“Get me out of this hell.“
Part II by Jonathan Tan, the rest by Dobbin T, with thanks to the rest of the Boolin Tunes Discord for its perpetually healthy discourse.
The end-of-year process is a time of great excitement and positivity in the Boolin Tunes camp. We spend November revising our personal lists, then the editors get together to compile our key articles: top albums, top EPs, and top (non-album) singles. We end up saying some quite harsh things about otherwise fantastic releases on the way to the final cut, but ultimately, everything that makes it is considered a “winner”.
We feel these lists are the key way that we communicate our remit to the world. We avoid calling ourselves an exclusively rock, metal, punk, alternative, or “heavy scene” site, not because we shy away from genre categorisation, but because we are trying to let the output speak for itself. There’s no better demonstration of this than our hotly debated final set.
However, our outlook is not just defined by what we love. You do not form a coherent critical perspective without drawing lines somewhere, making real decisions on what constitutes a positive contribution to contemporary music culture. We review so many releases and rarely go out of our way to talk about the bad ones – look across our reviews and you’ll hardly find any that are strongly negative. This article is our way of setting the record straight and questioning the field of alt music reviewing at large because we’ve been troubled by some trends for quite some time. It’s time to say some quiet parts out loud.
(I) The Good, the Bad, and the Divisive
To begin this article, we must explain our review process for studio albums and EPs, which is the main way we provide critique at Boolin Tunes. Our approach is probably no different from equivalent sites: we note future releases, discuss who should review each one, gain promo access through the artists, labels or PRs, and put out our reviews on the week of release. The selection of the reviewer is essential: that individual needs to have the knowledge, impartiality, and context to speak authoritatively on an album (and, of course, they must be willing to review it with their hard-earned time). That context includes experience of the artist’s prior work and that of the artists that orbit and came before them. So, more often than not, we’re putting forward an existing fan that we can ensure is both enthusiastic and objective. We don’t pick people who are out to do hit jobs, unless we agree by consensus that the release really deserves it, and even then you’ll find our negative reviews are carefully measured. Once selected, a review’s contents is completely the reviewer’s alone. We do not aggregate – this is not Rotten Tomatoes, RateYourMusic or Album of the Year – you are getting the undiluted opinion of one individual.
All of this typically leads to positive reviews. And that’s not hyperbole – this year has contained so many good releases, and the most important part of our mission is to highlight those releases. The editors only step in to ensure that the meaning of our rating scale is consistent across the site, and that we aren’t handing out too many for the top end (though Shane “Sha9e” C might be on watch next year). Divisive releases, ones which we internally disagree on (for we routinely and vigorously disagree), present a challenge to handle carefully, and this year has had plenty too. So what gave us pause?
Just to emphasise further, the following releases are simply those that sparked internal debate. Even our 2022 album of the year, Thornhill’s Heroine, was absolute marmite within our ranks, and we still gave it the top spot. This year, The Callous Daoboys’ I Don’t Want To See You In Heaven is one such release – Kathleen represented the vast majority with her strong review, but there was a good bit of disagreement as the band attempted to pull off many bold moves. Surprisingly, no thanks to its prickly soundscapes and daunting length, Ethel Cain’s Perverts received a lukewarm review from Tim and confused many more; yet one madman among us calls it their favourite of the year. If the release of Perverts did anything, it prepared the way for Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You to be warmly embraced site-wide. Poor Jack Crosby-Griggs was a strong proponent for both Paleface Swiss and Tallah, both of which received a thorough lampooning on the internal chats. Jack hereby receives the Boolin Tunes Award for Most Brave Reviewer in 2025. Note that all of the linked reviews are positive; when divisive albums come through, we aren’t setting them up to fail by choice of reviewer.
There is one king among these divisive releases, and this choice should surprise few who have read this far. This year Sleep Token continued their meteoric rise towards gateway band status, accruing plenty of praise and flak along the way. There’s possibly no Sleep Token release that explains this better than Even In Arcadia. If you are a hater, it was the demonstration you were hoping to see. It was textbook Vessel moping over his electronic keyboard with milquetoast trap beats ringing out into droll nothingness. This time around, there are fourth-wall-breaking lyrics that make the anonymity schtick even more tired, and genre tourism through ‘token’ nods to math rock and blackgaze. Many continue to argue that their metal roots are becoming more and more vestigial, and to give credit to that idea, the audiences they’ve pulled to their arena shows seem to demonstrate this.
