THE SMASHING PUMPKINS have released a new track, Chrome Jets, their first fresh material since 2024’s Aghori Mhori Mei. Originally recorded during those sessions, the song surfaces now as a standalone release, bridging the band’s more recent work with their 90s-rooted intensity.
The single arrives as the band celebrates multiple milestones — the long-awaited reissue of Machina/The Machines of God and its companion album, the 25th anniversary of Machina II, and the upcoming 30th anniversary of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, which Billy Corgan will mark with a special collaboration with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Alongside these releases, the band begins their Rock Invasion Tour on September 15 in Nagoya, continuing through Asia and the Middle East before concluding in Mumbai.
SATURDAYS AT YOUR PLACE have dropped their second full-length these things happen, out now on Bandcamp with multiple vinyl variants and CD editions. The Kalamazoo trio — Esden Stafne, Gabe Wood, and Mitch Gulish — continue their blend of intimate emo lyricism and twinkly guitar-driven hooks, tracing the turbulence of growing up with raw honesty.
The album pulls inspiration from Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia and carries that same sense of chaos and fragility. Tracks like waste away and i’d rather be in michigan channel the mid-2010s Midwest emo pulse, while closer i give in lands as a cinematic finale on codependency and forgiveness. these things happen feels like a distilled snapshot of adulthood’s ache, both devastating and quietly hopeful.
Metalcore veterans THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA goes rock with their new video for their new single “So Low,” built from tour footage captured across Latin America, some shot on Super8 film for a raw, vintage look. Mike Hranica describes the track as a response to frustration and numbness: “You just want to set it all on fire and blow it up to get a reaction. It’s about chasing that rush, even if it leaves you feeling worse in the end.” He adds that the visuals highlight Latin American cityscapes as a nod to the band’s long-standing audience there.
The track comes ahead of Flowers, the band’s ninth album, due November 14 via Solid State Records. With their single “For You” recently landing on the Mediabase and Billboard Active Rock charts and a Revolver cover feature marking their fall cycle, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA are pushing into one of the busiest stretches of their two-decade career, with international dates alongside Bullet For My Valentine, Ice Nine Kills, and Creeper already lined up.
30 years after its one-day creation, HELP – The Help Album returns this October as a 30th anniversary 7” boxset, raising funds for War Child UK. The 1995 release featured OASIS, BLUR, RADIOHEAD, THE STONE ROSES, MASSIVE ATTACK, PORTISHEAD, SUEDE, THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS with THE CHARLATANS, STEREO MCs, MANIC STREET PREACHERS, and more — helping raise over £1.25m for children affected by the Bosnian conflict.
Founding drummer ALLEN BLICKLE has died at 42. A core part of BARONESS’s first decade, he sat behind the kit on the Red Album, Blue Record, and Yellow & Green before leaving the lineup in 2013. He also performed later with A Place to Bury Strangers, Romantic Dividends, and Alpaca.
The news came via BARONESS on Instagram: “It breaks my heart to have to share the news that my dear friend, creative partner and former bandmate Allen Blickle passed away a few days ago… Allen, I love you and miss you. I treasure every moment we shared.”
Laura Pleasants of Kylesa and the Discussion also wrote about reconnecting with Blickle in Los Angeles: “Spending time w you out here, playing music, going to shows, hanging at a pool party, rocking the Hell out to FEAR… You were a REAL one! So talented, so rad. Gone too soon my friend.” No cause of death has been reported.
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BARONESS are taking the “Red & Blue Tour – Part II” across the West Coast this September, with support from WEEDEATER on most dates. The run kicks off September 5 in Denver and winds through Salt Lake City, Boise, Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Fresno, Los Angeles, San Diego, Costa Mesa, Phoenix, and Albuquerque.
