– Brother J. C. Crawford, “Kick Out the Jams”

Kia ora, friends and frenemies. Welcome to ICWT’s year-end extravaganza. And by extravaganza, I mean welcome to an end-of-year round-up hosted by a pot-bellied, arthritis-riddled dork who is well and truly into his New Balance 860 years. (Shout-out to every other decrepit jackass who requires supportive walking shoes.)

I’m typing this post from the sunny shores of Aotearoa New Zealand. But, obviously, winter will be knocking on many readers’ doors. Wherever you are, and whether you’re huddled round the kitchen stove or strutting about in your microkini or budgie smugglers, I hope you’re up for a lengthy chat about sizzling punk and hardcore.

As usual, ICWT’s year-end action will be a two-part affair. The post you’re reading right now covers LPs, while the second post looks at 2025’s gnarliest EPs. I was going to include lists of 2025’s rowdiest reissues and demos, too, but I didn’t want to test your patience any more than I usually do. I am aware that I am a lot.

I appreciate there’s an argument to be made that EOY list-making is reductive and arbitrary, but honestly, I fucking love reading lists – any list, any time. I also love writing lists. A little too much, as you’ll discover. I am, as the kids say, on the spectrum, so when I get started on a topic I’m jazzed about – like noisy music – then it’s game on, and no timeouts.

I’ve endeavoured to keep all my blurbs short and sweet below, and you’ll note that my EOY lists aren’t ranked. Not ranking my picks from the year is a personal preference; I’m not trying to make a point. Ranking punk records simply feels unnecessarily competitive, and I want to shout about everyone at the same volume. That’s just me, though. You do you, my friend! I’ll be loving every music-related listicle this year, ranked or otherwise.

If you’re a first-time visitor to ICWT, keep in mind that most (but not all) of my EOY picks are plucked from the sewers of d-beat, crust, raw punk, stenchcore, and noise punk (or some other filth-ridden haven). I do enjoy egg punk, post-punk, and anarcho-punk. But chain punk is ICWT’s regular beat.

You should also know that I’m not on social media, and there’s every chance that many releases trending on popular platforms this year will have passed me by, sight unseen. I’d definitely encourage you to check out plenty of other EOY features for a much broader picture of all the great punk and hardcore from 2025.

Obviously, we live in an age of pain and panic. Communities and families – large and small – are being torn apart before our eyes and, like anyone with a shared sense of humanity, I find the current state of the world horrifying. That said, moments like this, where we can collectively gather to celebrate deafening music, bring me a glimmer of hope. Sure, none of the music below is going to heal any intractable divides. But I stand by the proposition that music provides shelter from the storm.

As usual, all kinds of music (loud, soft, tranquil, and electrifying) lifted my spirits in 2025, and I’m eternally grateful for music’s therapeutic and restorative properties. I am also thankful to underground music for providing me with a sense of community. For pathologically shy people like myself, who are often isolated in other areas of life, those connections matter.

It remains a pleasure and a privilege to write about punk and hardcore’s perennial powers, and here’s to shitnoise bolstering our collective well-being, ad infinitum. Thanks to all the DIY bands and labels that served up so much tasty noise this year, and cheers to all the bloggers, journos, podcasters, vloggers, and confidants who recommended so much great music over the past 12 months.

Thanks to the Sorry State Records crew for their excellent newsletter, and cheers to YouTuber Analog Attack; both forums highlighted scores of rad records this year. Ditto Terminal Sound Nuisance, DIY Conspiracy, The Counterforce, and MRR; so much interesting writing, so many great bands.

Cheers to the Last Rites crew for allowing me to pollute this site’s pages, and kudos for tolerating my barely literate musings on obscure strains of ear-fuckery. (In particular, thanks to Cap and Mr Edmunds for stoically enduring my emails. I’m so sorry, guys.)

Which brings me to you, dear reader. Obviously, there are scores of punk-related platforms, portals, and podcasts for you to choose from nowadays. So thanks very much for taking a punt on ICWT. I really appreciate you stopping by. I guarantee you are a lot cooler than I am, and I’m sure you’ll be familiar with most of the music below, but I hope you stumble over a previously unheard release (or two).

Stay safe. Be well. And happy whatever you celebrate – or don’t celebrate – at this time of year.

Keep fighting the good fight, and all the best for ’26.

Kia kaha.

1. 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 would like to check out some great NZ and Aus punk from 2025, you can find Down Under(ground): 25 right here.
2. Regular readers might feel a sense of deja 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: 2025 – LPs

According to Discogs, around 10,500 punk and hardcore records were released in 2025. There’s also a stack of bands and labels that uploaded releases online this year without filling in any Discogs paperwork. I’d say a couple of thousand of those releases would fall into ICWT’s orbit of interest, and I’ve whittled that down to 40-ish LPs below; a sliver of noise in the grand scheme. (I look forward to checking out everyone else’s EOY picks to see what I’ve overlooked or unjustly dismissed.)

Finalising my EOY list meant waving goodbye to some great albums. That was a painful process for me because, as mentioned, I’m neurodiverse, and like a lot of atypical geeks, I want to tell you about everything, not just some things.

