Redscroll & Friends Favorites of 2025
We have our favorites of the year as usual. And we have once again asked some friends to contribute lists (a couple bonus voices on the podcast even!). Give the lists a view, check out the podcast with clips of all the bands/songs and check out the playlist with all the favorites below.
Happy New Year! Let's get into the lists!
Redscroll Records Label Releases for 2025
Theoden's Reign Citadel Of The Stars LP, CD & Cassette [02/06/2025]Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop Become Nothing / We Live As Ghosts LP (Brand new A-Side with B-Side previously released on cassette)[04/18/2025]Killer Kin Killer Kin CD (reissued with added bonus track "Point Blank")[07/01/2025]Disfigure New Age Of Judgement CD [07/25/2025]Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean Sisyphean Cruelty CD Reissue[08/01/2025]Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean Obsession | Destruction CD & LP Reissue[08/01/2025]Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean The Vestige CD (First Time on CD)[08/01/2025]Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean Consumed by the Vitriol of Life / I Tried Catching You But You Fell Through Me LP (Released Separately Before – Now on a single 12" Record)[08/01/2025] Meetinghouse You've Seen Heaven CD & Cassette [09/05/2025]
Joe's 10 Favorite Tracks Listened To In 2025:
1. John Martyn "Over the Hill" Solid Air (Island, 1973) 2. Derek and the Dominoes "Thorn Tree In the Garden" Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs (ATCO, 1970) 3.Blaze Foley "Clay Pigeons" Clay Pigeons (Secret Seven, 2011) 4.Hiromasa Suzuki "Romance" Cat (Columbia, 1976) 5.Red Garland Trio "Tis Autumn" All Kinds Of Weather (Prestige, 1959) 6. Nina Simone "Tell It Like It Is" Isn't It A Pity / Tell It Like It Is (RCA Acetate, 1971 Probably) 7. Marvin Gaye "Distant Lover" Let's Get It On (Tamla, 1973) 8. Herbie Hancock "Speak Like A Child" Speak Like A Child (Blue Note, 1968) 9. Terry Reid "Season of the Witch" Bang, Bang You're Terry Reid (Epic, 1968) 10.Terry Reid "Mayfly" Terry Reid (Columbia, 1969)
LEXI'S FAVORITES OF 2025:
Oklou Choke Enough (True Panther Sounds, Because Music) Addison Rae Addison (Columbia) Ethel Cain Perverts (Daughters Of Cain) Ethel Cain Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You (Daughters Of Cain) Meetinghouse You've Seen Heaven (Redscroll) Model/Actriz Pirouette (Dirty Hit, True Panther Sounds) All The Pretty Horses hammersmashedface (Self-Released) EsDeeKid Rebel (XV, Lizzy) Crippling Alcoholism Camgirl (Portrayal Of Guilt) Chat Pile / Hayden Pedigo In The Earth Again (Computer Students, Flenser) Intercourse How I Fell In Love With The Void (Brutal Panda) John Maus Later Than You Think (Young) Holy Taker Heaven Is A Place I Can't Stay (Crossover Media) Shallowater God's Gonna Give You A Million Dollars (Sans Soleil) Deafheaven Lonely People With Power (Roadrunner) Holder Holder (Daze) Playboi Carti MUSIC (AWGE, Interscope) Alex G Headlights (RCA) Old Saw The Wringing Cloth (Lobby Art)
Erica's Favorites:
