So far this has been a year marked by some impressive debut releases, a lot of great noise rock (as that subgenre continues to be a hot-bed of creativity), grind and a resurgence of mathcore, while the throwback metalcore revival shows no signs of slowing down. Despite being mostly associated with the 00's, there's also a fair argument that we're currently in the golden age of screamo. All of which we begin to explore below, and will continue to do so throughout the year. Apologies for the delayed roll-out of our first column of 2025, but we should be back to a monthly drop moving forward. You can also expect more dedicated pre-release reviews this year, including upcoming ones covering the likes of Kardashev, Vildhjarta and more.
For a new thing, here's a little Spotify playlist of everything covered below and a few outlying goodies. Of course we also encourage to support the artists via the Bandcamp links provided. As always, thank you for reading and supporting HBIH.
The Wall of Death
Decultivate - Decultivate (grindcore/D-beat)
Within the span of just over 13 minutes, Decultivate have released a brilliant statement of grindcore perfection. This comes as somewhat of a surprise because, while the quality of the Czech band’s EPs and demos has been satisfactory since their inception, their output hasn’t ever been on the same level as heavy hitters of the same ilk. Furthermore, their releases have often been marred with less-than-stellar production. With Decultivate, not only is the quality of the songwriting and production far above anything the band has created in their decade-long career, but it’s also one of the best grindcore albums of the decade thus far.
Like many other grindcore bands, Decultivate have a knack for packing a multitude of ideas into brief volatile bursts. The difference between Decultivate and many other grindcore albums is that Decultivate have seemingly culled a superb collection of riffs wherein not one is superfluous or cliché. Given the sheer number of songs most grindcore bands have in their catalogs, many over-rely on uninteresting filler riffs. The tracks on Decultivate most assuredly do not belong to that category. Rather, each section stands on its own while contributing to the power and replay value of the whole song and, subsequently, the whole album. Opener “Já sám” is a perfect example. The band quickly cycles through several sections, from blasts to grooves, during the track’s minute-and-a-half-long running time, but none of those parts sound trite or undercooked.
While many bands have recently begun to fall victim to the sterile production prevalent in much of modern metal over the last several years, including drum production that sounds as if it could just as well have been programmed in software, Decultivate have successfully avoided that trap. The production on Decultivate is crystal clear but not clinical. Crucially, Decultivate’s production retains the live-in-studio-sounding scrappiness of the band’s earlier releases. As a result, the intricate drum fills and guitar gymnastics are lucid yet maintain a human touch.
Given that the lyrics are in Czech, many listeners may overlook them. But that would be a mistake. Even with the use of an online translator, the lyrics are pure poetry and achingly wistful. “Pojď dál a posaď se”, for example, details conflicting feelings toward home and settling down using vivid imagery of sour coffee, crooked pictures, and gray hair falling to the ground.
Considering the incredible artistry of Decultivate, from the songwriting to the production, you should do yourself a favor and listen to one of the most pivotal grindcore albums of the decade so far. It will only take 13 minutes of your time.
-JD
Crossed - Realismo ausente (metalcore, blackened screamo)
Steadily growing since their debut EP in 2018, Spanish group Crossed exploded onto the scene in 2022 with their second LP Morir, an album that landed firmly in my top 10 of the year for its razor sharp blend of Converge-style metalcore, black metal, and screamo. Now if you’re thinking “god, this dude can’t stop writing about screamo” well you’re in luck! With their new album Realismo ausente, a lot of that influence has been stripped in favour of more blackened crust and even more 90s-00s metalcore that can’t get enough of panic chords. Something about the fusion of these two sounds just works so well together, and this is among the best examples of that you can find. What it does bring from their screamo roots is that sense of raw, honest earnestness. That leaving every part of themselves on the studio floor sort of ethos that makes listening to their albums feel like a live show experience.
Crossed have this villainous, evil quality that I often relate to Portrayal of Guilt. There’s just something sinister about it. And it’s not just those bestial, vicious vocals, it perpetuates throughout everything that was put into this. Drawing again from screamo and noise rock, the production is just rough enough to carry this bitter coldness to it and to help channel the raw emotions, while not burying anything beneath the distortion. Metalcore riffs throughout feel like angular slicing knives, with plenty of discomforting dissonance. Even those panic chord-driven songs like “Monotonía de la Lluvia en la Ventana” have moments where the distortion breaks and a cleaner tone kicks in for this unsettling horror-movie-esque calm, before shifting into some very black metal riffing. The metalcore side of things never gets too overtly technical, but it’s far from boring or monotonous. They found such a good balance in their songwriting, knowing when things need more blackened tremolo picking and when to slow things down to a breakdown, all while maintaining this aura of dread.
