Onto the third week of /Countdown/2025 on amodelofcontrol.com, and this week I’m looking at the best albums of the year. As I’m sure I’ve explained before, I treat the “year” as 01-December to 30-November, to allow me a cut-off point, and to allow this to be done and dusted before Christmas so that I can take the usual break from writing over most of the holiday period. There are, however, always exceptions to this rule…

2025 has been a year nervously looking at what the fuck else might be going on, while aiming for some form of stability and just about getting there, and musically it has been a very interesting year overall, as the lines between genres continue to blur and evolve.

As well as the fifty albums featured here, there were more that didn’t quite make the cut. Those included – but are by no means all of them – albums from Bitter Ruin, Encephalon, Kathryn Joseph, Lauren Mayberry, Street Sects/Street Sex, Swans, SCALER, Sevendials and tunic.

A few intriguing statistics. Firstly, forty-five of the fifty albums here are available on Bandcamp this year, and there are artists from just seven countries this year: Canada, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Women and non-binary people are not greatly represented again, though (20 out of 104 band members), although that is a better percentage than normal (which isn’t saying much). As I note every year, I do not aim for any bias in my choices – everything here is on merit – and the stats continue to confirm that much of the music that we listen to in the “alternative” side of things is still biased in favour of men.

While I still try and keep the broad focus of the music covered here to the wider sphere of industrial music, I also listen to other music and thus the spread here is perhaps a bit wider than you might otherwise expect. You know what, though? Try some of this music. Especially the stuff you don’t recognise or don’t know. Go for it – I love hearing new music that someone else has enthused about, trying to understand what’s so awesome about it. Sometimes it is obvious, sometimes it will take days or weeks to click, and hopefully, something here will do that to you.

Time to cue the music. You can listen along on Spotify or YouTube. Links above.

/50-/41 – /40-/31 – /30-/21 – /20-/11 – /10-/01

/Bruise Blood
/You Run Through the World Like An Open Razor
/Rocket Recordings

Mike Bourne of Teeth of the Sea started a new, solo, side-project this year and the results were intriguing. Still exploring similar realms to his main band – somewhere between techno, prog and industrial – this album lessens the prog element somewhat, instead drifting off into acid techno, dreamy shoegaze and grinding industrial (the latter best found on menacing highlight Oh But You Can, Oh But You Will), and the result is an album that sounds and feels distinctly different to Teeth of the Sea. The blurb released with the album suggests that it was written following various supernatural-esque events involving an inherited stuffed parrot, and whether true or not, it certainly made for a good story. And there’s always been something otherworldly about Mike Bourne’s work anyway: that uncanny, unsettling sound that he continues to create.

/Moon 17
/TX_1320
/Self-released

A self-described “Sci-Fi industrial” duo from Kansas City, Moon 17 are the latest in a long line of new industrial artists that are less interested in the provenance of their influences than exploring where they might go next. Rough-around-the-edges stomper Cherry has the booming, bassy synths of classic FLA, but the aggression and snarl of Youth Code. Jellyfish is classic, brooding EBM but with a glitchy approach to production that chops up parts of it to stagger the momentum. Vocals and what the songs are potentially about seems a secondary thought here, particularly as the vocals are seemingly deliberately difficult to decipher. But then, who cares? Not everyone needs to shout their message from the rooftops, and in any case, when the music is as good as this, I’m happy to go along for the wild ride and enjoy what I’m hearing.

/Brutalist Architecture In The Sun
/Desolation Street
/Self-released

Medway synth duo Brutalist Architecture In The Sun have released at quite the pace in recent years – this is their fourth album since 2020, never mind before that. But this one feels like a new chapter of sorts, the softer, downbeat synthpop of previous work swept away and replaced with a tougher-edged sound, that at points nudges toward acid techno, and on tracks like Drive By Suicide, the shadow of Sheep on Drugs unexpectedly looms large (frankly the chorus isn’t a million miles from the evergreen Motorbike). An album that would suit rain-soaked nights as you’re heading to some dingy club, perhaps the only criticism is that it could have with a bit of editing: with the bonus tracks, it’s well over an hour long.

/Dead Blood Cells
/Medwave
/AHS Records

I never quite thought I’d be able to say this, but there’s an interesting (small) goth and industrial scene in Kent. There are a couple of regular nights now in parts of the county, and there are artists starting to release more music, too. One of those is Dead Blood Cells in the Medway area, who’s main man Jason also runs the regular night Post Plague in Chatham. They’ve released a number of shorter EPs and singles over the past few years, and Medwave is their first full-length album, and it is also by far their best release yet. Jason’s noisy beats and surprisingly intricate compositions are tempered well by Lilith’s dramatic vocals, and wisely they don’t just stick to one style, especially as, like their geographical neighbours above, the album sprawls a bit to an hour in length so the variety is welcome.

/Pulp
/More
/Rough Trade

According to the band when this was unexpectedly announced in the spring, “we deserve More”. Personally, their joyous, brilliant reunion gigs over the past few years had been more than enough for me, even without any new songs, but it turned out that Jarvis Cocker really did have more to say. This is an older, wiser Pulp, one that isn’t afraid to reappraise the past (lead single Spike Island being an examination of the revisionism that often takes hold when the past is far enough away), but the main takeaway from this album is a reminder that people in the late stages of middle age are still horny, and still think – a lot – about sex. It’s just that things are slower, maybe, and more thought has to go into things. Musically, though, this is still Pulp, and even after all this time they still have the ability to surprise, particularly on the joyous album centrepiece Got To Have Love, which is an emphatic Northern Soul stomper. It may not be perfect, but who is after all these years?

/Ethel Cain
/Perverts
/Daughters of Cain

Sure, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You is the more accessible release from Ethel Cain this year, but for sheer “try singing along to this, fuckers” chutzpah, Perverts is a hell of a thing. 90 minutes of drones, dark ambient, and disembodied voices that appear out of nowhere like jump scares. The opening title track fades in with a distorted, broken sample of a church choir singing a hymn, with a drone in the background that could be a storm on the horizon, it could just be the wind out of a window, it could be an approaching train. But it sets the scene for an album that’s difficult to look away from, as if you leave it on while doing something else, there will be something that will make you jump out of your skin. Anything but easy listening, for something released by a relatively mainstream artist these days, this probably goes down as one of the most challenging and difficult releases of 2025.

