Rise to Ruin
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”
2025 Covers You May Have Missed
I am working on the Top 50 of 2025, and I realized that there were quite a few covers released last year. I don’t include cover songs on that list, so I thought I’d share them here.
- Amerakin Overdose: “Genie in a Bottle” (Christina Aguilera cover)
- Næŕok, Steeno: “3” (Britney Spears cover)
- Boze: “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” (Charlie Daniels cover)
- Gillsaw: “The Beautiful People” (Marilyn Manson cover)
- Priest: “Wicked Game” (Chris Isaak cover)
- Waiting at the Bridge: “Love Gun” (KISS cover)
- Kings County: “The Beautiful People” (Marilyn Manson cover)
- Damned Anthem, Lola Rhodes: “Heart-Shaped Box” (Nirvana cover)
- Silent Theory, Crispin Earl: “Pardon Me” (Incubus cover)
- Lift the Curse: “Love is a Battlefield” (Pat Benatar cover)
- RedPrint: “Stranglehold” (Ted Nugent cover)
- Rise to Ruin: “Paranoid” (Black Sabbath cover)
- Cirkus: “Crazy Train” (Ozzy Osbourne cover)
- P.O.D.: “Don’t Let Me Down” (The Beatles cover)
- Blackjacket: “Grenade” (Bruno Mars cover)
- Nick Nasty: “Seven Nation Army” (The White Stripes cover)
- Feverlust: “That’s So True” (Gracie Abrams cover)
- We’re Wolves: “Bark at the Moon” (Ozzy Osbourne cover)
- 9th Evolution: “Cry Little Sister” (Gerard McMahon cover)
- Kissing Candice: “Bodies” (Drowning Pool cover)
- Kings of Karma: “Run Rudolph Run” (Chuck Berry cover)
- Lift the Curse: “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” (Harry Reser and His Orchestra cover)
- Shallow Side: “Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)” (Elton John cover)
- Amerakin Overdose: “Feliz Navidad” (José Feliciano cover)
- ENMY: “Incomplete” (Backstreet Boys cover)
- KillDevil Theory: “Tom Sawyer” (Rush cover)
- Kalamity Kills: “Help!” (The Beatles cover)
- Nail Bite: “Nutshell” (Alice in Chains cover)
- Vampires Everywhere!: “Welcome to the Black Parade” (My Chemical Romance cover)
Also – Crispin Earl of The Veer Union released Covers Collection, Vol. 2 on December 5th, which includes his renditions of “The Kill” by Thirty Seconds to Mars, “Even in Arcadia” by Sleep Token, and more!
The Mostly Music 2025 Playlist, Pt. 11 (Updated 11/15/25)
Happy Holidays!
We’re getting so close to the end of 2025, and I’m going to say it now – choosing my top 50 this year is going to be hard. There has been a lot of great music released, and there’s still a month-and-a-half to go! Whyyy do I do this to myself? Ha!
Anyway, here are the singles I’ve added so far in November.
- Past Silent: “Glass House”
- Schmooze: “Too Late to Plead Insanity”
- Storm Kingdom: “Purgatory” (ft. Joe Booe)
- Horizon Theory: “Transcendence”
- Rise to Ruin: “Horizon Divide”
- Adelitas Way: “We Are Unbroken”
- Killed By Sorrow: “Betrayal”
- Cryblood: “Enemy”
- Eli Howard & the Greater Good: “The World is Crazy”
- Excision: “Adrenaline” (ft. Sullivan King and From Ashes to New)
- Traverse the Abyss: “Memento Mori”
- Closed City Terror: “No One”
- Aesthetic Perfection: “We Bring the Beat”
- Danger Silent: “To Whoever’s Left, Pt. 2”
- Coal Chamber: “Overflowing Blessings”
- Lord of the Lost: “Would You Walk With Me Through Hell” (ft. Infected Rain)
- Boze: “Boom Bap Collapse” (ft. Jude Buckingham)
- Sydney V. Smith: “Wasted Years”
- A.A. Kidd: “Isn’t the Sunset Beautiful?” (ft. Sa’Lunara)
- Gasoline Invertebrate: “Resurface”
- Ghosts Are Here: “You Deserve to Know”
- Bovault: “The Fool and the Trouble”
- vasthearts: “don’t feel the same” (ft. wintr)
- Palaye Royale: “Feel Something, Great”
- Gasoline Invertebrate: “Settler”
- Kings of Karma: “Run Rudolph Run”
- Boze: “I Will Go”
- Brother Cane: “If This Means War”
- The Renascent: “Keep Me Here”
The Mostly Music 2025 Playlist, Pt. 9 (Updated 9/30/25)
I don’t have much to say except that September has not been very kind to me. I guess it is what it is.
Here are the songs that have been added to The Mostly Music 2025 Playlist since September 20th.