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Norwegian duo DEAD MOVIE ANIMALS have released their new single Dead Movie Animals, a 3:43 burst of post-hardcore energy laced with dreamy, film-inspired atmospherics. Hailing from Mysen, the band first drew attention with 20/20 Hindsight, praised by GAFFA, NATT&DAG, and NRK, while UK outlet Circuit Sweet called their debut single A Little “one of the best new tracks of the year.” REFUSED’s Dennis Lyxzén also backed the project, simply calling it “very cool.”
ÉQUIPE DE FOOT will release their new album Small Talk on October 3, 2025 via A Tant Rêver Du Roi and Luik Music.
Recorded and mixed by Johannes Buff at Studio Shorebreaker and mastered by Benoît Bel at Studio Mikrokosm, the record moves between the banal and the exceptional — starting with Bonjour and ending with Au revoir, like small talk that could also be the most important declaration.
Three singles are already streaming: “Yes”, “Mitch”, and “Healing but no”, showcasing a mix of indie rock, noise, and melodic experimentation. The artwork comes from Ita Duclair.
Manchester alternative rock unit CLAW THE THIN ICE are back with their fifth full-length, Fever Dreamer, out September 19. The record closes a long chapter that began in the uncertainty of the COVID years, when personal upheavals and stalled plans forced the band to reframe their approach. What came out of it is a body of work that they describe as tied to “life being in constant turmoil,” shaped by ageing, mortality, and the weight of the future.
Fever Dreamer stands as CLAW THE THIN ICE’s most collaborative effort yet, with all four members trading roles and layering parts across the record. Drawing on influences as wide as Daitro, The Beatles, Swervedriver, Roxy Music and Big Thief, the album plays like the culmination of years spent rewriting, redrafting, and obsessing over the details until they found clarity in the haze.
LES CLAYPOOL ofthe almighty PRIMUS sat down with Rick Beato in a new interview posted September 9, 2025, diving into the eccentric bassist’s long career and creative outlook.
The PRIMUS frontman reflected on writing the South Park theme and his off-kilter approach to bass, while also touching on collaborations with names like Stewart Copeland, Trey Anastasio, Tom Waits, Maynard James Keenan, and Billy Strings.
The conversation traces Claypool’s art of making “weird bass” central to his work, a thread connecting decades of projects across rock, experimental, and beyond.
DEFTONES are sitting heavy on the Billboard Hot Hard Rock Songs chart right now, with 11 tracks in the top 20—a surge fueled by TikTok virality, new certifications, and the ongoing acclaim of their tenth album private music. Nearly four decades in, the band’s back catalog is pulling younger listeners into their orbit at a scale that’s pushed them to one of the most dominant positions of their career.
Asked by The Irish Times about being called “the Radiohead of metal,” CHINO MORENO said: “It makes me smile, and it doesn’t annoy me at all… It’s flattering, yes, to be compared to a band as great as them. Do I think that we are? Not necessarily.” Reflecting on White Pony, he added: “As much as people love that record now, when it came out a lot of people didn’t understand it. In retrospect it is probably one of our most important records. We followed our instincts and did what we wanted to do, and that’s part of the reason why, almost 40 years on, we’re still able to have people be curious about our musical output.”
THE TWIN resurface with Blue Honey, their second LP and first in four years, out now via Mind Over Matter Records. Where 2021’s Dead Rose dug into the raw edges of breakup grief, this new record dives headlong into the unstable rush of new love — lust, doubt, euphoria, distraction, and reckless connection all tangled across eight tracks.
See our full feature and track by track here.
Brighton emo/alt duo HELL HOTEL have dropped their new single “promises.”, a track about confronting the collapse of a toxic relationship and the difficulty of breaking away. Vocalist Demi describes it as their most vulnerable moment yet: “This song is where I bare my soul more than ever before, laying it all on the line and letting my heart speak without filter or fear.” Tom adds that it pulls from early 2000s emo and post-hardcore influences, calling it their favorite HELL HOTEL song to date.