/Manic Street Preachers
/Critical Thinking
/Columbia

We saw the Manics at an “album launch show” on 01-February, that turned out to be less about the new album than it was a tip of the hat to their late member Richey Edwards – perhaps understandable, bearing in mind that that very day was 30 years since he disappeared. But as it turned out, their fifteenth album is actually pretty good. Sure, we’re long past the point where we could ever dare to expect the white-hot fury that fuelled their greatest work, but like so many other albums this year, this album simmers away with an annoyance at what they see. The title track, and opener, rather sets the scene: “What happened to your critical thinking?” asks Nicky Wire, as he laments any sense of nuance in the way western nations now seem to vote and call for action, and People Ruin Paintings similarly laments the absence of truth. The band noted before release that many songs were influenced by the sound of various eighties-alternative bands, and it shows in the sound, which rarely bares teeth but nails the anthemic element time and again, and one particularly notable song is Dear Stephen, which laments how Morrissey went from their teenage hero to a reactionary, far-right supporting bigot: interestingly, it is less accusatory than just disappointed. And that perhaps sums up this album: the Manics are beyond being angry, they are just feeling let down by the world. It’s hard not to agree.

/Caustic
/FIEND I / FIEND II
/Self-released

Never one to do things by halves, Matt Fanale went big for what has been hinted might be the final Caustic album. In fact, there are two final Caustic albums: FIEND I and FIEND II, and they are very different beasts. On a superficial level, you could say that I is the party album, and II is the aftermath, but the reality is more complex than that. But I is certainly the album that contains the dancefloor-bound, rabble-rousing tracks of the kind that have long since made up the bulk of Fanale’s live sets. The incessant Rhythm Is A Cancer is a punk-industrial banger, while Pushing Rope rages against getting older and it being harder to be inspired as a musician, and the take on Nick Cave’s Thirsty Dog seems to be a nod to Fanale’s now long-term sobriety, perhaps a reminder of what he used to be. Then there’s the closing Not Going Anywhere, which sees Fanale boasting and putting up the middle finger, to a backing that doesn’t half feel like an early-nineties boy band swing.

II goes darker, and mostly slower. There’s a good dose of self-loathing (the punishing loops and Fanale’s growled lyrics of Pure Abyss), bass music (Buggy gets dragged down into swirls of fearsome bass), even pitch-dark trip-hop (Crazy Gloo). And if you thought that Thirsty Dog was an unusual choice of cover, wait until you hear the take on the early Jane’s Addiction track Chip Away, assisted by clubdrugs. There’s something of the original buried in the mix – think of it as if Underworld tore apart the original and turned the remaining fragments into a deep, lush techno workout. Even better is the downbeat (there’s a theme here) gloom of Every Time I Failed You, which features the plaintive vocals from Logan Turner (of the much-missed Cygnets).

There’s a lot going on here, and even if this is the last Caustic release(s), it surely won’t be the end for Matt Fanale. He’s always got something on the go – KLACK and daddybear are still current, of course – and maybe after over twenty-years, it is time to put the Caustic act to rest. Maybe Matt might even get time to have a break: he’s earned it. But if this really is the end for Caustic, it’s a fine way to bow out.

/Philip Jeays
/Victoria
/Ditton Pye

Philip Jeays has long been a favourite in this house – indeed one of his signature songs played a part in our wedding – and his latest album, after serious illness and seemingly retiring from playing live, is reflective and lovelorn. Other Jeays fans may say “but aren’t they all?” but here, the passage of time and recent events seem to have inspired Jeays to dig that bit deeper into the past. There’s less humour than before – aside from the throwaway politicking of Old Man Vlad, which to be honest I can take or leave – but a few characters from past songs return, and his talent for observational lyrics and deep detail are best shown in the exquisite title track (set around the titular station, the entry point into London from Jeay’s home on the south coast). But what this album does prove once again is that Jeays at his best when reflecting on moments in his past, and the lessons that are learned (or not!) from failures in love. Song after song here is rich in detail, in people, in emotion, and while other albums may provide a better entry point for new fans, it is always worth spending time with a Jeays album, and Victoria is no different.

/YHWH Nailgun
/45 Pounds
/AD 93

Easily the shortest album to make this year’s list (ten tracks, twenty minutes) packs an awful lot into the economical running time. Anchored by quite astonishing drumming (mostly using Rototoms) where each foot and hand appear to the untrained ear to be beating out different rhythms all at once (on more than one song there are echoes of African polyrhythms by way of Chris Frantz), the rest of the band revolve around this like an asteroid belt, with guitars that sound like plectrums across sheet metal contact mics, and a vocalist midway through an exorcism – and an uneasy sense that if they stopped, everything would collapse immediately. This album is a Whole Lot, and perhaps the short running time is the right call – any more would be overwhelming.

/50-/41 – /40-/31 – /30-/21 – /20-/11 – /10-/01

/drumcorps
/For Everything
/Morning Under Leaves

Buckle up, Aaron Spectre is back with his Drumcorps alter-ego, and like all of his best material, this goes full fucking throttle. For the uninitiated, the Drumcorps project mostly is an unholy meshing together of furious breakcore and rampaging hardcore/metal, most of the latter sampled, twisted and refashioned into insanely heavy tracks that moshing to would likely put you in a neck brace, such is the violence of the incessant tempo changes and sheer heaviness of the entire release. Spectre also adds his own vocals into the maelstrom – and they suit the sound well – but the main thing to marvel at hear is the violent noise that he has created. It’s exhausting, best heard at extreme volume, and it’s absolutely fucking great.

/Glare
/Sunset Funeral
/Sunday Drive

After number of singles over eight years – and apparently now reduced to a trio from a five-piece – these Texan shoegazers released their debut album this year, and it is a lovely, dreamy release. There is, as there should be on a shoegaze album, considerable FX-pedal abuse, with guitars descending on the mix like sheets of torrential rain, blurring the sound nicely and with the thumping low-end that accompanies it, makes for a engaging release that makes a point of not sticking around for too long (the album is done in 37 minutes). Sure, if you know your shoegaze history – I’ve been a listener and fan of the genre since I was a teenager – there won’t be too much to surprise, but hearing a new generation finding more mileage out of this sound is always a good sign.

