“And right now… right now… right now it’s time to… kick out the jams, motherfuckers!”
– Rob Tyner, “Kick Out the Jams”
Kia ora, allies, acquaintances, and soon-to-be nemeses. Welcome to part deux of ICWT’s year-end round-up, which focuses on some of 2025’s standout EPs. If you haven’t checked out the first part of this end-of-year soirée, please do. Part #1 of this punk pageant spotlights my favourite full-length albums from the past 12 months.
Part #1 of ICWT’s year-end coverage also includes a very long-winded introduction, crammed with self-effacing caveats. However, I can sum up those caveats pretty handily in two short sentences:
- I claim no specialist knowledge or critical expertise when it comes to punk or hardcore.
- What I provide instead is abundant enthusiasm for the cause.
Essentially, if you want to know what a wizened ol’ hermit who’s allergic to social media thinks are the raddest punk and hardcore releases from 2025, then you’re in the right place. The EPs below are the ones that stood out for me this year and, fingers crossed, some of them will resonate with you, too. Obviously, an EP (vinyl, cassette, or digital) is the perfect format for all punk and hardcore releases. An EP’s compressed running time – and all the creative heat crammed therein – results in many bands delivering their most visceral work. Below, you’ll find ample evidence to support that fact.
If you’ve not visited ICWT before, keep in mind that this column focuses on Discharge fan fiction. Or Disclose fan fiction. Or Shitlickers fan fiction. Or Doom fan fiction. Or Totalitär, Gloom, Framtid, Bolt Thrower, Amebix, or Anti-Cimex fan fiction. The point being, I zero in on the uglier-sounding stuff. I wholeheartedly encourage you to check out plenty more EOY lists for a more comprehensive picture of punk and hardcore in 2025. I’m just here to talk about shitnoise.
I don’t rank my EOY lists these days. But not for any profound reasons. Deciding who’s better or best just doesn’t fit with my idea of punk’s general vibe. But that’s just my view. I’ll (very) happily read every other EOY list, ranked or otherwise.
I included a long list of thank-yous in the introduction to this two-parter, which I won’t repeat in full; I know you’re busy and likely keen to get to all the noise. Suffice to say, cheers to the music-makers, record-slingers, bloggers, vloggers, and podcasters who continue to fight the good fight. And a ‘tip of the hat’ to the Last Rites crew for allowing me to sully this site’s well-earned rep.
Thanks to you, too, of course! I appreciate you taking the time to visit ICWT more than you can imagine. I’m not joking when I say I’m a hermit. I live a very small and insular life. Writing about music offers me a crucial link to a community of fellow fans, which helps me feel less isolated. Here’s to all the deafening bands and tendrils of noise that connect us.
You’ll undoubtedly be familiar with much of the music below. But I hope you discover a couple of previously unheard releases to sink your teeth into.
Whatever you’re up to at this time of year, have a good ’un. Stay safe. Be well. And all the best for ’26.
Kia kaha.
Note:
- Most years, I write an entirely separate EOY article celebrating noisy music from Down Under. There are a couple of Kiwi and Aussie bands below, but if you’d like to check out all the great NZ and Aus punk from 2025, you can find Down Under(ground): ’25 right here.
- Regular readers might feel a sense of déjà vu while reading some of the blurbs below. You’re not losing your marbles. Like any ecologically conscious citizen of the Earth, I’m all about reusing, recycling, and repurposing. Ergo, some previously published blurbs have been re-edited and included below.
ICWT: ’25 EPs
Sadly, two of the EPs I wanted to hear most this year – Portal Tomb and Extensive Slaughter’s split cassette, and Asocial Terror Fabrication and Katorga’s 7” split – never got within my reach. At the time of writing, neither is streaming online, and sourcing copies from the Northern Hemisphere is always a bit tricky/pricey for someone (like me) who lives at the ass end of the world. I’m sure both of those splits would have hit home for me big time. But them’s the breaks. I fully support musicians’ decisions about how to distribute their music. If ‘no streaming, cuz’ is their preference, so be it.
There are other glaring omissions below as well. I had to do some hasty re-editing of this post when a few of the EPs I included (like No Fucker’s 2025 EPs) disappeared from view after the YouTube channel they featured on went up in smoke. That was a bummer. But it’s no biggie. There’s still a lengthy list of great EPs to dig into below.