The release follows a summer of standout festival appearances at Burn It Down in Torquay and No Play in Liverpool, alongside sets with Desolated and Mouth Culture. With past singles like “mirrors.”, “every broken part.”, and “chandelier.” earning BBC airplay and coverage from Rock Sound, HELL HOTEL are now pushing forward with live dates supporting Kira Mac this September across the UK, before joining Bodywater in Manchester this November.
Texas hard rock veterans DROWNING POOL just stepped into late-night TV with Offset, backing him on a live version of “Bodies” during The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The performance also brought out Atlanta’s J.I.D and producer BNYX®, with the band supplying the original firepower instead of a sample.
At the same time, DROWNING POOL have confirmed they’re in the studio working on a new EP, set for a 2026 release through SBG Records. The record arrives as the band prepares to mark 25 years of their 2001 debut Sinner, the album that gave the world their still-ubiquitous anthem “Bodies.”
Frontman Ryan McCombs, who rejoined the group in 2023, summed up the reunion simply: “Just being back in the same room together after so many years… was a quick reminder as to why I considered them to be my best friends in the business back in the day.”
Grungy alt-rock unit CROSSING I’S DOTTING T’S have released a new single, Stained, out September 12, 2025 via Cleopatra Records. The track runs just under four minutes, channeling the band’s mix of grunge, post-grunge, nu-metal, post-hardcore, and 2000s emo grit.
Formed in Southern California, the lineup features Matt Mucerino on vocals and rhythm guitar, Max Dickenson on bass, Nye Fong on lead guitar, and Josh Valencia on drums. Stained adds to their growing catalog that draws heavy influence from the darker edges of 90s and 2000s alternative rock.
PUREMOON from Bandung, Indonesia have released a new double single, All Your Words / Left Here, out September 11, 2025.
The two tracks balance emo fragility with alt-rock weight, moving between dream pop textures and raw sadness. “All Your Words” stretches out in melancholic tones, while “Left Here” hits sharper and shorter, leaving a sting of unresolved emotion.
Oasis’s Live ’25 reunion tour continues to make headlines this week as the band solidifies its legacy while declaring it will be their final run. According to co-manager Alec McKinlay, there are no plans for new music, underscoring that this tour represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the Gallagher brothers back in action.
Amid massive fanfare—over 2 million tickets sold, emotional performances, celebrity show-ups, and soaring resale prices—the band confirmed that every show will be captured for a forthcoming concert film, Oasis Live ’25, produced by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight.
At the massive Rose Bowl concert in Pasadena, Liam and Noel delivered a stirring set that leaned heavily on hits from Definitely, Maybe and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, winning fans old and new with their reconciled presence and celebrated chemistry.
Olympia’s emotional, melodic post-hardcore rockers DARK HARBOR have released their new single Severed, a b-side track that’s been sitting in the vault until now. Out September 12, 2025, the song runs just under three minutes and delivers the band’s sharp energy and emotive edge.
Toronto multi-genre artist RUNE has signed with UNFD and shared a new single, Fast Asleep. The track comes with a video and finds her navigating the weight of grief through dream imagery and fragile moments of safety.
“‘Fast Asleep’ was written when I was deep in my grief,” RUNE explains. “On some of the most painful nights early on, I used to dream of the person I lost. This song is about those dreams… it’s a representation of this feeling of safety from their presence in your dreams, feeling like the spirit of this person is trying to communicate with you.”
Richmond alt-rockers THE BARONS will release their debut album Le Château on November 7. Ahead of the record, the band have shared the new single “Way Out,” a five-minute cut that starts bright and melodic before diving into a darker groove and roaring solo.
Written by frontman Peyton Alley in Charlottesville overlooking the Blue Ridge, the track takes aim at the erosion of empathy in a hyper-digital age. “I believe human relationships and virtues are now on the fringe of extinction… the real way out is embracing our physical relationships authentically and loving each other every chance we have,” Alley says.