However, if you’re in the “worshipper” category, or maybe just a normal fucking person these days, the consensus has landed it as a ‘good’ album. The record takes the old formula and crafts an effective world, with an uncommon pacing that’s genuinely hard to find elsewhere. It might have made some strong moments on the way, but the dust seems to have settled on it being sub-par next to Take Me Back To Eden, and in no parallel universe is “Caramel” the song of the year. It’s surely time for them to shake up their sound with the next release.
Boolin Tunes has many ardent fans who have been following Sleep Token almost as long as the band has existed. This is best demonstrated by our (in)famous lore article, first published in early 2023, well before the mainstream press had realised how many clicks the Sleep Token fanbase could drive. Our live reviews back when they could still play actually good venues. It was easy to pick Maximo David to review Even In Arcadia, who did a great job of handling it in the context of the band’s short and crazy history, and Take Me Back To Eden’s air of finality. We’re glad to be an outlet that falls into neither stan nor hater culture, and no matter how good the next Sleep Token album is (or isn’t), we hope you trust us to meaningfully cover it.
We’re not done being measured with our words, but we are done being positive. It’s time to talk about Jordan Fish.
(II) The Absolute State of Modern Metalcore
We would be remiss to offer our perspectives on the modern metalcore scene. While our site does have its underground niche tendencies, metalcore is still the forefront of the heavy music scene as a whole. While we do not catch every single one, we do still cover a good number of metalcore’s biggest releases each year.
Opinions on the genre umbrella vary within the camp, some more jaded than others, but we do have a general consensus that many of the releases from major players in 2025 have been somewhat lacklustre. The Devil Wears Prada is a recent example that comes to mind, as their latest album, Flowers, felt like a massive step down in songwriting and creativity from the legendary band. While there is merit to be found in the emotionally honest lyrics, the overly safe conventions that the record found itself returning to over and over felt poorly executed.
There is an air of weariness that comes with examining metalcore’s most popular releases. I (Jonathan Tan) would know, seeing as I’ve reviewed many such records. Front page band Dayseeker offer up one of their least engaging performances to date on Creature In The Black Night, with the mere vestiges of a heavier sound (which they spent months teasing) that fail to deliver on any meaningful impact. Jordan Fish of ex-Bring Me The Horizon fame often elicits banterful bashing internally, but it is not unfounded. The man credited for bringing the iconic UK band to its current meteoric heights has left a lot to be desired with his projects as a producer. His style does a good job of being big and loud, but it is ultimately painfully cookie-cutter. The Sky, The Earth and All Between by Architects might be the most egregious example, although this is far from Fish’s sole responsibility. The UK titans found themselves backpedalling to a predictable metalcore sound in an attempt at a clapback at their detractors, resulting in an album that feels like a return to form, but this is only because they set their own bar so low with their previous album. Legacy bands from the scenecore days like Underoath and I See Stars find themselves seemingly lost in today’s landscape, releasing some of their most ear-grating material to date.
I must stress that if you enjoy any of the aforementioned releases from these bands, you have every right to that enjoyment. Opinions are subjective after all. There’s comfort to be found in the contrived; I would know as a fan of Bad Omens. Still, one can enjoy these releases and acknowledge that for a genre built on fusion and experimentation, it could have been a lot more.