As I said in the intro of my ICWT ’25 LPs post, Discogs reports that approximately 10,500 punk and hardcore records were released this year. Obviously, that doesn’t account for the umpteen releases posted online by DIY bands and labels who don’t give a flying fuck about Discogs. The point is that, out of the thousands of potential candidates, I’ve highlighted 40 EPs below. I look forward to hearing about your favourite EPs from 2025 to see how many excellent releases I’ve egregiously overlooked.
Keep in mind that the following releases are in no particular order.
Rigorous Institution – Tormentor
Rigorous Institution’s 7-track maxi-EP, Tormentor, mixed stenchcrust, anarcho-punk, post-punk, and all manner of paranoiac and psychedelic elements into a boiling cauldron of Hawkwindian atmospherics and hell-hammering primitivism. Tormentor explored shadowy artistic avenues while probing the recesses of your mind. The songs within were laced with sonic sorcery; the eldritch/esoteric adventures evoked a crazed druid incanting wildly, while cleaving your skull in two. Tormentor proved, once again, that Rigorous Institution’s music is as creative as it is crushing.
Label: Roachleg Records
Bandcamp: Tormentor
PERSONⒶ – Perfection “Tour Asia Version”
PERSONⒶ’s 8-song Perfection cassette was the perfect blast of rabble-rousing, anarcho-driven noisecore to end the year on. Recorded at D4MT Labs, Perfection’s tracks thrashed and crashed as PERSONⒶ welded knuckle-dragging punk to mangled electronics, soundbites, samples, and spoken word broadsides. Perfection featured a super-urgent mix of personal and political lyrics, with PERSONⒶ’s energy and passion cranked up to electrifying/exhilarating levels. Also: terrific “Over The Edge” cover.
Label: The Seats Of Piss
Bandcamp: Perfection
Gnostics – Revelation
Honestly, I don’t know if Gnostics’ Revelation debut is technically an EP or a demo. But what I can tell you with the utmost certainty is that Revelation was very much a revelation in and of itself. Gnostics’ first release called to mind bonfires in the darkness, febrile nighterrors, and arcane secrets spilling from the mouths of corpses. Gnostics dripped existential dread as the band mixed stench-heavy guitars, murky atmospherics, and anarcho-punk into primordial crust. Tune in for the folk horror, stick around for the end-times fever dreams.
Label: Roachleg Records
Bandcamp: Revelation
Black Dog – Sewn into Confusion
Canadian group Black Dog describe their music as a “D-BEAT RAW FUKKING NOIZE PUNK ASSAULT”. They also list their hobbies and interests as a “D-BEAT RAW FUKKING NOIZE PUNK ASSAULT” and their most significant accomplishment as… you guessed it… a “D-BEAT RAW FUKKING NOIZE PUNK ASSAULT”. Unsurprisingly, Black Dog’s Sewn into Confusion EP featured a blizzard of head-splitting and fuzz-throttled noisecore. Every track on Sewn into Confusion offered a flamethrowing emotional exorcism, and Black Dog’s savage sonic barrage was an all-consuming firestorm. RAW FUKKING NOIZE PUNK – 1000%.
Label: Iron Lung Records
Bandcamp: Sewn into Confusion
Zyclone – Visions of Impending Death
Reliably on-point label General Speech released Zyclone’s Visions of Impending Death EP. Zyclone’s lineup features members of Guerra Final, Psych-War, and Electrika, and the band put their previous experience making eviscerating music to excellent use on Visions of Impending Death. The EP was akin to diving into a pool of broken glass. D-beat, Scandicore, and TNT-strength hardcore scuffled and tussled, and Zyclone’s bass-driven tracks charged forth at bloodthirsty pace. Smitten with Anti-Cimex and Poison Idea? Say hello to your new crush.
Label: General Speech
Bandcamp: Visions of Impending Death
Fog – Spring
Spring was the third release from Aotearoa New Zealand four-piece Fog, and if you’re a fan of the adventurous bands associated with labels like D4MT Labs or La Vida Es Un Mus, Fog will likely excite your neurons, too. Fog interlace anarcho-punk and peace-punk with icier post-punk, and the band’s political and more intimate tracks are exhilarating, combining the familiar with the new. Spring was another creative coup for Fog, and it’s worth underscoring that the band’s imaginative music is only going from strength to strength.