Boston emo outfit BICYCLE INN return with their new single “Longsword (4th Place),” out September 12 on all streaming platforms. Recorded with Gary Cioni, the track marks their first release since 2022’s Baldr the Beautiful is Dead, is Dead and the first time the band has recorded as a five-piece, with Dylan Ilkowitz back on guitar and newcomers Gilmar Perez and Josh Giaquinto making their recorded debut.
The band calls the song “about the struggle of mundanity; doing just enough, scraping by and ‘making the cut,’” capturing the stagnancy they describe as becoming a “Saint of the Rut.” Guest vocals from Ryan O’Rourke of Innerlove. add another layer to the track, underscoring the shift toward a fuller, more dynamic sound in BICYCLE INN’s ongoing evolution.
Queer punk-noise collective THE EMPTY THREATS return with their second album happy birthday, released via Anti-Dismal and Short Corner Records. Unlike their politically charged debut Monster Truck Mondays, the new record shifts inward, tackling the queer and neurodiverse experiences of the band’s members across fourteen live-recorded tracks that channel the energy of their chaotic stage presence.
Winners at the South Australian Music Awards and previously spotlighted by Rolling Stone and KEXP, THE EMPTY THREATS have built a reputation for wild, high-risk live shows. Following years of relentless touring and festival appearances, they’ll launch happy birthday this month with shows in Melbourne, Sydney, Wollongong and Adelaide, before heading to Europe and the UK in October.
New Zealand alternative pop outfit YUMI ZOUMA return with a four-song EP titled Drag, released September 12, 2025 via Nettwerk Music Group. The set runs just over 13 minutes and features the title track alongside “Cross My Heart and Hope to Die,” “Blister,” and “Bashville on the Sugar.”
It follows the group’s 2023 EP and their fourth full-length Present Tense from 2022, adding another chapter to a catalog that has stretched from home recordings in 2013 to international studio sessions in Los Angeles, London, and Florence.
Adelaide emo/alt-rock trio TOWNHOUSE drop new single “Avengers Level Threat” . The track leads into the DIY EP Look At Me Now, recorded in Matt Burgess’ bedroom and featuring trumpet by Harry Boyd-Turner. It tackles comparison and falling behind with an earworm chorus—“Do you see it when you look at me now?”—and a confessional edge.
San José, Costa Rica’s SÁBADO SANTO have released their new EP Lo Que Nunca Dijimos, out September 10, 2025. Blending emo with dreampop and shoegaze textures, the four-track release carries the band’s most atmospheric and intimate work to date.
Recorded across Miut Audio and Phantom Records with Pablo Ocampo handling drums, mixing, and mastering, and Gabriel Perez engineering vocals, the EP showcases tracks like “Otra Vez Takopi” and “Mareas” that lean into layered guitars, drifting vocals, and expansive moods.
GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS have announced their ninth studio album Caught Light, set for release on October 10, 2025. Alongside the news, the Toronto-based indie folk band have shared a new single, Youth Not Wasted, a wistful reflection on memory and the passage of time, paired with a visualizer.
Recorded in Ontario’s Ganaraska Forest with producer Darcy Yates (Bahamas) and engineer Jimmy Bowskill (Blue Rodeo), the album channels early ’70s folk-pop while embracing a rawer, more direct approach to songwriting. Frontman Tony Dekker describes the title as inspired by an image from his childhood — skydivers drifting off course — a metaphor for life’s unpredictable turns.
Sunday Drive Records just lined up Worlds Apart, the new album from San Diego’s GLEAN, dropping October 3rd. First two tracks—“Sediment” and “Receive You”—are already streaming, and they show exactly where the band’s at: abrasive but melodic, emotional without losing bite.
Pulled from the lineage of SEAWEED, SAMIAM, JAWBREAKER, LIFETIME, and TITLE FIGHT, GLEAN lean into San Diego’s punk DNA while pushing toward sharper hooks and heavier grit. Worlds Apart marks their SDR debut, recorded with Max Epstein (PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY) and mastered by Phillip Odom (MILITARIE GUN, GLARE). Guest vocals from Sam Allen (ANXIOUS, G.I. BILL) add weight to “Receive You,” while “Exit Wound” strips things back into quiet, Mineral-like territory.
