Happy New Year! Alright, granted, it's been a couple of weeks since the calendar officially switched over to 2025, but the sentiment stands as we return to you with a fresh selection of brilliant new bands.
Much as we did every month last year, we'll be bringing you some of the most exciting and interesting new bands around over the next 12 months, kicking off with a diverse selection from both sides of the Atlantic, as well as proggy tech metal from Saudi Arabia.
Intrigued? Check out the feature below, and be sure to listen to our massive playlist featuring all the latest releases from these artists. Find someone you think we're missing? Let us know in the comments!
Hidden Mothers
“The plan was always to be really loud and really sad,” bassist Liam Knowles explains of Hidden Mothers’ origins. The name comes from Victorian-era photography, where mothers were ghostly figures obscured by sheets or framing tricks, but also “it was just something that sounded cool”, he laughs.
From initial conversations in a pub in late 2018, Hidden Mothers formed as a coalescence of their members’ influences, predominantly Alcest, Deafheaven and Oathbreaker.
Since their self-titled debut EP in 2020, though, they have undergone a remarkable evolution. Bassist Liam has also assumed vocal duties, along with guitarist Luke Scrivens, and you’ll find just as much Thrice and even Radiohead in their sound now. “There are a lot more facets to us,” Liam grins.
Their debut album is proof – five years in the making, Erosion / Avulsion expands in fresh directions, from lead single Defanged’s raging post-hardcore, to Death Curl’s serpentine post-metal and Grandfather’s soft, vulnerable croons. They’re also a band with a ton of heart; Luke writes all their lyrics, channelling his own experiences and thoughts.
He explains that Defanged is about the “growing nastiness in society towards the most vulnerable”, but is also keen to stress that politics isn’t necessarily the quartet’s forte. “We write personal songs about what’s important to us,” Liam agrees.
Still Sickness deals with the aftermath of a mental health crisis, for instance, as an “honest representation of guilt and recovery”. Predominantly, though, Hidden Mothers aim to be a band that not only write serious songs, but support their scene, and the people within it. They actively promote their friends’ work on social media and onstage because, to them, the most important thing will always be “looking out for each other and helping each other out.” Will Marshall
Erosion / Avulsion is out now via Church Road. Hidden Mothers tour the UK from February 20 and play 2000 Trees in July.
Sounds Like: Post-hardcore meets screamo with a healthy dose of melody
For Fans Of: Oathbreaker, Thrice, Holy Fawn
Listen To: Defanged
Lutharo
Lutharo's brand of high-octane heavy metal is hard to define – and that’s how they like it. “We’re like the lost and found bin of metal,” laughs vocalist Krista Shipperbottom. “I can’t just be like, ‘Oh, we’re a power metal band’ or, ‘We’re melodic death metal’, because that would be selling ourselves short.”
In truth, Lutharo are both of these things and so much more. Owing as much to Arch Enemy as they do to Judas Priest and fellow Canadians 3 Inches Of Blood, their music combines thrash metal riffs with grandstanding guitar heroics, while Krista switches between Angela Gossow growls and Rob Halford wails.
“Everything we do comes from the gut,” Krista says. “We’re never looking at a song like, ‘We want to be this genre’ or ‘Let’s copy this band.’ It comes from the heart.”
By Krista’s own admission, Lutharo’s 2021 debut album, Hiraeth, was “a little cookie-cutter”. However, their second album, Chasing Euphoria, hones their disparate elements into a sharpened edge that they wield against the world.
The band formed in 2014, while Krista and guitarist Victor Bucur were still in high school in Hamilton, Ontario. After a decade that felt “like pushing 20 boulders up a hill”, they feel they’ve finally hit upon their sound.
“The more time we spend together, the more we’re comfortable taking risks in front of each other,” Krista says.
“When I first started in this band, I was just like, ‘I gotta be tough so that people believe what I’m saying.’ Then in the last couple of years – and especially writing this album – I was like, ‘Screw that!’ I don’t need to be that person, I don’t want to be that person. Chasing Euphoria made us more comfortable in our musicianship. That whole album was me just emotionally vomiting. People are taking a piece of us with them when they listen.” Jon Garcia
Chasing Euphoria is out now via Reigning Phoenix. Lutharo tour Europe in April.