- NOFUTURE: “Flatline”
- Moon Fever: “Decayed”
- In Wildest Dreams: “Dark Light”
- Sidewise: “Where My Heart Remains”
- Ovtlier: “Creature of the Night”
- Jay El Dee + Alex Kenchel: “Rebound”
- Rise to Ruin: “Archaic”
- Michael Botte Band: “If I Asked You”
- Wraithlurk: “Holy Nothing” (ft. $KIMMY)
- The Thing With Feathers: “You Know You Love It”
- Hall of Lost: “Loser’s Game”
- Saint Social: “Swagger” (Acoustic Remix)
- Bryce Savage: “Save It For The Weekend”
- Black Dog Moon: “Neon Queen”
- The CyberTones: “Red Flags Flying”
- The Immaculate Crows: “Short Changed”
- Gloomclub: “My Obscurity”
- Divide the Fall: “Break Free”
- Noise Ratchet: “Freedom”
- Forged in Fire: “Guardian” (ft. Siamese)
- Stellar Circuits: “Corridor”
- Sleep When We’re Dead: “Rainbow Cat”
- StrikingBlue: “Martyr”
- Ghost Chamber: “The Power of Prayer”
- Collide: “Will Not Be Destroyed” (Signals Mix)
- Mindy Jackson: “Reverie”
- BLD DRV: “Vines”
- Boze: “We Comin'”
- Effing and Blinding: “Old Soul”
- Dark Divine: “Halloweentown II – Welcome Home”
- POET the Band: “Sin Eater” (Acoustic)
- Næŕok: “Rabbit Hole”
- morino: “Till the Break of Dawn”
- AM FALL: “MCR Told Me I’m Not Okay, and I’m Not, I Need Backup!” (ft. Raise the Death Toll, Rain Falls Red, Fighting the Phoenix, and Misconceptions)
- Storm Kingdom: “Moonlight” (ft. MX the American and Richie Warwick)
- Bryce Savage: “She Just Wanna Have Fun”
The Mostly Music 2025 Playlist, Pt. 8 (Updated 8/16/25)
It’s August, which means summer is coming to its end (yay), and I have turned another year older (ugh). It also means the eighth installment of The Mostly Music 2025 Playlist is here!
Don’t forget to check out parts one through seven after you dive into these recent additions!
- Bury the Masses: “Who I Smoke” (Reimagined with Berran Lee and Black Cat Bill)
- Seas on the Moon: “Never Fair” (ft. Lena Scissorhands)
- Rise to Ruin: “Paranoid”
- Jungle Dream: “Legion”
- The Thing With Feathers: “So Electric”
- Cold Clay Mountain: “Bury Me”
- Storm Kingdom: “The Fall of Agramemnon”
- Awake at Last: “GhØst GhØst GhØst”
- Crywolf: “DRIP [hushed]” (ft. Maigan Kennedy)
- Run the River: “Can We Go Back”
- Sikari: “Deceiver”
- Gloomclub: “Welcome to the Club”
- AsFireFalls: “Stay”
- Silence Reigns: “Dipsomania”
- Low Knife: “I’m Lost”
- Inhuman Shimmer: “Hikikomori”
- Above Snakes: “Waking the Savage”
- FOAMER: “Slenderman”
- SFINX: “Sold My Soul” (ft. Keep Close)
- Stellan: “At Least For Now”
- Aeternum: “Bite My Tongue”
- Hunter and the Cold Hearts Club: “I Die Happily”
- Topher Music: “I Think I’m Gonna Go”
- Seven Year Witch: “Big For My Britches”
- Seethe: “PostScript”
- Inhuman Shimmer: “Please Hold, Pt. 1”
- Stellar: “Outta My League”
EPs Released From April to June 2025
- Hand of the Tribe – Makinas, Vol. 1 [4/4]
- Wraithlurk – Suffering [4/4]
- Rise to Ruin – The Alchemy EP [4/4]
- Once Unnoticed – Forever Again [4/5]
- In Passing – In Passing [4/11]
- postdrome – Postdrome [4/15]
- Jutes – The End [4/23]
- Traverse the Abyss – Memento Mori [4/25]
- Death Valley High – U DON’T KNOW WHAT UR ASKING [4/25]
- Bad Valentines – Memory Tattoos [4/25]
- Valtozash – Sundered Synapses [5/2]
- The Journals Kept – Strike the Match [5/2]
- Anaria – Spark of Life [5/9]
- I Was the Crown – Broken Wings [6/1]
- StarrShine – As a Kid [6/5]
- Kumiko – The Space Between [6/7]
- Atomic Fate – Try It… You Might Like It!!! [6/10]
- Eayondig – Ivory Eye [6/11]
- L.O.U.D. – FM Broadcast [6/13]
- Traverse the Abyss – Memento Mori (Instrumental) [6/13]
- Lucretia Death – Half Dead [6/20]
- Priest – Chaos EP [6/20]
- Stain the Canvas – Gattini [6/27]
- Have I Weather – Porch Sessions [6/27]
- splinter kid – Control Freak [6/27]
- The Lucidia Project – The Twilight Affliction [6/30]
The Mostly Music 2025 Playlist, Pt. 5 (Updated 5/16/25)
May is here, and so is a lot of new music to make your ear holes happy!
