Martyna Wisniewska
January 12, 2025| Dan Hillier |FEATURES
PUP, Thursday, Clipping. and More: New Noizze – The 20 Must-Listen Tracks of the Week
From prog-pop to noise hip-hop, the first week of 2025 has been a busy one on the music front. Here's the best singles of the week.
PUP – Paranoid
The group’s first single in two years, and arguably their most explosive work in double that time, ‘Paranoid’ see’s everyone’s favourite Canadian punk rapscallions PUP return in fine form. A departure from the brilliant but divisive left-field nature of their last LP, the new track from PUP is a call back to piss-and-vinegar youth. It’s scrappy, abrasive and self-deprecating yet still outwardly hostile. There’s little doubt to the scale of the carnage that this song is going to ignite during their tour later this Spring. “My favourite part of this song is the breakdown 1:45 in. Whenever we try and do a heavy breakdown with catchy vocals we end up sounding like the world’s worst melodic hardcore band”, say’s vocalist Stefan Babcock on the track. “But somehow it worked on this song. I think because it’s so intense in that moment that it’s actually kind of funny and a bit hard to take seriously. There’s some humour in that and how it plays against what I’m yelling about in a way I really like”. – Dan Hillier
Thursday – Taking Inventory of a Frozen Lake
You wait 13 years for new music from arguably the most legendary post hardcore band of all time and all of a sudden, there’s something every few months. Thursday have been dropping music regularly since last April and with this new track, ‘Taking Inventory Of A Frozen Lake’, the band have made their most striking statement of late yet. A dramatic, sweeping piece of music, it’s driven by the soaring voice of Geoff Rickly, wailing and finding melody in hard places over a stirring backdrop. The years have not slowed down Thursday, nor have they made the band complacent to rehash old ground, instead they enter 2025 with a lease of life reminiscent of their glory days. – Chris Earl
Spiritworld – Abilene Grime
Spiritworld straight up don’t sound like anyone else in metallic hardcore. The country-infused outfit, led by mastermind Stu Folsom and based on a series he’s writing (first book Godlessness collected short stories set during Spiritworld‘s first two albums) have released the second single, ‘Abilene Grime’, from their upcoming record Helldorado and it keeps the rhinestones polished and the line dancers moving. There’s even more of a country twang but that doesn’t mean they don’t still know their way around a big Slayer-esque riff, as its halfway mark proves while it shifts into a galloping, thrashing piece of crossover. Welcome back, you mad cowboys. – Will Marshall
Clipping. – Change The Channel
While plenty of actors have musical side projects, few are as bold and chaotic as Daveed Diggs’ experimental hip-hop group Clipping., alongside producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes, Diggs has been pushing the boundaries of noise-fuelled, innovative hip-hop since before his breakout role as Thomas Jefferson in the hit musical Hamilton. The group’s latest single ‘Change The Channel’ takes their usual anarchic energy and injects it with a shot of The Prodigy inspired techno punk adrenaline complete with distorted percussion and punchy synth hits. ‘Change The Channel’ marks a distinct step up for Clipping. with clear, crisp production elevating their avant-garde hip-hop sound without taking away from their violently rowdy energy. – Tom Bruce
Grief Ritual – Spiral
Building up to their debut album Collapse, due to be released at the end of January, hardcore infused death metal quartet Grief Ritual take their rage at thieving corporations and bigoted, corrupt governments out on their brutal new single ‘Spiral’. With a slower, more deliberate pace than much of their previous work, ‘Spiral’ channels the south-west four-piece’s anger into a chugging thesis against the greed of those who’ve forced themselves to the top of society at the expense of the rest of us. On ‘Spiral’ Grief Ritual cement themselves as one of the UK extreme metal scene’s most important voices, pushing sonic boundaries with a profoundly worded and relevant social message. – Tom Bruce
As December Falls – Therapy
Announcing an album for August in January is a bit early, but Nottingham pop punks As December Falls have made their entire career off bucking industry trends. Staunchly independent and fan-funded through a Patreon, they’ve been grinding away for years until last album Join the Club truly catapulted them into the spotlight. Latest single ‘Therapy’ comes alongside the announcement of their fourth record, Everything’s On Fire But I’m Fine, and while initially it feels like business as usual for them, there’s flourishes of electronics and some easycore elements that shows them spreading their sonic wings more than they have before, while the lyrics are as heartfelt as ever. Making it to your fourth album is no mean feat, let alone independently, and As December Falls seem determined to make the most of it. – Will Marshall
