From Misfits-influenced horror punk on The Art of Drowning and Black Sails In The Sunset, post-hardcore and emo on Sing The Sorrow, and more modern alternative rock production on Burials to mixed acclaim, AFI’s range of influences and experimentation may seem reductive to some, but their latest endeavour into post-punk and gothic rock is keeping the subculture alive and kicking.
Taking clear inspiration from side project Blaqk Audio, (featuring frontman Davey Havok and guitarist/synth master Jade Puget) Silver Bleeds the Black Sun may be Run For Cover records first post-punk and darkwave inspired released among a sea of pop punk and lo-fi emo, but it’s a welcome surprise in AFI’s varied, yet rarely boring discography.
The latest offering from Edinburgh based purveyors of weird and eccentric audio curiosities, Bearsuit Records, is another release from the enigmatically titled Eamon the Destroyer (shortened to EtD for the sake of brevity). His new album, The Maker’s Quit, still carries all of EtD’s signature weirdness, but is also his most accessible album to date and a great jumping off point for people who want to dip their toes into Bearsuit’s stable of artistic peculiarity.
EtD previously brought us A Small Blue Car (2021) and We’ll Be Piranhas (2023) as well as a couple of EPs along the way, including the rather excellent acoustic Radio Sessions earlier this year. It’s difficult to put a stamp on exactly what genre his work would fall into. Where would you look for him if you were perusing the shelves of your local record store? Calling his work “pop” would be doing it a disservice, and “alternative” feels like a cop-out. You never quite know what you’re going to get with an EtD record, only that it’s going to be wild, weird and experimental.
Before their bounce back from obscurity within the deathcore genre, Lorna Shore lingered in no-man’s land, struggling to find their footing with a revolving door of vocal changes since Tom Barber abandoned the group for Chelsea Grin. Then 2021 came with the release of ...And I Return To Nothingness which not re-opened the door for them but amplified their popularity to new heights and planted them at the helm of modern deathcore with Will Ramos’ vocal structure.
Now the band have released I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me and all eyes have been firmly fixed upon them as they attempt to follow up 2022’s Pain Remains. And, have they? Well, you could say that. As they’ve not stuck to their own formula.
The time has come where Deathcore has shifted into two distinct camps. On one side, you have the sweeping, grandiose style practiced by bands like Shadow Of Intent and Lorna Shore, with a focus on striking symphonic and over the top elements. In the other, you have the sheer bludgeoning, rusty knife blade Deathcore more akin to the genre’s roots and done so masterfully by Psycho-Frame and Killing Of A Sacred Deer. It’s also worth nothing that all of those mentioned bands at the top of their creative or commercial game put out records this year, so the 2025 field appears to be stacked in favour of the big guys. Make no mistake, however, there’s a rich undercurrent of Deathcore bands at the moment, and one of the most promising are Essex’s Beyond Extinction.
Having spent the early 2020s making their mark on the UK deathcore scene and producing two promising, disgusting (In the best way) EP’s, tragedy struck the band when founding member and guitarist Zach Scott sadly passed away. In the aftermath, the rest of the band displayed extraordinary strength and resilience. From hosting a spectacular memorial show titled ‘Never Forget Your Own’, a mantra that Zach had tattooed on himself, they began to push ahead and finish their debut album. Danny Russell joined the band as guitarist in the wake of the tragedy, joining the incredibly talented vocalist Jasper Harmer, fellow guitarist Jude Bennett and drummer Niall Ali as the band laid the foundations for a new era, while still carrying their friend’s legacy with them.
Coming to prominence with their caustic, underground shattering debut mixtape Dead Bodies In The Lake in 2015, it’s been a wild decade for New Jersey gone LA alt punk duo Ho99o9. With two studio albums and heaps of mixtapes and EP’s released in between, the band caught the attention of a wide berth of folks, touring with everyone from Slipknot, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Ministry to The Prodigy, Cypress Hill and Ghostface Killah. With new album Tomorrow We Escape, the intentions are clear at reaching a wider audience as the duo team with MNRK Heavy for their third studio album.
The intention behind Tomorrow We Escape is to take it in as an album experience, with plenty of mixtapes and single focussed releases prior, it’s the most focussed the band have been thus far in their career with presenting a cohesive and flowing album. The material within is focused on more personal exploration from Ho99o9, still retaining the unbridled fury and chaotic edge from earlier material but mixing it up throughout. Even from the opening track, “I Miss Home (feat. MoRuf)”, a different energy creeps its way in; spoken word poetry over a low-key beat, dreamy instrumental and thought-provoking lyrical content.
The sound of Rite of Dionysus is informed by the whirlwind of 2022 and comes forth from the same sessions that birthed the band’s previous album Of Darkness and Light. That year included a surreal summer that saw Johannes and frontman Kjetil Nernes share the stage at Wembley for the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert. Nernes himself has spoken of an intangible rockstar-proximity effect and how powerful the whole experience felt. The impact of that shared outpouring of love and grief is one of many components that inform the album’s strange alchemy of grandeur and vulnerability.
Rite of Dionysus is an album that sees Årabrot wrestle with loss, transformation, and introspection. It deals with the realities of life for the band and although it may be challenging for some, it has a potency that will likely shimmy past any initial defences. That creeping, almost ritualistic quality is established from the very beginning with opener ‘I Become Light’ — a measured, hypnotic piece that lures you into the record’s atmosphere as if slipping into a trance.
As its title would suggest, the album’s impact rests on dualities: Melvins-infused fuzz and crystalline beauty; oppressive density and the lightness of air. ‘A Different Form’ pushes into glam-inflected territory, its Bowie-esque leanings and dextrous vocal delivery, along with the spacey production and lush guitars, showcasing a band unafraid to welcome the sunlight into their darkest corners. ‘Rock’n’Roll Star’ offers one of the album’s most affecting refrains — a gorgeous, spectral melody that clings on long after the track fades, a reminder of Årabrot’s talent for weaving the haunting into the heartfelt.
