Filipino music continues to show its range and resilience across scenes and cities, with bands like Linger Escape shedding light to Bicol’s shoegaze scene with ‘We All End In The Same Place’. Elsewhere, SOS settled into a more steady and mature ground in their craft with ‘It Was A Moment’, a record shaped by patience, distance, and willpower. Meanwhile, WAIIAN’s ‘BACKSHOTS’ spent the year operating on what success means to him and what the rewarding tune of excitement sounds like when your friends have always stuck around for you.
What made 2025 stand out was this shared sense of grounding; Artists weren’t chasing trends as much as they were refining their voice, trusting their communities, and allowing time to do its work. Across regions and genres, releases felt deliberate and lived-in. Point to a scene that continues to move forward through consistency, craft, connection, and of course, a little bit of hype.
We saw standout releases from artists all across the spectrum, including the Hardcore Punk intricacies of Ghost Stories, the exploration of femininity in Barbie Almalbis’ ‘Not That Girl,’ the rawness of Man Made Evil’s self-titled debut album, the ultimate sci fye comeback, and Hazylazy’s approach to ‘Antagonisms,’ among many others. From indie rock and shoegaze to hip-hop, hardcore, pop, and club classics, these acts reflect the celebration of depth and diversity in Filipino music in 2025.
This list gathers the releases that stayed with us throughout 2025. We hope they find their way into your rotation into the new year. – Faye Allego
30. Fatigued – Negative Tide
Though Emilio Gonzales is the solo force behind Fatigued, ‘Negative Tide’ speaks in a trio of narrators: Gonzales through his moniker, the voice of his Jazzmaster, and the ever-present murmur of emotional unrest. The guitar carries the story as much as the vocals do, blurred at the edges and a little bruised, guiding the regret with quiet intensity along Gonzales’ own introspection. Love in absence, growth is failure, and yearning is confrontation. It stays catchy enough to hook, yet sad enough to bruise, tasting bittersweet like unfinished truths. In surrendering control, Gonzales proves unrest can still sound this tender and whole. — Faye Allego
29. Bambu – They’re Burning The Boats
Don’t mind the tiering on this list for now; just pay attention for a good minute: here are three reasons you should listen to Bambu’s latest project.
First, and most importantly, Bambu writes his lyrics as if our lives – as colonized peoples, as members of the “Global South,” as the disenfranchised and disempowered – depend on it. The rapper-activist has always spoken with a sense of urgency in the same vein as the saying “rap is the CNN of the streets.” It’s reportage broken down in verse and beautiful rhyme. Everything he speaks rings in the corridors of the present day.
Second, even after more than two decades, Bambu’s sharp tongue has never dulled. The shattering of the wisdom he dispenses comes after his smooth delivery – never cold or calculated. Production, courtesy of Fatgums, addle Bambu’s lyricism to a hypnotic state. The heads already love this.