/Suede
/Antidepressants
/BMG

There’s no doubt that Suede have been a revitalised band since they reformed about fifteen years ago. They’ve now released as many albums since then (five) as they did in their first incarnation, and they remain an extraordinary force live. Interestingly, too, their experimental side (most notably on The Blue Hour) has been put on the back-burner more recently, with 2022’s punky, raw Autofiction now followed by the similarly punchy Antidepressants. There’s not a great deal to surprise here, perhaps – this is Suede sticking to their strengths, which is either roof-raising anthems that will sound fantastic live, or expansive, lush ballads that sound as great at home as they do live, and frankly, we should be amazed that a band that has been around for this long can still sound so engaged, and so good – there is no sign of a band on autopilot here. Roll on the tour in the New Year…

/Senser
/Sonic Dissidence
/Self-released

31 years on from Stacked Up – and 12 years on from last album To The Capsules – Senser returned with their seventh album this year, and for such a fiercely political band, it perhaps isn’t surprising to find that they’ve got a lot to write and sing about in 2025. Sadly, the themes are all-too-familiar to long-time fans of the band – racists, capitalist overreach, state-sponsored violence – but at least we can be comfortable that Heitham, Kirsten and the rest of the band will never be voting Reform. It might sag a bit in the middle of the album, but frankly any album that opens with the three-minute blitz of RYOT PUMP would do, and there are enough mosh-friendly, powerful moments elsewhere to get over that mid-section. An impressive return.

/Bob Mould
/Here We Go Crazy
/Yep Roc Records

Perhaps the reformation of Sugar, announced in October, shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise. Here We Go Crazy crackles with Mould’s trademark, restless energy and channeling his anger at the world through his guitar – asking pretty much “what the fuck do we do now?” as the world appears to implode around us (guess what? There’s quite a few albums in this list, this year, that are now addressing similar questions). Bob Mould isn’t someone advocating burning down everything around him, though, much as it might seem a good idea: he’s too smart and has too much life experience for that. Instead – amid eleven songs that flash past in a flurry of riffs and melodies – he’s examining how we deal with things becoming more uncertain as we age, and how on earth we deal with that. He by no means has the answers, mind, but he is at least posing the questions. The closing Your Side, though, reminds an important point: we don’t need to face the world alone, and Mould is there, promising to be by their side no matter what fuckery happens. Now, onto that Sugar reunion…

/Social Youth Cult
/The Lighthouse
/Self-released

If we run on the general assumption that “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” is ground zero for Gothic Rock, that means the genre is approaching the half century, and the giants of the scene continue to dominate club playlists and festival bills, for better or worse – The Mission headline both nights of Tomorrow’s Ghosts at Whitby next October/November, and sold out almost instantly.

But the long-standing question has been about what that has done to stifle the opportunities for newer, younger bands. Well, they are coming through, but they are perhaps playing smaller venues for the most part. One that has had a lot of word-of-mouth recommendations recently is the north-eastern band Social Youth Cult. Very much younger than those giants of the scene, they’ve also been taking notes. The glowering vocals sound familiar, as do the tumbling drums, the screaming guitars, the rumbling basslines. So far, so Goth, then. But unlike many of their peers, whose releases all too often sound like they were recorded in a dustbin with reverb to match, their new album sounds huge.

It is eight songs that nail that goth sound, but with a verve and energy that really impresses, but it is also shrouded in a gloom like a North Sea fog, which for songs at least partly written overlooking the mouth of the Tyne, seems entirely appropriate. I wasn’t expecting to like this, I have to admit – unexpectedly, I love it.

/Mari Kattman
/Year of the Katt
/Metropolis Records

Mari Kattman has been a familiar figure in US industrial/electro for a while now, with a steady stream of releases and notable guest appearances (particularly with Comaduster), but Year of the Katt feels like a statement of intent, with Kattman finally gaining the spotlight for herself. Written, produced and performed by Kattman, this is a punchy, hugely enjoyable album that’s full of great songs (and was great live in the autumn, too). Among the highlights, Sharp Shooter has a silver tongue as it deals with duplicity (that chorus gets stuck in my head every time I hear it), while Take has an infectious groove to it, and Little Bullet Girl is full of synths that scream across the mix like tracer bullets, and has an angry stomp to it, something the self-assessment of The Worst also has in spades. Kattman lives up to her long-obvious potential at last, and the results are great.

/Primitive Man
/Observance
/Relapse Records

In these dark times, why not turn to nihilism? Primitive Man were already there, frankly, but the oppressive hatred of their latest album just makes it all the more appropriate right now. They call themselves “Planet earth’s 1st and only Death Sludge band”, and there is definitely elements of both, but the sheer rage in the delivery makes this release about as heavy as it gets. Primitive Man generally keep their tempos on the glacial side, only exploding into occasional gallops such as on the skull-crushing Social Contract, with the three-piece in perfect lockstep as their slow, heavy riffs unfold alongside basslines you could feel in hell, and drums that are hit with what sounds like hammers. Every single second of the seven songs (in no less than 68 minutes – brevity has no place in the work of Primitive Man) drips with fetid, nasty malevolence, and the further you push the volume dial, the nastier it gets. Unparalleled in their power, and for sheer, soul-crushing misery, you cannot beat this.

/Rotersand
/Don’t Become The Thing That You Hated
/Trisol Music Group

Rotersand have become a band whose release schedules are now more relaxed – this album dropped in the summer nearly five-and-a-half-years since the last one, although the various singles drip-fed over the past couple of years are present and correct. But maybe, they’ve taken the time to get this right. It is an album that unfolds slowly, allowing songs to build and breathe, and that culminates in the staggering blowout of Private Firmament (I Fell For You), a dancefloor stomper that’s been appearing in DJ setlists all summer. But it isn’t all about the dancefloor: instead this is an album about dealing with the here and now, and how you don’t get consumed by the constant negativity and hate all around us. Rotersand have always been a thoughtful band, somehow able to balance the exuberance of dancing for joy and the ballads that deal with loss and darkness, and both sides here are quite brilliant. By modern standards, this is a long album, but there’s not a dull moment and it rewards your time.