Pile Sunshine and Balance Beams (Sooper) Viagra Boys Viagr Aboys (Shrimptech) Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Death Hilarious (Rocket, Missing Piece) Just Mustard We Were Just Here (Partisan) AFI Silver Bleeds The Black (Run For Cover) Bootblacks Paradise (Artoffact) Witchcraft Idag (Heavy Psych Sounds) Pelican Flickering Resonance (Run For Cover) Model/Actriz Pirouette (Dirty Hit, True Panther Sounds) Theoden's Reign Citadel Of The Stars (Redscroll) Faetooth Labyrinthine (Flenser) Scorpion Milk Slime of the Times (Peaceville) EPs: Youth Code Yours, With Malice (Sumerian) Floating Hesitating Lights (Transcending Obscurity)
Matt's Favorites:
Viagra Boys Viagr Aboys (Shrimptech) Intercourse How I Fell In Love With The Void (Brutal Panda) Hives Hives Forever Forever The Hives (Play It Again Sam) AFI Silver Bleeds The Black (Run For Cover) WestsideGunn Heels Have Eyes 1+2 (Griselda) Ghostwoman Welcome To The Civilized World (Full Time Hobby) Darts Nightmare Queens (Adrenaline Fix) Ron Gallo Checkmate (Kill Rock Stars) El Michels Affair 24 Hr Sports (Big Crown)
Caren's Favorites:
Annie Achron Never Paradise (Siltbreeze) James K Friend (AD 93) Now Always Fades Into The Doldrums (Northern Underground Records) Acopia Blush Response (Scenic Route) Raisa K Affectionately (15 Love) Sharp Pins Balloon Balloon Balloon & Radio DDR (K Records / Perennial) Prolapse I Wonder When They're Going To Destroy Your Face (Tapete) Rest Symbol Rest Symbol (FO) K-Lone Sorry I Thought You Were Someone Else (Incienso) Bill Fox Resonance (Eleventh Hour)
Caren's Reissue / Archival Favorites:
Various The Way U Make Me Feel: UK Boogie & Street Soul 1984-1994 (Freestyle Records) Ali Omar Hashish Hits (Efficient Space) Pale Saints Slow Buildings (4AD) L'Empire Des Sons L'Empire Des Sons (Glossy Mistakes) Lijadu Sisters Danger (Numero Group) The Lo Yo Yo The Lo Yo Yo (Concentric Circles)
Rick's Favorites:
Abosahar Raasny (Heat Crimes, Hizz) Any Mega Mercy (Sferic) Deadguy Near-Death Travel Services (Relapse) Elkotsh rhlt jdi (Heat Crimes, Hizz) Kathryn Mohr Waiting Room (Flenser) Only Now Timeslave III (Self-Released) Sandwell District End Beginnings (The Point of Departure Recording Company) Slikback Attrition (Planet Mu) Billy Woods Golliwog (Backwoodz Studioz) Nuovo Testamento Trouble (DIscoteca Italia)
Josh's Favorites:
Viagra Boys Viagr Aboys (Shrimptech) Hives Hives Forever Forever The Hives (Play It Again Sam) Skinhead It's A Beautiful Day, What A Beautiful Day (Closed Casket Activities) Homefront Watch It Die (La Vida Es En Mus) Internal Bleeding Settle All Scores (Maggot Stomp) Warlock Corpse Eternal Prisoner (Out of Season) Sandwell District End Beginnings (The Point of Departure Recording Company) Quest Master Obscure Power (Out of Season) Lust for Youth & Croatian Amor All Worlds (Sacred Bones) Vatican Shadow 20th Hijacker (20 Buck Spin)
Friends of Redscroll Lists! Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop Favorites
"Learn to Suffer" by Mangled State "Don't Tap the Glass" by Tyler the Creator "Killing Spree" by Sulfuric Cautery "Adapting // Crawling" by Iron Lung "Golliwog" by Billy Woods "The Body Hammer" by Endless Swarm "///" by Secret Cutter "Watch it Die" by Home Front "Lonely People With Power" by Deafheaven "Let God Sort Em Out" by Clipse
Honorable mentions to R. Missing, Lana Del Rabies, De La Soul, Suppression, Black Iron Prison, and Haunt Me.
