Matte Blvck
My Top 50 Songs of 2025
This list is rolling out a lot later than usual, and I’ve gotta be honest – it’s because I failed so miserably at keeping up with releases last year. I mean, I added tracks to my playlist and shared them here, as well as on Facebook and Insta, but I didn’t sit and listen to them until recently. I’ll do better this year, I swear!
And now, here are the fifty songs that really jumped out at me in 2025. A few things to be aware of: I do not rank the tracks in any particular order, and I do not include major label artists (or I try not to, at any rate), nor do I include covers. Last but not least, no band/artist can have more than one song on the list.
View the full playlist HERE.
- Element 117: “Vision”
- SKNN: “Digital Zombies”
- Could You Not?: “Backpedal”
- Hooked Like Helen: “Quote Unquote Life”
- The Fiction We Create: “More Than Scars”
- Nouveau Arcade: “Push”
- Eli Howard & the Greater Good: “Long, Strange Trip”
- Boze: “I Will Go”
- The CyberTones: “Red Flags Flying”
- Deadcode: “Don’t Let Me Go”
- AGBAT: “Fair Winds”
- Sever Red: “Conjuring”
- Endless May: “Call My Name”
- Absolutist: “Lineage”
- Elirah’s Cross: “The Walk” (ft. Histheory)
- Matte Blvck: “Vicious Dreams”
- Alchemy Within: “The Call”
- In Passing: “Silhouette”
- A Fatal Black: “Kill the Lights”
- Stellar Circuits: “Bury the Ashes”
- mothshade: “Labyrinth”
- New Dilemma: “Ice Cold Hands” (ft. Chloe Robin)
- Czarina: “Fall Damage” (ft. Circuit Preacher)
- postdrome: “So Inviting”
- Cold Clay Mountain: “These Hands”
- Krysis: “The Summit’s Ice”
- Adelitas Way + New Medicine: “Rollin'”
- Blackwood: “One Track Mind” (ft. Kameron Jane)
- The Black Zodiac: “Gallow’s Call”
- No Fly List: “The Rush”
- Voice of Glass: “Henosis”
- Nights in Prada: “Thorns in Silk” (ft. Sara Rayne)
- Divide the Fall: “Beyond the Surface”
- War Inside: “Hollow Points”
- Ethereal Treason: “Ivory”
- Mirrorcell: “U(phoria)”
- Noir Addiction: “Chemical Bride”
- Phantom of Pop: “Sugar Sin”
- Almera: “Retrograde”
- Stellar: “Outta My League”
- Kings of Karma: “Falling to Pieces”
- Wraithlurk: “One More Lie” (ft. $KIMMY)
- Rise to Ruin: “Archaic”
- Danger Silent: “To Whoever’s Left, Pt. 2”
- Hallowtide: “O Captain”
- MAK: “Fever”
- The Mercury Seed: “Disappear”
- vasthearts: “such a shame” (ft. romziie and Leø)
- AnonTheory: “Thoughts and Prayers”
- We Brought the Storm: “Heavy Rain”
The Mostly Music 2025 Playlist, Pt. 10 (Updated 10/16/25)
IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!
Sorry, y’all. I just love spooky season!
Anyway, here is the first batch of October releases. Be sure to check out the other installments of The Mostly Music 2025 Playlist; this year has seen some bangers, and we still have two months to go!
- Secrets: “Paralyzed”
- The Red Clay Strays: “People Hatin'”
- Moonscape: “A Place to Call Home”
- Living Dead Girl: “Succubus”
- Dark Remedy: “Someway, Somehow”
- The Edge of Reason: “Drum Show”
- Storm Kingdom: “In the Shadow of Persephone” (ft. Joe Booe)
- Hands Like Houses: “Love & Affection”
- Fright: “Intergalactic”
- Bryce Savage: “Yes Daddy”
- Seas on the Moon: “Edge of Reason” (ft. Thomas Polychuck and Lena Scissorhands)
- Citizen Soldier: “Worth It All”
- ExitWounds: “Death Walk” (ft. Left to Suffer)
- Matt James: “Something to Burn”
- Alter Bridge: “What Lies Within”
- Motif Hive: “Unit”
- Nouveau Arcade: “Sick”
- Wuthering Waves: “Aphelion [Galbrena’s Lullaby]” (ft. Crywolf)
- The Rasmus: “Creatures of Chaos” (ft. Tyler Connolly of Theory of a Deadman)
- Mac Saturn: “Takes Time”
- Wraithlurk: “Secrets After Midnight”
- Cirkus: “One in a Million”
- Unhappily Ever Now: “To the Light”
- Left to Suffer: “This Comfort Won’t Last Here Long”
- Matte Blvck: “Soulless”
- Paper Shrine: “Fasting”
The Mostly Music 2025 Playlist, Pt. 7 (Updated 7/16/25)
Be sure to check out the other installments of The Mostly Music 2025 Playlist!
