Written by Ellis
YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Here we are, last Demolicious Derby of the year. Rather than just covering the last three months as per previous installments (I, II, and III), I figured I’d expand this to a 20-entry catch-up type piece to include others that I may have missed or not had space for over the course of the year—plus I thought it would be kinda neat to take the total number of demos covered in this series to 50 for the year, and if you add the two honourable mentions from Apr-Jun that’s 52 which is a demo for every week of the year.
I will probably keep this going next year but either way be sure to follow all of Armageddon Records, Conviction Records, Counterculture Records, Designated Moshers Unit, Fortress Records, From Within Records, New Morality Zine, Rebirth Records and Total Supply on Bandcamp—and tune into Axe to Grind Podcast’s weekly Friday Night’s Alright show—and you’ll be well-stocked with this kinda stuff regardless. In the meantime let’s get to it:
Bruo – Demo 2025
Kicking off with some proper worldwide stuff here. Bruo are from Tokyo but sound like they could be from Boston around 1982 and their demo is out on a label based in Detroit and Toronto (Total Supply). Also the shortest entry on this list at a tight 4:44.
Dementality – DEMO ’25
Solid contender for raddest artwork of the year backed up by a load of sick metallic riffs and a wicked vocal performance. The only piece of info about this band that appears to be available online is that they’re from Rochester, New York.
EZ8 – EZ8
A new band from Charlie aka Chubby of London’s Chubby and the Gang. Gloriously shouty power-pop-influenced hardcore punk that picks up pretty much exactly where Chubby’s old band left off while also evoking a fair bit of the Misfits.
Fear of Sin – Demonstration
Bleak and jagged metallic hardcore from the Rhineline scene in Germany (which apparently refers to the area between Düsseldorf/Cologne, Frankfurt and Mannheim). Presumably the band are named after the Merauder track, which probably tells you all you need to know.
Heel Turn – Demo
Wrestling-themed heavy/metallic hardcore from Norwich, UK. Hits as hard as a Kurt Angle suplex or an RKO outta nowhere or probably some way cooler wrestling deep cut that I am ill-equipped to provide. No Bandcamp/full YouTube stream yet but check out the below highlight and click through to the rest init.
Knelt – Demo 2025
One for the crusties. Knelt hail from Boston and hit the bullseye on a brand of epic, metallic and blistering D-beat driven hardcore in the vein of the esteemed likes of Cursed, Tragedy, and Trap Them.
Laugh Track – Demo 2025
Austin, Texas’ Laugh Track stand out as a singular malevolent entity on this list. Raw, gnarly, blackened shit that sounds like the sort of thing they’d be bumping on the aux inside Grond or something. Sad to see the band have called it a day already, but these tracks rip regardless.
Life of One – Demo II
Another band that have sadly called it quits already, both their demos are bloody brilliant and they were even better live. They released this one on the same day they announced they were done, going out on a high with three swagged out, Madball-coded ragers. London Style MF.
Mashaal – DEMO
Sticking with London, this one’s dedicated to and created by immigrants and the children of immigrants, with lyrics all about the immigrant experience in the UK set to a backdrop of perfectly crafted youth crew. It can feel so trite to call a band ‘important’, but in the current climate Mashaal really are.
Polyester – Demo
Fast, crusty and furious business from Armageddon Records’ hometown of Tampa, Florida featuring members of a couple of other heavy hitters on the label like Remote Control and Wasted Life. The guitar freak-out at the start of “Pseudo-shit” is ridiculously rad.
Powerball – The Demonstration
H8000 worship from Columbus, Ohio delivering on all the pointy guitar riffs and chunky mosh parts and raspy vocals about killing and shit one could ask for. Their split with Lake Verity from later this year rips too.
Price of Redemption – Demo 2025
Featuring current and former members of some great bands that sound nothing like this (like Anxious and Restraining Order), and others that come a little closer (like Broken Vow and Death Threat), Springfield, MA’s Price of Redemption play thrashy and fiery metallic hardcore of the level of quality you’d expect from such masters of the game.
Regalia – A House on the Beach is No Longer a Dream
Back to Columbus. Probably the longest hardcore demo of the year with nine tracks spanning almost 15 minutes but we won’t hold that against them. Regalia put their own spin on the classic sounds of Japan and New York to flesh out a ripping demo that some bands would be happy to call a full-length.
Scram – Yamba Hardcore Demo
Some insanely hard stuff from Lower Clarence, Australia here. Big 90s metallic hardcore vibes with straight edge bonus points—the kinda music that simply has to be played with guitars regularly pointed to the sky, as their Insta confirms it absolutely is.
Self Arrest – Demo 2025
One of a few bands to put out two great demos this year—both on the wonderful Total Supply—Self Arrest hail from Vancouver and draw most of their inspo from a load of the 00s bands that made hardcore hardcore again, like Mental, Stop and Think and 86 Mentality.
Sixlet – Demo
If you think this is pushing it a bit given Demolicious Derby’s official remit of ‘hardcore’ demos: 1) fair, but 2) there’s 20 bands on this list and they can’t all sound like Breakdown or Merauder. This band from Newark, Delaware scratches a great emo/post-hardcore type itch for when you’re done moshing and wanna stare mysteriously into the middle distance.
Soul on Fire – Demo 2025
Fast, straightforward stuff from Tampa, Florida featuring current and former members of Magnitude (great band), Point of Contact (great band), and Three Knee Deep (you guessed it… great band).
Staring Contest – Spring Demo
Raging, bouncy, classic hardcore dedicated to the trans youth of the band’s home city of Indianapolis. The lyrics of “Whipping Girl” hit particularly hard: “Object of desire, target of rage / The whipping girl is forced to bear the brunt of the blame”.
Uphold – Demo
Another scorcher from Florida. This one evokes a fair bit of Terror and Trapped Under Ice and a load of that Bridge Nine era stuff—much like the Dead Stare demo covered in Volume II of this series. Nuff said surely.
WMD – Demo #2
Another band with two killer demos out this year. Just great, gritty hardcore from Detroit. Also features George W. Bush’s greatest ever quote—that is, at least until we get something like an “aaaah it’s so hot down here” whenever he meets his maker.
Well that’s it. There are still so many I could have included but didn’t. Such is life. Hope you found some new stuff you like and some labels worth following. Long live the demo.