Tarek of Intercourse Favorites:
Crippling Alcoholism Camgirl (Portrayal Of Guilt) My Wife's An Angel Yeah, I Bet (Knife Hits, Broken Cycle Records, GRIMGRIMGRIM) In Lieu Hooligan (Learning Curve)
Knub Crub (Hex) Chat Pile / Hayden Pedigo In The Earth Again (Computer Students, Flenser) |Deadguy Near-Death Travel Services (Relapse)
Stefan of C/Site Recordings Favorites: Alexander "Untitled" 7" (Carbon Records) Juho Toivonen "Lapsikuninkaan Fanfaari" (Discreet Music) Lander / Unkindness
split LP (Ixiol Productions) Nowhere Flower "Heat Dome" LP (Digital Regress) Shirese "Fog Bound Laughter" 7" (Stoned to Death) Lau Nau & Joshua Burkett LP (Mystra Records) Cheb Drissi "Rai Sidi Bel Abbes Volume 2" LP (Nashazphone) Los Doroncos "Sun and Fireworks" LP (An'archives) Sarah (Manic Presents/Premier Concerts) Favorites: Hayden Pedigo - I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away World's Worst - American Muscle Friendship - Caveman Wakes Up Shallowater - God's Gonna Give You a Million Dollars Alex G - Headlights Pile - Sunshine and Balance Beams All The Pretty Horses - hammersmashedface Dean Blunt / Elias Rønnenfelt - lucre Momma - Welcome to My Blue Sky Addison Rae - Addison caroline - caroline 2 Playboi Carti - MUSIC Oklou - choke enough TAGABOW - LOTTO Cameron Winter - Heavy Metal
(end of 2024 album that I think is being considered on end of year lists so it's on mine too) Chris (Manic Presents/Premier Concerts) Favorites: Soul Blind - Red Sky Mourning Hayley Williams - Ego Death At A Bacholorette Party Restraining Order - Future Fortune The Infinity Ring - Ataraxia Carey - Stunted Bleed - S/T Cloakroom - Last Leg of the Human Table Superheaven - S/T Keep - Almost Static Oversize - Vital Signs Clipse - Let God Sort Em Out Sanguisugabogg - Hedeous Aftermath Sainthood Reps - Dull Bliss Home Front - Watch It Die Bad Beat - LP 2025 Aesop Rock - I Heard it's A Mess There Too Henry Birdsey's Favorites:
Various Artists - The World Is But a Place of Survival: Begena Songs from Ethiopia + Elders of the Begena: The Harp of David in Ethiopia (Death Is Not The End) https://deathisnot.bandcamp.com/album/the-world-is-but-a-place-of-survival-begena-songs-from-ethiopia https://deathisnot.bandcamp.com/album/elders-of-the-begena-the-harp-of-david-in-ethiopia Teppana Jänis & Arja Kastinen - Teppana Jänis (Death Is Not The End) https://deathisnot.bandcamp.com/album/teppana-j-nis Various Artists - Unaccompanied Norwegian Folk String Virtuosi (Canary Records) https://canary-records.bandcamp.com/album/unaccompanied-norwegian-folk-string-virtuosi-ca-1953-65 Various Artists - Her Mother's Only Child: From the 2nd & 3rd Bulgarian National Folklore Festivals, 1971 & 1976 (Canary Records) https://canary-records.bandcamp.com/album/her-mothers-only-child-from-the-2nd-3rd-bulgarian-national-folklore-festivals-1971-1976 Dr. Abdel Latif Gohar - Egyptian Buzuq Solos ca. 1950s (Canary Records) https://canary-records.bandcamp.com/album/egyptian-buzuq-solos-ca-1950s Various Artists - A Collection of Slow Airs by Some Very Fine Fiddlers (Nyahh Records) https://nyahhrecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-collection-of-slow-airs-by-some-very-fine-fiddlers Peter Garland - Love Comes Quietly (After Robert Creeley) (Cold Blue) https://peteergarland-coldbluemusic.bandcamp.com/album/plain-songs-love-comes-quietly-after-robert-creeley Various Artists - Miao Mouthorgans & Other Rare Instruments in Guizhou, Sichuan, China (Sub Rosa) https://subrosalabel.bandcamp.com/album/miao-mouthorgans-other-rare-instruments-in-guizhou-sichuan-china Alberto Juscamaita Gastelú - Reminiscences of Raktako: Huayno Guitar from Cuzco and Ayacucho, 1930-1940 (Death Is Not The End) https://deathisnot.bandcamp.com/album/reminiscences-of-raktako-huayno-guitar-from-cuzco-and-ayacucho-1930-1940 Rowland Taylor - Absolute Control Can Be The Death of Good Work (S/R) https://rowlandtaylor.bandcamp.com/album/absolute-control-can-be-the-death-of-good-work Hypnosmord - The Thurneman Improvisations (Hypnosmord Förlag / Styggelse Tapes / The AJNA Offensive) https://styggelsetapes.bandcamp.com/album/thurnemanimprovisationerna-the-thurneman-improvisations-dmc1411