Third, ‘They’re Burning The Boats’ eschews Bambu’s wisdom that points towards the future. Empathy, political commentary, and emotive storytelling are common threads in Bambu’s body of work, but this time around, it comes in a different hue. Not too fiery, not too world-weary, but still quick enough to leave you slack-jawed. Listen to it. Right now. — Lex Celera
28. Manny Most High – The Offering
‘The Offering’ is Manny Most High’s invitation to his stream of consciousness. In his debut album, the Australian-based, Filipino hip-hop artist extracts the genre’s essentials and contemporary derivatives to create something cohesive and self-aware. Tracks like “Father,” “8 Ball,” and “Hot Date” weave classic boom bap with hypnotic loops and atmospheric production to capture a visceral feeling. There’s also “Collapse,” which takes the characteristics of cloud rap and trap music to deliver melodic bars in lofi fashion, akin to Yung Lean’s style. The use of moody instrumentals along with Manny’s reverbed vocals intends to make each track feel like a recorded journal entry played over hazy beats. A true experimentalist, Manny Most High proves that constant reinvention is necessary for any quintessential creation. — Aly Maaño
27. Bins – Body Project
A producer and a DJ in Metro Manila’s underground music scene since 2012, Bins debuts with his EP ‘The Body Project,’ a spiritual four-track house project that reconciles the body and the soul through dance. The steady 4/4 pulse lassoes the body into a soulful swaying, reminiscent of the ecstatic clarity of 1970s gay spaces where the songs’ rhythmic structure was gospel. These favor groove over gesture, as they encourage endless dancing without ever feeling punishing. Bins showcases the genre’s simplicity with his funky and hypnotic synths. If house has always lived as the music between sin and salvation, Bins leans into that line with tenderness, and proves that bodily pleasure (that isn’t sex) can be a route toward something quite transcendent. — Jax Figarola
26. (e)motion engine – tell me how you f(e)el
‘tell me how you f(e)el’ is a mixed bag of bangers. With their single releases “boy” and “milk” finding a home in the debut EP, (e)motion engine takes the chance to flesh out their sound while still delivering on what made fans fall in love in the first place. The 6-piece project offers tracks that are moshpit worthy all the way to quiet contemplation. Ranging stylistically, they’re all unified in (e)motion engine’s unwavering need to be unapologetic in their vulnerability. It’s evident that no matter what direction they go with a track, they wear their hearts on their sleeve as they do it. Once the engine starts rolling, it’ll be hard to stop it. — Rory Marshall
25. A Side Boondocks – ANAK SA LIKING KAWAYAN
Packed with heavy, blaring bass and a whole lot of attitude, A Side Boondocks show how boom bap is done right: think the Beastie Boys if they had the street cred to back up their music. Accompanied by quirky, pitched-up background vocals and immersive sound effects, this record is proof that sometimes, simple production taking the reins is more than enough. The aspects present in the music, though consisting of the most minute differences, are creatively deliberate and necessary in delivering the narrative they’re painting. The collective is unapologetically themselves in ‘ANAK SA LIKING KAWAYAN,’ every rise and fall of their intonation essential to punctuating the coolness they possess. — Noelle Alarcon
24. OZO – That, I Know
The story of friends starting a band rarely survives contact with ambition, but Oz Kabuhat has turned that tension into fuel. “That, I Know” unfolds like a laboratory test that never stops mutating. With the help of his loyal collaborators, R&B sits at the center, but the sonics keep getting bent out of shape, pulled toward art-rock abrasion, pop melodrama, and moments of deliberate ugliness. What makes the project compelling is not its genre play, but its refusal to settle into comfort. Kabuhat and his collaborators treat the songs like a moving target, rearranging emotion and texture in real time. Melodies arrive, get interrupted, then return bruised; “That, I Know” suggests a Gen Z artist documents the sound of a band learning how far it can push itself before something breaks and deciding to push further anyway. — Elijah P.
23. Ghost Stories – Immortalized By Poetry
Bearing the brunt of an increasingly apathetic world focused on serving the corporate overlords’ requests, the artists have learned to kill their dreams. When faced with the reality that being an artist is often not the most sustainable way of living, we force ourselves to abandon it or conform to what’s acceptable.
That’s why whenever we learn about artists dying right at the cusp of greatness, we start to dream of macabre fiction. Fantasies that you may also be a misunderstood artist like Van Gogh, or too ahead of your time like Kafka was.
Laced with Greek mythology references and youthful idiosyncrasies, Immortalized by Poetry encourages you to keep creating even if nobody sees or hears. Centuries may pass, still, your likeness lives forever in the art you’ve created, proof that you once existed. A sound is still a sound around no one, after all. — JK Caray
[bandcamp width=350 height=470 album=1645567103 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false]22. stab – wounds of fury
For twenty-four minutes, the members of Cebu hardcore band stab. waste no time yanking off their bandages. Except by the end of this, someone else’s blood will be spilling on the floor. The band thrashes and bashes in time while lead vocalist AnnieSTFU inflicts lacerations on all the worst kinds of men, the type that foul up any place where they make their wretched presence known, be it a personal space or the Batasang Pambansa. Each track on ‘wounds of fury’ is a yelp of anger, the violent end of a repression, the scream that sets off a chain of well-deserved revenge. — Eve Bagahansol
21. &nd – Quarters
On their first collection of songs, the Bacolod-based band &nd play reliably warm and comfortable dreampop with infectious hooks and dazzling textures. But instead of trying to fill both of your ears and taking up the aural space, they opt to let their sounds dissolve together into a hazy bliss that radiates out from the middle, making you feel as though you’re towing the line between a dreamstate and a late-night TV movie.