Closing out the album is the powerfully cathartic “Catedral”, the sludgiest and doomiest track on the album, perhaps hinting at a future direction for the band to explore more. Crossed have once again delivered an album that will certainly be reappearing in our End of Year Content, in the form of a tight 26-minutes of relentless, violent anger. Certified Rotten.
-TB
Whitechapel - Hymns in Dissonance (deathcore, brutal death metal)
One of the biggest names in deathcore returned last month with what is widely being acclaimed as one of their best releases to date. As someone whose roots in deathcore are more tied to the melodic leaning bands of the 00s, before branching nearly exclusively to the progressive and Sumerian-core sound, Whitechapel are a band who I’ve always just been pretty indifferent about. It’s hard to ignore Phil Bozeman’s vocal prowess, but it wasn’t until 2019’s The Valley where they started to catch my attention. It and Kin marked a notable departure from their early sound for a more polished alternative and progressive-leaning style that alienated some and attracted others. That has all been left behind however on Hymns in Dissonance.
This is as pure of a deathcore album as you might find of late, and with that return to their roots they feel reborn and reinvigorated. The clean vocals experimented with on the last two are largely gone, as Hymns doubles down on pure filthy heaviness. Don't expect the sort of dissonance you might find on a “disso-death” album, however there’s a nice bit of club-wielding caveman riffs and slamming brutal death influence, as well as guitar solos and predominantly uptempo riffing. There’s even some surprisingly tasteful lead melodies not unlike what you might find on a Fallujah album on the album closer “Nothing is Coming for Any Of Us.” Of course there’s plenty of breakdowns as well, including some that have that more ‘fun’ vibe of the late 00s, but the song-writing doesn’t feel built around them.
If you’re down with the general concept of deathcore, it’s hard to find much not to like here. Phil is still a force to be reckoned delivering his textbook range of brutal gutturals and piercing high screams, and the song-writing finds a nice balance between death metal and the -core side of things. Above all, Hymns in Dissonance is refreshing for being a memorable new deathcore release that doesn’t rely on nostalgia or gimmicks.
-TB
The Crowdkillers
MOLT - MOLT (noise rock/post-hardcore)
Portland-based noisy post-hardcore outfit MOLT’s self-titled debut is only one of the more recent examples of the Kansas City-based record label The Ghost Is Clear’s ability to do no wrong. What’s most spellbinding about MOLT is how effortlessly this young band illustrates a range of styles, from confrontational noise rock to melodic post-hardcore, with an equally broad emotional palette without sounding forced or contrived. The many stylistic peaks and valleys explored throughout the album reflect the lyrical themes of mental health struggles. There are moments of bittersweet reflection in “Not Yet Diagnosed, Nervous” just as there are moments of unbridled rage in tracks like “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups”. Opener “Midvillain” contains both subdued reflection and unrestrained fury. The track initially bursts through the door like a stumbling drunk uncle visiting for the holidays. The oddly-timed, toms-heavy percussion coupled with a head-jerking riff creates a sense of precarious footing before the song rapidly but seamlessly transitions to a melodic, spacious passage with minimalist, delayed guitars played in the upper register. During this sequence, vocalist Stephen Shodin switches from strained howls to subtle clean singing. The song eventually builds to a roaring, chaotic climax, echoing the havoc of the intro. The rest of MOLT has wild swings in both mood and style, but it takes a talented band to make it work this well.
-JD
YHWH Nailgun - 45 Pounds (experimental/tropicalia noise rock)
Since their first output in 2020, YHWH Nailgun have carved out a unique niche in the worlds of experimental music and noise rock. While their early single releases, such as “Mallet” and “White Sleepy”, were rife with the abstract and cacophonic sounds of seemingly broken synths and sputtering drum machines along with the tortured howls of vocalist Zack Borzone, 45 Pounds displays a more musical inclination. The seemingly broken synths and the sputtering drum machines have been replaced by alternatingly punchy and undulating synths and densely syncopated percussion with heavy use of rotary toms. Stylistically, the album takes the foundations of New York no wave and injects it with the tropicalia-influenced rhythmical skittering of bands such as Battles. The result often balances the line between bouncy melodicism and warbling discord, as it does on “Castrato Raw (Fullback)” and closer “Changer” – tracks as bright and kaleidoscopic as they are unsettling and dark. To put it another way, 45 Pounds is the sound of being afflicted by a minor bout of food poisoning while trying to enjoy a tropical beach vacation: lying down on a chaise lounge beach chair with a piña colada in hand right before you feel your stomach gurgling yet again. While that juxtaposition may sound unappealing to most, music with its foundations in no wave and noise rock naturally resides in anxiety, discomfort, and confrontation. It’s just so rare that a concoction as gnarly as that would have a cocktail umbrella sticking out from the top of it, and brilliantly so.
