Why "Feels Like Hell" by Weakened Friends is Not Only the Best Album of 2025, But Damn Near Perfect
I'd like to preface this all by stating that I fully realize there are literally thousands of new music releases every month. While I haven't listened to them all, I have listened to a good majority of them. So in that sense, I do feel as if I have done both the listening and research required to make such a bold claim. I am also someone who has been listening to new music, but never quite felt the same way about it as I do music from the year 2000 and before. There are albums which I know not only every word to every song, but every note as well. That's not something I've felt as strongly about in recent years, but with this album I do.
So please enjoy this sort of song-by-song review of what I find to be not only my favorite album of 2025 but possibly the greatest rock album ever created.
1) "Feels Like Hell" opens up with a song called "Tough Luck (Bleed Me Out)" which just sets the pace for what's to come. The opening lines are: "I work like a machine / I don’t sleep and I don’t eat / I’ll be whatever you need / Fill the void by avoiding everything" This seems to portray what life is like these days, in the year 2025, where we are literally working ourselves to death. Does anyone remember a time when you could actually work, make money and still have a life outside of that? But as everyone not in the government keeps saying, all the numbers are going up except for wages. This takes us into the lines of "I don't know if I'm learning / Information goes in, but I'm blacking out". At one point in my life, I worked the peak season at [redacted] and I was pushing 60 hours per week. This song really has me thinking of that, but at the same time it just feels like people who are overworked and underpaid no matter how many hours they're averaging per week. Perhaps most importantly, this song comes on with these lyrics which makes you just quickly sense that this is going to be an album about rebellion. These aren't going to be happy songs or breakup songs, but they're most likely going to be "I'm sick of this shit" type of songs and that's all out there for you to take in right with this first song.
Musically, "Tough Luck (Bleed Me Out)" begins with this almost upbeat type of sound with those drums that make me think of Metric. This song definitely does start with a vibe that could bring it into something more joyful, but as soon as we hit that second part where the lyrics say "I don't know if it's working" you can begin to hear the vocals shake and you just know you're in for something that isn't going to be so happy. During the chorus, which says both of the titles to the song, there are heavier distorted parts which both remind me of some modern rock bands but also bands from that grunge era. This will become more apparant in the sound the longer you listen to all of the songs on this album, but I'm really into the idea of this song saying "Get fucked" in the chorus as well because I like to tell people that a lot. The song eventually swings back around to how it started and that feeling being at both the beginning and end of the song, musically, just really makes me think about the band Metric, whom I love so much.
2) "Lightspeed" opens up with these guitar notes which just cut through your soul. One of the best signs of a brilliant song is having an opening such as this, so that when this is played live, right when those first notes hit the crowd is going to immediately know the song and cheer. It's kind of like "Today" by Smashing Pumpkins, "Where Is My Mind" by Pixies or other infamous songs I just can't think of right now. This is also on some level feels like a bit of a dreamy -gaze of a guitar sound, which makes me think about Rocket and their "R is for Rocket" album, also released in 2025 and also one of my favorites. The way that this song kicks in and keeps a steady pace in the verses does feel like something of the grunge / alternative era. The chorus kicks in and the guitar chords start and stop as if to sing along with the line "I never thought I'd be something that you needed". This is a powerful chorus and I really enjoy the musical aspect of this song, going from a kind of chill, unsuspecting verse telling a story to the chorus just feeling like a gut punch. As we go into this album, musically, I'm reminded of Sweet Pill as well, who I just simply adore. The song dives off into a guitar part like how it opens as a bridge before it all slows down, gets quieter for the final piece lyrically before coming back around again. This sort of verse just builds and then the chorus comes back in such a maniacal way. That guitar part returns and takes us to the end of "Lightspeed" musically.
