Happy Friday folks! Plenty of new stuff out today to enjoy. For a more extensive list of new albums and EPs than what's already listed in the main post, you can check out my release schedule spreadsheet which includes stuff released so far in 2025 and currently beyond as far as March 2026. It also includes stuff that's expected and/or speculated for release with a supporting source link where available. SINGLES: 5 Seconds Of Summer 93FEETOFSMOKE (feat. fats'e) The Acacia Strain Adept Agnostic Front Alexisonfire (Live) Amanaki Amulet (Two songs) Anberlin Ankor Another Now As December Falls (feat. Slowly Slowly) Asleep At The Helm Atlas Author & Punisher Aviana (feat. Eddie Berg) Believe In Nothing Blight Town Born In Dissonance Bowling For Soup Brutus (Live) Burial Waves Carcosa Catch Your Breath Charlotte Sands Chat Pile (feat. Hayden Pedigo) Chiefland (feat. EMMERICH) Chlorine Chroma Coilguns Coldrain Corrosion Of Conformity Creeper Daedric Dark Divine The Dark.FM Dayseeker Dear Me (feat. Woven In Hiatus) The Devil's Trade Downpour Downswing (feat. Chris Roetter) Dream Nails Dream State Eihwar Ends In Tragedy Everlyne Excide familypet Florence + The Machine Gasket Godseyes happydaze Hate9Ten Hell Can Wait Hive I Am King (feat. Laz The Vampire) If I Were You IOTA Jackson Rose (feat. Kill Dyll) L.S. Dunes Lucifena Luna Falling (feat. The Bunny The Bear) Maggie Lindemann (feat. Julia Wolf) male//gaze Meet Me @ The Altar Metrik (feat. Rou Reynolds) Moonspell Naked Identity Created By King Negative Love Nemophila Novelty Island Omnium Gatherum Out Of Vision Ov Sulfur PINKNOISE P.O.D. Portugal. The Man (Two songs) Profiler Queen Of Nothing Ratboys Raw Brigade (Three songs) Relentless 3 Reliqa sadeyes Shelf Lives SIFYN Silly Goose Skorn Smote Sophie Powers Spaced Sparta Spite Stay Inside Stellar Circuits Straylight Run The Subways Sugar Smile sunbleached Twin Skeletons TX2 (feat. Ekoh) Valiant Hearts (feat. Trenton Woodley) Versus Me The Vintage Caravan Vower (ex-Palm Reader, ex-Black Peaks) Waste (feat. Late 9) Wave Break Written By Wolves The Wytches As always, all of the above singles are available to stream from my #NewMusicFriday playlist (below) which gets completely updated every single Friday, so feel free to follow/like it and you're all set. If you don't want to risk missing it, you can also sign up to my mailing list and I'll email it out to you every Friday along with a list of that week's new album and EP releases.
Is Anberlin just going to keep rerecording their older material with Matty? Ready Fuels is one of my favorite songs and the new version is fine, but doesn't compare to when Stephen sings. I'm OK with the new arrangement they have with Matty if it's what Stephen needs, but just make new songs. The last new one they did with Matty was actually pretty good. I don't want these rehashed versions of my favorites.
Also, pop punk/emo fans should check out Equipment. More in the vein of modern bands like Ben Quad and Anxious. happydaze is also great if you like the power pop leaning side. New song is poppier than their last release which was one of my favorites of 2024.
Really enjoying the new Abandcalledlove. EP today. The touring guitarist for Adjy also plays in this band, and it reminds me of the big sweeping pop rock stuff I loved in high school. I think it would have a lot of fans here.
New Sydney Sprague is indeed incredible! I’ve liked her stuff before, but this one feels like a big step up to me.
The Starting Line (Eternal Youth) — Whoa. Elder (Liminality/Dream State Return) — Perfect stoner prog rock. Revocation (New Gods, New Masters) — Tech-death that doesn’t sound like it’s made by machines. Sydney Sprague (Peak Experience) — Beautiful, indie-ish, grunge-y alt-rock with such good cover art. Royal Sorrow (Innerdeeps) — Djent-y prog that is super catchy. Rare combination of getting melodies burrowed into your brain, while you still find something new every time you listen. Amorphis (Borderland) — These guys are like the perfect melodeath band to me. Dying Wish (Flesh Stays Together) — Metalcore. Love the emotion that pours out of these songs. White Reaper (Only Slightly Empty) — Catchy, punk-y alt-rock. Kind of like The Dirty Nil. Mors Principium Est (Darkness Invisible) — Really, really good symphonic melodeath. Words of Recollection (I Found the Love…) — Hopeful, atmospheric post-black metal. Whiskey Myers (Whomp Whack Thunder) — Competent southern rock. Colbie Caillat (This Time Around) — An album mostly of reinterpretations of past songs as duets. Didn’t hit me.
I'm not gonna lie, I was super skeptical about this new Starting Line album from the first single. It didn't really grab me, plus Kenny's aged voice felt jarring. I wasn't sure what they were going to be able to pull off. But holy moly, Eternal Youth freaking rules! I should've never doubted them
Yeah, it’s really good. I never really got that into TSL back in the day, but this one is sticking. Easy to listen to, catchy and broadly appealing to share with only sometimes music fans. It’s got this throwback fun pop punk sound that ramps up at times. Really reminds me of Real Friends “Composure” album with how quickly it is sliding right in to a groove I’ll be on for a while.
I didn't get to mention on Friday, but Dispirited Spirits just released their third record. I highly recommend people give them a shot.