Five decades since its genesis, punk has only become harder to define. Is it a sound or an attitude? Is it power chords and an anti-authority attitude? Or is it something less tangible than that? In launching Smash It Up, Treble’s punk column, earlier this year, I sought not so much to find one single answer to that question but to explore how malleable punk really is. In picking my 20 favorites of the year, I didn’t settle on one either; my list of the best punk albums of 2025 includes vintage Class of ’77 anthems, hardcore rippers, sensory overload intensity, charming jangle-pop silliness, synth-punk darkness, snotty pranksterism, and everything in between. Here are the 20 records that made 2025 a consistently fun one as far as punk is concerned.
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The Armed – THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED
In 2021, I slotted The Armed’s ULTRAPOP into my favorite metal albums of that year because, well, I wasn’t quite sure where else to put it, and not including one of the best heavy records of the year just because it didn’t entirely match genre tropes didn’t seem quite right. And they didn’t make it any easier when tackling alt-rock tropes on its follow-up. But THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED, for all its explosive power, feels most like a punk album to me. A loud one, a ferocious one, a relentlessly aggressive one—with visceral screams, complex rhythms and squeals of saxophone. It’s a half-hour of panic and primal scream through some of the nastiest sounds they’ve ever wrenched out of their gear, and one of their strongest to date. I’m not sure where it belongs, but by virtue of being the kind of band that only they can be, it’s punk as fuck.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
Artificial Go – Musical Chairs
I always make a point of listening to every release that Feel It Records puts out into the world, and you’ll notice that they’re well represented here, each entry for entirely different reasons. In the case of Artificial Go, who offered up their second Feel It-released LP this year, it’s the band’s playful hooks and spirited wordplay, their scrappy and offbeat jangle reminiscent of recent lo-fi scruffsters like Sweeping Promises and with the jerky danceability and squawking sax of early ’80s post-punk acts like Liliput and Delta 5. Artificial Go never take themselves too seriously, which is an appealing quality when everything outside of music (and even inside, to some degree) is so frustrating. Sometimes post-punk strut with nonsensical yelps about chihuahuas and red convertibles is all you need.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Automatic – Is It Now?
I can partially credit Treble’s John-Paul Shiver for helping to make me a fan of Automatic, the groove heavy Los Angeles trio whose music is a rhythm-heavy take on dance-punk that leans deeper into dub-like spaciousness and ESG-style funk than the more abrasive variation that sprouted up in the mid-2000s. Is It Now?, the group’s third album, rattles with echoing percussion and maintains an unstoppable groove via taut post-punk basslines and minimalist synth hooks. Their color palette is a muted one, an ever-unfolding spectrum of grays and silvers, but they find seemingly unlimited inspiration within those ashen shades.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
Chime Oblivion – Chime Oblivion
Los Angeles’ Chime Oblivion is something of a supergroup, featuring Osees’ John Dwyer, former Adam and the Ants/Bow Wow Wow drummer Dave Barbarossa, along with Weasel Walter, Tom Dolas, and H.L. Nelly. But the sound of their debut is just as scrappy and immediate as any upstart punk band, rife with punchy, bouncy, old-school punk and new wave hooks, herky-jerky rhythms and energy to spare. It probably shouldn’t be much of a surprise that a veteran of punk’s first wave is an essential part of this group, as Chime Oblivion capture the wild and weird frontier spirit of punk’s glory days.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
Citric Dummies – Split With Turnstile
Citric Dummies are second to none at smart-assed punk trolling. Their last album riffed on Hüsker Dü’s classic 1984 album (and cover art) with the title Zen and the Arcade of Beating Your Ass, and their new album is called Split With Turnstile. It’s, of course, not an actual split with Turnstile. Rather, it’s 20 minutes of maximum speed punk rock rippers that channel the intensity of early ’80s hardcore punk with a fuzzy and chaotic, garagey sensibility that feels only fitting for a band of jokers. But the 90-second blasts of power chords and rhythmic gallop on this kickass set are no laughing matter. Well, maybe a little.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Eraser – Hideout
Eraser’s debut album Hideout is only 15 minutes long, and not all of them are songs—maybe that makes this more of an EP, I suppose, but I’m not the one who sets the rules on these things. What I do know is that the Philadelphia group have already crafted a uniquely infectious hybrid of no wave and dancepunk all their own, juxtaposing experimental, abrasive sounds against an undeniable groove that makes all 15 of these minutes endlessly entertaining. I’ll gladly take another 15 minutes of this whenever they find the time to capture it on tape.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Gentle Leader XIV – Joke in the Shadow
