Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
The Alternative Weekly Roundup is a column where our staff plugs a variety of new releases in a concise, streamlined format: albums, singles, videos, live sets. Check back every other Monday to see what we were jamming the week prior.
since torino – reunion dinner
Sheffield slowcore trio since torino has been keeping busy this year, kicking 2025 off with their a long night down to calgary EP and now closing it out with reunion dinner. The intervening eight months have evidently helped quite a bit, as reunion dinner is a significant step forward for them. The compositions here are more complex than on their previous material, and these songs twist off into different, unexpected directions in ways that feel earned and rewarding; the title track is a four-and-a-half minute crescendo so subtle it’s barely noticeable until the violins are drowning out the whispered vocals, and the gentle, folksy warble of “oh, angelo” is interrupted by a white-hot riff that colors the entire second half of the song. The most impressive song on reunion dinner, though, is the opening “truth,” which brings a little bit of emo angst into the mix; the guitars are louder and fiercer than on any other song in since torino’s discography, and the way they snake around the vocals throughout the verses is masterful.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Actor Observer – “An Exercise in Futility”
“An Exercise in Futility,” the third standalone Actor Observer single from this year, might be the best; certainly it’s the one that best captures the general vibe of the year. “Another day spent yelling at a falling sky / everything just feels so crushing all the time,” Greg Marquis belts on the chorus, after two minutes of some of the prettiest and most melodic music the band’s ever laid to tape—and after that it all comes crashing down. The guitars get louder, get heavier, just explode, and Marquis howls like he’s trying to wake the whole world up. There’s no peace to be found here, as the title suggests, and even the moments of respite invite more questions: “We’re not complicit / we’re just numb / but what’s the difference?” Actor Observer doesn’t preach, doesn’t claim to know the solutions, but they do advocate for one thing on “An Exercise in Futility.” The only thing they advise is to never give in “to the notion that it’s all a waste of time.”
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
demeanour – My Own Fate
Back in July, Birkenhead hardcore band demeanour released their debut My Own Fate, a unique EP with samples and moments of distortion that sound straight out of a Super Nintendo JRPG. The transition from the interlude “The Approach” to “Witness” makes for some of my favorite hardcore songs of the year. I look forward to whatever they do next—Demeanour’s making something truly different in a genre that often suffers from derivativeness.
Daniella Pasquarelli
Holidays in United States – “Hit the G Chord Like a Boss”
Holidays in United States has only been releasing music since last July, but they’ve already racked up a considerable discography: a self-titled EP, a double single, a three-way split with ideasforconversations and Branching Out, and now they’ve got another EP slated for release in less than a month. That announcement comes with the release of “Hit the G Chord Like a Boss,” the best Holidays in United States song yet. They make the most of the 106 seconds of the song, cramming in all the hallmarks of the best bands of the early 2010s; whether those years call to mind Joyce Manor, Algernon Cadwallader, Snowing, or Tawny Peaks, Holidays in United States will scratch that itch without feeling like cheap nostalgia bait.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Accidents Never Happen – Hurt People Hurt People
Oslo’s Accidents Never Happen has been quiet for over fifteen years, but they’re making the most of their comeback. When they were first active in the late 2000s, the style of garagey post-punk they dealt in was on its way out; on Hurt People Hurt People, their third LP, it sounds refreshing. Accidents Never Happen are still just as groovy, just as kinetic (see “Seeds,” “Weight”), but in 2025 their sound’s taken on a darker edge. There are shadows hanging over songs like “Bachelor Number One,” which taps into the same kind of darkness as Unknown Pleasures without feeling rote, and “Skydancer,” a wailing epic made for the dancefloor at a funeral.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
The Alternative’s ‘New Music Friday’ playlist
Each week we compile a playlist of songs our staff has been jamming. We post it on Fridays and then include it in each edition of the Weekly Roundup to make sure you don’t miss any of the great music we’re recommending.
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