Still, I had to make some hard choices, which is why worthy releases from bands like Mujeres Podridas, Ameretat, Retirement, Filth-Kin, Psico Galera, Nisemono (偽者), Haram (and many more) are missing from the list below. C’est la vie, mon ami.

I considered including Vampire’s What Seems Forever Can Be Broken LP and Lifeless Dark’s Forces of Nature’s Transformation 12”, given the popularity of their 2025 vinyl represses. Sadly, both albums were technically released in 2024, so they don’t appear below. (Both LPs are fucking phenomenal, though.)

Other electrifying albums are MIA because they fell outside ICWT’s usual scope; see Punter’s Australienation, AAA Gripper’s We Invented Work for the Common Good, Zig Zags’ Deadbeat at Dawn, Home Front’s Watch It Die, or Nyx Division’s Midnight Lights. I would have included all of those albums if this list had a broader gamut.

Okay, let’s get into it. Don’t forget, the releases below are in no particular order, and this is not a ‘Best Of’ anything list. These are simply the full-length albums I loved this year. I hope you love ’em too.

Svaveldioxid – Misär O.D.

This one’s a cheat. At the time of writing, I’ve yet to hear Svaveldioxid’s Misär O.D. album in full. Misär O.D. was scheduled for a late-year release, but the deadline for this listicle rolled around before the album dropped. Still, Misär O.D.’s not going to disappoint anyone, is it? Svaveldioxid have been pumping out chainsawing kängpunk for a decade now, and the band always find a way to dial it up a notch. The pre-release tracks streaming from Misär O.D. featured crushing riffs and gravelly growls, and Svaveldioxid’s Sunlight Studios-recorded råpunk was armoured with burly death metal. All signs point to Misär O.D. being another violent and volatile victory.

Label: Phobia Records
Bandcamp: Misär O.D.

Dust Collector – S/T

Los Angeles band Dust Collector’s self-titled 2025 LP was an instant noise punk classic. Dust Collector channelled the influence of groups like Chaos UK, Confuse, Disorder, and Gai on pogo-friendly tracks filled with throbbing bass, mega-distorted guitar, and caustic howls. Once again, Dust Collector underscored their ability to tweak tones and tempos, astutely balancing the band’s sharp production with their innate primitivism. Dust Collector’s LP was a contemporary raw punk masterwork, up there with Lebenden Toten’s Mind Parasites.

Label: General Speech
Bandcamp: Dust Collector

Ayucaba – Operación Masacre

Ayucaba’s Operación Masacre LP was one of this year’s finest punk releases – if not the finest. The Barcelona-based Ayucaba mixed the snarl of UK82 with the riff gymnastics of 80s metal and echoes of the fiercest mid-80s Japanese hardcore. Operación Masacre’s anthemic tracks were littered with fist-raising passages, and Ayucaba’s fusion of metal’s primal roar and punk’s instinctive bite felt like a natural fit. Increíble. Fuego máximo. This is what punk rock’s all about.

Label: Metadona Discos, Educación Cínica
Bandcamp: Operación Masacre

Kaleidoscope – Cities of Fear

This year, Kaleidoscope reaffirmed why they’re one of NYC’s most captivating hardcore bands. The group’s Cities of Fear LP was written and recorded at D4MT Labs in a short burst of fevered activity, and the album perfectly captured the spontaneity and chaotic energy of those sessions. Kaleidoscope’s genre-pushing combination of live-wire anarcho-punk and acid-fried hardcore was utterly engrossing, and Cities of Fear delivered an intense musical and emotional experience – pure creative magick.

Label: La Vida Es Un Mus
Bandcamp: Cities of Fear

Ultimate Disaster – For Progress…

Richmond, Virginia band Ultimate Disaster’s For Progress… LP was an annihilating release. The primal cacophony within was an absolute gut-punch; as abrasive and combative as the best work of any Dis-prefixed legends. Ultimate Disaster’s latest bludgeoning tracks sounded huge – and they hit even harder – with the band dropping the d-beat hammer, again and again, in devastatingly heavy fashion. Ultimate Disaster’s modus operandi was ruthless and remorseless, and For Progress… was an utter triumph.

Label: Grave Mistake Records
Bandcamp: For Progress…

Languid – Shove Their System Up Their Ass

The latest full-length from Canadian berserkers Languid was a masterclass in stripped-back, maximum-intensity d-beat. Every feral and ferocious song on Shove Their System Up Their Ass LP felt like a nail gun to your brainpan. Languid didn’t waste a single second on their latest songs; everything was cranked up and dialled in, with every track combining in-your-face belligerence with incandescent rage. Full-throated, brute-force, raw punk – like getting run over by a War Rig.

Label: Desolate Records
Bandcamp: Shove Their System Up Their Ass

Desolacion – S/T

Desolacion’s self-titled full-length foregrounded stenchcore’s fundamental strengths. The Argentinian band’s downtuned blend of super-dark crust and sledgehammering hardcore ticked all the right malodorous, metallic, and monolithic boxes. Desolacion’s songs were prime examples of first-class heavyweight punk, with mammoth riffs and gloomy atmospherics mixing with the sound of a society in freefall. Heavier than an M1A1, rawer than a festering gut wound; Desolacion’s debut was a genuine tour de force.

