The EP sort of lost its way in 2025. What used to be a great release method to introduce newer artists into the fold or bridge the work between an established act’s two creative eras became this awfully abused tactic of marketing and promotion. Tour announcement? Here’s a new three-song “EP” featuring a track from the same recording session as the album currently being supported plus two remixes. Need to remind listeners ahead of list season that the label’s golden goose dropped an album a mere three months ago and you’re afraid listeners they’ve already forgotten about because there’s way too much music? Let’s reimagine three songs from it in extended edit or demo form.

This is to say, there was a lot of unnecessary bullshit masquerading as the EP when it was just inconsequential content. Yet, the art of the extended play is still a thriving practice if you were able to sift through all of that publicity noise. What you won’t find is one consistent story being told beyond the fact that the standouts came from every which corner of the underground and alternative landscapes — though this year arguably is loaded with newer artists making the most of their moments in short order from really exciting ideas that should have you eager to see what they do next. And because it’s all the more interesting (and dangerous) to rank their efforts, these pages have made the move to do just that this time around. These are the 15 Best EPs of 2025.

15. Method of Doubt – Total Soul Ignition [Scheme Records]

“We’re not gunna espouse the marketable factors of a hardcore seven inch that we already know to be good and worth your consideration as a human being on this shared earth. It’s made by them, for all of us and that enough makes it worth your 8 minutes and 15 seconds,” reads the bio behind Method of Doubt’s surprise EP, Total Soul Ignition, that was a surprise not just for the fact it dropped late in November without any warning, but because the Floridian hardcore band had broken up following their 2021 debut album, Staring At Patterns, and hardly anyone knew they were back at work in the studio together. In a day and age where even the so-called DIY hardcore bands come armed with a well-connected publicist, professionally-directed music videos for each single along the album or EP promo cycle, more concern about first week streams, and shilling “limited” (a.k.a. overpriced) Gildan heavy tees, the EP is a reminder is that all you really need is heart-on-those-Gildan-sleeves hardcore poetry bodied in melodically brutal motion.

14. Steel Wool – Steel Wool [Bug Body]

“Fading”, the opening track off Steel Wool’s eponymous debut EP, glides into the atmosphere under a bluff of dream-pop before something remarkable happens. First, Sean Lissner’s separates the clouds from the clear blue sky using a cherubic croon rarely heard in today’s shoegaze swirls. Then, bassist Jaden Amjadi tears it all apart through a choral screamo bout. On paper, none of this should work, but on the other hand, thank god the Los Angeles band are daring to try something singular, unlike many of their peers who are merely retreading the genre’s past to diminishing rewards. The listen only gets more abstract from there. “Another Sunday” is the Smiths through a shitgaze filter while “Eyes Closed” pairs Lissner’s handsome vocals over a lo-fi loop of corrosive pop and electronic drums. “Heaven or La Brea” and “Tired Movements” are reminders that prestige-baiting indie rock built around a foundation of sentimentality and melodic grandeur can still impress with the right approach when it doesn’t immediately blend to beige.

13. Youth Code – Yours, With Malice [Sumerian Records]

Our timeline moves so fast these days that a band being away for just a couple of years can oddly feel like a lifetime ago. In the case of Youth Code, the four years since their last released any new music really does seem like we were living in totally different world, and music scene for that matter. That sentiment isn’t lost on the singular tour de force within heavy EBM innovation that is Sara Taylor and Ryan George on their return EP, Yours, With Malice. Whereas other artists used these last few years to react to the moment, the Los Angeles duo have sought to further immerse themselves inside their own world where self-reflection and taking stock of inner aggressions boiling over had already been in motion. In using space and time to their advantage, they not only refine, but redefine their own sound across five tracks that crush together gleaming synthesizers with static, and a heavy artillery of blast beats against a new found embrace of melody without losing any of the harsher aspects that make up the foundational Youth Code identity.

12. Kelly Lee Owens – KELLY [dh2]

Last year, Kelly Lee Owens broke the infinite meditation mode that was her post-pandemic experimental outlier LP.8 and made her way out of the haze in a vibe of movement with her fourth offering, Dreamstate. From the sounds of her latest extended play, KELLY, the Welsh producer isn’t ready to leave that place just yet. It’s probably a good place as ever to be for where the mood colors our collective auras at the moment — a world rife with tension and chaos, but also all the more reason to channel that energy into something that can experienced as communal catharsis. Owens controls that precarious push and pull better than most in the realm of techno and dance by looking to the ordinary, and upending the norms in a way that leaves you primally satiated. “ASCEND”, its climactic design, is blueprint EDM right down to the build and drop, but takes the path more complex to get there: in getting outside of her mind, she finds heaven within.

