The year is only at the halfway stage, but 2025 has already been loaded with great punkrockand hardcoremusic. From returning heroes to a selection ofgreat debut albums, the scene feels like it’s thriving more than it has for many years. No doubt about it, this is a good time to be a listener of distorted and hard-hitting melodies and riffs.
Celebrating the best new sounds of the year so far, there’s incredible diversity among the albums selected. Celebrating the scene finally becoming a more accessible and accepting space, hardcore and punk rock feels like it has more voices demanding to stand up and be heard than ever before. The following are the best punk and hardcore albums of 2025 so far.
10Teen Mortgage - Devil Ultrasonic Dream
Having already played dates with the likes of Weezer and The Smashing Pumpkins, this electric punk duo from Washington have plenty of support. Comprised of guitarist James Guile and drummer Ed Barakauskas,Teen Mortgage revel in snotty garage punkthat’s loaded with pop sensibilities and hostile energy. Their first album for Roadrunner Records has an unmissable major label sheen, but doesn’t suffer any penalties as a result.
Teen Mortgage area band willing to use their voicetoo. The songs onDevil Ultrasonic Dreamare confrontational, as are all thebest punk rock, with serious themes like the military industrial complex (“Party”) and western imperialism (“I Don’t Wanna Know”) sitting next to songs inspired by horror movies (“Possessed”) and Satanic rituals (“Lose My Mind”). It’s a spiky and catchy collection.
9Turnstile - Never Enough
FFO: Jane’s Addiction, Shelter, Latter Day Paramore
There are always dissenting voices, but Turnstile’s 2021 breakthrough album,Glow On, is one of the most successful and widely loved albums of the decade so far. As has also been the case with Sleep Token, Ghost, and any other band who strikes gold, Turnstile have since had to suffer boring scene politics and ridicule as a consequence of their increased popularity. Back to what matters,Never Enoughis a worthy (if slightly underwhelming) follow-upto a modern classic.
Turnstile’sNever Enoughcharted at number 9 on the Billboard Top 200.
The album’s title track sets the tone perfectly, as Turnstile largely stick to what worked on their last record.Improvements are made in the hazier moments of the album, with the chill vibes that flavor the immaculate title track, the psychedelic guitar tone on “I Care,” and a three-minute foray into acid jazz at the end of “Look Out For Me” being highlights. The same is true that this is the first album where Turnstile feel as though they’re treading water, and they desperately need to write a new riff.
8Jivebomb - Ethereal
FFO: End It, Speed, Spy
Spitting out 10 tracks in less than 15 minutes,Jivebomb are not for the faint-hearted. The Baltimore combo is focused on delivering pure aggression and unpolished nastiness, with little-to-no attention paid to production values or making the listener remotely comfortable. It’s an artistic decision that suits the songs that make upEtherealperfectly.
Echoing the violent energy of 2010s hardcore royalty Trash Talk,Etherealdelights in its own chaos. Jivebomb drop unpredictable tempo changes for fun, and vocalist Kat Madeira delivers vicious growls with nihilistic enthusiasm. After two acclaimed EPs, their debut album does not disappoint.
7Heart Attack Man - Joyride The Pale Horse
FFO: Sum 41, Dinosaur Pile-Up, Motion City Soundtrack
Bridging the gap between classic Warped Tour pop-punk and scratchy alternative rock, Heart Attack Man delivers their best work to date onJoyride the Pale Horse. Taking large influence from Sum 41’s brash melodies and the quirky, pop-driven approach of Hot Mulligan,this is a perfect summer albumthat manages to somehow feel contemporary yet still manages to be ideal for people who miss Punk-O-Rama compilations.
Best of all,Heart Attack Man show fearlessness in their songwritingall the way through this record. They apply so many different approaches and interesting ways of conveying their snotty melodies across 12 songs that it drags the listener back for repeat listens.Joyride the Pale Horseis the morish kind of album that leaves you with a new favorite song each time you hear it.
6Winona Fighter - My Apologies To The Chef
FFO: Green Day, Rilo Kiley, The Wonder Years
Having spent the last few years honing their craft and detonating firecracker singles, Winona Fighter has developed a bratty energy that’s incredibly endearing. Their debut album,My Apologies To The Chef, sounds as much like a fist fight as it does a good time. Dishing out anger and frustration about modern living, boys, and anything else that dares to catch their line of sight,Winona Fighter is fun and feisty in equal measure.
Winona Fighter is so married to DIY thatMy Apologies To The Chefwas written, produced, and mastered by the band.
There’s no way around it:My Apologies To The Chef’s anger is essential to its success. While the world might not need another happy pop-punk band singing about leaving their hometown, “Swear To God That I’m (FINE)” and “I’M IN THE MARKET TO PLEASE NO ONE” are relatable and memorable anthems for bleak times. This is as happy as it’s possible to be about writing songs in hell.