Label: UP the PUNX, Nothing to Harvest, Tvmbalavalla Discos, Disastro Sonoro
Bandcamp: Desolacion

Necron 9 – People Die

Everything about Necron 9’s People Die LP was perfectly balanced; it was perfectly primitive, perfectly raw, perfectly filthy, perfectly gritty, and, as it happens, perfectly unbalanced, too. People Die was filled with desperate howls, and the LP sounded gritty and dissonant enough to have been recorded back in 1983. People Die’s tracks were rough-hewn and ultra-urgent, with Necron 9’s frenzied sound mirroring the tensions and anxieties of these bewildering times. No question, People Die was one of this year’s fiercest hardcore releases – off-the-fucking-chain.

Label: Unlawful Assembly
Bandcamp: People Die

Electric Chair / Physique – Split

Electric Chair and Physique’s 12” split featured torrents of unrelenting noise from two of hardcore’s gnarliest bands. Electric Chair’s (Poison Idea-worthy) contributions were rough and tough, with the band threading melodic hooks into helter-skelter tracks. Physique served up some of their most strident work yet. The band’s wall-of-noise riffage and percussion constructed a rampart of stentorian d-beat and crasher crust that did Doom, Gloom, and Framtid proud. Mastered by Shige at Noise Room Studios, Electric Chair and Physique’s split was a stone-cold classic.

Label: Iron Lung Records
Bandcamp: Electric Chair / Physique

G.A.Z.E – S/T

Finnish band G.A.Z.E are happy to paint outside of hardcore’s usual borders. The band’s high-energy, self-titled 2025 LP featured plenty of Finnish punk’s renowned intensity, but alongside all of the hyper-hardcore, G.A.Z.E made space (on a few songs) for saxophone, violin, and double bass. G.A.Z.E’s Burning Spirits-esque songs hurtled along at top speed, and if you’re hungry for melodic hardcore that’s artistically ambitious and ceaselessly heart-gripping, this is the one. Exhilarating, uplifting, and utterly intoxicating.

Label: D-takt & Råpunk
Bandcamp: G.A.Z.E

Contrast Attitude – Discharge Your Noise

Contrast Attitude’s Discharge Your Noise LP was the Japanese band’s first full-length release in well over a decade. Any fears that age or fatigue had set in were instantly obliterated by Discharge Your Noise’s chaotic contents. Everything you love about the rawest and noisiest Japanese d-beat and crust (lacerating riffs, searing leads, pounding drums) was situated front and centre. Contrast Attitude’s latest maelstrom attack tore all-comers limb from limb.

Label: D-Takt & Råpunk Records, Desolate Records, WHY Records
Bandcamp: Discharge Your Noise

Sickness of Greed – All That’s Before Us

US band Sickness of Greed lifted their name from one of Japanese behemoth LIFE’s gnarliest tracks. If you’re a devotee of LIFE – or Framtid, Abraham Cross, and ENT – then Sickness of Greed’s first-rate All That’s Before Us album will hit the sweet spot, too. Sickness of Greed’s pedal-to-the-metal blasts of crashing and smashing crustcore showed zero restraint when it came to tempo, temper, or ferocity. Expect super-cruddy noise for super-cruddy times – the perfect prescription.

Label: Sore Mind, F.A.R. Company, Filth Holocaust Records
Bandcamp: All That’s Before Us

Forced Starvation – S/T

Aotearoa New Zealand band Forced Starvation call the far-flung nation’s wind-blasted capital city, Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington), home. The band’s self-titled 12” was pretty much a cyclone in its own right. Forced Starvation fed crust, thrash, death metal and powerviolence into the crushing maw of grindcore, and their debut saw abject filth and lacerating guitars mixing with battery-acid levels of abrasiveness. Expect a barrage of nihilistic ordnance; an onslaught of obnoxious metalpunk. Brutal, bulldozing, bludgeoning – 10/10, all round.

Label: RSR Records
Bandcamp: Forced Starvation

Psych-War – Psychotic Warmonger

Philadelphia-based Psych-War’s first full-length, Psychotic Warmonger, featured a feast of savage riffage and ferocious lyrics, and the pounding punk within definitely underlined Psych-War’s “FUCK IMPERIALISM”, “FUCK GENOCIDE”, and “ANTI-WAR” messaging. Psychotic Warmonger also saw Psych-War add a thicker layer of crust to their already crushing d-beat, beefing up their sound without diluting any of its primal power. Psych-War’s latest sonic salvos ratcheted up the band’s ferocity, maximising their impact.

Label: Agipunk, Archaic Records, Sore Mind
Bandcamp: Psychotic Warmonger

Unidad Ideológica – Choque Asimétrico

Bogotá-based Unidad Ideológica’s latest album, Choque Asimétrico, exploded into life from its very first seconds and leaned hard on the accelerator throughout. Choque Asimétrico revealed a harder, faster, and more intense-sounding band. The drums, bass, vocals, and guitars on Choque Asimétrico landed with more explosive impact, and Unidad Ideológica sounded hungrier, more desperate, and a shit-ton angrier. Choque Asimétrico upped Unidad Ideológica’s heaviness and hardness without sacrificing an ounce of the band’s innate rawness. “A masterpiece of Colombian Ultra-Hardcore Punk” – fvk yea.