-JD
Bee Hive Ski Race - Unlimited Violence Apologia (post-hardcore, emo, post-rock)
The surprise standout debut award so far this year goes to the Ohio-based post-hardcore group Bee Hive Ski Race with Unlimited Violence Apologia. This is a remarkably eclectic yet seamlessly flowing mix of emotionally charged music, drawing from later-wave emo such as TWIABP, the post-hardcore of La Dispute and Touche Amore with bits of raw screamo and cinematic post-rock reminiscent of early Pianos Become the Teeth or The Saddest Landscape. They really pull off sounding like multiple bands all at the same time, without that feeling distracting or disjointed. It’s not a big surprise that these various subgenres work together, but more so how quickly these guys figured it out, with the songwriting chops to get the most out of everything and augmenting it beyond. A big part of that is the range of vocals present, from pained desperate screams that break down to a semi-spoken word thing and emotional clean melodies that feel like a guest feature from The Hotelier. Yes this very much wears its influences on its sleeve, but they pull them all together in a way that still feels novel and exciting and has had me revisiting it more than most albums this year.
-TB
Jackal Twins - Cuzco (mathcore, post-hardcore)
While I fervently labeled 2024 the year of screamo, as far as niche RTTC-genres go, so far mathcore might have the edge in 2025. The year was kicked off by the excellent and surprising debut Unification as an Art from Gnostician back in early January. An album full of thick, dissonant and tastefully djenty grooves. We were blessed yet again with another standout debut full-length this March from the upstart New England trio known as Jackal Twins (I guess Jackal Triplets doesn’t sound as cool). These guys have taken things in a little different direction, bringing an eclectic sound that occasionally explores more of a softer vibe. There’s still plenty of the heavy, weird technicality you can expect from a modern mathcore release including some noisy Daughters influence and the sass of The Sawtooth Grin. Yet arguably the most standabout aspect of Cuzco is their exploration of psychedelic and progressive post-hardcore that fortunately feels less Dance Gavin Dance and more Closure in Moscow. It might be one of the closer things we'll get to an Exotic Animal Petting Zoo reunion. This album explores a lot of territory and does it all well.
-TB
And I Dreamt of You - Lethargy Promo (melodic metalcore, nostalgia)
The year is 2005, your friend with big Osiris skate shoes says you gotta hear this special metal hour the local christian rock radio station has on at 11 at night. You’re in their beat up Corolla and they put it on. Alright, some uplifting christian spoken word stuff over a deep synth chord and chugs… and what’s this, sick melodic guitar leads? Raspy melodeath vocals layered over lows and At the Gates riffs bridging into pinch harmonics and breakdowns? Okay, this is actually how I first discovered the band Zao, but you get the idea. And I Dreamt of You is in fact a band that just came into existence with their promo demo Lethargy dropping last month via the always reliable The Coming Strife Records. This is a pure nostalgia fest of some combination of early The Devils Wear Prada, Undying, and Becoming the Archtype. Yes, christcore is back.
-TB
God Complex - He Watches in Silence (metalcore, deathcore)
Liverpool's God Complex have been bubbling away under the radar for some time, but He Watches In Silence (their first release for Sharp Tone Records) could see them smash their way into the spotlight. The aggression feels utterly unhinged across each of the EP's five tracks, almost as though this was a cathartic experience for the band. Whatever it was they were exorcising, the listener is the benefactor. We don't get any of the melodic dalliances found on their 2021 full length, To Decay in a Deathless World, it's just unrelenting brutality, and I can't get enough of it.
Their brand of nasty metalcore is still very much present, but there are also way more deathcore influences creeping in, which help push the intensity to breaking point. The vocals feel especially heightened and delightfully twisted, with Harry Rule tapping into a newfound cornucopia of beastly deliveries. The step up in production also needs to be noted, with every instrument cutting through and landing their punches.
Opener “Salt and Ash”, with its warbling acoustic guitar intro, lures you into a false sense of security, before it builds up, spontaneously combusts and sends out shrapnel in the form of blast beats and ferocious riffage. The end breakdown here and on “Ba’als Trick” are so ridiculously heavy they may require paramedics to be on standby at their live shows.
