It’s time to reflect on the year in music! This month, we’ll be highlighting Jam of Today’s favourite albums of 2025. Working our way up to the #1 album, which will be revealed on the 31st of December, we’ll go one by one past this year’s favourites. Today, our #9: ‘Clockworked‘ by Stray From The Path.

To be fair, it had been about 2,5 years since they last released music in the form of album ‘Euthanasia’, back in September 2022. Yet, when Stray From The Path dropped their hit single ‘Kubrick Stare’ in February of this year, it felt completely unexpected. A jack-in-the-box. Just as surprising, perhaps, as the shadowdropped‘Clockworked’, which swiftly turned out to contain one more bombshell: the end of Stray From The Path as a band. After more than 20 years, the Andrew Dijorio fronted group is calling it a day. And that’s a god damn shame.

Outspoken, straight to the point, as hardcore as can be. Stray From The Path, a band leaving a huge mark on the scene and in my personal music books, too. Not only did they never shy away from speaking intensely about their own personal views, they also made sure to bring that raw, unfiltered energy to stage. For that reason, every single one of the five shows I’ve experienced of this band were mental. Highlights were this year’s performances at Rock im Park and their final London show last month in Kentish Town’s O2 Forum, one where I made sure to enjoy every little bit of this band’s performance one last time.

Reflecting on 20+ years of Stray, it’s clear to notice the band’s transformation. From goofy songs such as ‘I Made a Hoobastank in My Pants’ (opening song on indie debut ‘People Over Profit’ (2001)), the band managed to become one of hardcore’s most beloved and respected acts. Albums ‘Subliminal Criminals’ (2015) and ‘Only Death Is Real’ (2017) feature iconic tunes ‘First World Problem Child’ and ‘Goodnight Alt-Right’, with later releases ‘Internal Atomics’ (2019) and ‘Euthanasia’ (2022) being drenched in bangers such as ‘Fortune Teller’, ‘Guillotine’, and the end of the ‘Badge and A Bullet’-trilogy in ‘III’. Honestly, I could go on forever about the great songs this band has released but it’s best to just experience it yourself. Collaborations with the likes of Rou Reynolds (Enter Shaker), Jesse Barnett (Stick To Your Guns), and more recently LANDMVRKS and Poison The Well showed the amount of respect this band would get from their colleagues all across the scene, whether that would be in Europe or North-America. Now, however, it is time to say goodbye.

Or, as Drew York himself would sing in ‘Fortune Teller’: “The end to my end is my control”. Last month’s set ender was exactly how you would expect this band to wrap up their existence. No melancholic or sentimental stuff, just one more time going mad and then we’re out. What a way to do so with ‘Clockworked’, a big fat release of all of Stray’s leftover energy. From opener ‘Kubrick Stare’ up until ‘A Life In Four Chapters’, this album doesn’t hold back a single second. It’s a relentless piece of rage and fury. It’s the biggest middle finger this band could’ve given to all the things they hate most. I figured, as a way of saying goodbye, there would only be one song off of ‘Clockworked’ I should be sharing here today: ‘Fuck Them All To Hell’. Was there ever a more staple Stray From The Path song? I don’t think so.