Label: La Vida Es Un Mus
Bandcamp: Choque Asimétrico

Tàrrega 91 – Ckaos Total

Much like their prime musical inspiration (peak-era Discharge), Tàrrega 91 don’t waste time or energy on any masturbatory showboating. Nor do Tàrrega 91’s songs feature any unnecessary adornments. The group’s second release, Ckaos Total, stuck to Tàrrega 91’s tried-and-true d-beat recipe, which combined blazing passion and roaring rage on songs distilled to their rawest essence. Ckaos Total’s tracks were all scorching blasts of pure protest punk. Tàrrega 91’s rebellious heart and renegade spirit were writ large.

Label: La Vida Es Un Mus
Bandcamp: Ckaos Total

Alienator – Meat Locker

I took the advice of PNW label Black Water Records and secured a copy of Alienator’s 2025 LP, Meat Locker, toot sweet. As Black Water stated: “If you hear this record and it does not make your top 10 list for 2025, chances are you just don’t like hardcore, period”. Agreed – 1000%. Meat Locker was a non-stop brawl of dive-bombing riffs, neck-snapping drums, and growling vocals all boiled in a vat of thrashin’ hardcore. Sonic slaughter, guaranteed.

Label: Black Water Records
Bandcamp: Meat Locker

Aftermath – The Cutting Begins

Swedish stenchcore outfit Aftermath point to creative inspirations like Cancer Spreading, Swordwielder, and Plague Thirteen. Unsurprisingly, Aftermath’s The Cutting Begins LP was intimidatingly heavy and menacingly grim. Crafted in the darkest caverns of crustville, The Cutting Begins’ songs mixed gravel-gargling vocals and death metal-worthy guitars on dirge-like (and doom-laden) songs. Harsher than shattered dreams. Heavier than a funeral. The Cutting Begins was a colossus.

Label: Phobia Records
Bandcamp: The Cutting Begins

The Massacred – Nightmare Agitators

The Massacred’s Nightmare Agitators LP was about as hardcore as hardcore gets. On one hand, the LP hit like a nail-studded baseball bat. On the other hand, everything felt as focused as a surgical strike. Nightmare Agitators was monumentally heavy, but while The Massacred unleashed hell on every track, they also injected nuance into their songs. Amongst all the audio violence, The Massacred scattered genuine hooks, ensuring Nightmare Agitators rewarded repeated listening. Formidable. Menacing. Staggering.

Label: ACTIVE-8
YouTube: Nightmare Agitators

Deadsky – Reapers Call

If you’re a fan of label Profane Existence’s signature aesthetic, you’ll love Deadsky’s Reapers Call LP. Deadsky went old-school on their first full-length, weaving together the filthiest strains of d-beat, crust, and sub-basement 80s thrash. The heavyweight sonic tonic featured an equally heavy political punch, meaning Reapers Call hit hard on multiple levels. Metal’s might and hardcore’s rage battled it out on apocalyptic tracks, and Reapers Call was dark as the current shitgeist. Classic crushing crust.

Label: Profane Existence
Bandcamp: Reapers Call

Headsplitters – Curse of Life

Headsplitters’ Curse of Life full-length was overflowing with gruesome gronk and grunt. Headsplitters are a raw hardcore band, but super-grimy metal added abundant density to Curse of Life, and all that extra heaviness was a key component of the LP’s success. Curse of Life’s tracks bludgeoned and batoned with homicidal intent. Some raw punk bands focus on sounding as corrosive as possible; Headsplitter focus on battering you into a fucking pulp.

Label: Toxic State Records
Bandcamp: Curse of Life

Destruxion Amerika – Gritos Norteño

Destruxion Amerika’s line-up features members of Nosferatu, Tower 7, Kaleidoscope, and Straw Man Army, and the band’s Gritos Norteño LP was recorded at D4MT Labs. (I mean, what clearer signal do you need to know this ones an all-timer.) Destruxion Amerika play spiky and über-fuzzy hardcore that leans into its eccentricity while still sounding fired up and passionate. Gritos Norteño’s raucous songs were lean, mean, crude, and catchy. Perfectly pitched for those seeking a mix of woozy punk and bass-driven hardcore. Weird and wild. More please!

Label: Unlawful Assembly, Planeta Destrozado
Bandcamp: Gritos Norteño

Pisssniffers – S/T

Listening to Greek band Pisssniffers’ raw punk is like rinsing out your lugholes with hydrochloric acid. The Athens band’s self-titled 2025 LP was acrid and abrasive, with lashings of distortion and feedback adding to the skin-melting miasma. Pisssniffers’ tunes stung worse than a UTI, and they were also heavy and hefty in all the right places. If you’re a devotee of Kawakami – or any of Disclose’s disciples – you’ll lap this noxious noise up, too. Mind-splintering punk – the best kind, innit.