Label: R.I.P. Peace, Always Never Fun
Bandcamp: Spring
Destruct // Svaveldioxid – Split 7”
Destruct and Svaveldioxid collaborated on one of this year’s most violent and vitriolic split releases. Svaveldioxid served up heavyweight kängpunk, with their aptly chainsawing tracks recorded at the famed Sunlight Studios. Destruct have long perfected the art of sounding utterly massive while delivering blisteringly raw songs, and the band’s signature brand of audio assaultiveness was dialled up to jaw-breaking levels on their contributions. Destruct and Svaveldioxid’s decimating riffs and bombarding percussion were utterly ruthless. A juggernaut, all round.
Label: Prescription, Children of the Grave Records
Bandcamp: Destruct // Svaveldioxid
No Sector – Mercury Poisoning + Peracetic Split
No Sector released two excellent EPs in 2025. The live-wire songs on the Aotearoa New Zealand band’s instant classic Mercury Poisoning 7” blended UK82’s grit and Scandicore’s sizzle with protest punk’s passion. No Sector’s split with Canadian band Peracetic featured more high-energy guitars, with No Sector’s unique vocalist, Caroline, injecting anarcho punk’s eccentricity into the band’s sheet-metal sound. It was great to see No Sector catch the attention of punk scribes from far-flung corners of the world this year, too.
Label: Mercury Poisoning (Razored Raw), Split 7″ (Sewercide Records)
Bandcamp: Mercury Poisoning, Split 7″
Arson – Burning Future
If you consider albums like A Holocaust in Your Head or Noise Attack Devastating Tokyo City to be sacred texts in the crust/noise/raw punk canon, then you’ll no doubt worship Arson’s Burning Future EP, too. The NYC band’s deafening debut dialled up the sonic shrapnel on songs that felt like a dentist’s drill hitting a nerve. Arson’s combination of crasher crust and noisecore featured torrents of ultra-distorted riffs and howling vocals; a carnage-strewn fiesta for fans of top-tier ear-fuckery.
Label: General Speech
Bandcamp: Burning Future
Yellowcake – Apparitions of War
Arizona four-piece Yellowcake’s 2024 EP, A Fragmented Truth, was an absolute knockout. The band’s 2025 follow-up, Apparitions of War, was even better. Apparitions of War saw Yellowcake’s d-beat further abraded by crasher crust and über-discordant raw punk, with the EP’s tracks stripped to their marrow. Apparitions of War’s caustic, lo-fi production meant Yellowcake sounded more abrasive than ever as they detailed the eternal failures of the human condition – a perfect storm of harsh and horrible noise.
Label: Total Peace
Bandcamp: Apparitions of War
Internal Rot / Mutilated Cop – Split EP
Australian “blastasfuk” crew Internal Rot have been serving up hardcore-friendly grindcore since 2010 – see the band’s 2020 LP, Grieving Birth, for a stone-cold genre classic. Best Aussie grind band? Too right, mate! This year, Internal Rot teamed up with Seattle band Mutilated Cop (a side project for a few members of Caustic Wound) for a psyche-shattering split. Every one of Internal Rot’s excoriating songs maximised its hostility while dialling up the velocity, while Mutilated Cop delivered squalls of harsh and haemorrhaging audio violence via ENT-worthy songs. This shit(noise) rules.
Label: Nerve Altar
Bandcamp: Split
Disterror – Revealing Darkness
Cancún, Mexico, band Disterror’s last significant recording, Catharsis, was released a decade ago. The band’s long-gestating follow-up, Revealing Darkness, drew inspiration from the likes of Sacrilege, Voivod, Gastunk, and At the Gates. Disterror sounded even grimmer and colder on Revealing Darkness, with the band’s extreme metal/punk amalgam of thrash, death metal, and crust featuring much icier riffage and more soul-scouring vocals. The longer Disterror exist, the deeper they explore the darkest, most negative-sounding caverns of metalpunk.
Label: Self-released
Bandcamp: Revealing Darkness
Pollute – No Peace for the Peaceful
I really enjoyed Pollute’s high-velocity 2024 album, Microplastics, Massive Profits, and the band’s three-song 2025 EP, No Peace for the Peaceful, was another tour de force. Pollute’s worldview was plugged-in and on-point, and the band’s d-beat and hardcore carried as much musical heft as it did philosophical weight. Like all of Pollute’s releases thus far, No Peace for the Peaceful was catchier than the latest world-ending plague. The band’s pounding drums, stampeding guitars, and guttural growls constructed a blistering wall of noise.