One compelling quarter from this EP is the song “Best Of Luck,” where the thrill of romance is turned into an impressionistic landscape painted with swelling guitars, free-flowing words, and a vocal performance that will have you imagining how things would’ve been like if Taylor Swift had sold her acoustic guitars and bought effects pedals fifteen years ago. — Eve Bagahansol
20. RamonPang – The Answer Breaks
Leave it to a Fil-Am to dip their toes in club music–whether it’s artists like Ramon Pang himself or the roots of Jocelyn Enriquez, Fil-Am artists bring the bounciness of Filipino quirkiness to Western soundscapes. The buildups in Pang’s music are careful, considerate, giving you a few moments to survey the dancefloor before fully losing yourself in the beat. Each track gets richer as the runtimes move forward, every additional component enriching, never overstepping, the foundations he forms. Decorating liminal synth spaces with the grittiness of UK garage and four-on-the-floor house percussion, Pang’s sample-laden single is a product of the sounds of his past, expressed with utmost authenticity through the pure love of the game. — Noelle Alarcon
19. Sci Fye – 2092
sci fye’s ‘2092’ sounds like a transmission from a future where burnout, corporate dread, and small acts of rebellion mix into the same daily loop. The album moves through interludes and sharp turns that track the vocalist’s frustrations and moments of disillusionment. It feels like a rock record pieced together during a long commute, where thoughts drift between quitting, escaping, and tearing everything down just to feel something. Highlights such as “Drown It Out,” “N,” “Song,” and “Bastard” shift between melodic stretches and sudden left turns that keep the listener slightly off balance.
Moreover, sci fye is not interested in predictability. The band uses feedback, distortion, sharp rhythms, and emotional pivots to build a record that mirrors the instability of the world it imagines. ‘2092’ never settles into one identity. Instead, it captures a sense of urgency that feels familiar to anyone who has ever felt stuck in a system designed to drain them. It is a future that looks uncomfortably close and a soundtrack built for pushing against it. — Elijah P.
18. Linger Escape – We All End In The Same Place
Naga City’s very own Linger Escape hit us with a cacophonous masterpiece this year. ‘We All End in The Same Place’ is the band’s first-ever official longform release, and it’s proving to be a long-standing pillar in the Filipino shoegaze genre. linger escape managed to create a palpable, sonorous whirlwind that’s nothing short of enthralling to the listener. A thick, resonant, atmosphere of steady intensity built with their reverbed guitar distortion and vocals, either layered and melodic or gruff and harsh. With this being Linger Escape’s first ever album, it shows that this is just the tip of the iceberg for them, and is a prime example of what Naga’s, and the whole country’s shoegaze scene could offer. — Rory Marshall
17. Megumi Acorda – Sun Blanket
When the ‘Unexpectedly’ EP dropped, the local scene was introduced to Megumi Acorda, and soon, she formed a quintet fluent in longing, translating dusk-colored feelings into reverb, fuzz, and emotional afterglow. With 2025’s ‘Sun Blanket,’ the ache remains, but it burns warmer. Instrumentally, the EP moves with patience. The guitars are satisfyingly fuzzy without drowning the mix, hitting that sweet spot between shoegaze haze and garage band grit. The production is engineered and mastered with such delicate care that everything lands crisp to the ear, almost startling in its clarity. The lyrics are seasoned and conversational, delivered like late-night overthink texts rather than performed lines. What makes Sun Blanket work best is how naturally it matches the groove with the fuzz while maintaining that beloved garage band atmosphere. It’s unpolished in spirit, refined in sound. A warm, honest listen that sticks. “Sun Blanket” is undeniable proof that yearning, when handled by the right hands, can still shine. — Faye Allego
16. Michael Seyer – Boylife
“Boylife” feels like the auditory version of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, but now observed through the lens of Michael Seyer’s own coming-of-age stories. Through feathery vocals and weathered compositions, he carries emotions of his past and present. From a boy still confused about the world around him, feeling lonely and surveilled, to a man who wanders about his life, but now has people around him to keep him supported.