While this song can go from being chill and just this feeling like floating, the heavier chorus with the starts and stops comes as a contrast to that. This makes me think about "Lightspeed" as having this Jekyll and Hyde way about it, which also comes out in the lyrics to some extent. The song tells a story about two people going their separate ways, and though we don't know the whole story there are the lyrics: "Those late night walks home, songs on your cell phone / There stands the glass, it's cracked in half, now we both walk alone". This is that just oh-so-perfect type of lyric because you can sing along with it a thousand times and not fully understand what is happening, the picture which these words are painting. This is a scene from a movie being described, though the reasons why this incident is occurring are not being as easily understood. Lyrics such as "I ran my mouth, hope you know I didn't mean it" and "I still think I should reach out, but I don't, I sit out" show that side of remorse and regret from the person singing the song. They know and feel as if they were wrong and they're just kind of being stubborn by not trying to make amends, but sometimes life is like that. As much as we think people aren't our real friends because they don't call or text as often as we think they should, we forget that the phone lines go both ways. So to hear these words come through as that confession of, yeah, I was at fault too and could just as easily reach out but I don't... it's not something you like to see in the sense that you don't want this to happen in your life, but sometimes it's that unfortunate reality and it does happen. Then, I think the title of "Lightspeed" can also refer to how sometimes you get into these fights and you think about calling when you have time and then before you know it years have passed and it just feels like it's too late.
3) Going back to that idea of comparing this with one of my other favorite albums of 2025, the song "Nosebleed" has the chorus of "Tell me, I'm not crazy" and there is a song by Rocket called "Crazy" on their 2025 album "R is for Rocket". I feel the connection in that sense, but also this song opens up with the lines "When the heat it got too much, we could cool each other down / Slipped your elbow hit my face, I got a nosebleed on your couch". This specific idea makes me think of the song "Blood" by Sweet Pill, which I know there aren't really bands who have those exclusive rights to singing about bleeding, but just these little reminders of my favorite bands all coming together makes this album by Weakened Friends that much more special. This song really feels lyrically like it's about getting over someone in a good way. The chorus says "Tell me, I'm not crazy / Tell me, I'm still a maybe / Tell me, whattcha doing lately?" and as I've listened to this song far too many times when I first heard it and didn't really know the lyrics I thought one line would say "Tell me, I'm still you're baby" or "Tell me, I'm still amazing". I like that if you wanted to you could kind of substitute those lyrics in and make this more open to interpretation (Sometimes I still sing along with "Tell me, I'm still amazing") and I really hope that maybe Weakened Friends would mix it up live too, just for fun.
"Nosebleed" feels the most grunge era song based on the way that the verses start. The chorus kicks in, but not as heavy as "Tough Luck (Bleed Me Out)" for example, and this makes this feel even more like one of those angry anthems from the 1990s. It's odd, but the song which says "Convinced I was the problem, I was losing my mind" is also perhaps the most easy to sing along with and perhaps the most light-hearted feeling in the sense that people could listen to this without it feeling too angry. I don't feel like either of these influences are in this song- and maybe they are but not directly- but there is a large difference between hearing something like Walls of Jericho and Alanis Morissette. Walls of Jericho has a much more in your face type of brutality to it, where as Alanis can sound angry but also be something more commercially appealing. Again, this song isn't so much like either of them but it is closer to Alanis than it is Walls of Jericho musically just because I feel like the anger in "Nosebleed" is more accessible than not. This is also important to the overall sound because as this begins to peel back the layers of that heavier sound and show a little bit of pop, we get much closer to pop punk on the next song, so this is a nice way to kind of guide us into that as well instead of just feeling like we're flipping a switch in between songs.
4) "Weightless" begins with those quieter guitar parts before kicking in. This has that start like My Chemical Romance with that urgency, but then it turns into that great pure pop punk sound that I love during the chorus. While the songs up until now have had either heavier or elements to other genres, "Weightless" is just that sound like Cinema Stare and other artists whom I love so much. It's that true sing along sound that has a musical interlude- with a different guitar part than "Lightspeed"- and then it gets quiet as you can imagine everyone singing along so loudly at a live show. I also love that this song is distinctly Weakened Friends, but it's also so much pop punk that you could put it in a pop punk playlist, people could hear it and then think they're getting into a different album because maybe they don't expect certain songs on "Feels Like Hell" to be so heavy. Even though there have been some heavy parts in these songs up until now, I don't truly feel like the real heaviness of it all is going to kick in until the next group of songs between the Interludes.