- Forge the Sun: “Decay”
- Deadcode: “Left You For Dead” (ft. Justin Warfield)
- Boogeymvn: “Reaching for Idle Hands”
- No Fly List: “The Rush”
- Rise to Ruin: “11th Hour”
- Saint Social: “Holiday Forever” (Acoustic Remix)
- Witchz: “Grime, Pt. 1”
- Storm Kingdom: “Hymn of the Ancients”
- MissFit Toys: “Ransom” (Remastered)
- Elliott Rubin: “Drain”
- Allie Riot: “Gimme Some Head”
- Waiting at the Bridge: “Love Gun” (KISS cover)
- Shinedown: “Three Six Five” (Piano Version)
- Citizen Soldier: “Inner Critic”
- L.O.U.D: “Denver”
- Stories of Solitude: “Abyss”
- Curse Inflikted: “Demigod”
- Static Season: “Peripheral”
- Kings County: “The Beautiful People” (Marilyn Manson cover)
- Corvid Corpus: “Dancing on Your Grave”
- CrumbsNBread: “Broken Heart”
- Last Dance Among Wolves: “High and Low”
- Wraithlurk: “The Raven”
- Glis: “No Pulse” (2025 Mix)
- Violet Dawn: “Burn for You”
- Fractured Sense: “Vacant Frames”
- The Thing With Feathers: “Catching Your Eye”
- MAKEITSTOP: “Hi Burning, I’m Drowning”
- Voice of Glass: “Henosis”
- AVKRVST: “The Trauma”
- Elirah’s Cross: “Winning” (ft. Ataraxia Music)
- Incite: “Dolores”
- Limberlost: “Alien”
- ParanoiZe: “Decisive”
- The Sanctity of Crows: “The Endless Life of Water”
- Inherently Lost: “Art of Corruption”
- Grizzly Ironside: “Deliver Us 2.0”
- Deep Sea Camels: “Exit Wound”
- Almera: “Fallacy”
- Nick Nasty: “Stalemate”
- Loose Lips: “Up and Running”
- Aesthetic Perfection: “Architect”
- Christopher Ardra: “The Air in There”
- Storm Kingdom: “Under a Crooked Tree” (ft. Joe Booe)
- No Fly List: “Close to Closure”
- Boogeymvn: “Heaven No Longer Weeps For Me”
- Die Tired: “(So Called) Complex”
- Central: “Thorns in Silk” (ft. Mila Shade)
***
Don’t forget to check out the other installments of The Mostly Music 2025 Playlist!
The Mostly Music 2025 Playlist, Pt. 3 (Updated 3/16/25)
Welcome to March! I hope daylight savings time didn’t ruin your week like it did mine. (If y’all don’t mess with that BS where you live, lucky you.)
Anyway, time change aside, this month seems to be moving ahead much more rapidly than January or February. On the bright side, we have a really killer soundtrack for the ride!
Here are the recent releases that have been added since February 28th! And don’t forget to visit parts one and two, if you haven’t already. You could just discover your new favorite song!
- Robbie Ekblom, Jr.: “A Matrimony With the Stars Unleashed”
- Alive in Stone: “Fear” (ft. Let Me Bleed)
- UMO Electronic: “Telemetry Mind Pollution”
- Amerakin Overdose: “Genie in a Bottle” (Christina Aguilera cover)
- Orbis Max: “Follow”
- Villain of the Story: “The First Time” (ft. Trevor Borg)
- Signal the Revolution: “Don’t Let Go” (ft. Dustie Waring)
- Telling Secrets: “Paranoid”
- No Promises: “Visions”
- Beauty is Betrayal: “Atlantis”
- One Day Alive: “Only Scars”
- DeathbyRomy: “Pray to Me” (ft. Palaye Royale)
- Citizen Soldier: “The Liar”
- Næŕok: “3” (Britney Spears cover ft. Steeno)
- Haunted Vessel: “Aftermath”
- Rogue Island: “Rose Tinted”
- ManWoMan: “Love Punch”
- Kawano: “Give Me the Power”
- Daniel Dwight: “Who Am I”
- Crow Magnum: “Your Atlas”
- Incite: “Just a Rat”
- The Space Turtles: “Memory Lane”
- New Life: “Here’s to Life”
- The Pretty Wild: “Button Eyes”
- Sleep Token: “Emergence”
- Reset Reality: “The Void”
- Last Dance Among Wolves: “Shaped By Design”
- Seethe: “Oceans”
- BLAZADA: “Death By Symphony”
- Silent WVLF: “My Beloved”
- Silent Dunes: “Let Me Breathe”
- Nouveau Arcade: “Guns & Candy”
- Rise to Ruin: “Alchemy”
- New Dilemma: “Ice Cold Hands” (ft. Chloe Robin)
Mostly Music 