Michael Seyer’s process of growing up is emotionally complicated, but relatably honest. It’s not easy figuring those things out altogether, but for him, he carries a balm singing them all out. It’s a blanket of truth cushioned by an 80’s singer-songwriter palette, a way of recalling memories that’s simultaneously reminiscent and contemporary. — Louis Pelingen
15. SOS – It Was A Moment
Follow-ups that take so long to stew don’t always tend to work out in the end, but fortunately to everyone involved, SOS embraced their past slip-ups and turned them into a note of change. ‘It Was A Moment’ is a long-awaited follow-through whose moments always mature. A growing up phase of the band steeped in dusting off the shelves, seeing each other to parse through what just happened for the past 7 years, and moving forward with an assured glint in the eye.
This is maturity that’s stamped over to their musicality. Performing in and out of the studio, where romantic statements are laced in introspection, mid-2010s synth-inflected pop evokes more grooves and refinement, and expanded their writing capabilities, going so far as to write songs in Tagalog with pure confidence. Growing up can sure be a weird moment, and for SOS, they’ve done the work for the better. Leading up to this moment, that’s very much worth the wait. — Louis Pelingen
14. Djuno – Moonrats
Djuno’s ‘Moonrats’ feels like an internal monologue cracked open and scattered across an album. The debut full-length carries the tone of someone who spends most nights awake, sorting through feelings through folders that arrive too fast to name. The production leans toward lo-fi textures that fade in and out like unfinished drafts and demos, but the songwriting underneath has intention even when it sounds frayed at the edges. Tracks such as “Phlegm,” “Menthol Song,” “Dead Horse,” and “Drenched in Amber” move between digital melancholy and confession.
The album creates its world from scraps of synths, fragile vocals, and moments where emotion spills out before it can be edited down via DAW. “Moonrats” sits outside the usual language used to describe ‘sadcore’ because Djuno is not interested in fitting into that mold. The work feels more personal than dependent on genre. It is a debut that finds charm in its unease and clarity in the kind of mess that most artists avoid showing. — Elijah P.
13. Chezka – Misfire
There is something beneath the shimmer of pop culture virality found within Chezka’s music. Her viral success has landed, among other things, a deal with Underdog Music, producer credits on a Joyner Lucas and Jelly Roll track (crazy, I know), and hundreds of streams on her first EP, ‘Misfire,’ a five-track collection of songs she has built over the years. Her breakthrough did not come overnight. “Misfire,” the EP’s title track, was composed in segments the artist had shared on TikTok years ago.
As her voice coos and falters in hush tones over a soft guitar, she follows the same trajectory of introspective folk-pop you can expect from the likes of Clara Benin and NIKI. But the images she conjures are too specific, maintaining a point of view that she can call her own. Somewhere, sometime, someone’s emotional wounds are yet to be tended by this EP. Many things bloom in silence, but the weight of emotional anguish can only be lifted by a song like “What Could’ve Been.” — Lex Celera
12. Ligaya Escueta – Dollweb
Ligaya Escueta’s sophomore album chronicles that moment when a teenager turns 18. And nothing happens… yet. You don’t change immediately, but somehow the world expects you’re already an adult with valid IDs to fill and voting responsibility. It’s a dizzying experience that rarely gets talked about, making Dollweb feel like a breath of fresh air in the saturation of coming-of-age releases.