Pt. 1 – Pt. 2 – Pt. 3 – Pt. 4 – Pt. 5 – Pt. 6
Here is the first batch of tracks released in July!
- Loosely Sewn: “Just Let Go”
- MissFit Toys: “Heart Sick” (Remastered)
- Shinedown: “Three Six Five” (Acoustic Version)
- Frayle: “Walking Wounded”
- Sever Red: “One More Time”
- NOFUTURE: “Loner”
- Die Tired: “Fall Forever”
- THEHERO: “The Howitzer”
- Sailing Before The Wind + POET The Band: “Catch the Sunlight” (Reimagined)
- Glis: “Amor Fati”
- A Fatal Black: “Swan Song”
- Feverlust: “feed off the vine”
- Stone Lions: “Another Night”
- RedPrint: “I Think It’s Called Dave”
- Boze: “Syllable Killa”
- Psycho Pact: “El Pacto”
- Letauro: “Scorpion Woman”
- The Fear In Us: “Sick of You”
- New Medicine: “Personal”
- The Essence: “Entropy”
- Living Dead Girl: “Poison Me”
- Loose Lips: “Crash”
- Storm Kingdom: “Fallen Grace”
- Matte Blvck: “Monument” (ft. Computerbandit)
- Crywolf: “Anachronism” (Hushed Version ft. Roniit and Maigan Kennedy)
- Revolution Rabbit Deluxe: “Friend or Foe”
- King 810: “Generation Pain” (ft. Left to Suffer)
- A Killer’s Confession: “Facts”
- Violet Dawn: “I Sat at Home”
- Seilies: “Descension”
- Citizen Soldier: “Sit in Your Shadows”
- Mortica: “Burn”
- Shinedown: “Killing Fields”
- Xero Hour: “Salem Burns”
- Lift the Curse: “Love is a Battlefield” (Pat Benatar cover)
- Jay Gearhart: “Smoke and Mirrors”
The Mostly Music 2025 Playlist, Pt. 4 (Updated 4/30/25)
Hey, y’all, and welcome to another playlist update! April has been a very weird month for me on a personal level, but at least the soundtrack was fire!!! Here are the songs that have been added to part four since April 16th.
- EarlyRise: “The Bitter Pill”
- Marilyn Manson: “In the Air Tonight” (Phil Collins cover)
- 50 Meter Icewall: “Purge Me Daddy”
- Rogue Island: “Sweat”
- Curse Inflikted: “Dancing With Shadows”
- Silent Theory: “Swept Away” (Julien-K remix)
- Wraithlurk: “Dimensions”
- Matte Blvck + ALVABEAT: “Pupula Duplex (Your Demise)”
- Aesthetic Perfection: “Fade to Black” (Metallica cover)
- Storm Kingdom + Sonia Hutchinson: “Ninmah”
- No Fly List: “All Lost No Found”
- Priest: “Black Hole Sun” (Soundgarden cover)
- Citizen Soldier: “Better Off Broken”
- A Place i Know: “Freedom Bells”
- The Truth Music: “Heart Issues” (ft. JD)
- Voltaire’s Ghost: “Death Becomes You” (StoneBridge remix)
- Dawn of Ashes: “Hypertensive Crisis”
- Antibody + Binary Division + Czarina: “My Enemy”
- Wind Walkers: “The End Aesthetic”
- obiman: “UNDERTHEWEIGHT”
- Misfire: “Living the Dream”
- The Lineage: “Burn Down”
- Stone Lions: “Bite Your Tongue” (ft. Dani Winter-Bates)
- To The Shores: “Blood in the Water”
- Dal-War: “Run Run Run Away Yeah”
- Heir to Nothing: “Don’t Tell Me”
- Into Ruin: “Godless”
- Traverse the Abyss: “Manifest”
- Priest: “Wicked Game” (Chris Isaak cover)
- Mr. Strange: “X the Eyes”
- Amerakin Overdose: “Point of No Return”
- Adelitas Way + New Medicine: “Rollin'”
- The Funeral Portrait: “Skinny Lies”
- Storm Kingdom: “Children of the Sun” (ft. Makaade)
- Not Enough Space: “Eye 4 an Eye” (ft. Dark Divine)
- Seven Year Witch: “Better Off as Strangers”
- Moonfall: “Rainstorm”
- Sleep Token: “Damocles”
- Archers Gate: “Suffocate”
- The Impulsive: “Echo”