/The Armed
/THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED
/Sargent House

Looking at the binfire of western world politics right now, it’s hard not to agree with the sentiment of the title of THE ARMED’s great new album, and indeed after listening through, you may well be inspired to take up arms and burn everything to the ground too. This is thirty minutes, or thereabouts, of rampaging, chaotic noise-punk that is absolutely fucking sick of what they see. Liars in the White House, in Government at every level, oligarchs sweeping up every last cent to fuck everyone else over, the religious right trampling on the rights of everyone else but themselves. Almost every song tears into each or all of them, and this feels like a very real, very noisy kickback at neo-fascism. There is just a smidgen of hope by the time we get to the lightspeed thrash of A More Perfect Design, though: “Don’t let it make you go numb / Don’t let it dull your compassion” feels like a salutary warning. We will not become like those cunts, they are saying, and it’s hard not to agree. Insurrection never sounded so tempting.

/50-/41 – /40-/31 – /30-/21 – /20-/11 – /10-/01

/Ganser
/Animal Hospital
/Felte

Ganser were one of a number of bands to be hit with unfortunate timing when COVID hit. The outstanding Just Look At That Sky was released a few months into lockdowns that summer, hitting touring plans for a while at least (and even with listening to music, the outside world seemed to loom large). Major changes hit later, too, with Nadia Garofalo leaving the band, replaced by new vocalist Sophie Sputnik, and like before, they share vocals with Alicia Gaines. With all this upheaval, it feels perhaps that this album has been a long time coming, but like before, the band have moved their sound on once again. The seething, clenched teeth of opener Black Sand is maybe the closest to what has come before, three minutes of tense noise rock that never resolves, to leave you hanging. The electronic swishes that punctuate the nervy Half Plastic, too, raise the tension further, but interestingly for much of the rest of the album, there is a feeling of dialling things back. The lovely, dreamy Grounding Exercises, for example, is a dreampop track by any other name, but still never allows the listener to settle. Change has done Ganser good, without losing their distinctive edge.

/Public Circuit
/Modern Church
/à La Carte Records

A new act to me – this is their second album, although the trio only came together in 2023 – but one that was immediately of interest, thanks to reports by others about their live show and their exceptional songs, and they were not wrong. Owing something to LA synth-punks High-Functioning Flesh, their music also owes something to punishing EBM basslines and that rich vein of luxurious 80s pop, interestingly, that results in a powerful sound that twists these influences around some fantastic songs (single Samson has infectious, swooning melodies, while Take The Blame ups the tempo to a breathless pace, and No Faith prowls forward thanks to that aggressive bassline. Even when they dial back the aggression – such as on the gorgeous synthpop of To The Grave – it still works brilliantly. Cowbells and battered buckets – and more of those Rototoms – add to the cacophony of percussion that abounds on the album, and there’s no doubt that this young trio have a lot more to offer in the future, based on this excellent release.

/16Volt
/More of Less
/Metropolis Records

After a lengthy break, Eric Powell returned with a thumping set at Cold Waves 2023, with the promise of new music to come, and More of Less finally dropped in the summer, the first album of new 16Volt material in nine years. It is a strong return, too, deviating little from the Machine Rock blueprint long since set out by Powell, but why should he change? It’s a good balance between rampaging bangers (the grind of White Noise, the relentless pace of Empty As Hell, album highlight – and callback to FullBlackHabit – If You Like It, most notably), and slower, more melodic songs. Two things are clear: 16Volt are still at the top of their game, and Powell has an underrated ear for melody, not something that’s so common in industrial rock.

/ESA
/Sounds For Your Happiness
/Negative Gain Productions

An album introduced by an intriguing promo theme that suggested a company offering synthetic methods of happiness – and anyone reading it, and listening to ESA for the first time, might have been in for a shock. There’s no two ways about it – Sounds For Your Happiness, even by the standards of Jamie Blacker’s previous work over the past twenty years or so, is an absolutely relentless release. Lasting no less than seventy-five minutes across twelve tracks, it is mostly built around Blacker’s distinctive, bass-driven industrial rhythms, that seem to have sharp edges hidden amid their bludgeoning power. But as well as that, there are samples, nods to jazz, blues, black metal and hip-hop, there are guitars, there are blastbeats, it’s a whole fucking lot. But Blacker has the style and ability to carry it off, and if you’ve got the stomach, this is 75 minutes well worth jumping in for.

/DIVINE SHADE
/Fragments​-​Vol​.​1
/Self-released

One of the stars (for a number of us) of Infest 2024 were French trio Divine Shade, who brought us sleek industrial rock that was very loud indeed. Their debut album arrived early this year, pulling together various singles and a handful of newer tracks. Not unlike The Young Gods – whom Divine Shade have very much taken at least a partial influence from, there’s no doubt – they switch between French and English in their lyrics, but unlike the Swiss band, they do use guitars. They also take their sound in different directions, too – particularly the rumbling industrial stomp of Oublier (written with Gary Numan guitarist Steve Fox-Harris). The soaring, quite brilliant Heaven erupts like a volcano into the powerful chorus, but equally the band are just as capable of restraint, and this fascinating release is one that knows to balance the dynamics well. Let’s hope for more material in the future, as this is a great start.

/KAPUT
/I
/Altered States

“Caution is boring, we came for blood” sneers Nadia Garofalo on High Wire, and it perhaps sums up one theme on this jagged, dark release from her and bandmembers Brian Fox and M. Sord. Having moved on from Ganser, Garofalo has been involved in a couple of other projects and work, but KAPUT feels like a new home. There’s still a noisy, post-punk sound on display but the edges feel rather more jagged than before. The mix is busy, as if there are multiple thought patterns going on at once (the jittery Runners being a perfect example), and as you listen to the words a little closer, there’s much to say here on the effort and exhaustion of being in the public eye, of the ugly mental strain of trying to banish the past and dealing with mistakes. There’s an awful lot going on here, and such is the overload that it being a short album works in its favour.

