Oh, my God. I'm scrambling over here to finish off 2025 List Week, going over the best and the worst of the year. And this list over here – the Top EPs of the Year – almost slipped my mind. And it would have, if not for the fact that there are some serious bops in this 15. That's 1-5 EPs that were released in 2025. Let's run through the list and get a bit more detailed as we near the top. Here we go.

Number 15. I want to give a shout-out to the XweaponX X Weapon Demo 2. This is some of the most brutal and fun, heavy, hard-hitting metalcore you were going to hear in 2025. Knocked Loose-related, obviously, and totally kick-ass and worth your time.

Next at number 14 is Clvoer-Lynn's Gothic Mountain Bluegrass EP. This is an Appalachian songwriter and a Banjo player I came across on TikTok not too long ago. Been following her stuff for a minute. She notified me earlier this year that she had this little project out, and it's exactly what you would expect given the title. It is some very well-played and picked bluegrass music, but there's a bit of a dingy lo-fi aura about it, and it truly does sound like a little dark in terms of the melodies and chord progressions laced within all of this acoustic instrumentation, really living up to that gothic label. Each piece has a really nice, bittersweet vibe to it.

Next, at number 13, giving a shout-out to a few dudes from Down Under. That is And Beyond with this If Only You Knew project. These are two guys whose music on this thing really showcases a range of taste. You've got electronic music and post-punk, punk rock, and hip hop all coming together into this super punchy, exciting array of songs with a lot of punch, personality, and pizazz. Would not be surprised to see these guys pop off a bit in the next few years if they keep this energy up. That being said, and beyond, is considering this project an album, even though it very much is on the shorter side. But I still wanted to shout the record out because I think there's a lot of great highlights on it.

At number 12, it is a couple of guys whom I have shouted out on the channel in lists like this before. That is G Jones and EPROM, who are collaborating once again on this Disk Utility project. These guys are two of the most versatile electronic music producers out there today. When they get together for these little collabs, there's never knowing what they're going to do. Could be acid house, could be anything.

This time around, with the handful of cuts Disk Utility offers, they are touching down on some trap-flavoured EDM, some breakbeat stuff, some future garage as well, for several bops that you should not miss.

And at number 11, another thing you shouldn't miss, I would say, are the riffs on this incredible Car Bomb EP, a couple of tracks on this Tiles Whisper Dreams project, where the band's crushing angular riffs continue to prove why exactly they're one of the most significant modern groups in mathcore.

10. Panopticon – The Poppies Bloom For No King

At number 10, shout out to Panopticon for this The Poppies Bloom For No King EP, which has a couple of lengthy, lush, heavy, and immense black metal journeys on it, which honestly have me flored and excited for where the project is going to go next because this is some of the best-produced music I think Panopticon has put out in a long time.

9. Touchdown Jesus – It's All Feast or Famine

At number nine, this next band hails from Ohio, I believe, and they go by the name Touchdown Jesus. This is their It's All Feast or Famine EP. If you like your art punk and rock super heavy and a little demented with odd vocals and sinister lyrics, and unhinged performances where everyone in the band is letting loose. I promise you, you are going to get a lot out of this project.

8. Paris, Texas – They Left Me With The Sword, They Left Me With A Gun

At number eight, I was more impressed than I thought I would be with this sister set of Paris, Texas EPs. They Left Me With The Sword, and They Left Me With A Gun. Like they have on past projects, Paris, Texas comes through with their usual combination of punk and pop rock and hip hop and a few other things as well. Except this time, the beats are better, the verses aren't so edgy that you roll your eyes with them, the guitar work is better, the choruses are catchier.

To my ears, again, as far as instrumentation, production writing, it's just improvements on all fronts with pretty much everything from their previous releases. I mean, the flow would be a bit weird, but if you put all of these tracks together and made them an album, which these two EPs essentially are, this would be Paris, Texas' best full-length to date, which, given that, I'm much looking forward to whatever their next proper album is.

7. Jane Remover – Heart

At number seven, I am putting this Jane Remover Heart EP where she saw fit to place some of the more pop-centric tracks she released lately that obviously were not harsh, or wild, or crazy enough for what pretty much made it on Revenge Seekers earlier this year.

These are songs and sounds that we were told at one point were being built up for a record that was going to be going more in this direction. But at least for the moment at the end of 2025, as transition into the next year, it still feels a little odd at this point to have these songs out there be so good, so catchy, so beloved among the Jane Remover fan base and not have them be assembled into something and really just hanging loose, being out there and about there.