- Seethe: “Reprieve”
- Blackwood: “One Track Mind” (ft. Kameron Jane)
- Alive in Stone: “Comatose”
- We’re Not Doctors: “RAD\\MOD”
- Tyler Griese: “Suffocate Me”
- Nick Nasty: “Systems Don’t Break (People Do)”
- REDWAVE: “Fax Machine”
- The Black Zodiac: “Gallow’s Call”
- Screams of Tranquility: “Frozen Tears of Solitude”
- Metal Charm: “Time to Restart”
- Von Loop: “Stomping on the Demons”
- Linx: “مختلف” (Them)
- Anderson Park Lane: “NEWS”
- AVKRVST: “The Malevolent” (ft. Ross Jennings)
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And, as always, be sure to check out the 2025 playlist in its entirety!
The Mostly Music 2025 Playlist, Pt. 1 (Updated 1/31/25)
This is the second, and final, playlist update for January. I have already begun compiling my Top 50 of 2025 – I think this year is going to be difficult to narrow down… (I say that every year, but I already have 6 contenders and it’s not even February. If that happens every month, my life is going to be a challenge come December. Ha ha!)
Here are the tracks that have been added to the playlist since January 14th. You can view the list in its entirety here.
- Blank Labels: “Drive”
- Danny Worsnop: “Ain’t No Use”
- Elirah’s Cross: “The Walk” (ft. Histheory)
- Not Enough Space: “Solace in Silence”
- Sloans Grove: “Above It All”
- The Lycan: “Memento”
- Against the Sun: “Pieces” (ft. Alibis)
- The Mysterious Bruises: “Cold Long Nights”
- Never the Name: “Consequences”
- The Bettors: “Never Change”
- Dethamphetamine: “Brains”
- Gnostician: “Dwarf Star Partition”
- Silent WVLF: “Elation”
- Last Good Thing: “Wish You Were”
- Van Berlain: “Glass House”
- Featured: “Just Another Day” (ft. Rose Berlin)
- HotWax: “One More Reason”
- Seven Year Witch: “Blue Flower, Red Thorns”
- little image: “The Pressure”
- By the River: “Bridges”
- Dimensionist: “Syntagma”
- MNYKR: “Sweat With Me” (ft. Greco Ray)
- Mandatory Affect: “Transient”
- Mandatory Affect: “Letters to the Lost”
- Lift the Curse: “Save Me”
- Levana: “Set Me Free”
- Swim the Current: “Right Your Wrong”
- One Day Alive: “The Calling”
- Young Other: “Iron Horse”
- Shinedown: “Dance, Kid, Dance”
- Shinedown: “Three Six Five”
- Bad Valentines: “Last Days in the Sun”
- SKNN: “Radioactive”
- The Fiction We Create: “Knightfall”
- Any Given Sin: “Rest for the Wicked”
- TJ Marzonie: “Blame It on the Devil”
- Kissing Lilith: “More Than Worth It”
- Bridges Ablaze: “Heartless”
- Photon Flux: “Hypofrontality”
- Damien Graves: “Skyfall” (ft. Forsaken Silence)
- Disconnected: “We Carry On”
- Landslide: “Lost”
- Robbie Ekblom Jr.: “Darkness Befalls” (ft. Hall of Lost)
- Out of Body: “The Hold Up”
- Deadcode: “Don’t Let Me Go”
- SkyMuseum: “Unawake” (ft. Adam Faris)
- Feverlust: “1000 Memories”
- Draven: “Hollowed Penance”
- The Split: “Son of New Ages”
- Jay Gearhart: “Faced With Hate”
- Gemini Syndrome: “Suffer in Silence”
- Krysis: “The Summit’s Ice”
- Call of Sirens: “Siren”
- Mr. Strange: “Easy Come, Easy Go”
- Matte Blvck: “Vicious Dreams”
- Effing and Blinding: “We’re All Gonna Get It”
- Boogeymvn: “Once Upon a Dream”
- Boogeymvn: “I Feel Nothing”
- Mean Silver Machine: “Motorcycle Rock”
- Adelitas Way: “What If You Go?”