Label: Self-released
Bandcamp: No Peace for the Peaceful
(Thanks to Christopher for pointing me in Pollute’s direction, once again.)
Farce – Sights of War
Sights of War was the fourth album from corrosive-sounding Finnish band Farce. Sights of War was filled with dissonant waves of static, garbage-can percussion, and half-buried, inter-dimensional vocals. D-beat was slammed face-first into broken concrete – and stripped of much of its structure – while lyrically, Farce’s anti-militarist sentiments tore into the ceaseless suffering and unending machinations of war. A total noise assault. Max-aggression. Max-devastation. The end of humanity starts here.
Label: Sistema Mortal
Bandcamp: Sights of War
Condumb – S/T
Philadelphia band Condumb has ties to Sheer Mag, Kinetic Orbital Strike, Poison Ruïn, and Quarantine. That’s a broad spectrum of punk right there, and Condumb slotted into the ‘noise for noise’s sake’ category. The band’s self-titled 7” tipped its hat to Confuse, Disclose, Chaos UK, and like-minded worshippers of manic musical mayhem. D-beat hacked into bitter crust and raw hardcore thrashed and crashed on Condumb’s vitriolic songs. Expect lacerating guitars, pounding drums, and inhuman howls.
Label: Stupid Bag Records, Self-released
Bandcamp: Condumb
Fuckin’ Lovers – Crucifixion of the Masses
Philadelphia noise punks Fuckin’ Lovers came roaring back in 2025 with their Crucifixion of the Masses 7”. Fuckin’ Lovers channelled Confuse, Swankys and Disorder via their buzz-sawing raw punk and ultra-distorted hardcore. Fuckin’ Lovers’ latest tracks were like scorching hot sewage: blistering, filthy, and a disgusting delight to imbibe. Crucifixion of the Masses was recorded at D4MT in NYC, and mixed and mastered by Shige at Noise Room in Tokyo; how much more of a recommendation do you need? Hard noise for harder days.
Label: General Speech, Discos Enfermos
Bandcamp: Crucifixion of the Masses
Cotgrave – Never Believe!
Tokyo band Cotgrave crammed 10 songs onto their first 7”, Never Believe!. Formed by former members of Voĉo Protesta and Crocodile Skink, Cotgrave’s self-produced 2025 EP was stacked with super-primitive hardcore. Nods to Scandi raw punk featured, as did the strapping sound of 90s Japanese crust, and Cotgrave mixed abundant anti-war sentiments with plenty of ‘fuck the system’ attitude. An unrestrained noise assault purpose-built for fans of Life, Framtid, Frigöra, and more.
Label: Self-released, Broken Noise Records
Bandcamp: Never Believe!
Tramadol – S/T
If you love the peak years of Anti-Cimex or Discharge, then prepare to clutch UK band Tramadol to your bosom. The West Yorkshire group’s self-titled 7” featured a formidable blast of the hardest hardcore, with the EP’s four songs blending Motör-charged basslines with six-string salvos, clobbering drums, and barking vocals galore. Hooks? You betcha! Plenty of ‘em; all jagged, bloody, and dripping with venom. Tramadol’s breathless d-beat was withering. Tough as tough gets.
Label: Donor Records
Bandcamp: Tramadol
Total Con – Who Needs the Peace Corps?
Total Con squeezed nine rapid-fire tracks onto their first 7”, Who Needs the Peace Corps?. Every track featured a neck-wrecking display of hardcore’s fundamental strengths – hook-laden anthems, roiling instrumentation, raging lyrics, and warp-speed tracks. (And Who Needs the Peace Corps? also featured the best cover of “Riders on the Storm” you ever heard.) Total Con’s mantra – “MAXIMUM VOLUME. DEATH TO CAPITALIST HARDCORE!!!!” – is one for the ages. Demented, disturbed, dysfunctional; top-notch hardcore.
Label: Static Shock Records, Unlawful Assembly
Bandcamp: Who Needs the Peace Corps?