That all being said, the situation is very far from hopeless. Gems exist, and you don’t even have to dig that deep to find them. Right alongside the frontrunners, Spiritbox show us with their sophomore record, Tsunami Sea, that modern metalcore can be accomplished without compromising on band identity and sound. On the other side of the globe, Melbourne’s Thornhill continues on their endeavour to establish a sound that’s truly their own, unbound by genre conventions and unafraid to ruffle feathers. BODIES is divisive, but in a way that deserves merit. Look a little further beyond the big names, and you’ll find that metalcore is thriving in a different sense. The progressive metalcore subgenre may be losing some steam as far as popularity goes as of late, but bands like Dreamwake forge forward with a unique, synthwave-infused sound on The Lost Years that struck me as one of the most engaging records of the year. We may not have had the chance to cover it, but Germany’s Vianova has demonstrated that boundary-pushing and absolutely unhinged heavy music still strikes a chord with many with the reception to their recent record, HIT IT!.
The resurgence of the metalcore revival is well and alive in 2025, with bands such as Dying Wish leading the charge with Flesh Stays Together, bringing the raw aggression and emotion that should be the genre’s defining characteristic. Newer bands like Long Goodbye capture the 2000s DIY aesthetic with character, defying the overly polished and quantised standards of modern production choices that often plague many of today’s metalcore records. It is precisely this willingness and commitment to genuine emotion and creativity that keeps me coming back to the many subgenres of metalcore, even if it means I have to look a bit harder to find it.
To put on a wider set of lenses for a moment, there is an issue on a societal level that consequently permeates much of metalcore’s online discussion in that discourse is increasingly more difficult to achieve. In a culture of ragebaiting and mob mentalities where “if you aren’t with us, you’re against!”, genuine criticism of an album can feel nigh impossible. It has come to a point where nearly every major metalcore release gets a resounding standing ovation, and any valid criticism is shot down as “hating”. It seems all too easy to get a shining review these days. Meanwhile, more critical reviews from smaller sites such as ours get branded as spiteful or overly negative. Indeed, it can be easy to brand our site as a brood of cynical contrarians (our often blunt writing style may not help that), but I can confidently say that it is out of a genuine love and passion for heavy music that we choose to honestly critique. If everyone tells you that you are perfect, how do you improve?
Grievances aired, and spotlights shone, there is undoubtedly still a lot of potential in modern metalcore. I encourage you to look beyond what is pushed by major media outlets and TikTok virality. There’s a world of promising bands that would love for you to join their audience.
(III) Are Ya Winning, Freelance Music Writer?
Next, we will shift our gaze away from ourselves and examine the scene at large, using some specific releases as case studies. We were quite stunned that Slaughter to Prevail saw so much positive press surrounding GRIZZLY, the least ambitious and most annoying deathcore album of the year. Slaughter to Prevail have constructed this album for an audience of metalheads who only watch those viral vocal reels, where some guy, lit by Razer gaming lights, lip syncs over something that’s already quad-tracked, whilst the camera shakes as if begging you to fall from your seat. Brutal in aesthetic only, any deathcore release we’ve reviewed this year runs circles around GRIZZLY. Slaughter to Prevail offer no unexpected moments, just thoroughly gridded instrumentals with lacklustre vocals that communicate nothing but unattractive machismo. The riffs wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow if they were at minute zero on a YouTube video titled “2 HOURS OF INSTRUMENTAL DEATHCORE TO WORK OUT TO”.
Looking back, it’s a shame that we declined to review the record. It’s not just that it would be fun to dress down; it would also have been our opportunity to lay out the argument that their frontman is, at best, a useful idiot for a lot of assholes, and at worst, an adept dogwhistler preaching to his audience of edgelords. We haven’t deliberately no-platformed the band – it’s simply the case that none of our writers wanted to inflict the record on themselves. Had we all the time in the world, we’d certainly do our duty and put out a compelling, entertaining and insightful piece that brings in all the context that’s needed. The real question is why have so few sites approached it with any nuance? Even if you only have the promo blurb to go by, it closes on a song called “1984” – what louder clarion call do you need to get off your ass and figure out what’s going on in the band’s little heads?
