Beyond the Black – Break the Silence (Nuclear Blast)
Bullet – Kickstarter (Steamhammer)
Calling All Captains – Things That I’ve Lost EP (New Damage)
Deadwood – Rituals of a Dying Light (Innerstrength)
Dry Cleaning – Secret Love (4AD)
Iotunn – Waves Over Copenhell (Metal Blade)
• Iotunn Guitarist Brings Us Along for Journey on New LP, ‘Kinship’
We’re a bit late with The Bad Penny’s collection of best new videos this month. (Thanks a lot, Obama Santa!) That said, viewers who grew increasingly anxious awaiting our Best New Music Videos for December should be most pleasantly surprised, now that the post is finally live.
This week, we cobbled together 10 new and – for the most part – zany clips by Earl Sweatshirt, Nothing, Darsombra, The Zenith Passage, Ponte del Diavolo, Juni Habel, Gavial, Infinity Knives x Brian Ennals, Prune Carmen Diaz and Florence Road.
Happy viewing!
1. Prune Carmen Diaz’ “Arcadia”
2. Darsombra’s “Mellow Knees”
The numbers are in, and boy are … the numbers in.
What the ranking of The Bad Penny‘s most popular posts of 2025 indicates about this website can be interpreted in any number of ways. Would you like us to prattle on and on with theories and statistical data backing the sharp uptick? Yeah, we didn’t think so.
Instead, let’s cut straight to the (Chevy) Chase. Ergo, we bring you the rundown of The Bad Penny‘s most popular posts of 2025:
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VoidCeremony’s org chart of employees is messy as all hell. But you’d never guess that from the expertly sequenced and coherent Abditum. As with practically every great metal record, interludes and samples sometimes tie together what could be disparate components to the record. But the real glue is the band’s mastery of tone, texture and melody; seamless time changes; and sheer ferocity throughout. Read my full review courtesy of Post-Trash.
At a time when the memoir market is oversaturated, Faith No More member Roddy Bottum’s brazenness strips the word “transparency” of its trendy veneer and restores its original meaning. He’s done as much work on himself, and it shines through. Read my full review on Treble.
Interviews with Steve Albini, Neko Case and Thurston Moore shed some light on how an enigma of a band found such favor with artists who were actively trying to alienate their audiences simultaneously as Die Kreuzen attempted to woo and expand theirs. Read my review on Treble.
“I don’t have doubts about something I’ve committed to.”
-Garrett Bussanick
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Garrett Bussanick is arguably the consummate metonymy for experimental black/ death metal, in that he breathes an inextinguishable fire. It’s all-consuming, too; his flames of fury have fired up projects like the active Sire Languish and Aeviterne; as well as his past bands Tombs, Flourishing, Arson, Cardiovascular Sub-Hypothermia and El-Ahrairah.
Pull to God EP is Bussanick’s first solo record, on which he performs all instruments and – thus – presumably bares his soul in full (if he believes there’s such a thing as a soul). Spring Effete issued the four-song release roughly a month ago, and The Bad Penny caught up with Bussanick soon after that.
Below is our conversation, conducted via email.
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Lonely People with Power delivers a punch that will leave listeners reeling deliriously. Deafheaven’s new record restores Clarke’s black-metal screeches—sometimes at their most ear-shattering yet—while also producing the punchiest hard-rock riffs proliferating the band’s arsenal. Read my new review at Knotfest.com–and also don’t miss my FLOOD interview with frontman George Clarke about Lonely People with Power, as well as my analysis of Deafheaven’s 2017 tour set lists and first-ever show in Boise.
Don’t miss these two other roundups either:
• Friends of The Bad Penny Share Their Top 10 Lists of 2025 Best Albums
• Boise Friends of The Bad Penny Share Their 2025 Top 10 Lists
After signing with Century Media, Orbit Culture lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Niklas Karlsson told me that the Swedish melodic death-metal band “now really have to show our worth”–despite having been around for a dozen years. But boy do they ever on Death Above Life. Read my review at Knotfest.com
Don’t miss these two other roundups either:
• Friends of The Bad Penny Share Their Top 10 Lists of 2025 Best Albums
• Boise Friends of The Bad Penny Share Their 2025 Top 10 Lists
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