I keep going back to comparing this album with "R is for Rocket" but this song "Weightless" really has those same vibes of just hating the world that Rocket does on their album. In many ways, a Weakened Friends-Rocket co-headlining tour in 2026 would just be the best experience possible. "Weightless" begins with the lines "Everything I see's so fucking bleak / I wanna go to sleep for weeks on end with no one even realizing I'm gone". This song is about being fed up with the world (easy to relate with in 2025) and yet also just kind of wanting to drop out of a race you never wanted to run. Lines like "I need to take a break, before I fucking break" will hit hard with those who also relate with the first song and are just sick and tired of being sick and tired. There is a verse that says "Remember when they told you you'd be great? Grow up and make a change? They promised it'd be simple then they tore it all away". It's kind of funny, but they don't really tell people in high school that they're going to grow up to struggle to pay bills and live paycheck to paycheck. There is always this idea of studying hard, getting into college and then getting a good job, which just isn't realistic any more. So there is definitely that time in your life when you don't feel like the weight of the world is crushing you because of bills and such and this song feels like it's about getting back to those days. But for a lot of people I don't think it's even about not wanting to have these responsibilities but rather about just getting what we were promised when we were forced to go to school. If we could just make more money than our expenses, it would be a great start.
5) "Interlude 1" is a nice little piano piece to kind of serve as an intermission for a little under thirty seconds. What you have to understand about "Feels Like Hell" is that even though there are twelve tracks in total, it feels like it's an album of ten divided by two. This is because you have the first four songs, then "Interlude 1" followed by four more songs and "Interlude 2". The last two tracks can feel somewhat out of place, but they do tie the whole album together and we'll get to those later. For right now though, as you move through this album, you can think of it in that four song then interlude way, then two songs at the end to close it out. This is the first interlude, so it should give you that break to digest what you've heard so far because what is about to come is going to only get more intense.
6) We begin with a similar theme of being fed up with everything on the song "NPC". This has those strong pop punk vibes, similar to "Weightless", and the chorus just fully feels like it has that sing along quality as well. This is important because I feel like "NPC" is the type of song that can bring people together based upon the sound of it, but I also feel like it can do that just as easily with the lyrics.
"NPC" begins with the lines "Feel dog tired first thing in the morning / Why's everything I see so annoying?" and it just instantly brings you into that state of being tired of the world. There is this theory that constantly floats around social media whenever something crazy stupid comes out as facts (which, to be fair, is usually about something the Trump administration has done) and people will say that we all actually died during the pandemic and this is Hell. This song touches upon that with the chorus "Like maybe I'm just already dead / Or I'm living in a simulation / But honestly it makes me depressed / That this was the best thing / Someone could invent". Going back to the title of this album- "Feels Like Hell"- when you think about this simulation from that stand point it does begin to make more sense. But when I think about life in the sense of it being a simulation or maybe we're already dead, I just think about how this all will eventually end some day and no one is going to look back on their life and wish that they had a better credit score. So in that way this song does feel like it's got a positive message disguised in bleak lyrics. It can just kind of make you feel like life is pointless- to some extent- and so then instead of worrying so much about it all we should just start doing what makes us happy.
7) "Smoke and Mirrors" is perhaps the heaviest song on this album. The second line says "We act like friends but that bridge is burning", adding to the idea of this being about fire and Hell, as is in the title of the album. The verses come in with this nice sort of grunge but alternative and almost math rock feel to them, while the chorus just comes in heavier with screaming that says "Fade away / Hey, you're the one to blame". This reminds me of Nirvana and that makes me think the lyrics say "Stay away", which is something I thought at the first few listens. This whole album has the feeling where it could be like "Nevermind" by Nirvana, just picking out songs as if they are their own little worlds built into one big world. But it is also kind of interesting that this song has the lines in the chorus "I can't give you magic anymore, gotta keep it for myself". I'm not going to speculate here but if you're listening to this and want to get into some deep thoughts perhaps if Kurt Cobain had the idea of keeping the magic for himself then he would still be here. I don't know. I'm not really sure. But sometimes you just have to put yourself over others and it's not selfish but rather survival.