/Deftones
/private music
/Reprise

On the tenth Deftones album – and thirty years since their first – they returned to working with producer Nick Raskulinecz, who helmed the astounding career resurrection of Diamond Eyes in 2010, and also returned to being a whole lot more direct. Sure, Ohms was a good album, but there were murmurs of band unrest at the time as Stephen Carpenter’s riffage took something of a back seat. No such worries here, as the band dial back on the atmospheric moments for a whole lot more of stepping on the gas. Songs waste no time, there’s a lot of the album that will work great live, and while this is Deftones doing what they do, they still make better alt-metal than any of their peers, and this is a hugely listenable album again.

/Benefits
/Constant Noise
/Invada

“I’m looking up in awe at a mountain of shit“. That’s quite the opening line for an album. But then, Benefits set out their stalls a few years back with their bracing debut, that juxtaposed spoken-word vocals about the decline of the working class and descent of their peers into nationalism, racism and violence with scorching noise. Constant Noise takes a fascinating left-turn musically, for the most part ditching the noise (although it does have the effect of the few times they are used being all the more shocking) for smooth electronic sounds, think if late-90s Underworld turned to political activism. Kingsley Hall’s thoughtful, impassioned vocals are still fascinating, though, as he forensically tears apart right-wing points of view, and exposes them for being lies and how they are being lied to. He appears particularly furious at performative politics, at the waving of flags, at the celebrations of “our country” without any thought as to how they could really improve theirs and everyone else’s lot. A genuinely fascinating listen, Hall should stand as a politician: his frustration and yearning for change, and for better, should be inspiring to many.

/BLUSH_RESPONSE
/Ego Death
/Artoffact Records

Joey Blush has shapeshifted through a number of styles in his time under this moniker – originally releasing glitchy synthpop, he became better known for his punishing industrial-techno, and one of his key markers has been a clear understanding of the power of industrial music (his music is rarely “just” techno-based). But recent touring with Front Line Assembly as part of the band has clearly inspired him to return to his industrial roots, and Ego Death is a bruising release as a result. Amid gigantic electro-industrial beats, there are sampled guitar breakdowns, rhythms to punch holes in the dancefloor to, and a sense that this was a fun release to make for Joey Blush. It’s certainly great fun to listen to.

/Pixel Grip
/Percepticide: The Death of Reality
/Self-released

It turned out that a lot went on in the period since the excellent ALPHAPUSSY in 2021, and after nearly breaking up as a band since, they roared back with the thumping sex-positive STAMINA last year (which was #03 on /Countdown /2024 /Tracks). The album took a bit longer, but it was certainly worth the wait. It’s not all club-pop bangers, either: opener Crows Feast and mid-album track Noise are both elegant dreampop works, slowing the tempo down and showing off Rita Lukea’s impressive vocal range. But when the tempo increases, they remain even better: Moment With God rages against the unjustness of loss, while the techno-club grooves of Split tries to put on a brave face before the hurt. Pixel Grip sound bigger and better here, perhaps adversity made them all the stronger.

/50-/41 – /40-/31 – /30-/21 – /20-/11 – /10-/01

/BRUIT ≤
/The Age Of Ephemerality
/Pelagic Records

French post-rock quartet BRUIT ≤ (which means “noise”) are, it turns out, a fiercely political band, that like some of their peers choose to make their statements in song-titles, occasional samples and their videos. Oh, and their activism – their music is unavailable on streaming services, sold only in physical form or on their Bandcamp page, as a protest against the oligarchs that run and own most of the streaming services. Theirs is a modern, and dramatic take on post-rock, too: electronic glitches are part of the mix, alongside a wall-of-sound approach that makes the loud moments hit extraordinarily hard. This is forty-one minutes of top-quality music, best listened to as a whole, as the five tracks here feed into each other, culminating in the staggering crescendoes of The Intoxication of Power, that closes out with a familiar statement from O’Brien in 1984. BRUIT ≤ are clearly disgusted with the future that they see unfolding, but like many of us, appear powerless in what to do other than to shout loudly and try and warn someone.

/The Infinity Ring
/Ataraxia
/Profound Lore Records

I was pointed to this artist by a friend that writes at The Ways of Exile, and I’ve not had such a bulleye of a recommendation in a while. The Infinity Ring are a group who are very familiar indeed with the dark-folk period of Swans (most of Children of God to The Great Annihilator, pretty much), they have a vocalist with a deep, rich baritone, but what they don’t do is push their sound to extremes. Musically they also have an element of more restrained post-rock about them, with rhythmic repetition something they use a lot- and the plaintive violin on The Window doesn’t half sound like Godspeed. But their music is all about the atmosphere they invoke. This is pitch-dark, sombre music for more reflective times, that like the bands that they invoke, will not be for everyone. But for those that it does draw in, like me, it will become a cherished release.

/grabyourface
/Sadgirl Mixtape
/Self-released

Likely the most unexpected turn sonically from an artist in 2025 came in February, by way of grabyourface. Better known for their ferocious, anti-capitalist, feminist noisy industrial and a host of explosive guest appearances on record and onstage, sadgirl mixtape was, and is, like nothing I’ve heard in some time. A downcast, bleak release that owes more to slowcore than anything else, according to my interview with the artist it took seven years to piece together, and is an extraordinary document of some very difficult times. Familial and other relationships dominate the hurt on display, but there’s also a fair amount of self-loathing and questioning of self, and even a cover of a French chanson to close the album. You perhaps have to be in the right frame of mind to listen (and perhaps appreciate it), but make no mistake – this is a bold turn for grabyourface to make and it sounds amazing.

/Model/Actriz
/Pirouette
/True Panther Sounds

Noise rock is often a very hetero (male) world, so the explicitly gay themes from Cole Hayden’s lyrics on the second Model/Actriz album make for a refreshing change. They referred to this album as “coming out” rather than the repression of the noisy chaos of their debut album, and the nervous confusion and uncertainty often displayed in the vocals on this album only heighten the tension of an album that is often all over the map. Lead single Cinderella is a phenomenal, head-spinning trip, as Hayden reflects on hiding their true thoughts from a young age and what they would do to change it, and the song builds and spirals into a terse, dancefloor-destroying inferno. Elsewhere, tempos change continually – the wild ride of Ring Road a particular shock to the system – and the band comfortably escape their noisy-origins with explorations into post-punk and quasi-trip-hop with ease, making for an enthralling album about human endurance that consistently refuses to be pigeonholed.