David A. Shapiro (Alexander) Favorites: sally ann morgan - second circle the horizon
wednesday knudsen - atrium grace rogers - mad dogs shutaro noguchi & the roadhouse band - on the run alulu paranhos - põe epsperança nisso zé ibarra - afim ry jennings - whisperin' ry michael hurley - broken homes and gardens willie lane - bobcat turnaround derya yıldırım and grup şimşek - yarın yoksa
Paul (Dissolve) Favorites:
Swiz Box Set (Dischord/Sammich/Hellfire) and the Swiz book (Akashic books) Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) movie by Questlove (Onyx collective/Sony) The Real Me by Kyle M (Stones Throw) One Battle After Another movie by Paul Thomas Anderson (Warner Bros.) Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You by Ethel Cain (Daughters of Cain) Near-death Travel Services by Deadguy (Relapse) Birthing by Swans Pink Floyd At Pompeii MCMLXXII movie (Sony Music Vision) Live Laugh Love by Earl Sweatshirt (Tan Cressida Inc./Warner Bros.) Future Fortune by Restraining Order (Blue Grape Music)
Ben (Manic Presents/Premier Concerts) Favorites:
Home Front - Watch it Die Safe Mind - Cutting the Stone Miltown - Tales of Never Letting Go Béton Arme - Renaissance Scarab - Burn After Listening Cadaver Dog - Bred to Fight Vatican Shadow - 20th Hijacker C4 - payback's a bitch Mil-Spec - Mil-Spec The Tubs - Cotton Crown
Antoni Maiovvi Favorites:
10 Arnaud Rebotini - Winter Sequences - Skylax Records A surprise EP from French legend Arnaud Rebotini on the infamous Skylax Records. Great moody, almost electroclash esque analog gems. It's been interesting to see Rebotini's music come back around from the rave days through film scores to now without really changing much. No one does the nexus point of French House and EBM quite like him. 9 DJ Plant Texture - Life - Tresor RecordsThe first of two Tresor releases in my top 10, not sure what has been happening over there lately, but I'm here for it. A great weirdo techno 12 inch where opening track Repetitivo (Stretch Mix) sounding like Jeff Mills having eaten too many haribo, before mutating into scattered hats across the dancefloor, perhaps to trip up Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern who have broken into your house for some reason. 8 Autechre - Untilted - Warp Records Now to the first of two reissues in my list, and despite my somewhat negative thoughts as to their quote unquote live show I saw this year, I still love the music and this one in particular stuck out. Approachable but still properly mad. Proof that extreme computer music can be fun. 7 Clark - Steep Stims - Throttle Records I remember when Chris Clark came out with his first record and thinking that it too warp for warp records. I'm pretty sure we never met when I was in Berlin, unless I got him confused with Kid 606, in which case I apologize to you both. Anyway, Steep Stims is great, playful, emotional, one foot in the past and another in the future, really great work that I think will age really well. Solid work Mr Clark. 6 Emptyset - Dissever - Thrill Jockey Records Amazing new record from Emptyset, feels like they took all the lessons from all the later records and applied it to the earlier ones. Beautiful intense grinding drones, like someone built an installation of Sheer Hellish Miasma and I'm somehow in the room with it. 5 Merzbow, Iggor Cavalera, Eraldo Bernocchi - Nocturnal Rainforest - PAN Full disclosure, Iggor sent this to me, but it's been on my repeated listens ever since. Zen-like terror but incredibly dynamic. One of the best noise releases of the year and I'd go as far as to say a career highlight for each of the members. 