Below is a partial list of some new releases for July 25th, 2025. It’s also Shark Week this week. Jam the playlist, vote on the best shark, and let us know what the haps be in your neck of the sea — and we’ll catch you next time!
– List of Releases: July 25th, 2025 –
16volt – More of Less Genre: Industrial Rock / Electro-Industrial Label: Metropolis
Alessi Rose – Voyeur [EP] Genre: Alt-Pop / Indie Pop Label: Atlantic
Alice Cooper – The Revenge of Alice Cooper Genre: Hard Rock / Psychedelic Rock Label: earMUSIC
Anchor & Braille – New Mexico Genre: Alternative Rock / Post-Punk Label: Equal Vision
Beheaded – Għadam Genre: Brutal Death Metal / Technical Death Metal Label: Agonia
Blankenberge – Decisions Genre: Shoegaze / Dream Pop Label: Automatic Music
Bleary Eyed – Easy Genre: Shoegaze / Noise Pop Label: Born Losers
Below is a partial list of notable new releases for July 18th, 2025. What are you looking forward to this week? Jam the playlist (or the DK Rap in honor of Donkey Kong Bananza‘s release) and let us know what the haps be — and we’ll see you all for the next one!
– List of Releases: July 18th, 2025 –
Abigail Williams – A Void Within Existence Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal / Melodic Black Metal Label: Agonia
Above & Beyond – Bigger Than All of Us Genre: Melodic House / Progressive Trance Label: Anjunabeats
Alex G – Headlights Genre: Indie Folk / Americana Label: RCA
Ba’al – The Fine Line Between Heaven and Here Genre: Post-Metal / Atmospheric Sludge Metal Label: Road to Masochist
Billie Marten – Dog Eared Genre: Bedroom Pop / Indie Pop Label: Fiction
Bush – I Beat Loneliness Genre: Alternative Rock / Post-Grunge Label: earMUSIC
Clairvoyance – Chasm of Immurement Genre: Death Metal / Black Metal Label: Carbonized
Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway – Addicted to the Violence Genre: Alternative Metal / Alternative Rock Label: Scarred for Life
Welcome back to our humble abode, rife with intrusive boner pill ads and a roller grill featuring products that might survive a nuclear holocaust. We’re sorta like 7-Eleven: we’re not always doing business, but we’re always open. Jam the playlist below, let us know what you’re looking forward to this week, and we’ll catch you on the flippity-flip.
– List of Releases: July 11th, 2025 –
Amy MacDonald – Is This What You’ve Been Waiting for? Genre: Power Pop / Pop Rock Label: Infectious
Born of Osiris – Through Shadows Genre: Metalcore / Djent Label: Sumerian
Clipse – Let God Sort Em Out Genre: Gangsta Rap / Experimental Hip-Hop Label: Roc Nation
Disembodiment – Spiral Crypts Genre: Death Metal / Death Doom Metal Label: Everlasting Spew
Gina Birch – Trouble Genre: Post-Punk / Art-Pop Label: Third Man
Happy Pride, Happy Canada Day, Happy 4th of July — July is also Social Wellness Month and UV Safety Awareness Month, so please wear sunscreen and stay properly hydrated when you’re out touching grass during National Picnic Month! Here are some new releases on deck for the week of July 4th. Jam the playlist and let us know what you’re looking forward to this week!
– List of Releases: July 4th, 2025 –
Divine Sentence – Killing is a Cycle Genre: Metalcore / Sludge Metal Label: Blood Blast Distro
Haarvöl – Horizons of Suspended Zones Genre: Experimental / Dark Ambient Label: Crónica
Jonny Nash – Once Was Ours Forever Genre: Ambient / Modern Classical Label: Melody as Truth
Kae Tempest – Self Titled Genre: Conscious Hip-Hop / Electro Hop Label: Island / EMI
Well, folks, it is time for a look into the depths of depravity. The Finnish metal scene is one of my favorites. It has a bit of everything. There’s over-the-top folky stuff, blitzing melodeath, the murkiest death metal you’ll ever hear, and some of the darkest, ritualistic black metal ever put to tape. I will be covering my personal top 10 all-time (as of this moment) in the Finnish scene. Buckle up, boys, here we go!
Ahhhhh, yes, the quintessential Finnish metal band. While Children of Bodom might not be the the ‘trvest’ band out there, they are responsible for getting many (including yours truly) into Finnish metal and metal in general.
Starting off in 1993 as Inearthed by world-class guitarist/vocalist Alexi Laiho, the band offered a somewhat different approach than what was happening in the Finnish metal scene at the time. Bands like Demilich, Rippikoulu and Funebre, just to name a few, were dropping some of the most disgusting-sounding death metal known to mankind. The boys of Inearthed/Bodom opted for a way more melodic, neoclassical-influenced sound with shredding riffs, bombastic keyboards and throat-tearing, high-pitched vocals.