11. SPEED – All My Angels [Flatspot Records]

SPEED had already been on a run behind the success of last year’s debut full-length, ONLY ONE MODE, and an endless touring regimen that most recently saw them criss-crossing the entire United States this past summer with TURNSTILE. Needless to say, they’ve earned it all through DIY blood, sweat, and tears. ALL MY ANGELS, the Sydney powerhouse hardcore band’s latest three-track extended play, is more than just a victory lap staying in cruise control, though. It’s a gear-shift that keeps their engine running on max while looking back on the hard road they’ve taken to get to get here. Being away most of the time — often half-way around the world — means missing the big moments and coming to terms with the fact that life will happen regardless, for better or for worse, whether you’re there for it or not. SPEED confront this catch-22 head-on by doing what they’ve willed as their super strength: honoring their community through really fucking fast and heavy music.

10. Nuovo Testamento – Trouble [Discoteca Italia]

Anyone who has ever found themselves drawn toward the fringes of the punk, hardcore, and goth communities to satiate their aggressions while lusting for a straight-up pop exorcism to shake it off will discover that Nuovo Testamento are your people. Before they were known to manifest dances in the dark, the trio of vocalist Chelsey Crowley, drummer Giacomo Zatti, and synthesist Andrea Mantione came together from various corners of those scenes from bands like TØRSÖ and Horror Vacui. They understand how to build bridges between polarities as well as realize how it’s the overlooked corners of our culture where you’ll often find more interesting commentaries on mainstream art. Having already outlined palpable cold wave and ’80s synth-pop textures with 100% accuracy on their 2021 debut LP, New Earth, and 2023’s sophomore follow-up, Love Lines, Nuovo Testamento’s latest EP, Trouble, reaches beyond the obvious, establishing them as a progressive force in the contemporary alternative dance-pop landscape without dissolving their retro influences. More specifically, it’s a heart-beating love letter to freestyle and house-pop acknowledges the dark and heartbreak of it all in pure euphoric form.

9. Blue Zero – CONFUSION [Self-released]

In the world of Blue Zero, CONFUSION is clarity. One year ago, multi-band Bay Area scene freak Chris Natividad presented his thesis statement on noisy, post-punk explorations with his latest project on their debut album, colder shade blue. Like any proper debut from a nascent band, plenty of great — albeit, respectfully familiar — ideas could be found within the static for listeners to dig through while leaving next steps for the project to figure out where to go from there on an ellipses. On their latest EP — a rock-solid four-track move toward friction-filled cohesion — the Oakland quartet feels more solidified in their identity of their flux sound: there are many that they can and will do well, all at once. Hacking into Sonic Youth’s destroyed room architecture and a casually Baggy ‘gaze fit, Blue Zero do so in the spiritual reverence of subversion, evolving their sound into the multiplicity of noise as pop music.

8. Mil-Spec – Mil-Spec [Lockin’ Out]

Mil-Spec don’t do press cycles. The release of both their 2020 breakthrough debut, World House, and 2023’s Marathon came without much advance warning. That’s once again true with the out-of-nowhere drop of the Toronto progressive melodic hardcore band’s new eponymous EP. The sextet’s constant craft holds true in being a timeless one in its sound and convictions — vocalist Andrew Pedan is right up there with Fiddlehead / Have Heart / How Much Art frontman Patrick Flynn in the impassioned shout-along department while guitarists Dan Darrah, Matt Laforge and Codey Thompson whip up big cascading riffs that are both heavy and levitational as drummer Jacob Hellas and Brandon MacFarlane ensure the beat keeps their pace from fraying in momentum. All this, that is, up until it actually does break free from the continuum and Mil-Spec jams hardcore into the psychedelic, finding a groove with it all that could go on infinitely if they wanted. It’s a brief stay nonetheless, but if the music went on forever, would that be such a bad thing.

7. Glixen – quiet pleasures [AWAL / Wichita Recordings]

Glixen have had the kind of success come quickly that should naturally cause anyone to pause and wonder if all of the buzz is merited. quiet pleasures, their sophomore extended play, should easily answer that question. Across five tracks, vocalist Aislinn Richie alongside lead guitarist Esteban Santana, drummer Keire Johnson, and bassist Sonia Garcia have grown beyond the feedback-drenched aesthetical tutorial of their 2023 debut, She Never Said, and muscled up with melody within their wall of sound that — backed by the embossed production of Sonny Diperre (My Bloody Valentine, DIIV) — hits a sweet spot between heavily and heavenly. Richie’s haloed voice etching its way to the foreground suggests the band is growing more confident in rendering their songs around pop-minded substance, and held within the balance between the listen’s eardrum-blistering instrumental intro and lush speaker-blown lullabies, the EP feels like an early taste of their wider screen ambitions coming together strongly.

6. Wishy – Planet Popstar [Winspear]

How on Earth do you expand on an already-perfected sound? Wishy themselves might be too humble to admit it themselves, but last year’s debut album, Triple Seven, sounded like a document of a band who arrived onto the scene with a creative head fully formed from the best style guides of ’90s college rock, dream-pop and shoegaze, and trip-hop pulled off in the hook and chorus of dueling vocalists and guitarists Kevin Krauter and Nina Pitchkites’ delivery. The Indianapolis indie rockers’ six-song extended play, Planet Popstar, comes from the same sessions that gave the world Triple Seven, but there’s an obvious intentionality from the five-piece here to challenge themselves to that initial question at hand by going as high as possible. Kirby references aside in its sugar-torched title and opener, the listen imagines a future timeline in the universe where Wishy are indeed the biggest pop-rock band on the planet, or at the very least have what it takes to sound like one in the studio.