8) When listening to "Feels Like Hell", and thinking about it as being two different sides (though, again, "NPC" would start the second side for me though it actually appears on the first side of the record) I had to at first think of these different songs for their hooks, for how they sound. Of course "Smoke and Mirrors" is the heaviest so you know you're about to get into the screaming and perhaps anger your neighbors. But "Queen of Town" is the song I always think of as having this strong bass line with the vocals and then the guitars crunch in with starts and stop before hitting the chorus. "Queen of Town" is really the best song on here to feel like you're flipping that switch between melody and chaos. I'm not sure why but the first handful of times I listened to this, as the first verse says the title, I always wanted to substitute "Queen of Town" with "Queen of South". I mean, it still works if you sing it that way, but it loses meaning within the overall lyrics of the song. As the first verse has just the solo bass and vocals, the guitars begin to cut in after the second verse, during the next two lines, which start with "And you're acting like you want it, but you don't / So take your feelings and just shove them down your throat". This is quite possibly one of the best ways to hear the isolated vocals as well, just the way they sort of shake as they come through. I'm not sure what this song is about in a specific way, but never get on the bad side of Sonia Sturino and Annie Hoffman. The line "And it's a good thing you will never amount to anything" is such a great insult that I'm so glad it's not aimed at me. Not only are they telling this person their life is a waste, but it's being set in a positive light. I think of it in terms of music because, well, it is a song and I think of most everything in terms of music, but it feels like if it was directed at a musician it'd be like saying that no one is ever going to hear your shitty songs and that's for the best. It's just such a tough, double gut punch but so is most of this album.
9) Right away I can tell you that I enjoy "Not For Nothing" because it's the song that says the title of the album but isn't a titular track. This song starts in a way which always reminds me of All Get Out and if I didn't remember to add that note here I'd be mad at myself. This song not only has the chorus of the title of the album but it twists it in a way you don't quite expect. The chorus starts with "Yeah, it feels like hell, but I like it". Based on the title of the album alone, you might think this is going into a different direction with it feeling like hell and you don't know how you'll survive or something in that negative way, but to embrace it and almost put a positive spin on it just gives me new life and meaning. The chorus continues with "Yeah, I hate myself when I'm like this" and then into "And not for nothing, maybe the worst of me's the best for me". These are a lot of emotions together saying the same thing but in different ways. How can this be the worst of you but also the best for you? So for me I just think of it like how sometimes to create art we need to be in that dark place. Some of the best songs came from heartbreak. In that sense, I feel very much like the world can be a terrible place and that's nothing new but if you take those experiences of sorrow, grief, mourning, etc and channel them into something positive then they weren't for nothing. Someone greater than me once said that you don't have to walk alone all woe-is-me all of the time, but more often than not the best art comes from depression. In that same way that I feel like you can take a bad experience and make something good from it, this also just makes me think about how bad things are a part of life simply because if everything was good then nothing would be good. Having that part of you that feels like hell makes it so that when you don't feel like hell and things are going well you can recognize that good. It's about that balance in life where you can't have one without the other and musically "Not For Nothing" just also feels like such a unique sound between catchy pop punk and alternative rock.
10) This takes us into "Interlude 2", which I feel is like the end of the album if you think about it as being four songs and then an interlude. This one hits sharp notes as if we're into a new beginning, a new birth if you will, and that just seems fitting for how this album is going to go next because there are still two tracks left. Don't get me wrong. I hear this album as four songs / interlude / four songs / interlude / two songs, but if you buy this record and then realize "NPC" is the end of the first side... Yes, the way I think of it when I'm listening feels more even, but the fact that it's not so neatly and nicely packed up like that just makes me feel overall better about it. Though I have this idea in my head, the fact is that if Weakened Friends paced the album the same way and left the last two songs off as well, it simply wouldn't be as good but it would also feel like just a cookie-cutter type of experience as well-- and everything else about this album just screams it being far from typical or your average cliche run of the mill album.