4 Various Artists - 30 Years Sonic Groove - Sonic Groove Has it really been 30 years of Sonic Groove? Adam X compiles a collection of outstanding producers for this excellent collection of tracks. Highlights include the mutant acid of Bryan Zentz, the incomparable genius of Mike Parker and the industrial brutality of Statiqbloom. 3 Dopplereffekt - Metasymmetry - Tresor The second Tresor release on my list is the mighty Dopplereffekt. Beautiful, futuristic and unmistakably Detroit. Top 3 don't disagree! 2 Maria Somerville - Luster - 4AD Genuinely shocking to hear an artist on 4AD in 2025 that sounds like what an artist on 4AD sounds like in my head and it's great. Melancholic Ambient shoegaze for a new generation. 1 Coil - Black Antlers - Dais Records Black Antlers is not my favorite Coil album, but it is the one I least expected to be reissued as it was originally a tour only CDR that then got expanded. You could argue that it might not count as a proper Coil album, but who has time for these discussions. Some of the best music ever created.
Nick (Disfigure; the one on the right in the pic) Favorites:
Kommodus - A Foetal Wolf in Stained Glass - Probably my favorite release from Kommodus. Really awesome auxiliary instruments incorporated here and I like the unhinged melodic leads thrown in on a lot of the songs. It has a punkier tinge to it with the guitar tones and the vocals are equally as heavy Fellwinter - Dark Mediaeval Art - Pure riff-centric Judas Iscariot worship Magus Lord - In The Company of Champions - Epic in every way. I liked this better than the Lamp record this year but M has been writing fantastic black metal for a while and this side project is really refreshing to follow Ultimate Disaster - For Progress . . . - Perfectly written D-Beat in my opinion. Very tight songwriting and the riffs and solos are so well executed Valen - Viarum - I'm a huge Thangorodrim fan and this project has reminded me most of that. This was my go-to Dungeon Synth for some epic game nights this year Enceladus - Demo II - Another great release from this project. I love the half time parts, the more death metal sounding vocals, and just the ferocity of the songs while still being melodic Iron Firmament - Arcane Overspill - Amazing black metal from Washington, a state known for churning out amazing black metal for over two decades. I really love the production on this release, especially the interludes. This band writes amazing riffs and this has been a standout for me in their already exceptional discography Sharp Pins - Balloon Balloon Balloon - I love Power pop, I love Guided By Voices and Sharp Pins delivers on all fronts Occult Blood/Carrion Bloom - Battle Cries of Endless Night - Both sides of this split are fantastic. Put out by Wergild who can't miss lately with their bands/releases Utility - S/T - The hometown heroes! The whole release but especially the first song reminds me so much of Fired Up, one of my favorite CT hardcore bands of all time. Great songwriting and also absolutely on point with the energy and vocals. The demo before this is fantastic as well
The Redscroll Podcast is a monthly show (first of the month going forward) that works as a companion to what we do at Redscroll Records in Wallingford, CT USA. We are a record store that has a heavy emphasis on the left of center / underground music of the world. Whether it be underappreciated or just has a niche audience, marginalized or just off the radar it's all of interest to us. With the show we'll generally have a localized focus. We'll discuss upcoming releases and what is in our personal rotation at the moment. We'll talk about upcoming area musical activities. We'll talk to guests who have to do with all of the above. And we'll talk about specific dealings with the store. If you have input you're welcome to contact us through email ([email protected]).
