EP 275: 2025 185 Miles South Year End Awards
Victory is theirs.
The Oscars, Grammys, and AVN awards have nothing on 185 Miles South. For the 5th annual edition, once again ballots were sent out to a shadowy cabal of elites, but this year the cabal was even smaller and more shadowy. Those elites, plus Bedge, have now sealed the fate of the nominees. The winners names will be carved in stone, etched into history as the victors. Future uncs will one day reminisce and brag about those releases that they mail-ordered, or bought at merch tables the year that they came out. The losers, however, will have their albums parked on Discogs, set at sub-$5 asking prices and still not sell. The stakes are high, dudes.
Speaking of $5 asking prices, this episode is available exclusively for Patreons and paid Substack subscribers. Consider becoming a member and supporting the project.
Paid Substackers: Audio is at the bottom of the page
Patreons: The episode is available in your Pateron feed
Best Album Art
It’s a miracle that album art hasn’t completely fallen off a cliff in the digital era. The AI fraud squad is creeping but the ‘core has mostly shut them out. Let’s get into the best album covers of the year.
Nominees:
1. Alienator Meat Locker LP
2. C4 Payback’s A Bitch LP
3. Destruxion America Gritos Norteno LP
4. G*U*N*N* S/T LP
5. Nisemono S/T LP
6. Scarab Burn After Listening LP
Best Album Production
Everything that goes into making an album is incorporated here—the recording, the mix, the mastering, the sequencing. All the bells and whistles.
Nominees:
1. C4 Payback’s A Bitch LP
2. G*U*N*N* S/T LP
3. Grand Scheme EP 7”
4. Scarab Burn After Listening LP
5. STERÖID Chainmail Commandos LP
6. Ultimate Disaster For Progress… LP
Best Riff
Riff salad sucks, but you gotta have at least some, right?
Nominees:
1. Split System “Chemicals” opening riff
2. Gridiron “Mascot” verse riff
3. Hierarkin “Slitet och nött” opening riff
4. Identity Shock “Means” opening riff
5. Nisemono “Pt. 2 (Nisemono Pt. 2) verse riff
6. STERÖID “Warzone in the City” opening riff
Best Breakdown
There is a one year moratorium on this award because those viral mosh video accounts suck shit. Have some self respect and start an account like the hardcore legends trading card guy or the hardcore cheerleader. Wait, don’t do that either.
We aren’t voting this year due to the moratorium, but let’s be real…the winner is Scarab “Animal in Pain.” Only fools judge a breakdown off only the mosh itself. A true student of the game judges the set up AND the payoff. First, this track is 91 seconds of fury. It’s not some ‘90s shit where the JNCO army are waiting for the 7th part of the song to hit around the 3 1/2 minute mark. After blazing fast, they hit the youth crew toms and then bring in the mosh riff on a tom bang-out. It’s a build that sounds like someone is about to get tossed down a volcano. Then when the breakdown hits, it’s a risk-it-all moment that only the most savage mosh parts deliver.
Best Senti Track
What song gets you in the feels?
Nominees:
1. Beton Arme “Lève-toi”
2. Haywire “Always By My Side”
3. Home Front “Between The Waves”
4. Puffer “Jimmy”
5. STERÖID “Arena Show (Rockin’ Alone)”
6. Street Sweeper “Just Don’t Work”
The 2025 Dan Sant Invitational: MTB of the Year
The mid-tempo banger is a critical piece of hardcore and we’re here to give it shine.
Nominees:
1. House Arrest “You Wish”
2. Plasma “Syvemmälle sisään”
3. Tarrega 81 “I Ara Que Faras?”
4. The Massacred “Extermination”
5. The Social “On The Grift”
6. Ultimate Disaster “What Right?”
Best Track
The best hardcore / punk song of the year, objectively.
Nominees:
1. Bulls Shit “The Creed”
2. C4 “Payback’s A Bitch”
3. The Social “All For One, One For All”
4. Primitive Impulse “Dogs Will Hunt”
5. Scarab “Everybody In The Way”
6. STERÖID “Warzone In The City”
Best Demo
A critical element of the ‘core is the demo. An easy tell of a fraudulent band is if they don’t have one.
Nominees:
1. Dead On Your Feet D.O.Y.F. Fortress Records
2. Direct Order ‘82 Demo Crosshair Records
3. Frothing Mad Demo From Within Records
4. Madman Demo Rebirth Records
5. Suicide Eyes Demo Rebirth Records
6. Wits End Demo I Rebirth/Counterculture Records
Best EP
Hardcore’s spiritual format.
Nominees:
1. Grand Scheme EP 7” 11PM Records
2. Identity Shock Traces 7” Designated Moshers Unit
3. No Idols S/T 7” Iron Lung
4. Split System No Cops In Heaven 7” Legless
5. The Final Agony Depraved From Darkness 7” Triple-B
6. With Hate From Boston With Hate 7” Tribe Dream
Best LP
The crown jewel.
Nominees:
1. Alienator Meat Locker LP Black Water
2. Ayucaba Operación Masacre LP Metadona
3. C4 Payback’s a Bitch LP Triple-B
4. Inmates Role of God LP Iron Lung
5. Scarab Burn After Listening LP Rebirth
6. STERÖID Chainmail Commandos LP Crypt of the Wizard
Alright, let’s get into it:
Patreons: check it out here.
Paid substackers: check the audio below…