HENGE – Slingshot / Hypersleep
A psychedelic prog-pop rave rager turn celestial ambient soundscape, the latest cut from HENGE is certainly far out experience. But those familiar with this space faring crew will know what expect, at least in theory. The last track to be taken from the group’s new record Journey To Voltus B – released January 31st via Cosmic Dross Records – ‘Slingshot / Hypersleep’ sees the intergalactic via Manchester band literally explaining how to use the gravitational pull of Mars to utilise a slingshot manoeuvre to launch into deep space prior to detailing the uncanny bliss of falling into suspended animation. However, it’s how this tale is told is what makes this track just so engaging. Narrated via psychedelic funk that turns into creeping stillness as the track falls into stasis, ‘Slingshot / Hypersleep’ is both a wonderful continuation of this band’s boundless creativity and a fantastic introduction to one of the most weird and wonderful bands for those new to the ship that HENGE captain. – Dan Hillier
Since Torino – Transatlantic Flight Song
Essentially, the best way to encapsulate this song is to compare it to the quiet lowlight inertia of winter post festive season. It’s unassuming, melancholic, but with it’s quiet frost bitten splendour, wholly cathartic. The newest track from the Sheffield band that can only be dubbed as ‘librarycore’, ‘Transatlantic Flight Song’ is a wonderfully comforting breath of fresh air into the still frozen air from a band that take emo, shoegaze, alt-folk and slowcore and coalesce into something novel and truly therapeutic. There’s something truly organic and inviting to this track, and for those warmed by this, Since Torino’s upcoming EP a long night down to calgary is going to be a crucial listen come it’s release on February 7th. – Dan Hillier
TAYNE – Scars
Industrial Noise Pop troupe TAYNE return with another slice of dark ethereal abrasion in new single ‘Scars’. This, along with the rest of the incoming album is “Thematically revealing, honest and being open” frontperson Matt Sutton explains. Next month they launch their album LOVE with a show at London’s legendary venue The Black Heart, which is appropriate for this gloomy beating ticker like music this trio have created. – Adam Vallely
Love is Noise – Sunshine
The new Love is Noise EP is out, and the title of the first single is very apt as it’s a little portion of sunshine in these cold and often grey winter days. The vocals are the stand out part of the new track, soaring triumphantly backed by guitars drenched in classic shoegaze sensibilities. It’s all quite reminiscent of Teenage Wrist (never a bad thing) with it’s depth and audible beauty. The single has been released at the same time as the new EP so make sure you get at the whole lot, this track as an opener is sure to warm up your day, without the cost of a British Gas fuel bill. – Rob Bown
SOM – Nightmares
With a sound that’s heavy enough to pull the very earth we tread on into the furnace of the planet below whilst being so ethereal it could effortlessly flutter into the heavens, SOM’s proclaimed ‘doom-pop’ work is exciting as it is fresh. New single ‘Nightmares’ proves this perfectly. Taken from the band’s upcoming record Let The Light In – released March 14th via Pelagic – ‘Nightmares’ is a perfectly practiced dalliance between earth-shattering heft and elegant shoegaze. Those with an interest in the dynamics of bands like Astronoid, Holy Fawn or even Rolo Tomassi will plenty to adore here. – Dan Hillier
Calyces – Flowing Through Storm
Taken from the band’s delightfully visceral sounding new record Fleshy Waves Of Probability – released March 21st – ‘Flowing Through Storm’ is going to be a sure fire hit for any fans of Baroness, Mastodon, Elder or just genuinely brilliant prog metal. Bounded by the sidewinding proggy riffs and emotional heft that characterises such aforementioned bands, ‘Flowing Through Storm’ see’s the Athens based Calyces essentially master a genre many artists spend the majority of their careers truing to perfect. Essentially, it’s perfect prog. – Dan Hillier
STORMO – Kallitype
Italian screamo is full of breathtakingly good music, and amongst the litany of brilliant acts in the scene STORMO can be found. As they build up to their next album release in March, they’ve dropped the first single from what will be Tagli / Talee, and it’s as typically emotive and aggressive and uncompromisingly STORMO as you’d ever want. ‘Kallitype’ brings in all the sounds STORMO have worked with before and repackages them into two minutes worth of earnest, anguished screamo that refers itself to black metal, hardcore, math rock, post-hardcore and more. With the first single of their new era, leading up to their first album in two years, there is plenty to love and plenty to look forward to. Jake Longhurst
Bleeding Through – I Am Resistance (Feat. Comeback Kid)