Throughout the album, Escueta’s prodigious sense in penning infectious hooks and well-placed dynamic shifts shines through. Bearing her alt-rock influences on her sleeves, she fashions them in a way that makes even your uncle, who’s a Smashing Pumpkins fan and religiously swears by Pinkerton, itching to ask, “What song is that?”. For a talent still at the onset of her career, Dollweb is the kind of album that puts Escueta on the radar for everyone to pay attention to. — JK Caray
11. emma bot – Radio Emma
With pop-punk energy that never lets up throughout its fourteen tracks, ‘Radio Emma’ is lightning in a bottle. From its explosive opening track, “C.O.T.Y.” all the way to closer “Bottle Rocket,” it’s an album that relentlessly bombards you with catchy riffs and harmonies, but also knows when to let the listener breathe. And that’s not to mention the samples from old cartoons such as Spongebob or Hey Arnold! that simply exude a sense of thoroughly belonging to this generation, a generation holding on to youth for dear life. Emma bot invites you to join them in celebrating this youth for one last time before we finally come of age.
It’s an invitation that is certainly very enticing, with its melodies that harken back to pop-punk’s heyday and lyrics that anyone grappling with growing up can relate to. Radio Emma sounds like it was pulled straight out of the venues of the underground and put into a form that you can tune into any time you want. — Francine Sundiang
10. orteus – surgery
Surgeries are considered the last choice in medical procedures for a reason. When all treatments have been exhausted and options have been narrowed down to one, you’ll have to rely on the art of precise laceration.
At first, it’s the promises of light at the end of the tunnel that prompt an operation. Leave your old self. Fix everything in an instant. Mend a broken body. From a cynical perspective, surgery comes off as a barbaric medical practice only reserved for those too scared of their own mortality. For another, it’s a symbol of a person’s unwavering determination to fight and continue living.
orteus’ surgery submerges itself in morbid imagery and disturbing words, an aesthetic built as a coping mechanism. Whether it’s fixing a doomed relationship or changing into someone else, surgery takes us through a procedure that radically changes us down to the cellular level. If it gets better or goes south, we’ll just have to keep listening to find out. — JK Caray
9. Alisson Shore – MEMENTO MORI
Alisson Shore approaches ‘MEMENTO MORI’ as a filmmaker arranging a story that unfolds in fragments. The album introduces a love that grows, bends, and eventually turns on itself. The concept holds because he treats emotional collapse with as much detail as the early moments of connection, rinse and repeat in the process. Tracks such as “Lason,” “DOD,” “Kapangyarihan,” and “Sarili Muna” shift in tone and tempo to match the instability of the narrative. His voice drops, rises, and slips in and out of the cliches of melodic writing as if each section belongs to a different version of the same character.
The production treats tenderness and violence with equal weight. Nothing is exaggerated, but everything hits with clarity. ‘MEMENTO MORI’ traces the cost of devotion and the consequences that follow when love becomes a cycle with no exit point. The album ties its concept together without losing the rawness that makes it work. It is a portrait of affection turning on itself and the uneasy realization that sometimes the antagonist is the person in the mirror. — Elijah P.
8. Hazylazy – ANTAGONISMS
The woes of life are constant. Most of us ignore them, run from them, all in an effort to cope. But ‘ANTAGONISMS’ posits there’s a different way. Laguna’s resident fuzzmonger Hazylazy confronts them head-on, finally removing the mask of complacency while declaring enough is enough; antagonising them in the long gruelling process. Exploring the frustration that comes with the monotony of life, and how that could weigh down on someone’s day-to-day life, Jason Fernandez’s brainchild wades through these emotions from start to finish. The album’s themes are usually dealt with internally, alone and in silence, but for Hazylazy, he bursts out the prison-walls of the mind through in-your-face, headbang-worthy fuzz rock.