Label: Chaos & Anticonformity Records
Bandcamp: Pisssniffers

Sacrosanta Decadencia Occidental – Danzas No Solpor Do Mundo

Spanish crust band Sacrosanta Decadencia Occidental (SDO) are heavy enough to warrant their own Metal Archives page. That said, the band’s first full-length, Danzas No Solpor Do Mundo, primarily evoked the hulking crust of Contagium, Stormcrow, or After the Bombs. SDO’s muscular songs featured d-beat, blast beats, and sepulchral stenchcore, but also subtler vocal and acoustic passages. SDO offered forward-thinking punk on one hand, and time-honoured stench-crust on the other; the best of both worlds. (Also, that cover art, amazing)

Label: Crust As Fuck, Global Help, Deviance, Hecatombe Records, Svab, Ruido Y Pasión
Bandcamp: Danzas No Solpor Do Mundo

Dishumanitär – S/T

Swedish trio Dishumanitär made an impressive racket on their self-titled debut. The band’s first album was built on a foundation of rock-solid crust, but Dishumanitär also threw stenchcore and neo-crust into the creative concrete mixer. Dishumanitär’s vocalist, Hannah, howled like the possessed, her rage imbuing every song with even more throat-shredding, emotional heft. With its immersive tracks driven hard by formidable instrumentation, Dishumanitär’s debut was engaging and affecting.

Label: Global Help Records, Phobia Records, Loner Cult Records
Bandcamp: Dishumanitär

Acid Casualties – Flags Are False

Acid Casualties’ Flags Are False LP was the definition of blistering. The live-wire tracks within were universally explosive, but for all the album’s unbridled (and notably abrasive) chaos, Flags Are False still felt tight and honed to the edge. There was no roid-rage filler or posturing on Flags Are False, although, if you burst a few veins listening to the album, that’s more than understandable. Acid Casualties held nothing back on Flags Are False’s rampaging tracks. No frills + full fury. Take-no-prisoners punk – straight-for-the-jugular hardcore.

Label: Iron Lung Records
Bandcamp: Flags Are False

Habak – Mil Orquídeas en Medio del Desierto

Habak’s Mil Orquídeas en Medio del Desierto LP caught the ear of many neo-crust fans this year. The poetic music within was deeply emotive, with Habak’s anticapitalist and anti-colonial messaging ringing out loud and clear. Mil Orquídeas en Medio del Desierto was Habak’s most intricate and captivating release to date, blending melodic crust, post-hardcore, and expressive post-metal. Habak’s cultural heritage and musical inspirations were inextricably intertwined on Mil Orquídeas en Medio del Desierto’s dynamic tracks. A breathtaking display of fierce passion and sonic prowess.

Label: Alerta Antifascista, Exabrupto Records, Persistent Vision
Bandcamp: Mil Orquídeas en Medio del Desierto

War//Plague – The Rot Thickens

War//Plague’s The Rot Thickens was heavier than a wake and angrier than a cut snake, but more than anything, the album reeked of War//Plague’s uncompromising integrity. In an age where fleeting trends often govern a band’s next move, it was Rot Thickens’ authenticity that mattered most. It was a huge relief to imbibe War//Plague’s zero-bullshit crust. Here’s to saying you give a shit and meaning it – War//Plague fuckin’ rule.

Label: Phobia Records, Organize And Arise
Bandcamp: The Rot Thickens

Anomaly – Collapse of Industrial Civilization

“Real ass crusty anarcho hardcore” is how Birmingham, Alabama, band Anomaly describe their sound and vision. The band’s Collapse of Industrial Civilization cassette was fuelled by raw energy and rawer instrumentation. Anomaly’s music gnawed like an infected tooth, and the band’s songs reeked of hard truths and infinitely harder personal struggles. Anomaly mixed crust-slathered d-beat with throat-slit hardcore. The result: real-deal punk rock made in the furnace of trauma and strife.

Label: Distorted Sedition
Bandcamp: Collapse of Industrial Civilization

Traidora – Una Mujer Trans Sin País

Traidora’s Una Mujer Trans Sin País LP explored the personal experiences of multi-disciplinary creative and band founder Eva Leblanc, a Latin American immigrant and trans woman currently living in the UK. Una Mujer Trans Sin País’ songs were uncompromising, underscoring that the personal is political. Traidora’s emotional rawness was backed by savage-sounding Spanish-language hard/fastcore, delivered with the same fire and fury as Los Crudos’ most passionate work. A cathartic blast of noise purpose-built for the disinfranchised, alienated, and marginalised – i.e. punk as fuck.

Label: La Vida Es Un Mus
Bandcamp: Una Mujer Trans Sin País

Bombardement – Dans la Fournaise

Dans la Fournaise was the third LP from French d-beat luminaries Bombardement. The band’s been stomping around for a decade and only getting better. Dans la Fournaise ripped from go to whoa, and while the influence of Stoke-on-Trent’s finest rung loud, Bombardement continued to push against artistic boundaries and create music that retains d-beat’s intensity but also shows clear creative ambitions. As expected, Bombardement’s dual guitars roared throughout, and Dans la Fournaise was an absolute fucking blast.

Label:Symphony of Destruction
Bandcamp: Dans la Fournaise

Malaise – S/T

The self-titled cassette from the Olympia band Malaise featured grimmer-than-grim crustcore. Malaise’s sound was super-dark, and with two singers howling their respective heads off, and an excellent gauging of when to step on and off the gas, Malaise offered enough points of difference to stand out from the pack. Blistering guitars powered filth-caked tracks, and all of Malaise’s mangling mayhem was as raw as an oozing abscess. Definitive crust purpose-built for bum-flapped punxs and fans of scabrous hardcore. One of the year’s best, no question.