Again, Jane took these major tracks, a few others, and pulled them together into this little EP. Sounds good, sounds great. It's not crazy over-the-top Revengeseekerz stuff, but the vocals and the songwriting and the super synthy production are all very quality, and some of Jane's snappiest work to date.

6. Deki Alem – Forget in Mass

This next project comes from two dudes from Sweden who, honestly, I'm blown away I have not seen more discussion about these guys in the music scene lately. They go by the name of Deki Alem, and they have this Forget in Mass EP out. And not only does this project contain a lot of great quality hip hop tracks, but also these guys are bringing back all of these classic trip hop and big beat sounds with a classic flavor and pulling it off with so much just taste and so much accuracy to the original sound, so much reverence for the classic artist in these genres in a way that you just don't hear today.

So it is a bit of a revivalist excursion, but it's done so freaking well and honestly is so good and so well-executed. It makes you wonder, why did these sounds even disappear to begin with? They still are killer. But yeah, given the talent, given the execution, given how good the is, how good the songwriting is, and how awesome it is that they've been able to bring back some of these sounds without making them come across as corny. I'm really excited to see what these guys are going to be doing in the next few years.

5. MSPaint – No Separation

At number five, shout out to MSPaint for their No Separation EP. I've been very MS Paint neutral for the past few years, even though there is definitely a passionate underground fan base for this band, mostly because I have found their sound to be a little one-note. However, with this project here, I'm hearing synth punk and prog and post-hardcore, and a host of other things combined in ways I never thought possible with amped and high performances, crisp and punchy production, and really hype lead vocals, too. This EP kicks ass.

4. Gabriel Jacoby – gutta child

At number four, one of the funkiest and most fun breakouts of the year EP-wise for me was this Gabriel Jacobi deal-y gutta child. I mean, you want to talk about potential? This guy's songwriting, his vocals, his flow, his swaggy persona, his clear taste in Southern hip hop, in neo-soul. The guy's already bringing big D'Angelo vibes off the bat and pulling it off so well. Some of these tunes are truly killer. Again, another person to be excited about for the next few years.

3. Uboa – All the Dead Melt Down as Rain

At number three, I was surprised, but then also delighted to be as pleased as I was with this project that I didn't end up covering but still, it's Ubo's All the Dead Melt Down as Rain EP, which, hearing this project, it does put in perspective for me why I didn't really like the last Uboa album all that much. I just think the neoclassical dark wave instrumentation and vocals just were not doing it for me whatsoever. Hearing those influences melt away in favor of something that is a lot heavier, darker, and harsher, just like The Origin Of My Depression, really kept me locked in and on the edge of my seat throughout every track of this thing. This has got to be the most despondent Uboa has sounded so far. If you're looking for something abrasive, experimental, you've got to get into this.

2. Dog Race – Return the Day

Next at number two, want to shout out what was another breakout for me, and that is this Dog Race EP, Return the Day. This is a band that, in my opinion, has been writing some of the most interesting goth rock that I've heard over the past year. Just very odd, very spooky tunes with great guitar tones, eerie, melty bass lines, lead vocals that are very over the top and quite ghoul-ish, but still highly catchy all the same. The lyrics in the band's songs are very unnerving and sometimes quite cultish. They really do bring some incredibly chilling vibes on this handful of tracks from this EP, and I'm really, again, looking forward to seeing what they do with a new album down the road.

1. Ethel Cain – Perverts

Which brings me to my number one EP of the year, which in a lot of ways feels like barely an EP, but still, it is, in fact, Ethel Cain's Perverts EP, which, again, obviously a bit of a stylistic departure for singer, songwriter, producer, Hayden Anhedönia.

Not her usual Ethel Cain thing, which we also heard earlier this year. But I was not as enamored with that as I was this, because while Perverts definitely does echo a lot of familiar themes that we've heard for a while in Hayden's music, be it the loneliness and isolation and super toxic romantic relationships that could turn quite dark or even controlling. She's filtering all of these feelings into a series of heavy and absolutely dystopian dark ambient cuts that are genuinely harrowing and some of the freakiest I have heard in the genre in a long time.

Really, when it comes to dark ambient music, Perverts is the real deal. This is not your average artist sidebar type record where they dabble in a genre they know nothing about, and they don't do well. While I highly doubt we will be getting anything else exactly along the lines of Perverts from Ethel Cain anytime soon, it's still a really great EP and is a testament to how versatile Hayden is as an artist. And underappreciated in some respects, because I personally find that her audience sometimes only seems to appreciate maybe the most accessible elements of her music, and not as much this.

But there you go. Those are my favorite EPs of 2025. Thank you very much for watching.

Anthony Fantano, EPs 2025, forever.