Sounds Like: The soundtrack to a battle against an army of skeletons atop a mechanised dragon
For Fans Of: Unleash The Archers, Arch Enemy, 3 Inches of Blood
Listen To: Time to Rise
Hulder
Pacific Northwest Winters have a reputation for harshness, but the damp, frigid reaches of rural Washington proved fertile ground for one-woman black metal outfit Hulder as she crafted her second album, Verses In Oath.
“While it is true that many people cope with seven months of dreary rain by holing up in their homes, it is important to note that the rain breeds life,” Hulder tells Hammer via email (her sole method of doing interviews to maintain privacy). “The cold season energises and inspires me in ways that are difficult to tap into during parts of the year when the weather grows warmer and life speeds up.”
Hulder’s life sped up significantly in 2024 as she traversed North America and Europe in support of Verses In Oath, marking her busiest touring year yet. “Even though constant travel and daily change isn’t the most natural-feeling environment for me,” she admits, “the collective magic summoned by the crowd when our set rolls around at the end of every night provides me considerable motivation to continue doing this.”
It’s no wonder audiences have responded so strongly to Hulder with an album like Verses In Oath to promote. Equally lush and brutal, its 10 tracks feature time-honoured black metal conventions – larynx-shredding vocals, tremolo-picked guitars and furious blastbeats – but are bolstered by atmospheric synths, thunderous production and evocative, folkloric lyrics that reinforce Hulder’s self-described “dark medieval black metal”.
Most importantly, this marriage of tradition and innovation happens entirely on Hulder’s terms. “I have always chosen to pursue that which makes the most sense without outside input. That won’t ever change,” she says.
“If there is anything I have learned these past few years, it is the importance of striving for self-sufficiency and not allowing anyone else to influence or overpower my own instinct.” Bryan Rolli
Verses In Oath is out now via 20 Buck Spin. Hulder plays Maryland Deathfest in May.
Sounds Like: A moonlit garden party right outside the gates of Hell
For Fans Of: Wolves In The Throne Room, Spectral Wound, Panopticon
Listen To: Boughs Ablaze
Ana.n7n
Meta is a complicated proposition in Saudi Arabia. Like many other Western genres, it was effectively outlawed for decades, promoters unable to book international bands while homegrown talent operated entirely underground. The ascension of a new king in 2015 changed attitudes somewhat – Metallica even played the country in 2023 – but the scene is only now starting to thrive.
“The scene has gone from... maybe not 0, more like 0.5, to a thousand in what felt like a second,” says Malik Zubaila, vocalist and synth player for Jeddah-formed tech-prog-metal band ana.n7n. “There are suddenly more venues, more opportunities. We hope we can build something special from there.”
Both Malik and his key songwriting partner, drummer Maan Balila, were initially emboldened to start making music when they studied abroad as teenagers. The pair’s union has led to the release of ana.n7n’s debut album Fi Maken Ma... Fi Zamen Ma, which translates to: ‘Somewhere, Sometime’.
The album is a wonderfully unusual mix of disparate influences, melding Malik’s love of electronic music, Tool and Nine Inch Nails with Maan’s obsession with nu metal (“Limp Bizkit is everything,” he smiles) and their desire to represent their own culture, with lyrics sung in their native Arabic. Needless to say, ana.n7n are far from your typical metal band.
“Culturally and historically, I don’t think there’s a lot of music that uses our dialect,” Maan says.
Music, though, is a universal language. And the intention of ana.n7n’s lyrics, exploring themes of societal decay, are certainly felt on the album, even if some listeners can’t understand them.
“It’s very important for us to tell stories and narratives that can be understood by any single person,” explains Malik. “Equally, we want to showcase who we are and where we’re from.” Stephen Hill
Fi Maken Ma... Fi Zamn Ma is out now via Wall Of Sounds
Sounds Like: Eastern mysticism and gorgeous folk melodies enveloping Tesseract’s juddering riffs and rhythms amid Tool’s darkest prog
For Fans Of: Dead Letter Circus, Cloudkicker, Tesseract
Listen To: Zanjabil Waeasal Walimun
