Here are four albums that came out in 2025 that I would put on if I were the DJ at the Blade blood rave. You can disagree, but then you’ll be forcibly removed from my blood rave.
‘Salvation’ by Rebecca Black
Yeah, this is that Rebecca Black—hey, where are you going? Listen, I was skeptical too, at first. The girl who made the most hated song in the world is still putting out music? And it’s good? But pretend 2011 didn’t happen for a moment, approaching Rebecca Black with a clean slate, and Salvation is a club-ready album with the most exquisite kind of neo-goth industrial attitude saturated in its seven tracks.
Released in February 2025, standout tracks on Salvation include “TRUST!” and “Sugar Water Cyanide” as boppy bangers. Meanwhile, “American Doll” and “Tears In My Pocket” still have danceable beats, but are much more lyrically vulnerable. Overall, the project is an exercise in putting aside bias (“Friday”) and embracing a now-fully realized artist in her prime.
‘Pressure’ by Julia Wolf
Julia Wolf loves Twilight, and it’s evident in the way she makes music. Meaning, if I were remaking the Twilight series, I’d hire Julia Wolf for the soundtrack, no questions asked. Her work has that same kind of moody darkness that evokes a blue-tinted atmosphere. More than that, though, her vocals tread water in the deep end just enough that her voice becomes a rich, syrupy sludge that happily drags you into its depths.
PRESSURE, released in May 2025, took Wolf’s early work to entirely new levels. In 2020, she was putting out cleverly crafted lyrics over slick beats. That kind of mid-20s bedroom indie-pop the girlies were getting into. But PRESSURE changed the game, leaning heavily on hardcore guitar and glitchy electronic noise to bolster her introspective lyrics. It’s messy yet clever in a way only a young woman who wishes for a vampire boyfriend can manage.
‘Percepticide: The Death of Reality’ by Pixel Grip
In June 2025, industrial electronic trio Pixel Grip released their third album, Percepticide: The Death of Reality. I first discovered Pixel Grip through the song “ALPHAPUSSY”, the throbbing opener of their 2021 album ARENA. Now, they still possess that in-your-face sexuality that oozes through the album. But there’s also a sensual vulnerability woven into the impossible tapestry of the album.
As a whole, Percepticide feels like the twisty head rush of dancing too long in a sweaty, crowded club. It moves from dreamy vocals to fraying beats to BDSM background music to spitting anger within the first four tracks. The dictionary definition of sonic whiplash. But as it progresses, Percepticide becomes akin to the act of pressing a bruise just to feel it throb. Deeply sexual, pain-and-pleasure imperceptible from each other, tangled up like a mass of stripped wires.
‘Mayhem’ by Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga released her latest album, Mayhem, in March 2025, proving that Mother Monster was back in a big way. After a few flubs in the last couple of years, Mayhem marked a new era for Gaga. However, it wasn’t so much brand-new as it was expertly drawn from her old work to mesh with her new headspace. The result was a nostalgic club-ready album that felt like Gaga getting back to the root of what made her a global superstar in the first place.
Mayhem is polished and slick without being overproduced. There’s just enough grunge mixed in with electronic beats to keep the fraying edges of Gaga’s chaos intact. Tracks like “Abracadabra” pulled inspiration from “Bad Romance,” one of Gaga’s best works, while overall, the album dabbles in a delightful darkness often found in a warehouse rave. But it’s also shot through with moments of longing on tracks like “Vanish Into You” and “Blade of Grass”. While I felt the latter was a vibe shift that didn’t exactly fit with the rest of Mayhem, there’s no denying that dangerous yearning that grabs hold of you and refuses to let go.
Photo by Samir Hussein/Getty Images for Live Nation
The post 4 of the Best Neo-Goth Electronic ‘Blade’ Blood Rave-Esque Albums of 2025 appeared first on VICE.