This pattern has arisen in recent years with Marilyn Manson and Falling in Reverse, whose recent releases ought to have been the perfect chance for Dave Everly-esque classics. Instead, so many outlets couldn’t wait to tell us about adopted bear cubs in the lead-up to GRIZZLY’s release, or turn the band’s various nothing-vox pops into news tidbits. We’d expect a lot better from Metal Hammer’s review of GRIZZLY, which made no mention of Alex Terrible’s alt-twat persona, yet went on to compare the opener “Banditos” to The fucking Chariot. In a rare move indicating some editorial oversight, Kerrang somewhat succeeded by not covering it at all. I counted two insightful reviews amid a sea of context-free praise. Let it be known, those who do take the time to pick releases such as this apart, we salute you. The rest of you make us wonder if you’re in this ‘press’ game to be part of the cultural commentary, or if you’re just handing your review to ChatGPT to play favours for your next arena show photopass.
Stepping back from the abjectly awful, there’s one release that we declined to review but bugged us on an editorial level. Delilah Bon is nothing like the aforementioned artists – she’s a well-intentioned musician who irritates us all the same. Her “brat metal” campaign continued in 2025 with the PRINCELESS PRINCESS EP. Once again, her music was so busy being absorbed in its haters that it did nothing to advocate for itself. Since the rest of the press lavishes praise on her work, we’d love to explain our point of view, but it’s just not worth threading that needle. Even writing as a queer individual, hearing her music makes me feel like I’m one of the incels she’s rallying against. We proudly work hard to cover a lot of queer musicians, and ultimately, our choices come much more down to subgenre than the delivery of the message. With Bon, it would be pulling teeth to separate tone policing from artistic criticism, and thus, we’ve not bothered.
Of course, our quibbles here are a mere peeve compared to the likes of Slaughter to Prevail. The connecting thread is the lack of context-driven dissent from the press in cases where it’s so desperately needed. So many sites seem to accept anything that’s aesthetically alternative or metal, regardless of the quality of its music, and without interrogating the individuals, positively or negatively. As for Delilah Bon, things are fine – brat punk is flourishing in its lane and sells out tours with ease. All we can say is that there’s a tween audience out there that needed to hear “BUSH” this year; we didn’t.
(IV) The Elephant in the Room
There is one 2025 release that cannot go unmentioned, representing a category five existential threat for alternative music. An industry plant that’s taken root in broad daylight, lapped up with so much enthusiasm that we’re wracked with second-hand embarrassment for the scene at large. For all the criticism swirling around the bigger bugbear of the scene, at least they created the cutter that this particular cookie crumbles out of.
Watching PRESIDENT break out has been deplorable. First, the mixed signals around their shadowy Download fest debut led many to believe they would be a Sleep Token adjacent project. If that didn’t do it, then the ‘anonymity’ marketing certainly did. Of course, it was immediately obvious who was fronting the band, and what’s more sickening is that they could easily have been honest about who its members are, and still achieved success. Unfortunately, the gimmick just works too well – in 2025, why be a ‘supergroup’ when you can be a ‘masked band’?
As the singles dropped, any remaining intrigue evaporated, as it turned out to be dogshit. And yet that Download tent was thronging, the metrics went crazy, everyone’s talking about them, and the fans have gobbled up the corny script that’s been handed to them. Even the widespread goodwill for the singer doesn’t explain them selling out their 2026 UK tour so quickly.
One of the scariest things that PRESIDENT represents is the fear that nothing a fledgling band does really matters. They can tour extensively, play the press circuit, craft meaningful social commentary, have “lore” (whatever that means), make two reels a day, make bomb merch, sell that merch out the back to avoid venue merch cuts… You can even make good music – it clearly doesn’t matter. You’ll never start with the backing of Warner Music via ADA, the guy from Busted, and the worst marketing gimmick in the business. The entire project is such perfect engagement bait that the sonic elements are just an afterthought, cynically crafted for the defective attentions of the post-Sleep Token audience. King of Terrors will be examined by social philosophers as a musical Skinner box for years to come, that is, if they can even discern it from the autoplayed AI slurry that Warner itself is preparing to flood the system with.
It wouldn’t hurt if more honest and much more interesting artists weren’t struggling so much. We’re so proud of how far so many of our ones to watch have come, yet few among them have experienced the kind of success that could let them go full-time. Despite interest in heavy music surging, the door seems to be closing on the talented. PRESIDENT prove that there are almost no honest ways to break through anymore.