/mclusky
/the world is still here and so are we
/Ipecac Recordings

Who expected a new mclusky album, twenty-one years after the last, and more to the point, who expected it to be this fucking good? If you’re already familiar with the work of Andrew Falkous in particular, this album won’t be a surprise, but if you’re new here…well. Caustic, razor-sharp lyrics coupled with similarly barbed hardcore is the order of the day, at a variety of tempos and differing levels of ferocity, but upon first listen in particular, you’ll spend time rewinding and replaying sections, just to make sure that you caught particular lyrics (like the cribbing from the Rainbow theme in the battle of los angelsea, for example), and the song titles are still great (specific nod to way of the exploding dickhead). But mainly, Falkous’s disdain for everyone and everything is present and correct, mclusky still destroy as a band, and them not exploring new styles is exactly what we wanted. As he said once upon a time, “my band is better than your band”. It still applies.

/Promenade Cinema
/Afterlife
/Self-released

The first album by PromCin was album of the year on this site the year it was released, and the second album felt a little more restrained, as if the effort to release it had drained them – and even then the album still had some real highlights. It also didn’t help that it was released just as lockdowns bit in early 2020, and it took a few more years for the duo to find their feet again. While the Dark Designs EP was a stopgap, perhaps – and one of necessity as they moved away from Sheffield post-lockdown, but needed to keep their music in people’s minds in a fickle scene – it was very good, and confirmed that there were still great songs in them.

Afterlife reiterates this again. It contains some of their best, and most immediate songs (Runners, Play With Fate, Moonlight), more swooning balladry, and every song is a star turn for Emma’s vocals and Dorian’s intricate, precise synth work. All of their music is indisputably PromCin, such is their commitment to their sound and style, but at no point does it sound hackneyed or that they are repeating themselves.

/Comaduster
/MEMORY ECHOES
/Self-released

You can enjoy Réal Cardinal’s work in two ways – simply by the elegant electronic compositions that he creates, and/or by absorbing yourself in the deep sci-fi themes that soak deeply into his songs. I’m not even going to pretend to understand the concepts being explored lyrically and thematically here – the idea of the Liminal Zero Event – but broadly it seems that memories become physical aspects of gravity and fractures reality (and if I got that wrong, sorry Réal!), and the songs are some of those fragments as reality unwinds. If you’re familiar with how Comaduster sound – intricate, bass-heavy electronics drenched in melody and heavy vocal treatments – be prepared for a few surprises. Like the crushing, Meshuggah-esque breakdowns in the title track and MIMIC, moments of juddering, powerful chopped-up dubstep, the intriguing metalcore turns in WAVELIKE (just listen to that chorus delivery), and also the impressive duets with Mari Kattman, of which BLACK SUN RAYS in particular uses acoustic elements to add a deeply human feel to music that can sometimes feel a little untethered from reality (although really, that’s the point). Also of note is the glorious guest appearance by Alex Reed (Seeming) on THE LESS YOU KNOW, which seems to be a musing on memory that examines a similar conceit to recent mind.in.a.box albums, but in a very different approach. By all accounts, this took a long time – and an awful lot of struggle – to complete this album, but Cardinal has been vindicated by the fantastic result.

/Heartworms
/Glutton for Punishment
/Speedy Wunderground

Without a doubt one of the most striking debut albums of 2025 came from Jojo Orme, who records under the name Heartworms. Taking in gothic grandeur, motorik rhythms, industrial electronics and dreamy, torchsong balladry, this remarkable album takes a number of surprising turns. Jacked is as muscular as the title suggests, a bruising industrial groove crashing out of the speakers, while Extraordinary Wings (featured last week) broods with rage, while Mad Catch feels like a moment of temporal calm amid a shape-shifting album, as Orme’s precise, spoken-word vocals seek to ground. But if you really want to understand the scale of Orme’s ambition, wait until Warplane takes off. A song based around Orme’s deep interest in military history (apparently they have volunteered at the RAF Museum in Hendon), it is a heart-racing song about those who fought in the Battle of Britain, and is a particular tribute to young pilot William Gibson Gordon, who died in an air battle aged just twenty. A truly brilliant, enthralling album that’s over too quickly.

/Lambrini Girls
/Who Let The Dogs Out
/City Slang

One of the most entertaining, angry and funny albums to come out in some time, this Brighton duo are pro-queer, pro-trans, anti-racist and have an awful lot to say about the state of the UK in 2025 (and indeed a few years ago, drew the wrath of prominent TERFs for daring to stand up for their trans friends – unsurprisingly their response was broadly “fuck off”). In just thirty minutes and eleven songs, they take on (deep breath) rapists in the police, misogyny, sexism and abuse in the workplace, awful men, fancying your friends that may or may not be gay, the fashion industry and weight loss, gentrification, the accumulation of wealth…and saying the word “cunt”. Every fucking song is a zinger, flashes past in a blur, and Phoebe Lunny roars herself hoarse with fury. It’s brilliant and sobering: your friends that are women will have told you about all of this at some point or another, and it’s time to listen.

/Omen Code
/Alpha State
/Dependent Records

An unexpected and quite brilliant release this year came from UK industrial veteran Kevin Gould (Electro Assassins, among others) alongside vocalist Agi Taralas. An unashamedly electro-industrial album that is as about as cyberpunk as it comes, this is brooding, mid-paced industrial electronics that is full of precise programming and measured sample use, and rather than being an album for the dancefloor, this is an album to listen to alone, with the volume up so that you can obsess over the details. Like many of the bands of the past who moved in similar realms, this is not a short album – just over an hour – but it never feels a chore to get through any of the songs. Indeed, almost all of them are excellent, particularly the mid-album pairing of Tensor and the shimmering force of Atrophy, and an unexpected tip of the hat comes in the bruising thud of Paralyzed, which seems hewn from similar material as more recent Portion Control work. The album closes with the duo’s best track, though, the astonishing Brutal + Pure – a cold, mechanical track whose dense programming seems to hint at the human elements being chipping away by the relentless march of technology, but still finds time for the kind of chorus that FLA used to excel at. An unexpected, left-field joy.