5Gridiron - Poetry From Pain
FFO: Hatebreed, Downset, Limp Bizkit
Coming in with all the sophistication of a brick to the nose,Gridiron delivers no-nonsense urban hardcore. Their emphasis is on hip-hop-influenced vocals and meat-and-potatoes tough guy hardcore, with the explosive chorus of “Mascot” and DJ scratches having Limp Bizkit’s fingers all over it. In fact, Gridiron shares a lot with the cartoony nu metal scene.
It’s hard to believe that Matthew Karll is delivering lines like “you’re employee of the month at the b***h store” with any degree of seriousness, becauseGridiron is primarily about fun. The likes of “Best Served Cold” and “Roses” (featuring the excellent Missing Link) are delivered with an infectious joy.Poetry From Painwon’t win any awards for originality, but that really doesn’t matter when it’s this much of a blast.
4A Day To Remember - Big Ole Album, Vol. 1
FFO: A Day To Remember On Incredible Form
For a variety of reasons, it has felt as if there has been a disconnect between A Day To Remember and their audience on their last few albums.Big Ole Album, Vol. 1has no such problem as it rolls back the years and delivers everything great about Ocala’s favorite sons. Packed with arena-worthy choruses,this is vintage A Day To Remember, but with a slight difference.
There has been no news or confirmation of whether there will be aBig Ole Album, Vol. 2.
Having always had a tremendous amount of relatability to his words, vocalistJeremy McKinnon is in superb formas a lyricist. “Flowers” and “All My Friends” are loaded with authentic sentiment, the kind of heart that has made them mean so much to so many, and an aging vibe that suits them perfectly. Anyone who has ever held even a passing interest in A Day To Remember owes it to themselves to check this album out.
3Glare - Sunset Funeral
FFO: Nothing, Whirr, The Cure
Hailing from Texas and having made waves with a slew of great singles,Glare are giving shoegaze a shot in the armon one of the year’s most impressive debut albums. This languid collection shares the same star appeal that saw Turnover’sPeripheral Visionheld up as a scene classic. Brimming with anthemic songwriting and delivered with total conviction,Sunset Funeralis drowning in luscious soundscapes and loaded with great melodies.
Perfectly straddling the line between weighty guitars and dreamy vibes,Sunset Funeralrewards repeat listens. “2 Soon To Tell”’s subtle build, the album’s enormous collection of tasteful lead guitar lines, and getting intimate with Glare’s masterful sense of timing on the Deftones-like heaviness of “Nu Burn” and “Turquoise Dream” is where the real gold can be found. This is essential listening for anyone who lives for patient, gloomy, melodic songwriting.
2The Callous Daoboys - I Don’t Want To See You In Heaven
FFO: The Dillinger Escape Plan, Incubus, Faith No More.
One of the most explosive entries on this list,The Callous Daoboys revel in their own unpredictability. Vocalist Carson Pace croons like Lionel Ritchie and Mike Patton and shrieks like a person being pushed down a well (while on fire). In a matter of seconds, there’s a saxophone solo and a drum n' bass drop and that’s just on the album’s first real track, “Schizophrenia Legacy.” Randomness without skill is just a collection of sounds, but it’s the band’s seamless ability to make these things cohesive that’s their real superpower.
After wowing critics with their obtuse use of melody on their past couple of albums,The Callous Daoboys have now added legitimate pop hooks to their repertoire. Funk pop banger “Two Headed Trout” sounds like Bruno Mars being electrocuted, while “Lemon” flexes the band’s ability to write the kind of breezy summer anthem that Incubus would toss out for fun at the turn of the millenium. The fact that The Daoboys are still improving is mesmerizing to behold.
1Scowl - Are We All Angels
FFO: Nirvana, Turnstile, The Cranberries
It’s been in the mail for a minute now, but Scowl’s ascension has been inevitable for some time. Stealing the weekend at Coachella a few years ago with a set that exploded with irrepressible energy, wide-eyed excitement, and the kind of star appeal that doesn’t grow on trees, Kat Moss and her rock n' roll battalion have capitalized on their outstanding 2021 debut,How Flowers Grow,and their growing reputation.Are We All Angelsensures thatScowl are currently the most exciting band in rock music.
Whether it’s aggression, authenticity, or melody,Are We All Angelsis the perfect modern punk record. “Fantasy” and “Let You Down” manage to sound vital and urgent while still delivering their carefree melodies nonchalantly. “Not Hell, Not Heaven” is a driving anthem for psychopaths, and the consistency of the whole record is unbelievable. Put simply, Scowl provides the perfect soundtrack for a world that’s on fire.