This year saw Treble launch a goth column in addition to a variety of other genres, and though Joke in the Shadow wasn’t featured in any of its installments in 2025, the latest release from Ohio band Gentle Leader XIV very well could have. The group’s haunted minimal-synth pulse evokes early Cocteau Twins as well as idiosyncratic post-punk pioneers like Young Marble Giants. It’s more a persistent eeriness that Gentle Leader XIV capture rather than vampiric pageantry, employing a starkness on a standout like “Reverser” that reveals a great deal of depth within such a stripped-down package. But there’s groove and swagger to spare throughout, like on the menacing strut of “Bomb Pop,” which suggests that less-is-more can sometimes be just a little bit more.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Home Front – Watch It Die
Earlier this year, Home Front’s Graeme MacKinnon told me that, with winters as forbidding as Edmonton’s, “everyone here has to dig their way out of the snowbank.” The idea being that everyone made the effort to get to the venue, so it’s only fair to give them the best fucking show you possibly can. And that goes likewise for the band’s sophomore album Watch It Die, an angst-ridden yet ultimately uplifting blend of synth-pop and street punk, goth-industrial and soaring new wave melodies. Having graduated from studio project to certified stage wreckers, they brought that energy back for a set of life-affirming anthems, amplifying their sound with a physicality and intensity that’s all the more energizing as a result. When you need to dig yourself out of it, it’ll give you the fuel you need.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
Imploders – Targeted for Termination
If you have any affection for early ’80s Los Angeles hardcore, you’ll almost certainly love Imploders. I do, and I do. So there you have it. Despite probably not even being alive when any of those bands were around (Darby Crash died before I was born, so that goes for me too!), Toronto’s Imploders pair a vintage aesthetic and a relentless cannonball energy with the kind of snotty sneer that’s ultimately timeless. There’s nothing complicated about what they do; in essence, it’s the same formula of speed plus volume plus anger that’s been essential to all great punk bands since the dawn of time. They’re just so damn good at it, with guitars that sound like switchblades through canvas and the kind of fuck-all attitude that drives every minute-long blast of nastiness right into oblivion.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Intermission – Power Corrupts
I feel the need to express a certain level of disappointment about leaving San Diego before getting a chance to witness Intermission, a fantastic punk band whose impeccably grimy and dark aesthetic caught the attention of the Washington Post earlier this year. (Which in itself feels like a minor miracle—as a longtime freelance music writer I can’t tell you how many times I’ve pitched a San Diego artist to a national publication only to get shrugs in response.) Intermission’s debut EP doesn’t sound like it should have been released this year but rather discovered in a box of cassettes somewhere, clandestine punk rock with secrets you never quite unravel. Or put another way, they capture the gothic punk of early Joy Division in a way that most post-punk revival bands don’t or can’t, in that they retain its rawness, its frayed edges. They’re instrumentally tight but underpolished, definitely better than demo quality recording (the EP was mixed by Jack Shirley, who has worked with Deafheaven) but still with an analog sensibility. It’s a punk ideal captured on a 12-inch EP, the kind of record I want to hear when someone recommends me something that’s “punk.” And that’s one of the best possible compliments I think I can give a record.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Lambrini Girls – Who Let the Dogs Out
Snotty, pissed off, and seemingly having a hell of a lot of fun in the process, Lambrini Girls suffer neither fools nor assholes on their uproarious debut album, which takes aim at the patriarchy with the loudest weapons at their disposal. They also do so with humor and airtight songwriting, delivering songs with taut grooves and infectious hooks to bolster hilariously quotable moments like when Phoebe Lunny offers an exaggerated “OFFICER, what SEEMS to be… the PROBLEM?” on leadoff track “Bad Apple.” Joy and anger don’t have to be contradictions, and Lambrini Girls put that into practice better than most.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
Lifeguard – Ripped and Torn
Chicago trio Lifeguard made their Matador debut with a pair of EPs that showcased their prowess for hard-driving, abrasive post-hardcore and an accelerated artistic growth alike. With their (technically speaking) first proper full-length, Ripped and Torn, the impact is just as heavy but the direction far more gnarled and abstract. Juxtaposing thorny post-punk riffs against dub-inspired echo effects, transient random noise bursts and echoes of art-punk iconoclasts This Heat and Laddio Bolocko. Yet the young group retain their sense of melody and immediacy even when delivering sheets of metallic guitar against rippling bass drum reverberations on “Like You’ll Lose” or offering oblique statements such as “Words like tonality come to me” on “TLA.” I can’t say I know what that means or even if I’m supposed to, but Lifeguard’s curious confusion sounds incredible all the same.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
Living Dream – Absolute Devotion
A good way for a band to endear itself to me is to find a way to make me fall in love with the sound of guitars again without resorting to flashy parlor tricks. Indianapolis’ Living Dream is just such a band, drawing their strength from the hypnotic jangle of Television and the Velvet Underground with a layered guitar shimmer that washes over the four standout songs on this phenomenal EP. Absolute Devotion feels like something of a hidden gem, its black-and-white-on-turquoise photocopy album cover even resembling a lost DIY release from years past. But the songwriting prowess and especially the glorious guitar sounds of this group leave me eagerly awaiting whatever comes next.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Motorbike – Kick It Over