5. MSPAINT – No Separation [Convulse Records]

MSPAINT have been on a nonstop tear since blowing up in the scene with a sound that’s not exclusively hardcore or punk or synth-pop, but a high voltage synergy of all of them — with zero guitars to be found in it, albeit — with their 2023 standout debut, Post-American. Times like these necessitate everything that the Hattiesburg crew burled up in the bars of their charismatic frontman Deedee and go hard in offering a recharge to our batteries to survive these dark, collapsing stage capitalism times. To do this, the four-piece went into the studio with Julian Cashwan Pratt and Harlan Steed of fellow punk experimentalists Show Me the Body who bring out a higher definition, flashier effect from MSPAINT’s pixelated aggression. The creative collaboration clearly pushes them to lock into a splatter of industrial electronic rock and pop-minded amperages where anthems like its skyscraper of a title track and “Angel” are built to booster a will to live in the face of daily oppressions.

4. febuary – Run Like a Girl [Self-released]

“This EP is more than just music — it’s our heart, our struggles, and our journey as women / individuals in an industry that’s never been easy,” read febuary’s introduction to their extended play, Run Like A Girl. It’s been a hot minute since we’ve heard something truly resonating and more so — authentically emotively — beyond already-established DIY screamo and emo torchbearers within the scene, but the Las Vegas quartet really picked their moment to make a statement with their breakthrough offering. The music itself absolutely rips your heart out, more importantly, with their strength being in the nascent interiors of their music from a band building their own foundation of sound through basement and bedrooms walls, and now into the studio (Jack Shirley, studio guru of past Deafheaven, Gouge Away, and Loma Prieta work, mixed and mastered the EP) where gloss and precision isn’t yet needed. The raw, live hiss, the heavy breathing, and the switch-ups from serrated vocals to extra-punctuated spoken word is what makes the emotions bleed through to the listener in an unfiltered earnestness.

3. ira glass – joy is no knocking nation [Angel Tapes / Fire Talk]

Holy fuck, do ira glass really live and breathe the sentiment of singularity loudly, as the buzzworthy Chicago four-piece of vocalist and guitarist Lise Ivanova, bassist Kaleb Wallace, drummer Landon Kerouc, and saxophonist Jill Roth are a beyond describable wonder doing the city’s underground rock scene saint Steve Albini and his Electric Studio Audio lineage proud through their bastion of noise rock, volatile post-hardcore, and explosive free jazz that eludes all concrete shape. With joy is no knocking nation, their second EP following last year’s breakthrough, compound turbulence flexing for the heat, it’s as if the band’s feral instincts to celebrate this raw, messy, confrontational yet charismatic bout of noise are only growing stronger. Their defiance to box themselves into any certain corner? Well, that remains part of the unexpected thrill upon hitting play — these five tracks within are nothing alike yet still somehow manage to piece themselves together in spite of their edges being jagged and frayed.

2. BALMORA – Prologue [Daze / Ephyra Records]

Big things are coming by way of BALMORA at some point soon. The Connecticut band is a glorious bastion of hardcore and metal weight who have been touring relentlessly as well as hitting up the fest circuit for the last two years under the promise of their first EP, 2023’s With Thorns of Glass and Petals of Grief. Prologue is their second extended play, although it’s such a solid tease. Usually, these three-track releases play out more like brief maxi singles, but every song on Prologue makes the most from its stay, sounding like the full-blooded muscle-and-bone formation of BALMORA since they solidified their ranks as the five-piece of vocalist Senti, guitarists Jay and Collin, Lumpy on bass, and drummer Chaz. This is telling in how they’re delivering towering epics building staircases into the the sky through varying sheaths of riffs, bludgeons and breakdowns, gut-wrenching scowls that land somewhere between black metal and beatdown hardcore, and heaping melodic grandeur onto it all. If this is just the setup to the rest of their story, the first chapter is going to be something else.

1. forever ☆ – Second Gen Dream [à La Carte Records]

Junglegaze? Dream n bass? Music like forever ☆’s should get you excited. There’s nothing else really out there right now that sounds like the hyperactive experimental shoegaze techno pop exploration that is the Kansas City duo’s second EP, Second Gen Dream. For those craving a break from the usual templates of well-mined and refined indie rock that passes the listenability test just fine but isn’t necessarily pushing any boundaries forward, Dave Chavez and Rachel Stang are here to fuck up the status quo of the underground with just the right amount of sensory overload you’ll hear blowing out of the stereo across a solidly stacked seven-track play that puts most proper full-length albums released in 2025 to shame. Don’t worry — you still get more than your fair fix of blown-out guitars and lovelorn, heaven-ascendant vocals, but the way forever ☆ accentuate the aerodynamic ride of shoegaze’s core body by transcending its airy bliss onto the streets of rave, you can’t help but throw caution to their wind and just let them take you wherever they’re escaping to.