2025

It’s the end of the year as we know it and I feel fine. Personally it’s been a pretty good year, musically it was an alright year I guess. I just listened to the year’s end episode of Axe To Grind and their top picks of the year, but I had a really hard time coming up with an actual top 10. The records (and demos) shown in the picture below pretty represent all the 2025 releases I picked up this year, minus a handful. A lot of releases discussed on A2G didn’t really click with me or I didn’t bother to check out because I wasn’t really into the previous releases by the bands mentioned, so overall 2025 has been a real down year for me as far as new hardcore music is concerned. 

There are some more releases from this year that I’m really interested in, but buying current records has become a real hassle. Many mailorders have switched to pre-orders for current releases and those are often ‘sold out’ super fast and if you’re lucky to get a copy, a lot of time passes before you actually get them. So there’s a bunch of 2025 releases I haven’t listened to and don’t own a copy of, so they don’t count for this list. 

I realise this sounds pretty negative, but a) not every year can be a great year, and b) the releases from this year I did buy I really enjoyed, and c) it gave me the chance to dig into some old bands. So, I’ll just chalk this up as ‘quality over quantity’. My favorite album this year is Never Enough by Turnstile. I listened to this record a ton in my office and my Spotify 2025 Wrapped List also tells me that I listened to this album a lot while not at home. 

Prison Of Hope - Question Your Privileges
Spiritual Cramp - Rude
Meantime - Living In The Meantime
Speedway - A Life’s Refrain
Turnstile - Never Enough
Between Owls - Vacation
Lead Spirit - s.t.
Drink Deep - Burning House
Start Today - s.t. 
Glow - Demo
True Fraud - Demo
Combat X Rock - Demo

I didn’t pick up any real heavy hitters this year, but I’m really happy with the collectibles I got. The reasons why I picked those records range from finishing collections to starting new collections, from rather cheap records to rather expensive ones, from buys to trades and even gifts. Sometimes it’s not about the record itself, but what it represents. That’s the fun of buying and collecting records. It’s very personal and a great haptic chronicle of your life. Special thanks to Marcus for hooking me up with an insert for the YOT 7”. 

Bad Brains - I Against I on Clear
Bad Brains - Rock For Light on Clear Gold
Bane - Boston, 6.58pm - Tour Press
Big Kids - Hoop Dreams on Pink and Red Marble
Bane - Don’t Wait Up - Purple Confetti w/ Lights
The Beatles - Blue Album on Clear Blue 
The Beatles - Beatles For Sale on Red - Japanese Pressing
Have Heart - What Counts - Bonds of Bro-Ship Sleeve
Youth Of Today - Can’t Close My Eyes - 4th Pressing on Positive Force
Bane - Dublin, 11.58pm - Test Press
FC Five - Memories (CD)

The records shown below are the records I played the most in 2025, besides the ones shown in the two previous pictures.. There are some records I missed in 2024 for the reasons mentioned above, there are some records I did discover in 2024 and I just continued listening to them this year because they rule. There are some older bands in the mix I just discovered for myself, there are some old bands I already enjoyed in the past and simply got more of their records, and there are bands I used to listen to a lot, yet somehow they’d fallen out of the rotation, but in 2025 I suddenly couldn’t get enough of them again. 

Chopping Block - Seattle’s Hardcore
Broken Head - The Morning Ends
Prim - Move Too Slow
Reach The Sky - Far From Home
Fugazi - Repeater
Less Than Jake - Borders and Boundaries
Diana Ross & The Supremes - Best of
Iron Chic - Not Like This
Walter Schreifels - An Open Letter To The Scene
Wugazi - 13 Chambers

To end this post, here are some fun facts from my Spotify Wrapped. Taylor Swift made two lists of mine: most listened to artists and top 5 songs. Kids by MGMT is number 5 on my top 5 songs.Who The Hell Is Wild Side? by Wild Side is number 2 on my list of most listened to albums, and I completely forgot how much I listened to this album at one point this year. And last but not least, my musical age, according to Spotify, is 76. 

Thanks everyone for checking out my blog. 2025 is done, here’s to 2026.

XXX

Ralf