Our final round-up of new music from bands we’ve previously interviewed of 2025 brings you a tasty little collection of new rock and metal. This month, we’ve got new tracks by four bands from Portugal, Switzerland and the UK.
You can listen to all of these bands and many, many more in our various Spotify playlists, which you can find at the bottom of this page and via our Listen To GigRadar page. But for now, get your weekend started by checking out these new bands in alphabetical order.
Dreamweapon – Locus Pocus
Bristol-based band Dreamweapon fuse “chaotic rage jingles” in a loud and captivating rock sound that they describe as “mega, mint and occasionally gentle.” We discovered the band as our first New Band of the Week of this month, around the release of their debut single Scarecrow Army. Now they’ve just released its follow-up, Locus Pocus.
The track opens up with stabbing guitars, drums and a random keyboard note, before funky stabbing guitars continue through an edgy verse. Wild guitars come in, and the pace drops before the engaging vocals return. Another brief pause gives way to fast-paced vocals and intense drums before a cry of “locus pocus” tees up a mysterious section led by dreamy synths. The funky riff comes in underneath, before concluding with heavy guitars and drums.
On the track, the band says: “The track takes influences from orchestral harmony, heavy noise-core riffs and circus rhythms. Our mission was to make something no one has heard before. Paired with a music video that pays homage to the movie The Warriors.”
You can follow Dreamweapon on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.
IOTA – Pony
Staying in Bristol takes us to the infectiously catchy sound of IOTA, who blend engaging vocals and punchy guitars with dreamy harmonies and driving rhythms. We first discovered the band back in January 2023, around the release of their EP Tyrants. Since then, they’ve been busy with a steady stream of singles over the last couple of years.
The latest is Pony, which opens up with light guitars that continue as heavier chords and driving drums join in. The engaging vocals of Jodie Robinson take over, flowing into a slightly heavier chorus that ends with big guitars and dropping into another dreamy verse. The vocals pick up after a second chorus, before a brief pause and the harsh vocals of Heaven Unknown frontman Will bring another dimension to the track. Jodie picks up the reins in a big atmospheric chorus bringing the track to a powerful conclusion.
On the track, the band said: “At its core, Pony is about breaking the mold, owning your mistakes, and refusing to fear the consequences. It’s a song rooted in self-reckoning, capturing the raw, vulnerable, but ultimately liberating process of standing fully in your truth. Across surging guitars and shifting textures, IOTA explores what it means to embrace every part of yourself: the good, the bad, and the imperfect.
“To bring the song’s emotional weight to life, we collaborated with Will, the powerful lead vocalist of Heaven Unknown. His appearance in the latter half of the track not only adds a striking duality of voices, but also ushers IOTA into a heavier, more urgent sonic landscape. It was a song we really felt needed two voices. Working with Will allowed us to pull out a different intensity and step into a heavier sound we’d been wanting to explore. It’s our first feature as IOTA, and it just felt right.”
You can follow IOTA on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.
PUSH! – Beyond Exhaustion
Heading south to Portugal, Lisbon five-piece PUSH! offer up heavy and intense metallic hardcore infused with serious amounts of groove. We first featured the band in November 2024, just after the release of their EP Tough Guys With Feelings.
They followed that up with Beyond Exhaustion, which starts with a fun riff that kicks into life alongside heavy drums and Nuno Cruz’s feisty screamed vocals. It drops into a chugging riff before drawn-out guitars support intense vocals then another thick slab of chunky guitars. And since that, they’ve also dropped Right Through, which features similar levels of filthy guitar riffs and intense vocals.
On the track, the band said: “Beyond Exhaustion is a ferocious song about pushing yourself to the absolute limit, day in day out, without pause or surrender. It’s about pouring every ounce of energy into your purpose, building unshakable resilience, and embracing the reality that the fight never ends. To reach your goals, you must be relentless, uncompromising, and ready to face the grind head-on, every single day.
“Musically, the song’s instrumental and lyrics were crafted by our vocalist, who also plays the guitar, bringing both aggression and groove into the song. The goal was to channel pure intensity while still keeping the kind of rhythmic swagger that makes you move. Beyond Exhaustion isn’t just a track, it’s a call to arms for anyone who refuses to quit.
You can follow PUSH! on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp and YouTube.
WINDSHELTER – Silence Never Dies
We wrap up with the delicious post-hardcore meets melodic hardcore and emo sound of Swiss band WINDSHELTER. We met the band around Love // Hate, which was the sixth and final release in a series of six singles back in November 2022. Since then, they’ve dropped a couple of EPs before this year’s first release Silence Never Dies.
The track starts with light instrumentals that feed into a delicious guitar lick, before intense vocals that give way to contrasting melodic cleans. That flows into a big singalong chorus “I said I’d keep the light alive, It’s flickering inside my mind, A broken tape where silence never dies,” which gives way to intensifying repeats of “What could have been? This isn’t me.” Heavier vocals take over, alongside driving drums and stabbing guitars, flowing into another big chorus. Chunky guitars take over in a powerful breakdown alongside big cries of “silence never dies” before the track comes to a calm conclusion.
On the track, they said: “Silence Never Dies is our new melodic post-hardcore anthem about loss, resilience, and the slow process of rebuilding after heartbreak. Produced alongside Brody McKeegan (nothing,nowhere.) and recorded in our own studio, the track channels raw emotion into a soaring, powerful release.”
You can follow Windshelter on Facebook and Instagram, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music and YouTube.
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