/50-/41 – /40-/31 – /30-/21 – /20-/11 – /10-/01

/Anna Von Hausswolff
/ICONOCLASTS
/Year0001

Hilariously, I’ve seen suggestions that ICONOCLASTS was a stab at the mainstream. Sure, if the mainstream likes 75-minute albums that involve pipe organs, drones, extreme volume and six tracks that last seven minutes or more. Brevity is a word that Anna von Hausswolff has heard of, but just mostly ignores. But then again, unlike the extraordinary power of Dead Magic, where she approached the ferocity of Diamanda Galás, or the instrumental pipe organ music of All Thoughts Fly, maybe this is more mainstream. Iggy Pop and Ethel Cain drop in for duets, but really, they are the weak links on an album that thrives on intensity. When Anna von Hausswolff fully lets loose with her voice, the results are astounding, as she uses it like an instrument or a weapon, and it is also perhaps notable that the moments of volume and extremity are dialled back a bit, which only makes them hit harder – like Stardust, featured last week, and also Struggle With the Beast, a tumultuous, dramatic track about a friend’s health struggles. They might not come along often, but her albums are great every time.

/Slighter
/In Ruins
/Confusion Inc.

Another artist that has been a regular on these pages over the years is Slighter, whose gloomy industrial soundscapes have evolved over the years, but interestingly have preferred to remain in the shadows, with songs full of booming basslines, vocals that stay in the background and a sense that they were happy to produce music that wasn’t generally going to head toward the dancefloor. That said, last album V O I D seemed to open up a bit, with a notable Underworld influence at points, and this album takes that further: with more guest vocalists and a distinct anger bubbling to the surface. Rager Fvck Evrthng tells you most of what you need to know on that front, but if not, the seething takedown of Edgeboi should seal the deal. Considerably more direct than previous work, impressively Colin Cameron’s astonishing production suits this evolution of his style ever better, and if you’ve never heard his style of electronics before, this might just be the place to start.

/Nevada Hardware
/Split Scene
/Thinkbreak Records

Twenty-five minutes is pushing it for calling it an album, but this release is so fucking great that I’m willing to give it a pass. Anyway, NH have been kicking around for a while (indeed Smash Cut, from 2018’s No Future had already set out their stall), and perhaps came to greater prominence thanks to their rampaging KLACK remix a year or two back. This album, though, gives a fuller picture of what they are about, and that is club-bound chaos. Think industrial, and breakcore, a bit of trip-hop, and wild guitar samples, all mashed together with a distinct Big Beat flavour that mostly grabs you by the throat and tosses you into the middle of a heaving dancefloor, barely giving you a chance to come back up for air. The title track even uses a familiar, much-used sample from The After Hours Club on ABC News (you’ll know it from Theme From Discotheque) without it feeling hackneyed, while the closing rampage of Letters of Sympathy unexpectedly features the voice of Terry Christian! Is there a Big Beat revival coming? I for one am here for it.

/Flesh Eating Foundation
/Before the Skeletal Dance of our Festering Jesters
/Self-released

It has been seven years since the last full-length release from FEF, and while neither of the duo (The Juddaman and Blind Johnny Smoke) have been idle in the meantime, there is a distinct sense that things have changed. Blind Johnny Smoke has lost much of his remaining hearing, and is also gradually losing the remainder of his sight too: the fearsome levels of bass that make up much of this album’s musical structure is apparently a result of those frequencies being the few that Johnny can still hear without hearing aids. What Johnny hasn’t lost, though, is his anger and humour in his lyrical delivery. Unlike many of us, he’s been at the heart of dealing with the continual chipping away at the support for the disabled by successive Governments, and this album crackles with his rage at the injustice and cruelty that keeps being meted out – a particular highlight being the thumping power of This Is All I Hear Now, a sneering clapback at those who don’t listen and don’t care. A truly phenomenal, heartfelt statement of an album that should be played to politicians and fuckwits alike, at extreme volume.

/Assemblage 23
/Null
/Metropolis Records

Like a good many of my friends, we caught A23 early, and stuck with Tom Shear. A rare voice in our scene that is unafraid to write songs about his hopes, fears and mental state without any filter, and the feeling all along has been of someone that does good in the world, and wants to encourage the same in others. Thus, his tenth album Null comes after a comparatively lengthy break, and what the album is about is summed up by one particular line in Believe, the opener that is a classic A23, thoughtful banger: “I still believe that there is good left in the world“.

More than any album Shear has put his name to in the past, this is an album about dealing with the here and now. There are songs about dealing with one-time friends coming out as far-right sympathising racists (Tolerate – and I’m sure we can all make a few good guesses about exactly whom this is about), and the appalling political outlook of 2025 (Lunatics), as well as as the nascent hope of Believe. But on the flipside, Gone is perhaps one of my favourite A23 songs ever, a wistful look at a friendship lost with no answers to be had, while Last is something of a throwback to the early, electro-industrial sound of the project, as Shear suggests a drink and a celebration of life before everything goes to shit, and then Overthrow provides a rare moment of optimism, as he reminds that “empires are made to overthrow“. This too will pass.

But it isn’t just the subject matter – even if that is vitally important. This is a tightly written and produced album, with no songs exceeding five minutes and many much shorter (sometimes, in the past, Shear could have edited some songs down a bit), and pretty much every song here is a dancefloor-friendly, melodic banger – although particular note should be made of the soaring, furious choruses amid the bounce of both Lunatics and Tolerate. The best from A23 in years and years.