Vinyl is up in limited runs (Cloudy Clear / Transparent Red), with shirts and fan-club exclusives on deck. Album lands October 3rd.
Montreal’s post-punk/noise rock unit ANTENNA93 are back with a new single, “Jack in the Green,” out September 19. The track pulls its mood from the 1973 cult film The Wicker Man, pushing into darker terrain with frantic guitars, tortured vocals, and a palette that drags noise rock, art punk, and even tremolo-picked black metal into the same storm. Lyrics lean on mortality and obsession, making it a fitting early fall cut.
The B-side, “I Think I Could Turn and Live with Animals,” takes the fractured guitars from the opener and lets them fade into a folky, acoustic-driven piece, with violin from May Shukla (Death as it Shook You, The Vlcheks) adding a hopeful counterpoint.
The single drops just ahead of ANTENNA93’s appearance at Pop Montreal on September 24, followed by a short Ontario run September 26–28.
GOD ALONE have released their new single “Pink Himalayan” with an official video, paired with “The Beep Test”. Both tracks preview the Cork experimental rock outfit’s third full-length The Beep Test, due October 10 via Prosthetic Records.
Formed in 2016, the quintet — Jake O’Driscoll (guitar/vocals), Cian Mullane (bass/vocals), Jack O’Hanlon (drums), Dylan Kelly (synths), and Seán Thompson (guitar) — recorded the album DIY with PIJN’s Joe Clayton, only tracking drums in a professional studio.
The nine-track set draws from LCD Soundsystem, Tears For Fears, Turnstile, and The Dillinger Escape Plan, fusing math rock, metal, and dancefloor grooves. Past releases ETC (2022), God Alone EP (2019), and Poll na mBrón (2018) earned praise from Distorted Sound and Nine Circles, while live appearances included ArcTanGent, Portals, Strange Forms, and Focus Wales.
Los Angeles rock outfit S8NT ELEKTRIC have dropped their new single “Peace Of Myself,” released September 10 via Long Branch Records.
The band frame the track as a breaking point against people-pleasing and self-erasure: “The moment that you refuse to make yourself small enough to fit into someone else’s world and learn to embrace your true self, even if people don’t like it.”
Lyrically, it pushes through themes of disillusion and reclaiming identity, delivered with the band’s sharp-edged hard rock drive.
Indie rock duo JOYER will release their new album On the Other End of the Line… on October 24 via Julia’s War. Brothers Nick and Shane Sullivan, long active across the East Coast DIY circuit, recorded the record over eight days in Chicago with Henry Stoehr of Slow Pulp. The result is described as their rawest and most stripped-back material to date.
The album follows 2024’s Night Songs and pulls from anxieties of relocation, touring, and distance, while pushing further into folk-tinged arrangements and hook-heavy noisy pop.
Seminal New Jersey post-hardcore band ARMOR FOR SLEEP will return November 7 with their new studio album There Is No Memory, recorded with Sam Guaiana and out via Equal Vision Records.
The first single “Breathe Again” comes with a video directed by Dylan Hryciuk and Michael Herrick. Ben Jorgensen calls it “a song about trying to come to grips with the fact that there was someone who you thought would be there for you through thick and thin who instead used a moment when you were at your lowest point to hurt you deeper than you thought possible.”
ARMOR FOR SLEEP will join Senses Fail and Story Of The Year on the Scream Team Tour, kicking off November 17 in Atlanta.
PINK FLOYD are rolling out a massive Wish You Were Here 50th anniversary reissue on December 12 via Sony. The set drops in multiple formats—3xLP, 2xCD, Blu-ray, digital, and a deluxe box with extras stacked sky-high. At the core are six never-before-heard alternate versions and demos, including early takes on “Wish You Were Here” and “Welcome to the Machine.”