5 years is a long time, but when it comes to ‘ANTAGONISMS,’ it was worth the wait. The record at large is tinged with melancholia, but what Hazylazy masterfully understands is not to shroud it with distortion and noise, but rather to highlight and put in the forefront of his sound, and in that way, it provides much-needed catharsis to the listener.— Rory Marshall
7. Feng – What The Feng
Feng knows how to be young, and more impressively, he knows how to bottle youth and re-release it like a vapor-sealed time capsule with a giant zebra print wrapped around the glass. Replying to a comment from his “Kids From The West” music video, he fondly insisted that the hipster zeitgeist of the 2010s was “not a concept, it’s a lifestyle.” It’s a playful line, but it also functions as an aesthetic thesis for his 2025 debut, ‘What The Feng,’ a compact, 16-minute record that resurrects the cloud rap spirit through the saturation of memory, adolescence, and even a tinge of twee.
This time, ten years ago, the internet was glitter-loud with Snapchat filters and sepia tints were nowhere near to be found on the presets of VSCO Cam; it was a period defined by curated hipster softness, blurry sincerity, and even ironic self-mythology. Think: Zendaya Swag era. With Feng, his simple lyrics and glass-light punchlines sonically occupy that time period, toppling that nostalgia with unserious flexing that defined early underground cloud rap circles. The production on ‘What The Feng’ feels engineered for headphones and skateboard rides after school– it’s full of glossy synths, punchy 808s, and mixdowns shimmering with euphoria. Feng casts a spell in how eargasmic the beats feel, especially given the runtime, almost like the rush of adolescence. — Faye Allego
6. Daspan En Walis – Askal Projection Vol. 1
Equipped with more than just Juan Dela Cruz’s swagger, Daspan En Walis answers the noise of the present and modern malaise in ‘Askal Projection Vol. 1’. Drawing from a hardcore punk upbringing, the band deliver a barrage of hard rock with demanding, street-smart hooks often found in hip-hop.
For all their righteous fury, Daspan En Walis saves their biggest switch-up for last: the glorious funk metal number, “143 (Will You Memorize),” celebrating an irrepressible romance with lyrics about lips tasting sweeter than Mango-flavored Zest-O. This infectious sweetness provides a sharp contrast to the rest of the EP, youthful struggles, financial precarity, and the will to rebel against authority. ‘Askal Projection Vol. 1’ is rugged, raw, and charmingly imperfect. They’ve captured the sound of an askal—fierce enough to face the streets and smart enough to critique the system while rocking a defiant tongue-in-cheek grin. — Adrian Jade Francisco
5. Barbie Almalbis – Not That Girl
As one of the most influential alternative women artists of the 2000s, Barbie Almalbis returns to declare a hopeful reflection and celebration of the life she’s carried through the years in her latest studio album. ‘Not That Girl’ embellishes her earlier acoustic indie sensibilities with pop-rock experimentation—heavier guitars that contour the angelic voice we’ve already loved and lyrics that sparkle faith-lit optimism.
The opener “Desperate Hours” builds you up for a rough-hewn resilience, the overall theme of the record. Then, the metal-tinged “Platonic” and “ALL U WANNA DO”, which are her love letters to the mosh pits in her gigs, push her into sincerely unfamiliar sounds. Still, she has her signature aria-like grace.
Evidently, the record traces her emotional journey, in how she calibrates her strength to let faith heal side by side. And when the closing songs gesture back to her early sonic palette, they arrive nostalgic yet affirming. They remind us that growth doesn’t require erasing who you were. — Jax Figarola
4. aunt robert – goodbyes forever
In ‘Goodbyes Forever’, Aunt Robert proves that you can never go wrong with being honest with yourself. Even if the music would make you feel angry, or just straight up feeling these whirlwinds of emotions, alongside Gabe Gomez’s stellar solo project. Ever the sincere, prolific songwriter that she is, her debut album is 30 minutes of reading the sentiments written in your diary that you never expected to hear out loud.