/Black Magnet
/MEGAMANTRA
/Federal Prisoner

So far, I think every Black Magnet release has made it into my /Countdown series, and with good reason: Black Magnet absolutely destroy. Part of a new wave of industrial metal bands, they lean into the influence of bands like Godflesh, but aren’t quite as dark and full of nihilism. Instead, James Hammontree and his band (as it is now a full band, rather than a solo project) allow a groove and (almost) accessible melody to creep in (such as on the bruising Better Than Love), while the relatively brief Spitting Glass bursts out of the speakers with the momentum of a freight train, and that industrial rhythm underpinning it might suit open-minded dancefloors. But perhaps the biggest change on this album is the clarity of it. Previous releases went for a maximalist approach that sometimes buried the listener in an avalanche of sound: a little more precision this time around has preserved the overloaded nature, but vocals are audible, guitars cut through the mix, and the whole thing punches you in the gut, repeatedly, for the twenty-five minute runtime. Someone get this band to the UK, as I suspect they will be a hell of an experience live.

/Bootblacks
/Paradise
/Artoffact Records

Who knew we needed electronic post-punk to head into smooth eighties sounds and classic goth? It turns out Bootblacks did, as their latest album packs an almighty, immediate punch. Songs rush past with a haze of dry ice and neon lights in their wake, with choruses as big as 80s shoulder pads, a steely intensity, and a melancholic atmosphere that somehow balances out the euphoric choruses. Add in saxophone (most of it from Oskar Carls of Viagra Boys) that somehow works, and you have an outstanding album, that’s all fucking killer. One of those albums where picking highlights will be just me going through every track, although the soaring power of Leipzig grabbed me on first listen, and months later, it still hasn’t let go. The best this band have ever sounded, and frankly one of the best post-punk derived albums I’ve ever heard.

/Seeming
/The World
/Artoffact Records

“I’m going to break out of my skin / I am more than The World” Alex Reed sings on Nova, and it feels like the mantra for this, the fourth album from Seeming. Debut album Madness + Extinction asked how you might cope if the world was to end in 2014, and The Birdwatcher’s Guide To Atrocity was an album about dealing with loss and despair that happened to come out months into the horrors of COVID in 2020. So as much of what we knew – or what we thought we knew – as a mostly caring, liberal world seems to be being dismantled by older, obscenely wealthy rich men to benefit themselves over anyone else, Seeming’s new album feels like it considers our position in this world that is being newly shaped. For those different – by gender, by sexuality, by (dis)ability, by mental state, by simply choosing to give a shit about others – Reed challenges their listeners to do better, to fight their corner, to try and make our world and those we impact upon better in any way, however small.

While much of the album is measured and slower-paced, albeit with a scope unmatched by any of their supposed peers – it only makes some songs stand out more. Particularly the fiery, dancefloor-bound Zebra Tramples Horse Trainer, a call-to-arms to make that change that feels life-affirming and inspiring in every way. Like every Seeming release so far, it will likely take some months more with it before I tease out the details, but even after two weeks (and some months with some of the songs), it is clear just how extraordinary this work is (once again). Seeming remains a vital act that encourages rebellion by the very act of continuing to live, and their enthralling, affirmative songs help to make every single fucking day better.

/clipping.
/Dead Channel Sky
/Sub Pop

The last couple of clipping. albums have been delving into horror tropes, but this album poses a different question: what if the real horror we’re facing is what is happening right now? But this isn’t necessarily a call-to-arms, a “rise up” album. Instead, this uses the sounds and languages of the internet and connectivity as a base to explore cyberpunk tropes, and how they apply in the present day. Like ever more distant “connections” online, like grey, towering cityscapes where space around them becomes private property rather than public, like the overload of information, both visually and sonically, and, of course, that tiny group of men who now have amassed more wealth between them than much of the rest of the world put together. It’s certainly a bleak place to be, but clipping. make it sound fascinating, alive, and really fucking loud.

There’s a world of highlights here: the musing on memory and loss of Polaroids, and the amazing details in the lyrics, the relentless, breakbeat fury of Change The Channel, the stark (potentially) criminal acts of Run It with a hacker on the run, the melodic elegance of Keep Pushing distracts from the grim tale of a drug user trying to get by, and then there is the effortless cool of Mirrorshades, Pt. 2 (Pt. 1 appeared, after apparently slaying live, on the expanded version later in the year). A fascinating tour de force of an album, it is the most complete album Clipping. have ever made, and while it is cyberpunk-themed, what it’s really about is how those get by when a tiny few are hoarding all the fucking money. Our future looks bleak, but we’ll all look cool as fuck in mirrorshades.

/The Young Gods
/Appear Disappear
/Two Gentlemen

Swiss trio The Young Gods marked their 40th anniversary since forming this year, and roared back with their best album in decades. The title apparently alludes to the lengthy gaps between albums (it has been six years since Data Mirage Tangram, and another nine back to Everybody Knows), but such are their other activities – archive work, live shows, collaborations – that it’s never really felt like they have been away. Never exactly a band looking over their shoulders when it comes to new material – each album has always been an evolution since the last – what made Appear Disappear so intriguing to begin with was that it did feel like recent remastering work on their titanic 1990s albums T.V. Sky and Only Heaven may have informed how they approached this one.

For a band that are best-known as vocals-sampler-drums, hearing looped guitars – and having seen it live, it is actually played on a guitar – as a key element of the bulldozing title track is a bit of a shock, but it’s such a great song, that who’s arguing? Indeed the first three songs blast past in less than ten minutes, a one-two-three punch of sleek industrial and dramatic, rolling climaxes (see Blue Me Away). As is often the way, too, this Young Gods album takes a breather for some more restrained songs in the mid-section, but don’t expect ambient passages – the synths provide a sense of calm, sure, but every song has a powerful rhythm and often breaks out into a noisy, heavier section (this is a loud album).

As we near the close, two of the best songs on the album make themselves known. The mighty Mes Yeux De Tous is underpinned by a bruising, rumbling low end, and even better is the epic Shine That Drone, which closed the set on the recent tour as an overwhelming, blinding-light-assisted climax and appears to be a rare foray into political comment, at least obliquely.

Forty years on, The Young Gods continue to sound like no-one else, and with Appear Disappear have written some of the best music of their career. This is a tightly edited, all-killer, no-filler album that was an album of the year candidate from the first time I heard it. Six months on and countless listens later, there was never any doubt: the /amodelofcontrol.com album of 2025.

/50-/41 – /40-/31 – /30-/21 – /20-/11 – /10-/01