The box goes all in: clear vinyl, a fourth LP of Live at Wembley 1974, a replica Japanese 7”, unseen photo book, a comic tour program, and Knebworth poster. The Blu-ray packs Atmos, surround, stereo, and quad mixes, plus restored bootleg audio from Pink Floyd’s 1975 Los Angeles show and vintage screen films.
To mark the announcement, the band shared The Machine Song (Demo #2, Revisited)—an early, stripped-down version of “Welcome to the Machine.” It sits alongside gems like Roger Waters’ original demo, a pedal steel mix of the title track, and a complete stereo-mixed “Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts. 1–9).”
Originally dedicated to Syd Barrett, the record remains one of Floyd’s sharpest statements on absence, isolation, and the grind of the music biz. Half a century later, it’s still cutting.
RIBBON SKIRT are back with Pensacola, a new EP dropping October 3 via Mint Records. First track “Lucky8” is out now with a video, a haze of feedback-drenched guitars and distorted vocals that digs into memory and loss while refusing to straighten the edges.
Framed as an epilogue to their debut Bite Down—shortlisted for the Polaris Prize—Pensacola pulls between urgency and fragility. “Lucky8” and “Comma” swing sharp, while “Braids” and the title track haunt with quieter weight.
Fronted by Anishinaabe musician Tashiina Buswa with guitarist Billy Riley, RIBBON SKIRT bend post-punk, shoegaze, and noise into something raw and restless. Following the EP release, they’ll hit the road with WOMBO across the US this fall.
Canadian trio ABSOLUTE LOSERS have released their new single Eagerness (Sept 9, Having Fun Records), ahead of their upcoming album In The Crowd, due Sept 26.
Recorded live in the studio with producer Graham Walsh (Holy Fuck) and mastered by Mikey Young (The Chats, King Gizzard, Amyl and the Sniffers), Eagerness strips back to bare rock swagger, drawing on AC/DC and Tom Petty while leaning into what the band calls their “butt-ish caveman rock.” Built on big open chords and layered harmonies, the song blends nostalgia with a loose, unpolished energy that has already become a highlight of their live set.
The band plays London’s Strongroom Bar on Sept 16, before heading to Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg and a run of Canadian dates.
NYC lo-fi noise pop group STAR CARD are gearing up for their new album Trash World, out November 14 on Already Dead Tapes and Records. The label just shared the first single “Lena,” now streaming everywhere with cassette pre-orders live.
The band started when Calley (vocals/guitar) and Brendan (drums) crossed paths in 2022, bonding over Elliott Smith offerings before forming a second project alongside Brendan’s heavy art rock band Receive. What began as Calley’s bedroom recordings became a full four-piece in the city’s bars and basements, expanded with Jake Whitener (Sunshine Convention, Kira Skye) on guitar and Jackson Tarricone (Voicemail) on bass.
Trash World was tracked at Headless Studios in Brooklyn, mixed and mastered by Andrew Gerard Nault in Boston, and follows their 2023 Freak World EP.
Portland rock troublemakers THE MACKS are rolling out two new singles tomorrow — “Dually of Man” and “The Modern Grape” — as the opening shot for their next album Bonanza, out September 25 on DevilDuck Records.
The band call the record “a collection of miscellaneous rock that could only have been crafted by this dedicated and bull-headedly sincere troupe of desperate artists,” which sums up the loose, unglued spirit they’ve carried from the start.
Right after Bonanza lands, THE MACKS will hit the road across North America with Acid Mothers Temple, pushing their chaotic energy from basements to bigger stages.
K Records is reissuing Glimmer, the lone album from Washington D.C.’s GLO-WORM, on 12” vinyl. Originally released on CD 30 years ago, the record gathers the band’s three 7” EPs and adds a cover of The Cure’s “Friday I’m in Love.”