Label: Desolate Records
Bandcamp: Malaise

Erosion – Invasive Species

Vancouver band Erosion features former members of Baptists, and the aural dimensions and sheer heaviness of Erosion’s Invasive Species LP marked it as one of 2025’s most powerful hardcore releases. Erosion’s saw-edged crust has been compared to Martyrdöd and Skitsystem; similarly, Erosion deliver a punishing assault of barbed-wire riffs, vicious vocals, and head-splitting drums. The mood throughout Invasive Species remained suffocatingly grim and Erosion’s mammoth metallic crust forged a formidable aesthetic.

Label: Mechanized Apparatus Revolt
Bandcamp: Invasive Species

Kürøishi – Egocide of the Warmad

Egocide of the Warmad was the fourth LP from Finnish band Kürøishi. The Oulu-based group matched Burning Spirits guitar harmonics with Tragedy/His Hero Is Gone-style hardcore, and Egocide of the Warmad’s dynamic tracks featured beefy riffs, barking vocals, and sky-rocketing solos (as well as plenty of sizzling pick-slides). Fans of monster-sized d-beat and crust were once again well served by Kürøishi. Bonus points for more Akihiko “Sugi” Sugimoto artwork, too.

Label: Fight Records, Break the Records, SPHC
Bandcamp: Egocide of the Warmad

MEM//BRANE – S/T

MEM//BRANE’s self-titled LP dug into a host of the world’s ills, not least the never-ending assault on trans and queer communities. MEM//BRANE delivered their urgent communiqués at maximum volume, with maximum passion, wrapped in a storm of harsh metallic crust. MEM//BRANE’s crasher crust, stenchcore, and scorched d-beat featured instrumental armaments strong enough to scar and destroy walls of oppression. Rage and resist, rage and resist, ad infinitum.

Label: Fiadh Productions
Bandcamp: MEM//BRANE

Distress – Under Pressure of Reality

Distress are based in St. Petersburg, and the Russian band have been bashing out increasingly heavy crustcore for close to a quarter century now. Distress’s third full-length, Under Pressure of Reality, was, by far, their heaviest release yet. The band’s Swedish-style d-beat and crustcore was liberally slathered with death metal – see hulking guitars, growling vocals, and utterly raging drums. FFO Asocial, Anti-Cimex, Wolfbrigade, etc. Killer, and very apt, album artwork, too.

Label: Selfmadegod Records, Headnoise Records, Totalpunk Records
Bandcamp: Under Pressure of Reality

Death Gasp – S/T

The self-titled LP from Pittsburgh titans Death Gasp foregrounded the kind of distortion-driven and hard-bitten music that fans of Bolt Thrower, Hellshock, Effigy, and Hellbastard would wholeheartedly embrace. Stenchcore was the word, and the word was law; accordingly, Death Gasp’s full-length stank to high heaven. The band’s behemoth tracks within were injected with death metal’s venom and beastly vocals, which helped to hammer home Death Gasp’s malevolent might. An ultra-grim slab of plague-ridden crustcore. Delicious.

Label: Audacious Madness Records, Profane Existence, Final Return Records
Bandcamp: Death Gasp

SOGA – Corrosión

This year, Mexico City band SOGA returned (after six long years) with their first proper full-length, Corrosión. The LP was well worth the wait. SOGA’s latest tracks were ferocious calls to arms, with Corrosión detailing the brutal truths of capitalism, modernity, oppression, gendered violence, and corporate avarice. Corrosión sounded fantastic, and SOGA’s unadulterated approach reaffirmed their authenticity. Corrosión was chock-a-block with passion and brio. Soga said it best: “[Corrosión] is a reminder of our resistance and solidarity.” Bona fide hardcore, through and through.

Label: Iron Lung Records
Bandcamp: Corrosión

Flower / State Manufactured Terror – Sanctus Propaganda Sessions Vol. 4: North Atlantic Terror Organization

Sanctus Propaganda Sessions Vol. 4: North Atlantic Terror Organization featured a couple of live sessions from two of NYC’s gnarliest raw crust bands, State Manufactured Terror and Flower. Both bands sounded honed to the edge; their stamina and dexterity powered by an inexhaustible supply of politically-charged anger. The live production here was A-grade, amplifying all the distortion, crustiness, and corrosiveness of both noise-mongers. If you’ve enjoyed State Manufactured Terror or Flower before, this one’s a no-brainer.

Label: Sanctus Propaganda
Bandcamp: Sanctus Propaganda Sessions Vol. 4

Moribund Scum: First Cold Days in Hell

Moribund Scum have been battling it out in underground trenches for 15 years, and their First Cold Days in Hell LP proved the German band still had plenty of fight in ’em. Moribund Scum’s mega-gruff music mixed sewage-streaked crustcore with chest-pounding deathcrust (or rabble-rousing stenchcore, if you prefer). First Cold Days in Hell demonstrated that the creative fire in Moribund Scum’s belly was still roaring, and the band’s bombarding tracks howled with resilience and resistance.

