Emissions Record Shop - Best of 2025
This was an incredible year for new releases, reissues, and singles. If you didn’t notice, let us help you. This year’s list spans several sub-genres of punk and hardcore. There are albums where bands successfully tried new things and carved their own path. On the other end, there are releases that are generic in style while flawless in execution. Had to include an honourable mentions because it felt criminal to leave some releases out of the top 10s. Notably, there are two records that came out at the end of 2024, but 2025 was the year when word-of-mouth ensured that they were embedded into our consciousness. The list is broken into 12-inch and 7-inch sections and is in no particular order. Go through all of them, knowing that almost all are in stock or restocks are en route. Canadian bands took center stage this year, occupying 6/10 of the top 12-inches. Also hard to miss is that the Static Shock label dominated the 7-inch list and planted their feet in our 12-inch list too, landing a total of 7 releases between the two sections.
Listen to anything you haven’t checked out before. Put genre/sub-genre biases aside and discover something new - and don’t skim over the 7-inches. That’s where some of the best gold is hidden.
Top 10 12-inches
Home Front – “Watch It Die” (La Vida Es Un Mus)
After “Think of the Lie” and “Games of Power”, there were impossibly high expectations for Edmonton’s Home Front to deliver on their latest album. Seemingly unaffected by outside pressure, Home Front created another album that’s bound to go down in Canadian punk history. “Watch It Die” is rooted in Home Front’s signature sound, but adds even more range. When they go more melodic, it’s reminiscent of Echo & the Bunnymen or New Order. When they go darker with the electronics, parts sound almost like the catchier Wax Trax bands from the 80s. All this while singing lyrics that provoke hope while recognizing the bleak reality of our times. Give them respect for staying loyal to La Vida Es Un Mus when tons of other big labels would have undoubtedly loved to put this out.
Imploders - Targeted For Termination (Neon Taste / Static Shock)
The 2nd album by Toronto’s Imploders shows their mature evolution into serious artists… yeah, right. They’re seriously tighter in their fun and snotty approach to hardcore punk. On Targeted For Termination, Imploders poke 12 songs at you in 14 and a half minutes, leaving you to start the album all over again. This is excellent hoser hardcore, like Bob & Doug collaborating with Kids in the Hall and Career Suicide. Like the first album, this one was released by Canada’s Neon Taste in North America and UK-via-Canada label Static Shock for Europe.
Siyahkal - "Days of Smoke and Ash / روزای دود و خاکستر" LP (Static Shock)
Not long after London, England’s Static Shock label took up residency in Canada, they ingratiated themselves amongst the locals by releasing Siyahkal’s debut album. The band has self-released some tapes since their inception around 2016, but with the help of one of the best labels in the world, Static Shock, this full-length is showing Siyahkal to the world. Much like the live show, the steady, droning intensity is like getting stared down by a furious political force that will never ever surrender. The thick driving guitar riffs are no doubt inspired by bands like S.H.I.T. and Destino Final with confrontational reverberated vocals resonating over the top.
Béton Armé - "Renaissance" LP (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Don’t be surprised to see members of Béton Armé playing in several other great bands like Puffer and Spleen, based out of Montreal. Just like their other projects, they are unafraid to do new things over an Oi-based foundation. After several singles on smaller Oi labels like Primator, Oi! The Boat, and Contra, then Roach Leg Records helped make them more visible to the wider punk/hc world before the amazing La Vida Es Un Mus jumped on board to release Béton Armé’s first proper full-length. Every single one of the 11 songs are top notch. Typical Oi descriptors like ‘hard’ and ‘catchy’ make sense here, but there’s more to it. The “hardness” is more of fearlessness to stand out, and the catchiness is fine-crafted songwriting instead of the tired repetition of pub sing-alongs.
Puffer - "Street Hassle" LP (Static Shock)
2025 was great year for output from both the city of Montreal and the label Static Shock. Street Hassle marries the two as Puffer’s debut LP. Following a demo and a 7 inch, both of which were combined on a 12-inch compilation last year, this LP continues with Puffer’s beautifully balanced combination of Oi with old school hardcore in their own unmistakable way.
Cult Crime - "Cult Crime" 12-inch (Ugly Pop)
Ugly Pop returned last year after a long quiet spell, breaking the silence with some 7 inches including Cult Crime’s debut single. This year the label got back in the 12 inch game with Cult Crime’s 2nd vinyl release. The band takes a rock’n’roll approach to catchy hard punk with high-energy riffs and dark melodies on this essential record. Think early 80s LA hardcore mixed with garage riffs and lots of snarly attitude.
Alienator - "Meat Locker" 12-inch (Black Water)
This record will hit you right away. This album improves upon the sound that they started out playing on their first two EPs. It’s old hardcore punk with the thickness of crust, Poison Idea tunefulness and 80s thrash guitar solos. If you like anything adjacent to that, then Alienator will draw you all the way in.