Bad Breeding – Blood Manifest
Bad Breeding specialise in recordings filled with calls for solidarity and fierce critiques of the exploitative cruelties of late-stage capitalism. The band’s Blood Manifest EP was recorded over a single weekend, and the Stevenage-based anarcho-hardcore crew sounded tanked-up on smash ’n’ grab energy. Blood Manifest featured three face-melting songs plus a 5-minute dirge that was as annihilating as any of the EP’s faster tracks. Full-bore hardcore with insightful and impassioned lyrics; Blood Manifest was another knockout from one of the UK’s most politically and musically astute bands.
Label: Standard Process
Bandcamp: Blood Manifest
Corpse Gas – 4 Track Promo
Los Angeles crasher crust outfit Corpse Gas has ties to similarly strident bands such as Anguished Life, Dust Collector, and End Result. Corpse Gas are very much in the self-described “Kill the Poser! Noise for Scum!!!” camp when it comes to crafting ear-piercing ditties. The band’s 4 Track Promo was a shit-fi funfair, and Corpse Gas’ exceptionally dark (and extremely fuzzed-out) tracks were pitch-perfect, blizzard-like noise nuggets – ideal for masochists and/or fans of Confuse, Shitlickers, Gai, and Gloom.
Label: Self-released, Phonophobia Records
Bandcamp: Corpse Gas
Axon – S/T
Axon’s self-titled 7” featured full-on and full-bore Japanese-inspired hardcore. With a lineup featuring members of Mutant Strain, Reckoning Force, and Homemade Speed, Axon’s take on Nippon hardcore was on-point and riff-tastic. Axon’s shrieking guitars, sizzling leads, and growling vocals displayed the unmistakable influence of groups like Gauze, Death Side and Nightmare. However, Axon also syphoned plenty of creative fuel and rhythmic intensity from the blistering depths of US hardcore. See within for buried hooks and plenty of other bruising attributes.
label: Not for the Weak Records
Bandcamp: Axon
Burning Chrome – S/T
Minneapolis/NYC band Burning Chrome formed after the breakup of Zero, a band heavily influenced by the blazing yet melodic arc of Japanese hardcore. Burning Chrome’s rocketing riffs ticked many of the same boxes, but the band’s self-titled EP was also crustier and rawer. There were still plenty of Burning Spirits-styled guitar gymnastics on display, but Burning Chrome’s lower-fi sound added a welcome layer of grit and gruffness to their debut. Ripping. Raging. All-fire.
Label: Desolate Records
Bandcamp: Burning Chrome
Cascades – Tyrannical Lust
Montréal label Sore Mind has released some phenomenal music over the years, and Cascades’ Tyrannical Lust EP was another prime slab of squalid stonk. Cascades’ bombardments were replete with lo-fi, ultra-guttural crust, and stenchcore’s fetid odour infected every note here. There was a bona fide old-school crawl to Tyrannical Lust; a slow, steady, and deliberate desire to crush all comers – step by mind-mangling step. FFO Amebix, Axegrinder, Zoe, and Filth of Mankind. First-rate noisome noise. Rank. Rotten. Decimating.
Label: Sore Mind, Filth Holocaust Records
Like Weeds: Tyrannical Lust
Sistema Obsoleto – Esmagado Pela Engrenagem Capitalista
Sistema Obsoleto hail from Macedonia, and the band’s lyrics are in Portuguese. You didn’t need to speak Portuguese to understand what Sistema Obsoleto’s debut EP, Esmagado Pela Engrenagem Capitalista (Crushed by the Capitalist Gear), was all about, though. Sistema Obsoleto’s hot-tempered tracks radiated enough anger and energy to power a small city, and the tone and tenor of the band’s chainsawing riffs and spitting vocals spoke to punk’s universal truths. A barrage of Anti-Cimex-worthy hardcore.
Label: Neon Taste Records
Bandcamp: Esmagado Pela Engrenagem Capitalista
End State – Their System Won’t Be Fixed
End State’s Their System Won’t Be Fixed cassette was basically a giant fucking tease. Recorded at NYC’s D4MT Labs, Their System Won’t Be Fixed only featured three songs, each an A1 example of filth-streaked crustcore. If you’re a fan of Tower 7, Flower, or State Manufactured Terror, you’ll love End State’s similarly red-raw, eruptive sound. Their System Won’t Be Fixed was an extremely tasty amuse-bouche. I can’t wait to hear more.