- Anaria: “Stay”
- AGBAT: “Fair Winds”
- Glis: “Street Dragon Ninja”
- Glis: “A Different Dream”
- Seethe: “Mandela Effect”
- No Fly List: “Tension”
- Dead Rabbitts: “Artificial Gods” (ft. Escape the Fate, HIGHSOCIETY, and Judge & Jury)
- Traverse the Abyss: “Reasoning”
- When Hearts Wither: “I’ll Wait For Your Return, My Friend”
- Into Elysium: “Her Name Was”
- Hands Like Houses: “Fatally Fractured”
- The Truth Music: “The Peace I Need”
- The Space Turtles: “IPV”
- Beauty is Betrayal: “Afterlife”
- The Immaculate Crows: “Shylene”
- Storm Kingdom: “The Fall of the Morning Star”
- Seas on the Moon: “The Trailhead” (ft. Eissa Morphide)
- Enemy of Fate: “Killswitch”
- Verging on Hopeless: “Turning Away”
The Mostly Music 2024 Playlist, Pt. 1 (Updated 1/28/24)
You can visit the full playlist here.
Oh, and I changed my mind about how I’m going to divide up this year’s playlist. I will be doing two months per part, rather than three. Most people’s attention spans are not going to hold up in the face of twenty – or more – hours of music. Lol.
These are the songs I’ve added since 1/14/24. Some of them were released before then, and I missed them last time (oops).
- Descape: “How Far I’ll Go” (Acoustic Version)
- Barrel Smoke: “Sugar Momma”
- When They Riot: “Open Season”
- I: “January”
- Who They Fear: “Monument of Misery”
- Blackbird: “Over & Over”
- Have I Weather: “Lipstick in the Dark”
- The CyberTones: “United States of Confusion” (Instrumental)
- SUPERPOSITION: “Mae”
- Just Lizzy: “Shine”
- Sublimenal Stimuli: “Immune To It”
- Smash Into Pieces: “Trigger”
- ANOXIA: “Relinquish the Quiet”
- Mechanic A: “Stay Away”
- Gravehuffer: “Brainstorm”
- Sabram: “Devils”
- Coastal Fire Dept.: “Crank”
- Sweetgum: “Kentucky Coffee”
- Matte Blvck: “Vows”
- Further Within: “iM aLrIGhT”
- Blackbird, ArcticSlaughter: “Shadow of a Star”
- The Finite Beings: “Journey of Trials”
- Haunting Ghosts: “The Beacon of Emerald”
- Dopeghost: “Roses”
- Front Row Sinners: “Eastside”
- Midas Fall: “Monsters”
- A Moment of Violence: “My Endless Nightmare”
- Livekill: “Scum of My Life”
- iLuCidi: “iRock on”
- The Lürxx: “You’re Badass”
- Villain of the Story: “Decade”
- Seethe: “Wax”
- Seethe: “Plunder”
- SuckerTrap: “Take It Away”
- 2 Shadows: “Mad God”
- Hyperius Blake: “Worth” (ft. Hickey Hun)
- Benson Boone: “Beautiful Things”
- Have I Weather: “Bang Voor de Tandarts”
- Crownshift: “If You Dare”
- alltheprettythings: “Weeping Season”
- 3 Leagues to Rome: “Dying Day”
- THE R4VEN: “Tides”
- Aftermath: “Echo Chamber (2024)”
- KillerStar: “Got Me All Wrong”
- The Cage in Your Head: “Lest We Forget Has Been Forgotten”
- Bridges Ablaze: “Numb”
- New Medicine: “Control Freak”
- Work of Wolves: “Voices”
- Liam Kelley: “Fever Dreamz”
- The Rift: “Grim”
- Lovely Machine: “DROWN”
- ALYXX: “Creature of the Night”
- Rogue Royal: “Otherside”
- Once Upon A Giant: “The 7th Day”
- Dead Posey: “Zombies”
- Mark C. Daniel: “Lucky One”
Mostly Music 