Haram - "ليش الجنة بيتبلش في الجهنم؟ Why Does Paradise Begin in Hell" 12-inch (Toxic State)
Leatherface - "BBC Sessions" 12-inch (Little Rocket)
Leatherface was at their peak in the early 90s in the Fill Your Boots, Mush and Minx era. The 3 BBC sessions collected on this record were all recorded in that era. More than just live albums or radio broadcasts, BBC/Peel sessions excelled at capturing band’s live energy just as they did with these Leatherface sessions. Hopefully you’ve heard these songs thousands of times like I have. These sessions make you want to listen to the songs thousands times more in this form.
Mil-Spec - "Mil-Spec" LP (Lockin' Out)
Lockin’ Out released it. Underdog played their release show. The direct involvement of the labels and bands that clearly inspired Mil-Spec rightfully validates their place in modern hardcore.. It may seem like it’s a full album on first listen because it covers a lot of ground. In reality, it’s 3 unique originals and 1 cover followed by a much longer version of the first song again. I wouldn’t expect a band like this to be able pull off a Doughboys cover and an (almost) 7-minute long song on the same EP. but they do. Those capabilities are just the beginning of what this band can do.
Bonus Mention:
Alvilda - "C'est Déjà L'heure" LP (Static Shock)
Even though this record came out late last year, 2025 was really Alvilda's year. The album has been repressed several times already to keep up with their multiple tours through Europe, USA and Eastern Canada this year. Alvilda put out a best-of-the-best power pop album that easily measures up to any album of the style from any era.
Top 10 7-inches of 2025
Viletones - Screaming Fist (Artifix)
Originally released in 1977, the first official re-issue of this classic Toronto punk single finally came in 2025. If you don’t know the song “Screaming Fist” then get familiar with it immediately. Bad Brains and the first wave D.C. hardcore scene frequently cite this single as their biggest inspiration to create their version of hardcore punk.
Black Dog - "Sewn Into Confusion" 7-inch (Iron Lung)
As your parents would say: “D-BEAT RAW FUKKING NOIZE PUNK ASSAULT”
The Number Ones - "Sorry" 7-inch (Static Shock)
If I didn’t know otherwise, I’d believe this record was a lost power pop single that could have been on Good Vibrations in the late 70s. The Number Ones perfectly blend the tone of Buzzcocks and Undertones with the pop sensibility of Pointed Sticks.
Split System - "No Cops In Heaven" 7-inch (Static Shock / Legless)
The A-Side hass the single song that I’ve listened to most this year. Split System from Australia have been around for a while and are still getting better. “No Cops In Heaven” is their best song yet, well deserving of it’s own single. They capture that rock’n’roll punk sound that Australia does so well. It’ll also resonate well with fans of first wave LA hardcore punk and the 2000s Copenhagen punk sound.
Destruct / Svaveldioxid - split 7-inch (Prescription / Children of the Grave)
Both of these bands play the same kind of music…. fast, d-beat, crusty… and they both absolutely master it. Destruct, who features two members of Enforced, have made our year-end lists before. Svaveldioxid features veterans from 3-Way Cum, Disfear, and Warvictims. Each band contributed 3 songs that all cover a lot of ground over a total of seven minutes of music. Ever watch Faces of Death on 4x speed under a strobe light?
Nuclear Fear - "Pantomime Of Power" 7-inch (La Vida Es Un Mus)
You don't have to theorize about what thrashy dirty hardcore by members of Arms Race and the Flex would sound like – that’s exactly what this record actually is.
The Hell - "The Hell" 7-inch (Sorry State)
4 songs on side A, and 1 longer song on side B. The first side sounds more like the previous Hell records… fast snotty hardcore that touches on the different styles coming out of Boston and the Midwest in the early 80s. The second side is a longer song with a spooky intro. The track evolves into a subtle, dark melody and spoken word delivery, recalling the moody tension found on the Code of Honor side of the Sick Pleasure split.
Cold Meat - "Cake and Arse Party" 7-inch (Static Shock / Helta Skelta)
Just barely enough brow showing to avoid being lo-fi, this decade-old Australian band has a piercing unapologetic weirdo presentation. There’s a bit of a confrontational peace punk delivery to the vocals. You can sing along, well sort of. You can dance to it, well sort of. You can aimlessly flail and piss your pants to it in front of the embassy, yeah that’s it.
Total Con "Who Needs The Peace Corps?" (Unlawful Assembly / Static Shock)
Great old school hardcore punk. Fast, bare bones, angry and sincere. Sometimes I listen to way too much Out Cold and this is a natural progression to go on the turntable next.
Patrol - "Patrol" 7-inch (Drunken Sailor)
This technically came out in December 2024, but 2025 is when most of us caught on to it. Incredible rock’n’roll riffs played super fast and you can almost sing along with the fun guitar solos. The speed and the vocals are what land this squarely in the punk realm. Patrol have captured the Thin Lizzy energy in punk like only Annihilation Time have ever done this well.
Reissues
Julia - "Julia" LP (Ebullition)
Portraits Of Past - "01010101" LP (Ebullition)
Inepsy - "Rock'n'roll Babylon" LP (Tank Crimes)
Inepsy - "City Weapons" LP (Tank Crimes)
Orchid - "Chaos Is Me" (Ebullition)
Death Side - "The Will Never Die" 2xLP (La Vida Es Un Mus)