Label: Self-released
Bandcamp: Their System Won’t Be Fixed
Traumatizer – Nuclear War Machine
Traumatizer’s Nuclear War Machine EP was a pedal-to-the-metal triumph. Traumatizer tore through cyclonic tracks, with the Haarlem-based group’s d-beat and hardcore evoking the thrashier side of bands like Sacrilege or Ripcord. Every song on Nuclear War Machine detonated with maximum audio violence, and Traumatizer’s gruff-voiced singer Anna delivered a throat-ripping performance. Metallic riffs and relentless percussion collided throughout Nuclear War Machine, and with five blown-out tracks in 10 breakneck minutes, the EP was a non-stop radioactive riot.
Label: Discos Enfermos Records
Bandcamp: Nuclear War Machine
Hellshock – XXV
Hellshock’s XXV EP saw the band diving deeper into the caverns of end-times metal. Crust punk wasn’t ditched entirely, of course, and XXV still stank of stench-a-tude. Hellshock hacked into all comers with death metal-worthy riffage, and with more portentous passages and XXV’s monolithic production, Hellshock had never sounded heavier. XXV was one of Hellshock’s densest and darkest releases, and it proved that a quarter century in, the band continue to bend metalpunk to their will – as aggro and colossal as ever.
Label: Black Konflik Records, Agipunk, Black Water Records
Bandcamp: XXV
Nagasaki – S/T
Swedish band Nagasaki’s “Evil Neanderthal Råpunk” is, unsurprisingly, raw and primitive, sounding like the Shitlickers wrestling with System Fucker, or Totalitär scrapping it out with Ferocious X. Nagasaki’s self-titled 2025 EP felt tighter and more structured than the band’s first release. But everything within was still akin to a distortion-lashed brawl, and no one in their right mind would call Nagasaki’s ferocious kängpunk listener-friendly. Riffs and percussion rained down like radioactive fragments. Vicious, harsh, obnoxious – shitnoise reigned supreme.
Label: Blown out Media, Fucked Noise Sound
Bandcamp: Nagasaki
Zouka / Sanoa – Split Cassette
Mostly aligned in sound and vision, Japanese bands Sanoa and Zouka joined forces on a ripping six-song split cassette in 2025. Sanoa’s tracks mixed classic 80s Swedish HC with the strength and stamina of contemporary d-beat champs like Physique. Zouka, on the other hand, delivered a harsh noise attack that paid tribute to their prime inspirations, Zouo and Gouka. Paint-stripping hardcore met off-the-chain raw-core. I’m keener than mustard to hear what Zouka and Sanoa do next.
Label: Sistema Mortal
Bandcamp: Zouka / Sanoa
Spirokete – Song of Spirokete
NYC band Spirokete’s 2025 release, Song of Spirokete, was a certified ear-munter. Song of Spirokete wrapped råpunk madness around d-beat mayhem, and then marinated the result in an acid bath. Distortion choked the hell out of Spirokete’s filthy songs, with most tracks dissolving into blistering maelstroms of lo-fi noise that stung like a bladder infection. Song of Spirokete featured tasty blasts of max-fuzz/wildly-fucked riffage; lovers of screaming feedback and crashing crust apply within.
Label: Distorted Sedition
Bandcamp: Song of Spirokete
Hektiks – Obliteration
Hektiks are a four-piece band from Vienna, Austria. The band’s excellent Obliteration featured 60-second-ish screeds of distorted crasher crust, and everything was raw-fi and blown-out – à la Gloom, Disclose, Confuse, and Atrocious Madness. Tinitus-inducing, nerve-shredding, and most definitely challenging, Hektiks’ debut was everything you’d hope for from such a noisenik release. The seven relentless minutes here are about as much as you/I/we could bear. Obliteration should come with a health warning: gruesome stuff.
Label: Ingen Framtid
Bandcamp: Obliteration
Dismay – No Guilt
Phoenix, Arizona band Dismay featured on two gnarly-sounding EPs in 2025. The band’s split with Tacoma, Washington, group Dekrepit felt like soaking in a hot tub filled with hydrochloric acid; rawer-than-raw punk, in other words. Dismay’s No Guilt EP was even better. No Guilt was also blistering-raw, but Dismay’s d-beaten ordnance sounded much heavier. No Guilt’s songs were definitely corrosive, but they’re also markedly concussive. Raw punk with a hefty punch; tip-top noise.