Formed in the summer of 1993, GLO-WORM featured Pam Berry (Black Tambourine, co-founder of chickfactor), Dan Searing (Whorl), and Terry Banks (Tree Fort Angst, later St. Christopher). Their brief two-and-a-half year run left behind a handful of EPs and compilation cuts before Glimmer appeared in 1996 on K.
The reissue brings back fourteen tracks of chiming, melancholy indie pop that placed the group firmly within the East Coast DIY scene alongside labels like Slumberland and peers such as Velocity Girl and Versus.
PREYRS have released their second single “Zeros, Ones & Lies” via Pelagic Records, accompanied by a live session video. The track hits with distorted guitars on the edge of collapse, double-time drums, and a closing refrain where vocalist Amy Montgomery asks quietly: “Can you feel it? / Like a river / It flows so silently / It flows so violently.”
Formed by Montgomery and drummer/producer Michael Mormecha, the Belfast-based quartet also features guitarist Nolan Donelly and bassist Ciarán McGreevy. Their sound pulls from the weight of metal and the chaos of alternative rock, drawing comparisons to Nine Inch Nails, Chelsea Wolfe, and Julie Christmas.
PREYRS debuted at Bloodstock Open Air and Stendhal Festival this summer and will join New Model Army on a European run through November and December.
MAYDAY PARADE have dropped “One Day At A Time,” the second single from Sad, the next installment in their 20th anniversary album trilogy, due out October 3.
The track blends nostalgia and self-reflection, with guitarist Brooks Betts calling it “a song about growing through life and getting better as you go.” It follows “Under My Sweater” and continues the band’s return to early emo/punk influences while leaning into more atmospheric textures.
Sad reunites them with longtime producers Zack Odom and Kenneth Mount, and arrives as they tour with ALL TIME LOW and prepare for sets at When We Were Young Fest.
Wisconsin’s Americana country rocker NICHOLAS GOEMAN has a new single out now, IV of JD, released through Blacktop Records (BTR090).
The label calls it a “fun, upbeat party-themed anthem” built to carry listeners through the rest of 2025, marking GOEMAN’s latest drop under the Blacktop banner.
THE SOUND OF ANIMALS FIGHTING return today with The Maiden, their first full-length in 17 years, out now via Born Losers Records. The masked collective—featuring members of LS DUNES, RX BANDITS, and HARD CHILLER—last released The Ocean and The Sun in 2008, making this LP a long-awaited follow-up.
The ten-song record opens with its title track, introducing the mythic arc that unfolds across both sides of the album. Critics have already called it “bonkers, positively blistering” (Stereogum) and “a real treat after a 14-year break” (Brooklyn Vegan).
To mark the release, the band head out on a full U.S. tour starting September 25 in Seattle, joined by THIS WILL DESTROY YOU, THE CASKET LOTTERY, HARD CHILLER, and SOFT BLUE SHIMMER on select dates.
30 years after its one-day creation, HELP – The Help Album returns this October as a 30th anniversary 7” boxset, raising funds for War Child UK. The 1995 release featured OASIS, BLUR, RADIOHEAD, THE STONE ROSES, MASSIVE ATTACK, PORTISHEAD, SUEDE, THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS with THE CHARLATANS, STEREO MCs, MANIC STREET PREACHERS, and more — helping raise over £1.25m for children affected by the Bosnian conflict.
The anniversary edition is out October 17, with all proceeds supporting War Child’s work with children living through war today. Pre-orders are live now at store.warchild.org.uk.
Boston ska-soul collective WESTBOUND TRAIN are back with Sing the Ghost Away, a new album set for release on November 7. The first single, “L.M.A.,” is streaming now, carrying what vocalist Obi Fernandez calls “a tune about self-worth… a reminder that in those moments of disappointment, the move is to self start, choose yourself—to love yourself first.”