This is one of my favourite releases of the year so far, and yes, I know it's only an EP, but that means it's easier to keep coming back for more!
[No bandcamp, but enjoy this live studio performance of the EP in full]:
-PK
Pretty Mouth - Dead Ends (mathgrind, noise rock)
I somehow missed Pretty Mouth when they were in their pomp back around 2013, so while there was no nostalgia in this release for me, its deranged take on mathcore had me salivating. Reunions are now a dime a dozen, with some bands simply cashing in or going through the motions, but Dead Ends slaps hard and is up there with their older material, possibly surpassing it. For the uninitiated, Pretty Mouth sound like an amalgamation of killer 2000's and 2010's bands all in one delicious package. Take the twisted aggression of Kiss It Goodbye, the chaos of Gaza, throw in the creativity and “zero fucks given” attitude of Coalesce, then you're getting kind of close. The guitar tone is completely mind bending and a huge part of what makes them stand out from the crowd. Their sound has definitely evolved since they released The Endless Mistake over a decade ago, with everything feeling more polished on this EP, more controlled even. That could just be a sign of maturity, but for me, it makes for a more pleasurable listening experience. The vocals also feel more accomplished and partner the erratic compositions perfectly. On the strength of these six tracks we have to hope that Pretty Mouth have enough left in the tank for a new full length in the near future.
-PK
Secret Cutter - /// (Sludge, grindcore)
Watching John Wick movies. Playing Mortal Kombat video games. Eating hamburgers and fries. None of these activities are particularly good for you, but that doesn't make them any less enjoyable. The same could be said for the music Secret Cutter create. Noisy, nasty and in no way going to make you a better person. But sometimes this is just what the doctor ordered. It's a bit like watching the aforementioned Keanu Reeves franchise, you can let the abrasive violence just wash over you, bathing in all its ridiculous glory. The scathing downtuned sludgecore on /// serves a similar purpose. For those who remember The Abominable Iron Sloth, just imagine that band doing Nasum covers and you might understand what I'm going on about. It's been seven long years since Secret Cutter released their last album and this new one just dropped out of the blue like a gift from the demigods. It's 22 minutes of head banging brilliance, so what the hell are you waiting for?
-PK
The Circle Pit
//LESS - Crawl in the Blur (noise rock/post-punk)
Ariadne’s Thread - Another Way to Get There (mathcore, screamo)
Athousandangelsandseven - S/T (sass, mathcore)
Bottom Surgery - Bottom Surgery - As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us (cybergrind)
Bulletsbetweentongues - Fragility (screamo, metalcore)
Chandelier - Chandelier (experimental noise rock)
Church Tongue - You’ll Know it was Me (mathcore, metalcore)
Cóclea / Canut de Bon - No esperan por nadie (noise rock, post-hardcore)
Collaboration - Farther Than Ever Before: A Tribute to Transatlanticism (screamo, metalcore, post-hardcore)
Crochet - Cherish (screamo)
Crown Magnetar - Punishment (deathcore)
Dead Hour Noise - Slow Burn (mathcore, noise)
Fatalist - Fatalist (emoviolence/hardcore)
Gnostician - Unification as an Art (mathcore)
Haunted Horses - Dweller (noise rock, industrial)
Ingrown - Idaho (metalcore, powerviolence)
Kosuke Hashida - Justifiable Homicide (grindcore)
Mikau - Agartha (electronicore, metalcore)
Pathogenic - Crowned in Corpses (deathcore, tech death, djent)
Pyre - This is How We Lose Fullness (screamo, emoviolence, midwest emo)
Rotting in Dirt - Anabiosis (metalcore, mathcore)
Scare - In The End, Was it Worth It? (metalcore, blackened crust)
SPARES - Spares (noise rock, post-hardcore)
Spiritbox - Tsunami Sea (metalcore, alt metal, djent)
Terror Corpse - Systems of Apocalypse (deathgrind)
Thin - The Overlapping Nature of Things (grind, screamo)
This Is Wreckage - Transaction/Service (post-hardcore/noise rock)
To Be Gentle - If You Are Reading This We Are All Connected and We All Love You (screamo, post-metal)
Told Not To Worry - Hands in the Air! (emoviolence, metalcore)
Tulpa - Plum Pinball (experimental progressive noise rock)
Tunic - A Harmony of Loss Has Been Sung (noise rock, sludge)
Young Widows - Power Sucker (noise rock)