Their opening trio of Something Wild, Hatebreeder and Follow the Reaper…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of June 27th, 2025. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: June 27th, 2025 –
Ashley Campbell: Goodnight Nashville
Genre: Country Label: Dot Records
Coil: Black Antlers
Genre: Industrial / Ambient Label: Threshold House
Deadguy: Near-Death Travel Service
Genre: Metalcore / Mathcore Label: Relapse Records
Drawn and Quartered: Lord of Two Horns Genre: Death Metal Label: Nuclear Winter Records
Greet Death: Die in Love
Genre: Shoegaze / Indie Label: Deathwish Inc.
Heaven Shall Burn: Heimat
Genre: Melodic Death Metal Label: Century Media Records
Katseye: Beautiful Chaos
Genre: Pop Label: Geffin Records
Late Night Drive Home: As I Watch My Life Online
Genre: Indie Rock Label: Epitaph Records
Laura Stevenson: Late Great
Genre: Indie Rock / Americana Label: Really Records
Lorde: Virgin
Genre: Indie Pop Label: Universal Records
Moving Mountains: Pruning of the Lower Limbs
Genre: Post Rock / Indie Rock Label: Wax Bodega
Orianthi: Some Kind of Feeling
Genre: Rock Label: Woodward Avenue Records
Pig Pen: Mental Madness Genre: Hardcore Label: Flatspot Records
Shadow of Intent: Imperium Delirium
Genre: Blackened Deathcore Label: Bloodblast Distribution
Sodom: The Arsonist
Genre: Death Metal / Thrash Label: Avalon
Will Carlisle: Winged Victory
Genre: Americana / Folk Label: Signature Sound Recordings
You can’t join this particular party, but you can get close if you follow one of our social media pages:
The summer is solsticing and the halation is blinding. Need some cool blasts to beat the heat? Riff Index is your one-stop shop to stock up on all the week’s best new metal and metal accessories.
Shake off your Seppuku-punx blues, grab a molotov and join the Death Pill grrrrls rioting in Kyiv or start a Midsummer bonfire with Rites of Tara.
Hear the new decree from Valdrin now seated upon his lunar throne.
Get bewitched by the Diamanda Galás incanted Puppe Magnetik.
It took 17+ years but Destroyer Destroyer have found another destroyer to destroy and Insanity return to life after Death After Death.
Want to storm the Parthenon at the speed of black with the wild melodies of heavy metal? Aetos has you covered – just don’t get behind the gas-puffing dragon of Helms Deep.
-Azazzel
List of Recommendable Guitar Music:
June 16th – June 22nd, 2025
Compiled, checked, and recommended by ThyCrossAwaits, Azazzel, and yours truly
Welcome to a very special interview with My Epic’s Aaron Stone, conducted by DrGonzo and Tyman. Founded in 2005, My Epic are known for their deep-rooted Christian themes and lyrics, over a sound that has gone through various transformations over the years – from post-hardcore and post-rock to indie and pop, all carefully crafted with lush, ethereal soundscapes with powerful breakdowns. Both Tyman and Gonzo hold a huge amount of reverence for My Epic, and we got chance to sit down with Aaron Stone, the band’s vocalist, to discuss the band’s history, future and all things in between. So, let’s dive in.
Tyler: For those of you who are listening and may not know, we are joined by Aaron. He’s the vocalist of My Epic. If you don’t know My Epic, what are you doing now? Me and Simon absolutely love this band and thought it would be fun to have a good little chat with them.
Simon: Jumping straight into the My Epic stuff, could you just give us a brief overview of the band and its history, if that’s cool?
Aaron: The band started my senior year of college with my brother Jesse and my best friends, Jeremiah and Maddie. After college we moved to Charlotte together and the band sort of whittled down to me, my brother and Jeremiah, and that had been the core of the band for a long time. We signed to Facedown Records in 2008 and released our first full-length [I Am Undone],…
Welcome, fellow netherfiends, to the second inscription upon the unholy tablet of the Riff Index. Herein we humbly offer cuts deeper than skin deep, names that are not often spoken outside whispers below the fog of the leathery underbelly. Fresh slabs just unearthed from the depths!
Row of Ashes drags post-hardcore through thick, bloodied mud, creating a muck monster that thrashes in the bog water. Elsewhere, Dr. Lipoma churns melodic death riffs and goregrind in a filthy medieval cauldron, his voice bubbling and pus-choked like the sounds of Dark Age surgery. Not to be outdone, Draugveil present potentially the most majestic and romantic album cover in recent memory. Do not be fooled by the blonde page boy coif or the bed of roses; the album delivers thunderous melodic black metal spurred by remarkably vibrant drumming.
There is and shall always be darker corners to explore. Dig through and dig deep. May you find yourself a treasure in the murk.
