A year in review, of sorts

Rolf Venema

22 Dec 2025 — 9 min read

Astute readers might have noticed that Terror Management (this here publication) has not been particularly well-stocked this year with Big Thoughts or otherwise interesting output. Not counting this one, I put out three issues, one of which being an ad for my photography zines.

It was not even really for one reason or another that the flame of my authorial output was set to simmer, I was just busy doing other stuff.

It’s fine, I’m sure you’ll get over it.

Regardless, I do always enjoy reviewing the year in music and 2025, for whatever a shit year it’s been, has delivered us some fine records. Let’s just get into them, in literally no particular order, and as these musical pieces are available for streaming nearly everywhere, I won’t go too broadly into each of them in form of words. Just have a listen yourself if the release seems interesting by clicking on the Bandcamp box at the top of each section.

And, because I, too, contain multitudes, I’ve thrown in some book and movie recommendations towards the end as well. Art! It’s pretty great. You should check it out sometimes.

Hundreds of AU – Life In Parallel

Screamo was never gone, of course. Which is too bad, because it really stops me from yelling "SCREAMO’S BACK WITH HUNDREDS OF AU’S LIFE IN PARALLEL!" It’s as if this band — which has been around for a while already, mind you — managed to learn everything about the late '90's and early '00's era of the genre and picked up right where that left us. Not just harkening back, but also building on it. It’s a modern screamo miracle.

Aesop Rock – I Heard It’s A Mess There Too

Aesop Rock – Black Hole Superette

My favourite rapper pulled an Amenra this year and put out two releases. First came Black Hole Superette, a rich album in the vein of his other major releases. Lyrically, thematically, there’s a lot here to unpack and this one of those records, like a favourite movie or book, that just unveils its layers the more you listen to it.

Contrastingly, I Heard It’s A Mess There Too is much more stripped down and lo-fi in its approach. It’s one I clicked with more easily due to its raw presentation. Comparing them is weird, though, as each really stands its own as their own artistic pieces.

Terzij De Horde – Our Breath Is Not Ours Alone

I simply love this kind of black metal. It’s unrelenting, non-pretentious and approachable and listening to this new record, the punk attitude shines through the varnish the genre puts on top of it. A righteous fury delivered in blast beats.

Catharsis – Hope Against Hope

A new record from what might just be my favourite band ever was certainly not on my 2025 bingo card, but here we are. The best part is that it delivers. The furious, emotional chaos interwoven with melody that we know from the band’s previous releases — stemming from the late ’90’s — is here in full force. The messaging updated for today’s horrendous era, yet remaining hopeful in the face of catastrophe.

Drought – Souvenir

Drought was an interesting surprise for me this year, a worthy new (to me) entrant in the post-hardcore space that feels like it actually takes the hardcore part seriously as well. A little more uptempo than contemporaries, but without losing the heartfelt driving force at the core of the genre. This one has been on repeat.

La Dispute – No One Was Driving The Car

Post-hardcore powerhouse La Dispute took a stripped down approach this record around, ditching some of the more electronic influences on the band’s last full length. It results in a rawer, dare I say more sincere feeling record? It’s tempting to classify it as a throwback, but the band sounds more mature than ever, exploring topics not covered before. In my estimation this is the best La Dispute record since Rooms of the House.

Skinhead – It’s A Beautiful Day, What A Beautiful Day

It’s hard to pin down this record. It’s incredibly raw and in your face, but also funny and joyful. The lyrics betray a nasty sense of humour (in a funny way) that’s accompanied musically by fair that wouldn’t sound weird on a ’90’s pop punk compilation. Contrast, it’s what the kids crave.

Propaghandi – At Peace

What happens if you rage against the machine for the better part of your life and yet everything you fought against seems to be growing like noxious weeds around you? You write a record like At Peace, which reflects on years of living a certain way, only to find the rest of the world seems to have taken a different path. Musically, the band still swings pendulum-like around their melodic core, but takes more chances, veering into more extremes like alt-rock or chugging thrash-y punk. A delightful exploration of new territory by a mature band.

Ter Ziele – The Embodiment of Death

According to my statistics on Apple Music, this is my most listened to album of the year. The Embodiment of Death is just such a great, deep pool of melancholy and general sadness to slide into, to be wrapped up in and float on. But the band doesn’t just dive into the sludge, it builds some surprising riffage on top of its doom roots. I found this to be a comfort food, maybe despite itself. Who knows what that says about me.

Deafheaven – Lonely People With Power

After an interesting take on shoegaze on Deafheaven’s Infinite Granite, the question was whether or not the band would continue down this musical avenue. The answer to said question is a "no," but it’s not without caveats. While there is a return to their stylish black metal roots (to coin a phrase), Lonely People With Power feels informed by the band’s quest into a different genre. The melodic shoegaze side of things feels more integrated into the rest of the music, less of a mild sidestep and more of a core part of the whole vision. It might sound slight, but it has elevated the genre in a way that even these pioneers of it haven’t been able to do, until now.

Amenra - De Toorn

Amenra - With Fang and Claw

Amenra pulled an Aesop Rock this year and put out two new releases. First up: De Toorn, building on the band’s earlier full length, De Doorn. More spoken word than the Amenra of yore, a little more measured musically, balancing between hard-hitting doom and soft melody.

And then there’s With Fang and Claw, a conscious harkening back to the older work of the band. More of the heavy doom these artists made their name with, more sludge, a bigger gut punch. But above all that it’s just interesting to find a band so in tune with itself that it can confidently reach into the past and pull this new work through the time vortex to put out.

Honourable mention: Between Bodies – Electric Sleep

Electric Sleep didn’t come out this year, but after seeing this band open for the Get Up Kids and rushing to the merch table to procure this record, I got completely hooked on it. I’ve written about it extensively before, go read that.

Books!

At the beginning of the year, I made a promise to myself to read more. I kept that promise, and read 43 books, which is a lot for me! Not a lot of these came out this year so it’ll be some older stuff, but I figured a few recommendations never hurt anyone.

A few standouts, then:

The Ferryman and His Wife (my favourite book of the year, genuinely heartwarming and moving), Small Things Like These (short novella, but hits like a gut punch), The Heart In Winter (interesting Irish western romance novel), Careless People (exposé on how callous of a company Meta really is), Mere (lovely historical queer fiction), Silence (heart wrenching historical fiction about Catholic missionaries in Japan), Liberation Day (lovely short story collection), The Gods of New York (interesting portraits of the power players of and happenings in the New York in the late ’80’s) and Train Dreams (great novella about a day labourer in the early 20th century).

Fillums

Speaking of Train Dreams, Netflix of all companies actually turned this novel into an amazing movie. Seriously, it made my cry like a baby at the end. It’s a beautiful depiction a full life lived.

Other movies that came out this year that I watched: A Minecraft Movie (hardly a movie), Thunderbolts* (Enjoyable, more so than recent Marvel fair), Mickey 17 (great idea that didn’t really live up to potential), Mountainhead (funny and poignant), How To Train Your Dragon (surprisingly touching), F1 (nyoooom), Elio (underrated), Fountain of Youth (truly Guy Ritchie’s worst movie), Sinners (overrated), The Naked Gun (amazingly funny), Weapons (incredible genre-breaking horror), Frankenstein (beautiful set design, pretty sloppy otherwise) and Wake Up Dead Man (what a fun murder mystery!).

That’s it. That's all.

This was fun.