Label: Self-released
Bandcamp: No Guilt
Tormentum – The Wake of the Horde
Tormentum’s The Wake of the Horde EP featured more of the four-piece Mexican band’s apocalyptic stenchcore. Tormentum have never sounded better; heavier than a hydraulic press slowly crushing a cinderblock, and filthier than the depths of a plague pit. Tormentum’s Neanderthal noise nodded to Bolt Thrower, Deviated Instinct, and Stormcrow, with The Wake of the Horde’s gruff and guttural four tracks mixing cavernous crust and gravel-gargling death metal. Squalid and storming metalpunk – so fucking good. Also, KILLER cover art by Nicholas Arjulian. FYI, Tormentum are getting better and better with every release.
Label: Drunk Scum Records
Bandcamp: The Wake of the Horde
Ruined Virtue – A Garden Without Birds
After releasing a promising demo in 2024, Sheffield-based Ruined Virtue returned in 2025 with their A Garden Without Birds EP, which eclipsed that promise and more. A Garden Without Birds’ four tracks featured blazing metalpunk that tipped its hat to UK veterans like Broken Bones and English Dogs, while sounding much heavier, harder, and steelier to boot. Ruined Virtue leaned hard on intensity and aggressiveness, and A Garden Without Birds was the definition of a short, sharp, demolishing EP.
Label: Televised Suicide
Bandcamp: A Garden Without Birds
Angstmäler – 4 Track EP
Angstmäler’s 4 Track EP was released late in the year, but there’s no way I was going to leave it behind. Angstmäler have ties to bands like Traumatizer and Robber, and the Haarlem-based band also deal in lughole-ruining music. Angstmäler’s 4 Track EP was crammed with blown-out and feedback-soaked noise that felt like being trapped inside a turbo-charged concrete mixer. A crude, untamed, and smokin’ storm of contemporary hardcore. As disorienting and driven by rage as the world outside your door.
Label: Brain Rotted Records, Under The Gun Records
Bandcamp: Angstmäler
Laughing Corpse – Beyond Recognition
Label Sorry State released several great LPs and EPs this year, and Laughing Corpse’s Beyond Recognition was my favourite. The dark and demented debut from the Washington, DC, band featured six hardcore tracks that sounded like they could have been unearthed on an alternative-universe version of Dischord’s famed The Faith / Void split. All the hardcore here was rip-roaring and action-packed, which was great, of course, but Laughing Corpse also explored dark and demented avenues, which was even better.
Label: Sorry State
Bandcamp: Beyond Recognition
Laager – Total Paranoia
Canadian band Laager released an excellent self-titled EP back in the pre-pandemic days. Six years later, Laager returned with their Total Paranoia EP, and the band’s bulldozing approach sounded much the same. Blunt and brutal crust smashed into heavily armoured d-beat, and if there was a difference to be noted, it’s that Total Paranoia’s latest tracks sounded more stripped down and indebted to Discharge than Laager’s previous endeavours. Rock-solid, blood-pumping metalpunk from the frozen north.
Label: Self-released
Bandcamp: Total Paranoia
Empart – Extremenoisehardcore
Austin, Texas, band Empart’s 2023 EP was entitled Speedfuckingnoiseattack, and that’s precisely what you’ll find within. Same–same with Empart’s gut-punching 2025 EP, Extremenoisehardcore. The EP’s blowtorch tracks fused d-beat and the most brutal raw punk imaginable in a raging storm of mind-rupturing noise. Monstrous vocals, blown-out everything, and absolute mayhem screamed, howled, and growled throughout. Through chaos we must travel to reach the heights of catharsis, or something like that, right? Extremenoisehardcore was a genuine test of your mettle. Speed freaks, see within.
Label: Self-released, Pogo Till You Drop
Bandcamp: Extremenoisehardcore
Mercy – EP
I don’t mean this as any kind of insult, but Mercy’s 2025 EP featured real meat and potatoes hardcore. Sometimes, that’s all you need. The seven songs on Mercy’s EP were all comprised of unadulterated, rampaging hardcore; the classic kind, fuelled by looking around and feeling justifiably angry at everything. There was no thick-necked, mosh-bro bullshit here. Mercy’s tracks were short, fast, and stripped to their most astringent essentials. All-fire hardcore, for when only the purest rage and aggression will get you through.