-ThyCrossAwaits
List of Recommendable Guitar Music:
June 9th – June 15th, 2025
Compiled, checked, and recommended by ThyCrossAwaits, Azazzel, and yours truly
Somnvs Mortis – Onírica Evocación de las Auras Condenadas Genre: Chilean Black Metal Streams: Bandcamp | YouTube
Karçaz – Estrela Palída do Silêncio Mórbido Genre: Black Metal Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube
It’s that time of the month again. No, I’m not talking about the single sunny day in London or the sleep-depriving full moon. What? No, no, no—this isn’t about the eleventh Hawks list written in all caps. It’s time to measure extremely! We’ve hastily installed whatever patches we could dig up from our dusty 8-inch floppies in a desperate attempt to translate the transmissions below for you, our valued readers. Let’s hope it worked.
In the Sput corner:
CottonSalad, skronk birb
normaloctagon, clearly a circle
Yours truly, dripping host
You’re so not ready for our special guests this month! It’s…
Sam and Alex (Artificial Brain, third from right and second from right)
In Dub — 05.02.2025 — At War With False Noise — Spotify
I admit that I don’t often care for new music that falls under the umbrella of OSDM. For one, I’m still discovering such surprising, inspired records from the early years of the genre. Perhaps more importantly, early death metal…
Here’s a list of some new releases for the week of June 13th, 2025. It’s okay to be a little stitious. Please feel free to jam the playlist and request reviews from the staff and contributors.
“Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.”-Goethe
Sun sheaths into twilight, a rising moon pales dimming eyes and wearied ears, whose echoing memories are etched now, in the Riff Index – a weekly inscription of all things metal spawned from the clutch of a new brood.
A serpent uncoils, teeth gnash. The crypt’s grinding lurch; flesh sloughs onto rot-stenched soil. From iron rusted barrows anguish bellows across long fallow battlefields, up gale blasted ruins of towered stone. Smoke curls around snow-bedded branches bowed over churning embers, the night howls.
We convoke to witness these sonorous rites in brief violent blossoming from the skein of unknowing. Each offering a fleeting wound; a cairn of proclamation. Into the shadow of vanishing silence, a procession of flames dance and beckon.
Hark! Will you hear their song?
List of Recommendable Guitar Music:
June 2nd – June 8th, 2025
Compiled, checked, and recommended by ThyCrossAwaits, Azazzel, and yours truly
Can it be? Everyone’s favorite year-end list is finally here! Yes, it may be deep into June of the following year, but I wasn’t going to let these fantastic artworks go unnoted as I begin culling my list for 2025. As always, these one hundred artworks are not ranked but are arranged in a diverse yet overwrought combination of art styles, shapes, and colors. As exhaustive as I attempt to be each year, there are always excellent covers I miss, so feel free to share them in the comments. Scroll to the bottom for the full 10×10 collage.
Enjoy the eye candy!
– <3 Neek
Charli XCX // BRAT Rapsody // Please Don’t Cry Middle Kids // Faith Crisis Pt. 1 Geordie Greep // The New Sound Rosie Lowe // Lover, Other Crippling Alcoholism // With Love from a Padded Room London Grammar // The Greatest Love Tides from Nebula // Instant Rewards Ana Tijoux // Vida Allie X // Girl with No Face Everything Everything // Mountainhead Dora Jar // No Way to Relax When You Are on Fire Tzompantli // Beating to the Drums of Ancestral Force Frail Body //Artificial Bouquet DIIV // Frog in Boiling Water No Cure // I Hope I Die Here Brume // Marten …
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of June 6th, 2025. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: June 6th, 2025 –
A-Z: A2Z2
Genre: Progressive Metal Label: Metal Blade Records
Addison Rae: Addison
Genre: Columbia Records Label: Synth-Pop / R&B
Beatie Wolfe & Brian Eno: Luminal
Genre: Electronic Label: Verve Records
Black Moth Super Rainbow: Soft New Magic Dream Genre: Trip Hop / Dream Pop Label: Rad Cult
Caamp: Copper Changes Color
Genre: Americana Label: Lilliput Records
Cypress Hill & London Symphony Orchestra: Black Sunday
Genre: Hip Hop Label: Acoustic Sound
Dawn of Ashes: Infecting the Scars
Genre: Industrial Metal Label: Metropolis Records
Death In Vegas: Death Mask
Genre: Electronic Label: Drone
For your Health: This Bitter Garden
Genre: Hardcore / Emo Label: 3Dot Records
Jimmy Barnes: Defiant
Genre: Rock / Soul Label: Mushroom Records
Katatonia: Nightmares as Extensions of the Waking State
Genre: Progressive Metal / Atmospheric Metal Label: Napalm Records
Lil Wayne: Tha Carter VI
Genre: Rap / Hip Hop Label: Young Money and Republic Records
Little Simz: Lotus Genre: Hip Hop / Experimental Label: Forever Living Originals
I admit that I don’t often care for new music that falls under the umbrella of OSDM. For one, I’m still discovering such surprising, inspired records from the early years of the genre. Perhaps more importantly, early death metal…