Label: Bomb-All Records, Up The Punx
Bandcamp: First Cold Days in Hell

Plasma – Mua Et Voi Omistaa

Mua Et Voi Omistaa was the debut vinyl release from Finnish band Plasma. If you love fast and furious Finnish groups like Kohti Tuhoa or Kovaa Rasvaa, you’ll love Mua Et Voi Omistaa. Plasma channelled their volcanic energy into melodic yet untamed songs that featured vitriolic vocals, catchy riffs, and bass-heavy hooks aplenty. Mua Et Voi Omistaa was spiky, snappy, and always snarling, but most of all, it was super-fucking-fun.

Label: Nunchakapunk Records, Little Jan’s Hammer Records, Sorry State Records
Bandcamp: Mua Et Voi Omistaa

Kato – Ihmiskulttuuri

Everything you need to know about the Missouri band Kato can be found on Hardcore ’83, the famed Finnish hardcore compilation released by label Propaganda Records. That comp, and every other revered Suomi punk release from the early 80s, provided much of the creative fuel for Kato’s first full-length, Ihmiskulttuuri. Ihmiskulttuuri was simultaneously ice-cold and red-hot, with Kato feeding d-beat and raw punk into a screaming wood chipper. Ihmiskulttuuri featured a blizzard of top-tier, Finnish-inspired hardcore; classic, rampaging punk.

Label: Feral Kid Records
Bandcamp: Ihmiskulttuuri

Dispyt – Från Melankoli till Meningslöshet

Finnish trio Dispyt specialise in shades-on, studded-jacketed, über-blackened crustcore. The three-piece’s 2025 album, Från Melankoli till Meningslöshet, started out mean and nasty, remained heavy and horrible throughout, and the 10” release ended with a knockout Shitlickers cover. Dispyt’s scorched-earth game plan was blistering in intensity; the band’s dissonant music bristling with spikes, grime, and grimness. Från Melankoli till Meningslöshet’s aggressive combo of d-beat, Scandicore, and ultra-dark metal was a perfect fit for mohawked and mulleted fans alike.

Label: Elitbolaget
Bandcamp: Från Melankoli till Meningslöshet

Trampa – Pesadilla

Colombian band Trampa’s second album, Pesadilla, was conceived, recorded, and mastered at Bogotá’s famed Rat Trap Studios (always a sure sign of something interesting on the boil). Trampa’s snarling songs highlighted devastating societal issues like bigotry, despair, poverty, political corruption, and State violence. Like most Latin American punk, Trampa’s creative MO was explosive. Riffs, vocals, and driving drums combined in a frenzy of sizzling hardcore, which ticked a fair few 80s-inspired boxes with its primitive authenticity.

Label: Self-released
Bandcamp: Pesadilla

Victim of Fire – The Old Lie

Victim of Fire’s full-length, The Old Lie, was mentioned on plenty of metal blogs this year. Reason(s) being: The Old Lie’s heft and heaviness. Victim of Fire explored the horrors of war and humanity’s collective cruelties while blending blackened crust, neo-crust, melodic death metal, and a heap of NWOBHM-worthy harmonies. (Think Tragedy via In Flames via Disfear – and check out the ripping cover of “Aces High” on The Old Lie, too.) The Old Lie was fist-raising, rip-roaring, and creatively ambitious to boot.

Label: Human Future Records
Bandcamp: The Old Lie

Industry – S/T

Industry’s self-titled 2025 LP featured several recurring motifs that evoked the peak years of Amebix and Killing Joke. Industry’s heavyweight percussion and chugging/churning riffage constructed sombre scenes as the band critiqued capitalism, colonialism, and exploitation on shadowy and often engulfing songs. Industry’s music was unquestionably gloomy, but it was also deeply cathartic, and even ecstatic. Industry’s latest LP was filled with ‘dance while the world burns’ moments; an especially relevant record for these tense times.

Label: La Vida Es Un Mus
Bandcamp: Industry

The Dissidents / D.O.V.E. – A Better World Split

The Dissidents and D.O.V.E.’s split LP, A Better World, was dedicated to the sad loss of musicians Bill Chamberlain and Daryl Hardcastle. The Dissidents and D.O.V.E.’s like-minded anarcho-punk felt especially relevant in a world seemingly hellbent on self-destruction. A Better World’s catchy tracks featured heartfelt pleas and angry tirades, and The Dissidents and D.O.V.E.’s songs were equally passionate and profound. Fans of classic anarcho/peace punk will find much to enjoy as The Dissidents and D.O.V.E. speak truth to power.

Label: Grow Your Own Records
Bandcamp: A Better World

Profit and Murder – Doomed to Fail

Profit and Murder celebrated their 25th anniversary this year, and the heavyweight crust featured on the German band’s third full-length, Doomed to Fail, definitely harked back to the good ol’ days. Profit and Murder’s barking vocals, galloping riffs and pounding percussion were unaffected by the passage of time, which is to say, if you like Doom, Hiatus, and similar merchants of 90s mayhem, you’ll very much vibe with Profit and Murder’s worldview. Profit and Murder’s old-school, shredded-pants crustcore was stubbornly unevolved and crafted by lifers – win-win, my friend.

