I listen to a lot of music. No, really. If I’m not catching up on what my dudes recommend with The Indie Inspection and Ska Punk & Other Junk, or doing homework for the Crushed Monocle Podcast, I’ve got my ear to the ground for what’s next. There’s so much music out there that it’s hard to keep a cohesive list. While the podcast is a great way to discuss a few records each month, I feel I’m undercutting some of the other records that got repeated spins. What’s the remedy? This column! This is The Showcase.
Split Chain – motionblur
Starting things off with a recommendation from Jon himself, site owner and host of Crushed Monocle Podcast! On the surface, motionblur feels barely held together. It’s gripping and restless with every shift between tension and release, and there’s always a chance that a track will turn into a different subgenre. What makes it hit so hard is that, beneath the grunge-meet-nu-metal chaos, humanity lies firmly rooted in something honest and vulnerable. Without question, Split Chain has delivered one of the most quietly devastating debuts in recent memory.
Flooding – object 1
Flooding returns with a short but purposeful EP that sharpens the band’s signature sound into something more potent. While 2023’s Silhouette Machine laid the groundwork, Object 1 doubles down on dissonance and drone while blending haunting melodies with some surprisingly catchy hooks. It’s a push-pull between beauty and abrasion. The result is a deeply immersive, emotionally raw release that confronts as much as it captivates.
Bleeth – Marionette
Yeah, I know I’m late on this, as it dropped a few months ago. But good music should never care about timelines. Marionette hits like a sonic gut punch that bends space, time, and whatever sense of self you had left. All year long, I’ve started each installment of The Showcase talking about how it feels like civilization is running on fumes. And this feels like the perfect soundtrack to that slow collapse. It doesn’t just explore fear, freedom, and existential dread; it’s living in them with us. When post-metal needs to mean more, I’m thankful that we’ve got Bleeth.
Wytches Moon – Abrahadabra
Wytches Moon is the one-man creation of Ian Farms, also of Grael, Goatskin, and Spellbine. This project blends doom and stoner metal into a heavy, fuzz-drenched brew. But beneath the thick riffs lies a subtle streak of gothic flair. Not so much the musical kind, but the eerie, cinematic goth of late-’60s Hammer horror. It might be on the nose, but perfectly in step with the vibe!
Worst Ones –Cold Case
Much like Twitch-era Ministry and early NIN, Worst Ones makes you want to smash the system and dance on its grave. From the jump, a stomping beat and snarling synth line hit with the force of a steel-toed boot to the chest. And it only gets nastier from there. Anthemic and unhinged, “Cold Case” somehow threads the needle between industrial chaos and pure pop brilliance. The remix on the flipside celebrates the groove even more. The Wax Trax sound is alive and well.
KNUB – CRUB
On their full-length debut, KNUB delivers a dense, deliberate slab of metallic hardcore, noise rock, and post-hardcore chaos. Built from jagged riffs and guttural roars, CRUB feels more exorcism than performance. Yet within the rubble lies precision: tension, release, and calculated dissonance. It’s an overwhelming but purposeful purge of anxiety and rage in the best way. Refusing to polish or compromise, Knub reminds us what heavy music can still do when it rejects comfort and attends the church of Helmet.
Bursting – Bursting
Bursting is a post-hardcore supergroup that actually lives up to the hype, blending the raw energy of Stress Positions and Thou with alt-rock hooks that nod to Quicksand and Jawbox without sounding like anyone but themselves. Their debut EP is a lean, snarling, melodic, and pissed off in all the right ways. Tracks like “Play It Nice” and “Just Ghosts” hit hard with sharp lyrics, dynamic shifts, and a real sense of urgency. It’s short, loud, and essential.
NOTARGET – NOTARGET
Equal parts Joy Division and Bauhaus, NOTARGET is the best parts of early industrial and dark wave. Each track on this record was pulled from the cold corners of post-apocalyptic gloom and stitched together with the anti-romance of B-movie synths. There’s a haunted rawness that hits harder than walls of distortion ever could. Detached, urgent, and eerily calm in the face of emotional collapse, this is the blueprint for a whole mood.
Witchsnake – Satanas
What? You thought I was gonna get through an edition of The Showcase without some sort of fuzzy, self-aware goth rock? For this month’s obligatory selection, we have Witchsnake. Satanas has snakes, skulls, space, nudity, and blood. Who says you can’t judge an album by its cover!?
Zipper – Snow
Straddling the line between shoegaze and power-pop, Zipper is a band shrouded in low-key mystery, no thanks to barely having an internet footprint. Recently, their entire catalog quietly surfaced on Bandcamp. There’s no clear timeline, no press, no context, just a sudden flood of music. Strangely, that anonymity only makes them more intriguing to me. Their latest release, Snow, is my personal favorite. Trying to explain its pull feels impossible, but here’s my best shot for the sake of The Showcase. It sounds like finding out your crush has been into you the whole time. Familiar, euphoric, and helplessly romantic.
goodmourning – beg for what they see
Wearing dissonance like a second skin, goodmourning walks a razor’s edge between vulnerability and volatility. However, don’t mistake the detuned guitars and hushed vocals for a throwback to nu-metal. This duo leans closer to HEALTH colliding with Deftones than anything resembling Korn or Linkin Park. The grooves hit hard, the riffs are thick, and the negative space lingers, thanks to eerie ambience and creeping tension. Something sinister slithers beneath it all, and part of the thrill is never knowing exactly when or where it’ll strike.
Semicolor – End Times
Here’s another album that slipped past me despite enjoying the lead single, “The Onslaught,” a few months ago. End Times is a collection of garage rock anthems that feel like they were recorded down the street. I’m not just saying that because they’re from Chicago, although Semicolor does have that indescribable local vibe. It’s more about the natural space between punk and noise rock, untouched by the pressures of a scene. Distorted, noisy, but with a healthy amount of hooks, Semicolor is my new favorite neighborhood band.
The Showcase July 2025: Further Listening (classics, essentials, standards, and revisits)
The Stooges – Fun House
It’s hard to believe this monumental record was released 50 years ago. Fun House endures because it feels less like an album and more like a primal scream captured on tape. Upon release, it was too raw for the hippie era and too feral for mainstream rock, but that’s exactly how it still feels fresh and relevant. It’s chaos with intent: Iggy Pop howls like a man possessed, the band lurches between proto-punk sludge and free-jazz freakout. The Stooges still feel dangerous and pulse with the same sweaty, basement-show energy bands today are still trying to recreate.
Gil Scott-Heron – Pieces Of A Man
Capturing the disillusionment of being promised dignity in a system designed to withhold it, Pieces Of A Man feels timeless. Scott-Heron’s voice is measured, weary, and unflinchingly honest as he cuts through the noise of today’s performative activism and culture wars. Most importantly, it offers a reflection on what it means to survive in a world built to break you. His blend of jazz, soul, and spoken word laid the groundwork for generations of artists, but what truly endures is the way his work demands empathy without ever begging for it. I’ve been feeling the aches of disillusionment myself, and despite being released over a decade before my birth, I feel this album more than I hear it.
Eric B. & Rakim – Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em
Released in 1990, Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em bridges the golden age of hip-hop with the darker, more layered production styles that would define the ’90s. The lyrics are dense, deliberate, and surgical. At the same time, the production leans into gritty jazz loops and murky basslines wouldn’t feel out of place in today’s underground or even in mainstream projects. In a culture obsessed with authenticity and craft, Let the Rhythm Hit ’Em is a masterclass.