With a whimsical lilt to her tone, nostalgically muffled vocal production, and playful, fluttering percussion, there’s a clear homage to the era Aunt Robert is trying to reference. There’s just the right amount of fuzz in the strings to paint the hazy sound of yesterday; the record’s strategic mixing and stylistic choices are essential tools in complementing her effective storytelling.
The inviting, approachable quality of ‘Goodbyes Forever’ plays a large part in creating its appeal–” ’til you want me” and “‘til you need me” are such simple phrases, but they are intensified with the level of vulnerability she utters them with. The coziness of her music is a blanket of sound, comforting and tucking you in. — Noelle Alarcon
3. D Waviee – Epitome
D Waviee understands that electronic dance music should be an invitation to the communal experience to which everyone should belong. If that’s the case, then “Epitome” is a dance floor that never puts its rhythms into maximum overdrive, but rather takes a different angle. She takes not just the listener, but the attendees of her composed dance floor to a glossy progression, one where D Waviee’s collection of beats, samples, and collaborations puts everybody in pure effervescence.
Within its 55-minute runtime, D Waviee becomes a sound setter in control of the atmosphere. Constantly uplifting the mood, it is flushed with a transient tone that easily invites an open space where people can fully identify with their truest selves. This is the pulsating backdrop for the closeted queer and trans folks, where finally, they can finally illuminate what they tend to hide underneath.
The beauty of dance music is how it allows people to just groove from front to back, where shame is taken out of the scene and replaced with celebrating the colors that each individual carries along. ‘Epitome’ is simply that. Translucent, transformative, and transcendent. — Louis Pelingen
2. Man Made Evil – Man Made Evil
Soul numbers and hard rockers come by left and right within the OPM scene. But on their self-titled debut album, Man Made Evil leaves off the gloss you’ve come to expect in those kinds of songs and lets the imprecise but firm grip of their humanity slip through — unknowingly creating something that feels far grander. Across fifteen tracks that span an eclectic mix of genres, from slow dances and folk poems to power pop anthems and political commentary, this band combines cool and charming lyricism with tight musicianship, the latter of which is emphasized by the album’s closed-in sound.
The generally sparse production allows for a sense of space that allows you to feel the intimacy of a well-rehearsed live performance, while also letting linger the doom & gloom of the times in which these songs were born to—and what the band’s name could be alluding to all this time. If music were a refuge within our downtrodden lives, we must let our defiance against darkness be known through it, and much like the bands that came up only half a century ago, Man Made Evil is proof that the genuine expression of our humanity will always persist in the face of relentless conformity.
Mabuhay ang Pinoy rock. —Eve Bagahansol
1. WAIIAN – BACKSHOTS
Waiian’s uncompromising honesty has always been the heart he proudly wears on his sleeves. In ‘BACKSHOTS,’ this character (a.k.a. ‘Lods’) is further explored in its most bare, despite what its rather promiscuous album art may suggest.
‘BACKSHOTS’ is an act of contrition and a peek into Waiian’s hypothetical diary. In his confessions, he admits to playing by his own rules, being a true friend, making love, spreading hate, and having his fair share of regretful decisions. This album humanizes Waiian as much as it reveres him as ‘Lods’—building him up at the start as a prophetic figure destined to save the rap game, only to then turn him into a prodigal son of his own making, slowly proceeding towards enlightenment as the album progresses.
‘BACKSHOTS’ is bold. All caps, no asterisks. From his brandishing of self-importance in the exhilarating “MALAKING BIRD,” to his acceptance of a self-fulfilled life (“MAN IN THE MERROR,” “SOFTIE,” “SI LODS NA BAHALA”), Waiian has shown us in this album that he has come a long way since he embarked on his solo mission, and his spirit never broke.
Though he admits that he may not give the best piece of advice, we can all learn a thing or two from the album. ‘BACKSHOTS’ does not always have to remind you of your self-flagellations. It can also be a look into the many possibilities that lie ahead in your journey of becoming your own ‘Lods’. —Nikolai Dineros