The music of Meridian by Tanpopo Crisis continues the rich tradition of atmospheric black metal, a style which derives temporal intensity from a frantically blast beating rhythm section while harnessing all the melodic, harmonic, and sentimental power of a string orchestra through its sweeping guitar soundscapes.

 We’ve never been more spiritually free, we’ve never been so existentially hungry, and we’ve never been so essentially clueless. This directionless, all-consuming lack appears in fits and spurts across the epic compositions of Unlimited Violence Apologia by Bee Hive Ski Race, an emo album that effortlessly treads into hardcore, noise rock, and grunge with its versatile vocals and tight instrumentals.

At the core of the whimsical experimentation of So, Ho Hum, Moribet sits effortlessly compelling songs in the folksy singer-songwriter tradition, fighting desperately to shine their human radiance through a suffocating film of lo fi electronica.

A nuanced, uncomfortable flow of emotion springs forth from Death by Thisworldisnotkind, a post-rock-inspired skramz record that struggles through extreme, persistent loss by rejecting dehumanization from all sources and in all forms.

Fortifying strong bones of midwest emo and slowcore with the eccentricities of noise rock and post rock, Look Outside, We’re Dying by Sap House addresses the slow encroachment of death as those we love start leaving us behind.

Following up 2023’s lo-fi noise punk record Laurels of the End of History, the new The Cime Interdisciplinary Music Ensemble is bigger, louder, angrier, more vulnerable, and more joyous, bursting at the seams with emotionally volatile arrangements that straddle the line between exuberant chaos and careful composition. 

Trendy lofi flourishes sink into a sparse abyss, sharing this massive space with flowing piano, wispy noise, thundering synths, and odd percussion, all while a thin, defeated voice treads water against this sonic whirlpool.

Mounting bodily anxiety inspires the experimental music of Birds with Vertigo, a record that combines the eccentric poetry of Sammy J Matthews and the highly original electronic music of Cumsleg Borenail.

Full Spectrum Records has been operating for over fifteen years, and to cap off their impressive output, the label and their frequent collaborators came together to provide a final testament to the nature of experimental music.

On their new record Chewing Bread, Australian mathcore outfit Basil’s Kite asks the question bubbling below the surface for everyone with a watchful eye; who does our disengagement benefit?

However, a radically different relationship, a fierce, relentless antagonism, develops between structure and surroundings on Air Pressure by Philip Samartzis and Michael Vorfeld, an ambient record built primarily upon harrowing field recordings from a research lab in Antarctica.

The aggressive atmospheric black metal of Eiger by Aara recounts the story of climbers who lost their lives scaling a nearly vertical peak in the Swiss alps, meditating upon those vast natural monuments we were never meant to master.

Taking the dark, noisy, dissonant world of contemporary post rock and injecting a healthy dose of progressive rock extravagance, Un manual de signos y sintomas by Vientos Moderados del Este uses its extensive guitar solos and varied songwriting in the service of intense, abrasive emotional themes.

With all the grace of traditional country and all the angst of post hardcore, New Old Horse by Twine presents the perfect genre fusion to bolster lyrical sentiments of stagnation, decay, and melancholy.

Of course, elements of hope have always appeared alongside the despair in emo, but the chiptune-infused bedroom skramz of The Civil War in France tilts fully towards the light on There You Are !, an album that processes a troubled past but strides boldly into an uncertain future.

From their own precarious vantage point in Lebanon, Sandy Chamoun, Anthony Sahyoun, and Jad Atoui use their new album Ghadr as a space to vent frustration about the blatant evil going unpunished, and oftentimes outright rewarded, in the world, all without succumbing to a natural soul-shattering pessimism.

Stripped of the meaning typically associated with ancient esoteric rituals, the orphaned prayers of Rawskulled by Ak’chamel unsettle us in all the ways that religion ought to make us feel safe.

Techno organizes chaotic energy across time through a standard rhythm, and rarely has that purpose been made more clear than on the new album ……t by SHXCXCHCXSH.

The eerie lo-fi sounds of AUTHOR by herratic construct an environment excessively hostile to the individual, pushing against the explosive anger of the featured rappers to create sounds of deep unease and discomfort.

On Petals by Warm Currency, change constantly haunts us, threatening us with decay even as our current surroundings inspire nothing but dread already.