At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, 2025 was one of the best years for emo and emo adjacent music in decades. It felt like every Friday there was a new album of the year contender. Guitar music hasn’t been this fucking back in years. From Midwest emo to mall emo to pop punk, we saw some of the best music of the 2020s come out this year. That being said, there is a handful of bands who seem to really be grabbing the brass ring. Whether it be selling out shows across the country or releasing critically acclaimed records, we saw a helluva lot of emo bands level tf up in 2025.
On that note, rock journalism and music journalism in general has never been so dead. Yesterday I saw a tweet from SPIN magazine promoting the military. What happened to the magazine I once loved and stole from newsstands at airports in my adolescence?!? This type of shit is the very reason we started NAPNET in the first place. Alternative music doesn’t thrive in a world of corporate bullshit, so let’s take it back.
Anyways, these major media publications sure love their year end lists and superlatives and if ya can’t beat them, go make your own bastardized version.
THAT BEING SAID, THESE ARE THE 11 BANDS WHO I BELIEVED STOOD ATOP THE MOUNTAIN THIS YEAR:
Hot Mulligan
I think it’s safe to say Hot Mully have grabbed the reigns and become the face of emo. If people know one contemporary band in our world, it’s Hot Mulligan. They’re currently on tour supporting their album The Sound A Body Makes When It’s Still, playing the biggest shows of their career. They say a rising tide makes all the ships go up (or something like that), and these fellas have not only done that but they’ve also been hands on in the scene. Between bringing up-and-comers on tour with them or Tades working with bands in the scene, HM have paid their dues and paid it forward and it’s all paying off for them.
Riley!
Riding high off of their 2024 album Keep Your Cool, Riley! (the MF band!) have parlayed the success of that album into a year of non stop grinding and it’s starting to pay dividends. Not only have they toured as a support act for two other bands on this list, but they also dropped one of the best songs of 2025, “We Only Say It Out of Habit Now”. This band will be emo all stars for years to come, Lorde willing.
sports.
if you were gonna make a movie about an emo band, this might be it. After releasing the highly influential album demon daze 10 years ago, the band quietly went away to relatively little fanfare. Fast forward to now, the real sports boys are back and better than ever. This year their demon daze vinyl reissue sold out fast and they’re currently playing in front of the biggest crowds of their career. Regarded as one of the most pivotal 4th wave emo bands, it’s beautiful seeing this band get their flowers, even if it is a decade too late.
Kerosene Heights
Kerosene Heights Summer? Psh. With all due respect to the rest of this list and every other band on the planet, this entire year belonged to Kerosene Heights. They released Southeast of Somewhere a couple years ago to a lot of fanfare within the scene, but their new album Blame it on the Weather has brought them to a whole new level.
This is my album of the year. New Tattoo is my song of the year. This album is as close to perfect as I’ve ever heard, a true front to back listening experience. This year they toured with everyone from Dikembe to TRSH to Michael Cera Palin to sports. This band should be the biggest band on the planet. The Nirvana of now, the Taking Back Sunday of today.
Saturdays at Your Place
For the Kalamazoo trio, 2025 started with being one of the first handful of bands revealed for the revived Vans Warped Tour and it ended with a world tour in support of a new album. Their new album These Things Happen saw the band step their game up and elevate themselves to the next level. With drummer Gabe Wood taking on more of the vocal duties and creating a nice dichotomy with frontman and bassist Esden Stafne while guitarist Mitch Gulish splashes an array of colors over the top, Saturdays at Your Place might have a better shot at “mainstream success” than any other band on this list.
Scarlet Street
Scarlet Street might be one of the lesser known bands to make the Emo All-Star, but make no mistake these Cincinnati Ohio boys belong. Their new album No Alternative dropped in October to massive praise. Backed by arguably the best marketing campaign I’ve seen in DIY emo, No Alternative is the feel bad album of the year. Some emo songs are about the kind of misery that comes from heartbreak, some emo songs are about the kind of misery that comes from living in a late stage capitalist hellscape, scrolling your way to sedation. No Alternative is the latter.
Leisure Hour
This Muncie Indiana band was one of the most consistent bands of the year. The trio of Reagan, Grace & Isaiah dropped single after single while being on the road more often than they weren’t. Their song Jenny was one of the biggest songs of the year and maybe the most haunting. Here’s to hoping we see a full length leisure hour LP in 2026.
Arm’s Length
If Hot Mulligan is the de facto number one band in the game right now, their current tourmates Arm’s Length might be number two. Back in May this Canadian trio dropped one of the most sonically and emotionally heavy albums of the year, There’s a Whole World Out There and they’ve been capitalizing on it ever since. With multiple major festival appearances including WWWY and the aforementioned tour supporting Hot Mulligan, Arm’s Length is quite literally within arms length for the crown of best heavy band. That is if they haven’t claimed it already.
Harrison Gordon
When I interviewed Ryland Heagy of Origami Angel this past fall, we asked for his thoughts on who the next big band in emo is. Immediately he mentioned Harrison Gordon. After relentless touring and grinding in support of 2023’s The Yuppies are Winning, Mr Harrison Voss Gordon and gang dropped the EP of the year this May.
Spring Break! is a six song, 14 minute masterpiece packed with urgency. In a world where more people are struggling to make ends meet than ever before, a song like Drivers Side feels like a relatable rallying cry.
Summerbruise
What originally began as a little solo project for frontman Mike Newton has blossomed into one of the best bands in the diy scene. Summerbruise have always written witty fun songs but their new album Infinity Guise, their first on SideOneDummy, packs a helluva lot more punch than their previous work.
Easily in my top 3 albums of 2025, Infinity Guise is the Summerbruise we know and love on steroids. More hooks, more guitars, more wrestling references. Who woulda thought I’d well up over a song named after The Bulgarian Brute? There’s even a feature from Tades of Hot Mulligan. Currently on tour with Dear Maryanne and MooseCreek Park, I’m excited to see what’s in store for the future of this band. Will they Michaels or will they Janetty?
Ben Quad
When I first got my grubby lil hands on the new Ben Quad album Wisher (out today on Purenoise records), my biggest takeaway was that these dudes might wanna savor the rest of their time as a scene favorite because they’re about to blow up Bilmuri and Mully style. The Oklahoma quartet BQ already woulda clinched a spot on this list after popping off all year and touring with bands like Koyo and Harrison Gordon, but Wisher is about to make that seem small in comparison.