Produced by Fernandez and drummer Eric Novod, the record was tracked at The Relic Room in New York and mixed by Tim Panella. Contributions from Anthony Abbinanti, Jon Degen, Luke Panella, and Mike Sarason broaden the sound across cuts like “Keeper From the Start,” “Slippery Slope,” and a re-recorded “We All Need Rescue.”
⤵ Electronic / Experimental
Experimental duo DISINIBLUD have shared a new remix of “Blue Rags, Raging Wind” (featuring Amigone), reworked by Deafheaven guitarist Kerry McCoy. The track, lifted from their self-titled debut on Smugglers Way/Domino, finds McCoy flipping the album’s most neoclassical moment into a rush of drum-and-bass, tremolo textures, synth pads, and his own guitar work. “I love this album and was deeply honored to be asked to remix this incredible song,” he said. “Had an absolute blast.”
The remix arrives just as DISINIBLUD—Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalists Rachika Nayar and Nina Keith—head out on a North American headline run starting September 12 at National Sawdust in Brooklyn. Dates stretch through Montreal, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco, wrapping October 24 in Los Angeles before the duo shift to a UK/EU run in November, including Pitchfork Music Festival London.
German electro-industrial act FIX8:SED8 will release their sixth album Octagram on October 3 via Dependent Records. Built entirely around the number eight — eight songs, each eight minutes long — the record questions religion’s use of eternal life as a tool of control.
Martin Sane pushes the project into new ground with odd time signatures, polyrhythms, and vocals built partly from the final words of people sentenced to death. The sound still channels the DNA of Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly but continues FIX8:SED8’s shift into its own darker, more progressive territory.
TORTOISE will return October 24 with Touch, their first new album since 2016, out via International Anthem. Preorders are live now, including a limited Axial Seamount color vinyl pressing and as part of the label’s Fall ’25 bundle.
Track two, “Layered Presence,” is already streaming, giving a first glimpse into the record’s cinematic unease—densely layered arrangements where percussion, guitars, and electronics shift between hypnotic calm and jagged tension.
Recorded across Los Angeles, Portland, and Chicago, the album came together slowly, with members working from different cities for the first time in the band’s three-decade run. Mixed by John McEntire and mastered by Dave Cooley, Touch pushes Tortoise’s collective process into new terrain while holding to their core: intricate, wordless dramas built from rhythm, noise, and texture.
⤵ General / Industry News
Seattle’s jazz-heavy coalition SEATTLE ARTISTS AGAINST SPOTIFY says more than 30 local musicians, DJs, and label folks are pulling their catalogs, led by organizer Carolyn Brotherton. Their open letter blasts Spotify’s “anti-human, anti-art, and anti-listener” direction—pointing to AI-generated music on the platform and Daniel Ek’s ties to AI military drones. “I already thought that Spotify was exceptionally predatory,” says flautist Leanna Keith, arguing the company profits without paying the people who make the product.
The letter cites an AI track wrongly posted to Blaze Foley’s page as “an egregious violation” and calls out ‘ghost artists’ gaming playlists. Momentum’s spreading: YOUNG WIDOWS announced they’re removing their discography, calling Ek’s Helsing investment “beyond inhumane,” adding, “We do not support genocide… Our art is not a competition.” They also slam AI-made bands and albums from deceased artists as “soulless and empty,” while pointing to artists like KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD, DEERHOOF, and XIU XIU taking similar stands.
Meanwhile, ANTHONY FANTANO hosted DEEZER CEO Alexis Lanternier to talk concrete fixes: tagging AI-generated tracks and pulling them from playlists and recommendations, plus broader fraud-fighting so royalties flow to real artists. The takeaway aligns with the Seattle letter—less passive playlist sludge, more accountability for what listeners are actually hearing.
The Verge reports that Spotify has officially launched lossless audio streaming, a long-awaited feature first rumored back in 2017. Unlike earlier speculation, it won’t require a new “Spotify HiFi” or premium subscription tier — instead, it’s rolling out to all Premium users.
The rollout will cover 50 markets over the next two months, including Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, the US, and the UK.
