Every month, I will recap the music I discovered on Bandcamp or releases that were submitted that spoke to me. I find music through word of mouth recommendations, recommendations from artists on their profile, Bandcamp editorial lists, and, occasionally, the site’s recommendation tools. These albums may or may not have been released in the month in which I am reviewing. The criteria is simply that I found them during that month. I will give each release a brief review and share the Bandcamp link.

I’ve been trying to be better. Honest. I promise I won’t drop this site again like I did in 2024. October and November were busy. We traveled both far and near. Important things happened to important people I love. Now that I’ve gotten my excuses out of the way…

October and November were important months for some heavy hitters I’ve covered on this site before, but I also have a pretty wide selection of newcomers to check out. Due to the double month and every sick band wanting to put an album out on Halloween, this list is a bit beefier than my typical list. Every time I write one of these, I think it’s the strongest group I’ve written about, but I think that may actually be true this time.

Hilary Woods – Night CRIÚ

Released on October 31st, 2025

Night CRIÚ from Hilary Woods has instantly made it into my rotation for driving across the snowy expanses of Washington. Throughout the runtime, melodies built around long tones slowly and deliberately move between chords. These melodies become so choral that it creates the effect of a cursed hymn, particularly in “Voces” and “Offerings”. When the album leans towards a more traditional songwriter aesthetic built around guitar, the dense atmosphere against the simple guitar gives listeners a glimpse into what pre-war folk/songwriter music could have sounded like if the musicians had access to similar tools.

What really sets Woods’s atmospheric slowcore apart from other artists I’m a fan of are the textures. Strings swell, crest, and recede. Concert percussion replaces the drum kit, adding drama. In the description on Bandcamp, early Italian cinema is a stated influence, and I found that to be interesting. Experientially, A meditative, surreal film is the closest comparison I have for Night CRIÚ, an album you submerge yourself in and reemerge feeling like you’ve learned something important about the world and yourself.

https://hilarywoodsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/night-cri

Yellow Eyes – Confusion Gate

Released on October 31st, 2025

Speaking of being instantly added to the winter driving rotation, Yellow Eyes returns with their seventh full-length record. I previously covered the shockingly experimental Master’s Murmur in my first piece for this site, November 2023 in Review. Confusion Gate sees Yellow Eyes return to traditional metal instrumentation, and the result is a towering monolith of cold, atmospheric black metal. That is not to say Yellow Eyes have forsaken the melodic and textural ideas explored in Master’s Murmur. Instead, the band calls back, both stylistically and literally to Master’s Murmur, with synthesizer tones and melodies being reused. If there’s ever a double album set for these sister albums, sign me up.

Yellow Eyes should be viewed as the gold standard for atmospheric black metal at this point, and I think it’s tough to argue that anyone out there is doing it better. Most bands put out their most important work early in their career, but Yellow Eyes are still setting standards and expanding boundaries 15 years in.

https://yelloweyes.bandcamp.com/album/confusion-gate

Spiritiste – Excommunication Hymns

Released on October 31st, 2025

Baton Rouge based screamo band Spiritiste treat us to their debut LP after putting out a phenomenal EP at the tail end of 2023 that I covered in the aforementioned November 2023 in Review. Excommunication Hymns finds Spiritiste building upon the sound dialed in on their EP. The dynamic range has been greatly expanded, and the result is a more linear rather than cyclical listen. Jade’s vocals are the most obvious beneficiary of this, as her different vocal textures each get their opportunity to shine.

There’s a serious 2000s revival going on right now in music as well as nearly every other facet of culture, and, in my opinion, a lot of bands are pulling from the less interesting references from that period. Spiritiste, whether intentional or not, call back to favorites from my youth like Fear Before the March of Flames and early career Trophy Scars.

Call it screamo, metalcore, post-hardcore, hardcore…I don’t care. It rips.

https://spiritiste.bandcamp.com/album/excommunication-hymns

One of Nine – Dawn of the Iron Shadow

Released on October 31st, 2025

One of Nine follows up their phenomenal debut, Eternal Sorcery, with an even more impressive Tolkien black metal LP, Dawn of the Iron Shadow. While the debut was, by no means, a small record, Dawn of the Iron Shadow feels broader in scope, with longer songs, more textures beyond traditional metal instrumentation, and a mix that creates more space for each instrument to live in. The record dips into near dungeon synth territory at points, and I love that those sounds coexist so cleanly with more traditional black metal. The vocal features are a wonderful addition and give the listener even more textures to wrap their heads around.

I haven’t had the opportunity to pick up the cassette for Dawn of the Iron Shadow yet, but my copy of Eternal Sorcery gets heavy usage in my house, courtesy of my two year old daughter. Time will tell if she enjoys it as much as the debut.

https://oneofnine.bandcamp.com/album/dawn-of-the-iron-shadow

Bloodsports – Anything Can Be A Hammer

Released on October 17th, 2025

I was browsing post-hardcore (or maybe slowcore?) on Bandcamp one day and stumbled across Anything Can Be A Hammer. I went in completely blind, and I’m glad I did. I encourage you to stop reading and give it a spin right now.

And, we’re back. Bloodsports treats us to a sonic journey through angular dissonance, earworm hooks, and dramatic dynamic shifts on Anything Can Be A Hammer.

The riffs, tones, performances, melodies, etc. are all great, but it’s the songcraft that makes Anything Can Be A Hammer such an incredible record. I truly struggle to recall a more surprising release from a rock band, as it consistently takes the opposite path I expect at every junction. Case in point, after the harmonic chaos that is “Trio 2”, I hardly expect to get dumped into the quintessentially slowcore “Rot”, but that’s exactly what Bloodsports does to wonderful effect before bringing it back into an extremely dissonant space for the back half of “Rot”. These twists and turns create one of the most engaging listening experiences in recent memory.

I don’t plan on doing ranked lists for this site, but expect to see Anything Can Be A Hammer on my best of 2025 list.

https://bloodsportsbk.bandcamp.com/album/anything-can-be-a-hammer

Stay Inside – Lunger

Released on October 3rd, 2025

Part of the reason I started this website was to find a home for my thoughts as I explored music outside of my traditional comfort zone, particularly metal. It’s important to keep in mind that indie/emo that dips its toes into post-hardcore has always been my home base. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that I adore Stay Inside’s new LP, Lunger.

Stay Inside dug their hooks into me with 2024’s wonderfully melodic Ferried Away, itself a departure from the excellent brooding debut LP, Viewing. Lunger finds Stay Inside continuing down this path, giving us 14 of the catchiest songs in indie music this decade. Like Modest Mouse did on Good News For People Who Love Bad News 21 years before them, Stay Inside couple their earworm hooks with instrumental experimentation, heavily utilizing brass, flute, banjo, flugelhorn, and saxophones. Use of the studio as an instrument is another experiment that has expanded Stay Inside’s sound beyond Ferried Away. On Lunger, the band gleefully uses brief samples and applies filters to vocals that are more typically heard in hip hop and pop music.

Lunger is the strongest release to date from a band with an incredibly strong catalogue.

https://stayinside.bandcamp.com/album/lunger

I will no longer be including a Spotify playlist.