At this point we’re almost used to getting up to November or December and suddenly realizing, “shit, we’ve got an entire year to review.” And we’re also getting used to being absolutely gobsmacked at the amount of amazing music released in the space of twelve months.
But this is only our second year with a dedicated Gear section, so, in short, we’re NOT used to it when looking through the last three hundred and sixty something days worth of pedal and/or plugin releases. It’s a whole industry as opposed to a niche genre… yet we persist.
Maybe it’s our history with music retail. Maybe it’s Holiday-driven familial avoidance syndrome. All we know is that it can’t be stopped – this year’s list has us absolutely stoked for new sound in general. If you’re seeing it here, you know it doesn’t just sound good, it’s got high potential for creative math rock.
What does that mean? We’re not always sure. But we’ll do our best to explain, and this year we’ll start with the pedals then finish off with some plugins in part… three? Perhaps – when it’s ready you can check it out here. There were just too many sick pedals to choose from this year, so we’re gonna break this part into two parts and see what happens. Let’s get to it.
25 Earthquaker Devices – Easy Listening
EQD released a few stomps this year like the Chelsea and the Barrows, but one of them stood out above the rest as something truly ubiquitous. The Easy Listening can function as a headphone amp, but in front of an interface it becomes a reliably high-performance amp sim based on a Fender ’65 Deluxe that sparks magical amounts of headroom at the end of long signal chains.
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24 Walrus Audio – Qi
Yvette Young’s official collaboration with Walrus Audio went WAY beyond reasonable expectations, especially when you consider how many signature pedals out there amount to paint jobs or tweaks to existing situations. The Qi is classified as an etherealizer, so it’s always surreal, but rarely subtle, ranking it among Walrus Audio’s most capable units.
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23 Vongon – Solarfaze
How do you even describe the Solarfaze? For our money, it’s the audio equivalent of watching rays of sunlit dust settle while staring out a childhood window. It’s warm and inviting, but when you want it to be, it’s also devious, unexpected, or even harsh. There have been a few pedals out there that go for a similar sound, but in 2025, Vongon’s takes the cake.
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22 Catalinbread – Wake
This one might be subtle for some but we have a feeling there’s some math rock extremity in wait for anyone curious enough to make it happen. Mixing an octave circuit with a chorus circuit is pure fun, at times even practical, but we’re hoping hear the Wake pushed to the brink once a few more math rockers get a hold of it.
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21 Keeley – The Manis
While another drive from Keeley or another take on the Klon circuit might not sound like the most inspired idea, when paired the results speak for themselves. It takes a lot for us to recommend something like an overdrive, distortion, or fuzz, but Keeley’s deep-dive love letter to the infamous Klon circuit is sure to resonate with anyone looking to sweeten their tone, as well as sharpen it.
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20 Alexander Pedals – Now We Are Ghosts
Alexander Pedals are criminally underrated when it comes to pushing the limits of known parameters in creative, even mind-boggling ways. That being said, the sheer x-factor of their latest device, the Now We Are Ghosts, is undeniable. It’s a take on the synth arena engineered for a guitar, but using reverb as a main ingredient. So really it’s almost more of a pad, but a violent and cloudy one that we want to hear it in math rock as soon as possible.
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19 Intrepid Audio – Crossflow
This sci-fi tremolo is one of 2025’s most original takes on volume itself – and lack thereof. The word that comes to mind for this pedal is motion itself – turns out there’s a lot more that you can do with the parameters than fluctuations of amplitude and volume. Especially if you get an EXP pedal for it. Some of our favorite math rock records sound like space ships flying through the unknown, so if that’s your flavor, let us know when you record with this thing. We want to hear it.
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18 Source Audio – Encounter
Source Audio is a truly idiosyncratic designer in a field overflowing with uniqueness – they have their own way of being unique, like a system of keeping it weird compared to everything else, but consistent within their own line. At first, we thought the Encounter was a surprising leap into a fairly saturated space, being that of dual reverb / delay pedals. But what makes it stand out is the dual ramping features, where you can oscillate the feedback of both the reverb and the delay on tap. We’re not even sure what that means yet, but we’re looking forward to hearing more soon.
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17 Old Blood Noise Endeavors – Sunlight Stereo
This redux of the original covers exponentially more ground, and we more or less mean that literally. With the Sunlight Stereo, you can articulate the lush lines and mod sounds of the OG to create entire solar systems of reverb, especially when utilizing multiple speakers and/or amps.
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16 Polyeffects – Trails
In 2025, the best part about checking out new effects was that it truly felt like sky was the limit, and not just in terms of sound. Yes, the Trails multi-fx sounds great, and at its core it’s a distillation of the Beebo, but it’s the updated presentation that’s undeniable. Thanks to touch sensitive LED sliders and “scene” settings as opposed to traditional parameters, the Trails lovingly coerce players to explore in a truly tactile way. We want to see it live.
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15 Walrus Audio – Xero
Earlier this year our trusty Vox Looper finally kicked the bucket, and the Xero looper really impressed us when we were checking out our available options. Having the option to both speed up and slow down loops was a must-have for us, and not only does the Xero has that and a reverse function, it has precise steroids parameters that just might unlock a new dimension when applied within the DAW or in front of multiple amps.
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14 Cosmodio Instruments – Splinter Twin
The Splinter Twin is something we’ve been wanting to see for a long time – dual modulation effects in series for maximum slurps and swoosh-ing sounds. In our head, we were always thinking of two chorus or vibrato circuits, but Cosmodio removes the guard rails entirely and actually lets you program your own kind of mod sounds, not to mention how and when they collide, treating players to an intuitive yet novel experience.
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13 Gamechanger Audio – Audio Motor
The second we saw this thing, we know we would be talking about it at the end of the year. Gamechanger Audio have already established a take-no-prisoners approach to innovation, but what they’ve done with the Motor is sure to get your engine beyond revved. Okay, sorry. We couldn’t help it. Somewhere between a whammy, a syth, and a tremolo, you have the Motor. It’s like something that could have been a synth, but was tailored to mechanics that play guitar, and honestly, that’s math rock as hell.
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12 Champion Leccy – The Kilter V2
While the original Kilter was pretty spiffy in the same way, we’re not sure enough math rockers have heard about it, and that goes double now that we have V2. The Kilter allows you to mix parallel signal chains – as opposed to switching from signal A to signal B, you get an entire alphabet between where the limits are whatever you make them.
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END OF PART ONE <3 (Thanks for reading! If you’re looking for more music, check out our Bandcamp compilations here. If you like us, or possibly even love us, donations are always appreciated at the Buy Me A Coffee page here, but if you’re in a generous mood you can also donate to folks like Doctors Without Borders, the PCRF, Charity Water, Kindness Ranch, One Tail at A Time, Canopy Cat Rescue, or Best Friends Animal Sanctuary that could probably use it more – click on their names above to check ‘em out if you’re so inclined. Thanks again!)