Top 5 On Friday – My 5 Favorite EPs from the 1st Quarter: January/February/ March (2025)
Last week, I ranked my top five favorite debut albums from the first quarter of 2025 (here). I was also featured on The Heavy Desert Podcast with Dan Sierras to rank our top ten favorite albums of the first quarter (January, February, and March). You can listen to that forty minute episode on Spotify or Apple. Today, I want to share my five favorite EPs. I decided not to rank these but to list them in alphabetical order. I actually enjoy EPs quite a bit because a lot of times it’s the bands first release or the band usually provides some killer tracks because of the restricted length of time. Sometimes, an artist will experiment with their chosen songs or just simply release some hard hitting bangers. Either way, I have always enjoyed them so I wanted to share my favorites. I tend to listen to EPs from bands a lot due to the time restrictions, so it’s easier to digest the songs more and the time restraints fit better in a busy schedule. In all of these choices, this is coincidentally the first time I have heard these bands. It allowed me to dig further into their respective musical catalogs and hear more from each of them. However, for two of the choices, it’s the only thing they have available. Thank you for reading and please feel free to share some excellent EPs that you have recently discovered. Please support the heavy underground and purchase merchandise from the bands you like.
DEGREAVER – WHITE NOISE EP
DeGreaver was the last EP that I heard and was recommended to me by my friend, Dan Sierras. He mentioned it on our quarterly review episode on his show. It’s a fantastic listen! White Noise (review here) contains five songs and it rocks! The track listing includes “White Noise”, “Queen Of Hellfire”, “Magazine”, “Tree Of Love”, and “Restless Soul “. The band are a three-piece from Lübeck, Germany and the White Noise EP was released on January 21st. The band has a varied psychedelic and stoner rock sound with excellent QOTSA style vocals. I binge listened to this one once I heard it because it kept drawing me back in. They also have a full length album out (which is quite good!) called Between Green And Blue, that came out in 2022.
https://degreaver.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/share/1DTu5kRGqx/?mibextid=wwXIfr
HEY SATAN – FLAMINGOES EP
Hey Satan is a hard rocking stoner/ grunge three-piece band from Lausanne, Switzerland. Flamingoes (review here) came out on January 31st and contains four songs: “Rubicon”, “Flamingoes”, “Digital Boys With Knives”, and “Monster”. I believe this was the first release that included bass guitar, the other albums had two guitars and drums, if I’m not mistaken. The band’s other releases are excellent too and include: 2017’s Self Titled and 2019’s Orange Moon full lengths and a three song EP, 2021’s King Barry. It was after hearing Flamingoes that I checked out their other recordings. I really enjoy Hey Satan’s sound and look forward to hearing more from them in the future.
https://heysatan.bandcamp.com/album/flamingoes
https://www.facebook.com/share/1EC6HR1cTT/?mibextid=wwXIfr
LAND MAMMAL – SURVIVE THE HIVE EP
Land Mammal is a Texas based quartet that formed in 2019. Survive The Hive (review here) is a hard rocking thirteen minute EP that doesn’t let up for one minute. It’s a riff rocker from start to finish! It contains four songs, “The Wasp”, “Animal”, “Bandolier”, and “Stare At The Sun” and was released on January 24th. It’s definitely my favorite release from the band. They also have a 2019 Self Titled EP, 2021’s Show Your Mind, and 2024’s Emergence full lengths. Land Mammals other recordings were definitely more tame with psychedelic components and mellow sounds. Survive The Hive is a pedal to the metal EP that is more my preference of sound for the band. It will definitely be interesting to hear what they come out with next but this one is right up my alley.
https://landmammal.bandcamp.com/music
https://www.facebook.com/share/158RhtMM2e/?mibextid=wwXIfr
LOST CAVERNS – FROM WITHIN EP
Lost Caverns is a four-piece band from West Virginia. From Within (review here) is their debut EP that came out on March 9th. It contains six tracks: “Conquest Of The East”, “Dead Man’s Hand”, “Digging A Hole”, “Mothman”, “I Built A Spaceship”, and “Conquest Of The West”. This is a really great album that has some heavy riff rocking metal that sounds awesome. Dan Soren from Sixty Watt Shaman is on lead vocals and the music just rips! It’s great to hear his fantastic voice again and the band have a nice organic sound throughout these six songs. There isn’t too much information available about the band on the internet and I believe this is only available via digital release, at this time. At any event, it’s definitely worth checking out!
https://www.facebook.com/share/1K9UTRnDmu/?mibextid=wwXIfr
REQUIEM BLUES – SELF TITLED EP
Requiem Blues are a hard rocking power trio based in Liverpool, England. The band has a proto-metal and vintage/ classic seventies sound. This debut EP (review here) from the band contains five songs, including “Frustration”, “Living In Fear”, “The Pressure”, “Last Place I Want To Be”, and “No Reason Why”. They do a great job replicating that late sixties/ early seventies vibe with these excellent songs. It was released on January 29th. I had this band on my list to check out and then Dan from The Heavy Underground Podcast also mentioned this one on our episode together. If you like that warm retro-sounding rock then you will love this one.