Label: Sound Grotesca
Bandcamp: EP
Cervix – Tape #2
Tape #2 was the follow-up to Birmingham, Alabama d-beat band Cervix’s 2024 demo, which also sounded/felt like having your ears reamed out with steel wool. Tape #2’s sandblasting tracks rode the line between static clatter and battering noise, and Cervix’s crudity was one of the band’s best strengths. I don’t know much about Alabama, aside from the usual cliches, but Tape #2’s contents were certainly caked in sweat and baked in brutality. Raw crust, noise, and the grottiest gunk.
Label: Ragdoll Records
Bandcamp: Tape #2
Axe – Il cimitero è dappertutto
For Italian band Axe, “music without politics has no meaning”. As such, the band explicitly aimed to bring anger, war, tension, and suffering to life on their debut EP, Il cimitero è dappertutto. Pitch-black crust and equally dark raw punk were Axe’s primary weapons, and the band’s fevered aesthetic certainly painted vivid scenes of violence and torment. Dual, often-echoing vocals added colour and texture to Axe’s grim audio palette, with the band’s driving songs evoking the passion and punch of classic Italian hardcore.
Label: Sistema Mortal
Bandcamp: Il cimitero è dappertutto
Smog / Krigssystem – Split
Smog and Krigssystem’s split 7” featured two max-distortion tracks from Macedonian noise-monsters Smog, and four assault and battery blasts of d-beat from Greek band Krigssystem. Both bands delivered an absolute noise-punk massacre, heavily indebted to the rawest, most feedback-soaked work of Discharge and Disclose. Smog and Krigssystem’s split was off-putting, confrontational, and unapologetically obnoxious; all excellent qualities to embrace when it comes to delivering the rawest noise around. Fans of toxic static and utterly mutilated punk, dig in.
Label: Phobia Records
Bandcamp: Smog / Krigssystem
Tormented Imp – S/T
As others have pointed out, UK hardcore band Tormented Imp sound like a dream-team mash-up of Totalitär, Poison Idea, and Death Side. Tormented Imp’s 2024 debut was a ripper, and this year’s self-titled 7” was even more whirlwind fun. Tormented Imp’s latest amphetamine-powered tracks threaded Burning Spirits-worthy pandemonium around turbo-charged punk. The band set speed, aggression, and barking vocals front and centre, and Tormented Imp scattered viscera-strewn hooks throughout their brick-wall tracks. Mayhem. Madness. Murderous fun.
Label: Donor Records
Bandcamp: Tormented Imp
Sistema de Muerte – S/T
Montreal band Sistema de Muerte’s first release caught the ear of many this year. Sistema de Muerte’s 5-song EP sounded big, beefy, and barreling, and the band disgorged its Spanish-language lyrics with both gusto and animus. Sistema de Muerte didn’t hide their talents under a bushel or behind a wall of feedback, either. The band’s debut was loud, proud, and powered by ten-tonne riffage and top-speed percussion. Hammering hardcore that comes highly recommended.
Label: A World Divided
Bandcamp: Sistema de Muerte
Visions of War / Phane – Split 7”
Long-lived Eurocrusties Visions of War hooked up with Vancouver-based Phane for a short and snarling split this year. As usual, Visions of War spat out troglodyte crust; all ultra-guttural barks and red-raw, filthy riffage. Phane’s metal-charged UK82 approach ripped, and the band delivered a storming Abrasive Wheels cover to boot. Visions of War and Phane’s split was over and done in less than 10 minutes, but that just meant there was time for another spin. Doom meets G.B.H. or Varukers meets Hiatus. You know the deal. Brothers in arms making an ugly racket.
Label: Phobia Records
Bandcamp: Visions of War / Phane
Thanks for reading ICWT’s year-end coverage. To be honest, I am kind of sad I didn’t get to write about all the demos I loved this year*. Bands like Sayon, The Damage, Dukkha, Aberrate, Exit Ploom, Knotwork, Barren Soil, Bone Geer, and a heap more all deserve a hearty shout-out. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more lists to come, but we’ll see how it goes. For now, cheers for stopping by and thanks, as always, for supporting DIY music and (my) ramshackle commentary. You rule!
(*I feel the same way about a bunch of great reissues from 2025, too. Maybe they’ll turn up at some stage. Who knows!)