Back in the summer, I said this: “There’s a non-zero chance that Motorbike’s sophomore album Kick It Over ends up being my most-listened-to album of 2025.” I came pretty close. According to Last.fm it’s number seven, and the year’s not even finished yet. I didn’t rank this list, but I’d almost certainly place Kick It Over at the top if I did; it has everything I look for in a great punk album, which includes, among other things: big melodies, loud guitars, riffs, sing-along hooks, motorcycles, danger, riffs, menace, fun, riffs, excitement, attitude, leather, and riffs. Turn this up loud as we burn off what’s left of this cursed year.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
The New Eves – The New Eve Is Rising
I launched a folk column and a punk column around the same time this year, which was coincidentally around the same time The New Eves released their debut album The New Eve Is Rising—a record that conceivably could have shown up on either page. The Brighton and Hove, UK group are something like the Velvet Underground playing at a Wicker Man ceremony, strange pagan rituals overlain with cello and tense accounts of violent confrontation. Their sound and aesthetic are leagues apart from anything else in contemporary punk, even as their feminist messages of self-determination are both timeless and urgent.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
P.E. – Oh!
It’s sad to see the end (at least for now?) of New York experimental dancepunk group P.E., who became one of my favorite bands of the past decade on the strength of their debut album Person. But they’re leaving on a high, delivering their most cohesive and fully formed album on Oh!, continuing to expand the boundaries of their already unpredictable and wide open sound. They offer up an album comprising everything from warped mutant disco to minimal synth dirges and chill-out grooves, with all of their joyful weirdness intact. It’s a shame if this is truly the end, but they’re going out on a high.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Pleaser – Begging Guitars
Something remarkable happens just under a minute into “Here for the Sins,” the second song on Pleaser’s Begging Guitars. Sophie Lien Lake’s vocals are drenched in reverb as the band carves out a mid-tempo post-punk dirge, finding the sweet spot where psychedelic and gothic converge. But without warning, the song erupts into a blistering avalanche of hardcore chaos and pissed-off energy. Throughout the nine tracks on Begging Guitars, the Copenhagen group pulls off all of the above seamlessly, effortlessly juggling pop hooks with darker atmospheres, menace and aggression, managing to never let any one of these elements to drop in any one song. They certainly do straightforward, scuffed-up punk rock well enough too, but it’s the convergence of things chaotic and weird that make Begging Guitars as strong as it is.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Puffer – Street Hassle
Montreal bulldogs Puffer offer up some of the most enjoyably rowdy punk rock I’ve heard in quite some time. One of two albums on this list that bears a credit from Fucked Up’s Jonah Falco (he mastered this one and recorded the Home Front album), Street Hassle keeps it relatively simple and straightforward. In essence, Puffer play rock ‘n’ roll, but faster and louder, a bit like The Damned or The Saints with a vocalist who bears a particularly guttural growl. It’s music for getting smacked in the kisser with a pool cue or smashing beer bottles in alleyways that smell like hot garbage.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Snooper – Worldwide
Snooper’s Worldwide is technically the band’s sophomore album, but given that their actual debut comprised new recordings of older songs, Worldwide feels more like their proper first LP, a dangerously fun set of spiky, bouncy new wave that moves at a breathless pace. It’s all hard left turns and sharp corners, sprinting straightaways and trampoline bounce. The band’s music has frequently been compared to early Devo, and with good reason, which they almost seem to invite by including a cover of The Beatles’ “Come Together” that rewires the song entirely much like Akron’s greatest export did with the Stones’ “Satisfaction,” hold the energy dome. But Snooper are their own uniquely peculiar band, evolving and stretching well beyond the 90-second mark with a reintroduction that yields repeated rewards.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
Staticlone – Better Living Through Static Vision
Staticlone, a Philadelphia group featuring former members of hardcore troupe Blacklisted, made their Relapse debut early on in the year with a set of roaring d-beat’n’roll that nods to another onetime Relapse signing, Disfear, along with crust-punk veterans like Tragedy. They balance out their muscular gallop with a melodic clarity and sharpness to their songwriting that emphasizes their strengths even within a familiar and well-tread sound. The best excuse to make a loud and angry hardcore record is simply because you can, but Staticlone take no half measures in doing so, delivering a contemporary take on d-beat that’s reverent to its progenitors while continuing to push it forward.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
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