Label: Bomb-All Records, Wild Wild East, Uwaga レコード
Bandcamp: Doomed to Fail

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In reality, New Zealand enjoys many of the same zeitgeisty issues you enjoy: divisive political figures spouting inane rhetoric (you betcha!); distressing levels of homelessness coupled with a nationwide addiction crisis (yes, sir!); spiralling unemployment and an entirely unchecked mental health epidemic (fuk yea!). The point is, the vibe down under is undeniably bleak at times.

Of course, all of that gloom and doom is lyrical grist – and a significant creative motivator – for a punk-fuelled outfit like Forced Starvation. Musically, Forced Starvation’s self-titled debut is indebted to ’90s grindcore, with a comparable aural harshness and a similarly belligerent tenor. Bands like Excruciating Terror and Infest are obvious inspirations, but you can sprinkle Unholy Grave, Assück, and P.L.F. into the mix, too. Forced Starvation’s music is stripped of the hyper-technical gymnastics or roid-rage peacocking amplified on some grindcore releases. Instead, the band foreground a few old-school essentials: abject filth, bulldozing ferocity, and zero listener-friendly compromises.

Admittedly, ‘old-school’ can also mean tired and dated. But the 14 über-intense bangers on Forced Starvation’s debut are the antithesis of that. Skin-stripping abrasiveness and equal amounts of nihilistic ordnance are crammed into every song here. A concussive track like “Shit Giving Exacerbation” will pound you into fucking gravel, while remorseless cacophonies like “Circling the Drain” or “Bathed in Blackwater” are skull-crushing free-for-alls.

It’s been suggested you’ll hear “subtle hints of fastcore and brutal death” on Forced Starvation’s debut. In one sense, that’s entirely true; the band utilise a broad spectrum of volatile ingredients. But I wouldn’t call those ingredients ‘subtle’. Forced Starvation’s music is about as subtle as a battery-acid enema, with the band’s ferocious blend of influences ingested and then regurgitated at breakneck speed. Nothing here is understated or hinted at. It’s full-on and all-in, all the time.

A lack of subtlety doesn’t mean there’s no nuance, though. For all Forced Starvation’s instinctive savagery, the band’s transitions between full-bore grind and red-raw death metal – or their mixing and matching of thrashcore and powerviolence – are deft and impressive. Tracks like “Cryptic Incursion”, “From My Rotting Body”, and “Crushed To Powder” are akin to rapid-fire bursts of hybrid sonic warfare; punk throttles gutter metal, and gutter metal garrottes punk, back and forth it goes, the filth-caked sub-genre’s locked in battle.

Elsewhere, nods to Forced Starvation’s punk rock roots appear on crustier tracks like “Faceless Acquaintance” or “Front Towards Enemys”. Ultimately, though, you’ll hear what you want to hear. It’s all a blizzard of bone-shattering bass and percussion, hideous vocals, and buzz-sawing riffs after all. Everything, from go to whoa, is as heavy as a collapsing building – absolute audio destruction.

None of Forced Starvation’s in-your-face assaultiveness will surprise hometown fans, given that all of the band’s members have played in similarly vicious (and often politically-charged) NZ outfits like Meth Drinker, Stress Ghetto, Piggery, Unruly, and Rogernomix. Some of those bands have also caught the ear of offshore fans, and all have shown a diehard commitment to making a deafening racket. Forced Starvation’s members clearly have abundant experience when it comes to crafting confrontational music. I doubt any of those members would use the word ‘expertise’ to define their various skill sets, but credit where credit’s due, it definitely requires a certain level of instrumental and compositional mastery to record music that sounds wild and uncontrollable and yet tight-as-fuck.

It’s always great to see southern hemisphere bands working with labels north of the equator, and German grindcore and powerviolence stalwart, RSRecs, have gotten behind Forced Starvation’s first musical endeavours. The band’s debut is very much in RSRecs’ wheelhouse of murderous/monstrous music-fests, too.

At this point, Forced Starvation’s moniker has a particularly chilling resonance, conjuring wretched imagery of present-day atrocities. I cannot imagine what it feels like to be the victim of appalling violence in physical terms, but witnessing staggering levels of inhumanity from afar does take a psychological toll. In the immortal words of one of grindcore’s kingpins, extreme conditions demand extreme responses, and in that sense, the extremity of Forced Starvation’s sound provides a much-needed emotional exorcism.

Plenty of musicians from NZ’s punk community have crafted ugly, crossover releases, and Forced Starvation’s debut is another prime example of that. The brutal onslaught here oozes as much squalid metal as it does angry punk, and the 17 (extremely unfriendly) minutes of obliterating grind is pretty much pitch-perfect for beer-swillers and glue-sniffers alike.

If you’re aching for sophistication or subtlety, look elsewhere. But if you’re searching for some visceral noise to sink your rotting incisors into, you’ll love gnawing on this filthy nugget. Top marks to Forced Starvation for unleashing such a barrage of obnoxious sonic sewage.

(PS: This is an edited version of a review I published on my own blog earlier in the year. I wanted to give Forced Starvation’s debut another nudge on a larger forum – it deserves it.)

The post Forced Starvation – Forced Starvation Review appeared first on Last Rites.