11) Into the slower, almost math rock type of song now with "Great Expectations". This is just such a great way to sort of end this album as it doesn't feel like we're going out with a bang or a whimper, but rather something in between. This song feels like how I get into the pool when the water is really cold. It gradually builds to the big distorted kick in which just takes us to the end. This is not a verse/chorus/verse song but more of a quiet/loud feel to it. This song also describes how a lot of people, especially myself, have likely felt throughout these past few years and maybe even since the pandemic. "I was fun for a while, now this girl's gone mild" just feels like it's about getting older but "When I had great expectations, heartbreak took its toll on me / I've been stuck in this place since, wasting moments and memories". It's like the people who always think in January "This will be my year! This year will be better!" and then as December comes around again you realize you lost hold of it all somewhere. The song and ultimately the album ends with the lines "I'm so tired, I'm so bored with myself / I keep lighting fires, I keep making it hell for myself". That constant theme of fire, warmth and hell is to be noted throughout "Feels Like Hell" but just to also come out of this with mixed feelings. Life can have its way of kicking you while you're down, but this whole album feels kind of like a choose-your-own-adventure book. You can use the lyrics and raw emotions of these songs musically to work out a lot of what you need to work out in a therapeutic way, but then once you do get to this song, you can decide where to go from here. Singing along, admitting you're tired and bored of yourself is fine. But what are you going to do? Are you just going to keep singing that, just keep feeling tired and bored or are you going to use the entire experience of "Feels Like Hell" to cleanse your mind, body and soul and start over? This is it. This is your chance. You've made it to the point where you know things are tough not just for you but all around. You were singing along with those songs. Sometimes with a smile on your face, sometimes letting out your anger, and sometimes while crying. But how you come out of this album after hearing it isn't up to Weakened Friends or me or anyone but yourself. Do you want to stay stuck being tired and bored or will you use this album as your wake up call to push you into something different, something new, something better? Maybe you have to listen to it ten times before you figure it out. Maybe twenty. I guess that depends on how damaged you are. But once you get through it to the point where you're moving forward with your life, all of these songs begin to sound different because no longer are they angry or sad but they become the fuel which feeds the fire of making your life better. "Feels Like Hell" can become a very life-changing, spiritual movement if you let it. But if you just want some alternative / grunge / emo / pop punk songs to sing along with, well, it has that too.
12) This all ends with a cover of the song "Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia. If you weren't around when this song came out on the radio in 1997 (as Imbruglia actually was covering Ednaswap, which is a whole other story) it might come off as just this modern take on a song which is close to thirty years old now, but could be found on that Fearless Records series of "Punk Goes..." (Do they still do that?) But if you were around when this song was on the radio, as I was, you'll feel like it's just such a perfect song to cover because it just feels like it's going from acoustic to electric and isn't as quite as drastic a cover as, say, Chiodos doing Harvey Danger. I also am not someone who has to say that I'm listening to Natalie Imbruglia to do research for this cover and all of that because listening to rock / alternative music from the 1990's is just something I do in general. So while one could make a case for this song fitting within this album and being the end of it, there is also a lot to be said for the album being put into different pieces and this cover (plus "Great Expectations") just feeling like bonus tracks. If you really want to open a whole new can of worms with this song and connecting it with the album, there is the line "I'm cold and I am ashamed", for which you could make the case that cold is the opposite of hot, which hot has the hints towards fire and hell, but since these are not lyrics by Weakened Friends the opposite feeling (cold) just seems fitting. To simply cover a song which flat out has lyrics about hell or fire would just seem too obvious, you know? So I like that this can feel like a part of the album, part of something larger, but at the same time, it's just such a great cover all on its own.
While that addresses all of the songs, I must note that the way that "Feels Like Hell" comes together and stands out so brightly would not be possible without the albums which came before it- both "Common Blah" and "Quitter". This is not a debut album by Weakened Friends and I wouldn't expect any artist to be able to come out and just create something such as this as their debut album. So had it not been for those two albums and the songs which are contained there within, "Feels Like Hell" would not be what it is. Yes, I do feel like you need to experience both "Common Blah" and "Quitter" in order to feel those roots which were planted to see this flower of "Feels Like Hell" blossom. Context is key and if you think about this album as being the newest evolution of the band then you will likely also feel as strongly about these songs as I do.
"Feels Like Hell" is available to listen to and purchase on Bandcamp here :::
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