Metalcore’s vast array of sounds and styles has long been the target of adulation and criticism in equal measure. However, Bleeding Through and Comeback Kid‘s Andrew Neufeld have come together in order to throw all kinds of styles into the mixer alongside metalcore, and have come up trumps with a blistering three and a half minute demonstration of why both bands are so popular. The more classic hardcore sound of Neufeld has worked its way in nicely to the pummelling sonic warfare of Bleeding Through, and lets the more subtle sounds that both bands bring to the table shine through, with some melodic sensibilities and extreme tendencies alternately take centre stage in this excellent demonstration of metalcore’s best. – Jake Longhurst
Fistfight – Honor
Regina, Saskatchewan hardcore outfit Fistfight have been smashing into the Canadian scene with no remorse, releasing 2 singles between August and December of 2024. What better way to close the year than with a third absolutely crushing single in the form of ‘Honor’. Drums and guitar accompany eachother flawlessly to give an almost Pantera vibe to their hardcore approach. It’s almost as if Hatebreed and Pantera had a love child. With pounding drums, a guitar solo that slightly resembles ‘Domination’, and one dirty yet simple breakdown to close it out; Fistfight should definitely be on hardcore fans’ radar in 2025. – Nathaniel Maure
Skull Gate – Tombcrawler
Ontario’s hardcore scene has an immense catalogue of absolutely amazing bands releasing equally amazing tunes, and Ottawa’s Skull Gate only strengthens this fact with the release of their newest single ‘Tombcrawler’. Hints of thrash and crossover pour out of this track giving it an almost Power Trip feel throughout. With undertones of death metal in their sound, mainly in the vocal department, fans are met with one of the province’s most crushing and fun singles thus far. With recording and mix being done by the bands own Holden Egan and Jacob Elgin, it’s fair to say the group put their blood, sweat, and tears into this next venture. Fans would be silly not to experience this as well. – Nathaniel Maure
fallfiftyfeet – Running From the Sky
Electronic metalcore outfit fallfiftyfeet have been making a name for themselves with chaotic, technical metalcore ever since their formation in 2020, but it was a well-received split with Wounded Touch last year that truly cemented them as ones to watch alongside their DIY ethic and relentless touring. New single ‘Running From the Sky’ is, according to vocalist Dave Wallace “about a small portion of my feelings on organized religions and their gods,” while musically it’s as blistering and rage-fuelled as we’ve come to expect. It’s not just one-dimensional though, as there’s a deceptive melodicism to the guitar work and their approach to crafting the chaos that leaves a distinct impression. 2025 is set to be a big year for them, and this is a very promising sign. – Will Marshall
Edict – Headless
Rhode Island’s Edict are back with their own brand of death metal infused hardcore in the form of new single ‘Headless’. A barrage of blast beats, gut churning low guitars, and powerful vocals, ‘Headless’ will definitely put hair on one’s chest to say the least. Sitting at 2 minutes in length, it gets right to the point. closing on a breakdown that’s sure to make any show goer become rabid in the pit. It’s an excellent way to introduce a new vocalist to the fold. Recorded and mixed by the bands own Matty Connolly for the group’s upcoming release through Unbeaten Records, let’s hope these Rhode Islanders have more in store like this come release day. – Nathaniel Maure
Cabal – Unveiled (Feat. Nasty)
Aggro deathcore Europeans Cabal are back with their brand of intense, fist swinging extremity and they’ve brought one of the most exciting vocalists in the game with them for the hell of it. Joining the Danes on ‘Unveiled’ is Matthias Tarnath of Nasty and his more hardcore influenced approach gives the track, the third single from the band’s upcoming April release Everything Rots, an extra bit of edge and authenticity. At this point in their career, Cabal have nailed their formula of relentless, aggressive deathcore down to a fine art and these tracks released will definitely whet the whistle ahead of their upcoming tour dates supporting In Hearts Wake. – Chris Earl
Warbringer – A Better World
Thrash metal and lyrics about societal unrest. It’s a duo as old as time and one that goes together like bread and butter. It’s also one that Los Angeles based act Warbringer have been bringing to life for over two decades now. Clearly influenced by the greats of the genre, they’ve brought the genre into the 21st century and gained the respect of not only the old heads, but won over many younger fans in the process. With new record Wrath and Ruin arriving in March, you’re in for the same high quality machine gun drums and deadly riffs as you’d expect from a band so honed at their craft and if it’s anything close to their last effort from five years ago, you’re in for a bloody good time. – Chris Earl
