On the eve of the countdown of The Punk Site‘s writers and photographers Top 10 releases from 2025 we’re running down through numbers 11 to 20. If you needed a reason for why we do what we do, because it certainly isn’t for the money, then our annual run through of favourites from the year that is almost over is your answer, proof if you ever needed it that the Punk scene isn’t just alive and well, it’s thriving and constantly mutating.

20. Dead Pioneers – Post American (Hassle Records)

“Go buy this, go listen, be educated, be moved, be ready to get excited by something that tears up the rule book when it comes to indigenous revolution. If there is one album you need to listen to this year, this is it. I’m a pretty basically educated person, but I know when something this brutally honest and this fucking candid comes along, it deserves your ears.  An album of the year that’ll take some beating.” (Mark Cartwright)

19. Whinge – Somethings Not Quite Right (Crackedankles Records)

Post Punk quartet Whinge‘s debut release has apparently been five years in the making, the appropriately titled Somethings Not Quite Right features many of the tracks that have cemented Whinge‘s reputation as an unpredictable and unsettling live act with a sound that embraces everything from “Mondays to the Sabbath, ESG to LCD, Genesis to The Rapture.”

18. Gloin – All Of Your Anger Is Actually Shame… (Mothland Records)

Gloin‘s All Of Your Anger Is Actually Shame… introduces a new sonic palette, in turn embracing their penchant for highly-saturated tones and synthetic textures, while retaining their signature electric sound over a dozen relentless tracks. Throughout the album, manic yet endearing vocals depict a shared struggle via clever if mercurial songwriting, the four-piece slashing through anxiety and gloom with noisy pop songs delivered in the most brazen, harsh and loud of ways.

17. Scowl – Are We All Angels (Dead Oceans)

Are We All Angels is an album marked by alienation, grief, and the loss of control, at every turn Scowl explore ambitious new directions and bend genre norms. Kat Moss makes the most immediately noticeable evolution, dropping some of the gnarling bite of the band’s previous work in favor of a more textured and sometimes delicate approach. She flexes harmonies and melodic sensibilities that might surprise even the most dedicated Scowl fans. Despite the more eclectic approach, Scowl have lost none of their edge, and still manage to convey the anger and frustration that lies underneath.

16. Benefits – Constant Noise (Invada Records)

March saw Benefits return with the their highly anticipated second album, Constant Noise. After an incendiary 2024 the question facing both Benefits and their fans was “what’s next?”. Rather than split up, what the band did instead was re-calibrate. After a succession of different line-ups, Benefits have now settled as a two-piece made up of vocalist Kingsley Hall and electronic virtuoso Robbie Major “We’re still angry and Constant Noise is an angry album,” says Hall,“just angry in a different way to before. We wanted to create something almost joyous in its disgust at the world. If the previous record was black and white, we wanted this to be technicolour.” 

15. Murder By Death – Egg & Dart (Self Released)

Murder by Death have earned a much needed break after 25 years on the road, the band have decided to take a step back from touring and this year they released their parting gift, their tenth and final album, Egg & Dart. Murder by Death have accomplished more than they’d ever dreamed since forming in Bloomington, IN back in in 2000. The album is named after the architectural motif that symbolizes life and death; “Egg & Dart is arguably our most sad and beautiful album, but that doesn’t stop it from also having moments of triumph, desolation, horror and joy. We explore (musically and lyrically) the challenges of letting go and moving onto the next phase.”  

14. Bad Cop Bad Cop – Lighten Up (Fat Wreck Chords)

“I made it half way through this album before I realised just how great it is musically as well as vocally, you get so wrapped up in the stories that are unfolding around you. This band are guilty of being so damn good that only when you tear yourself away from the narrative and take a step back, do you realise how perfectly the music wraps it self around each song, edgy when it needs to be, understanding and gentle at times, uplifting to the the hilt, and most of all happy and foot tapping at all the right moments.” (Mark Cartwright)

13. Home Front – Watch It Die (La Vida Es Un Mus)

Canada’s Home Front have been blasting out of everyone’s stereos for the past three years with their unique combination of eighties influences that are wrapped up in modern production with tightly wound hooks. Watch It Die soars high and reaches deep with frayed Punk edges wrapping around canonic pop luxury. A record about moving through life while acknowledging death, about humanity, rebirth, dreams and community, all of which is powered by vintage drum machines, analog synths and screaming guitars.

12. Melanie Williams & Peter Hook – Heterochromia EP (Scapegoat Records)

“Lots of guitar feedback and strange 70s synthesiser sounds are augmented by a series of more digitised, science-fiction-inspired bleeps, blips and scratches. Her range is just incredible, and it has to be said this amazing artist has the ability to tell a story, she goes from a whisper to an operatic roar to unfeasibly seamless proportions.” (Samantha Jade)

11. Dino Zoff – These Heads Are All Broken (Suffer In Silence Records)

“It’s not an easy listen, nor should it be. Tyler writes with such searing honesty that the listener feels every scar, while Finny’s drumming drives each blow home with precision. Together they’ve built an album that thrives on catharsis, one that doesn’t just tell you how despair feels, it makes you live inside it. With These Heads Are Broken, Dino Zoff prove they’re more than a resurrection of old projects. This is a band reborn, sharpened by pain, and ready to make their mark.” (Gary Hough)

The post The Punk Site 2025 Top 40: Part Three – 20-11 appeared first on ThePunkSite.com.