#1 active rock label BETTER NOISE MUSIC is celebrating another colossal year advancing the label’s reputation as trailblazers in the rock, metal, and alternative music scene, while underlining their highly strategic commitment to artist development. 2026 promises to be just as exciting as the label is gearing up for new music releases from Five Finger Death Punch, The Funeral Portrait, In This Moment, NOTHING MORE, Dirty Heads, The HU, Eva Under Fire, From Ashes To New, Bad Wolves, and new signings to be announced.
CEO Dan Waite welcomed the new signings, and talked expansion of the label into 2026/2027 “2025 kicked off strongly with an array of big new global artist signings—including Sabaton, Yellowcard, The Rasmus, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and In This Moment—who have each already made their own indelible mark in the music world, our 2026 and 2027 will see new signings being announced, and established bands joining the roster, benefitting from our artist development to join our unique roster of talented musicians and artists” .
Having carved out unique identities in the rock world, the new signings will be worked globally via their new label BETTER NOISE MUSIC.
The label is known for its creative artist development, innovative cross-media strategies, and ability to build international success stories. It was named Billboard’s #1 Mainstream Rock Airplay Label and #1 Mainstream Rock Airplay Imprint of 2024, after its history-making run of five of the last six years as the #1 Mainstream Rock Airplay Imprint (2018-2022). In 2023 Allen Kovac moved up to Chairman role and over the last 2.5 years the company has been run by Dan Waite CEO, Steve Kline COO and President, Harris Masood CFO, and Paul Cormack GM.
President/COO Steve Kline reflected on the successful year, “Congratulations to our global Better Noise Music team, and thank you to our incredible artists and partners for an outstanding 2025. With big releases and new signings, we’re fully ramped up to celebrate our 20th anniversary in 2026 and to have an amazing year.”
New albums released throughout 2025 included two re-recorded greatest hits packages by Five Finger Death Punch (BEST OF – VOLUME 1 and BEST OF – VOLUME 2), Sabaton (LEGENDS), Yellowcard (BETTER DAYS), The Rasmus (WEIRDO), The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus (X’S FOR EYES), Solence (ANGELS CALLING), Cory Marks (SORRY FOR NOTHING VOLUME 2), and Finger Eleven (LAST NIGHT ON EARTH).
In addition, EPs and deluxe editions of albums came out by NOTHING MORE (CARNAL [DELUXE]), The Funeral Portrait (GREETINGS FROM SUFFOCATE CITY – FROM BEYOND THE ABYSS: DELUXE EDITION and DARK THOUGHTS EP), The HU (ECHOS OF THUNDER EP), and Bad Wolves (DIE ABOUT IT (DELUXE)).
As part of the album campaigns for the label in 2025, Better Noise Music released 51 individual tracks to DSPs throughout the year to support upcoming and already released albums from the label’s roster. A number of those tracks were strategically worked at radio, resulting in eight #1 singles on the Billboard “Mainstream Rock Airplay” and Mediabase Active Rock charts. The label also achieved #1 on the Billboard “Alternative Airplay” chart and the Mediabase Alternative Chart with Yellowcard’s “Better Days,” the band’s very first #1 at radio.
Highlights from throughout the year include (in chronological order):
JANUARY 2025
Solence was the first release of 2025 with a remix of one of their most popular songs, “Good F**king Music” (January 20) from their BLUE MONDAY EP, leading to five more songs throughout the rest of the year and setting the stage for their new ANGELS CALLING (October 3) album.
FEBRUARY 2025
The stunning duet of The Funeral Portrait’s Lee Jennings and Lilith Czar “Hearse For Two” was released the week before Valentine’s Day (February 7).
MARCH 2025
“Freefall” from NOTHING MORE featuring Chris Daughtry (March 28) dropped the same day as the release of the CARNAL (DELUXE) album. It kicked off a charitable partnership with K9s For Warriors, tied to the moving official music video for the track. “Freefall” would become the fourth #1 single (April 29) from their 2024 CARNAL album.
APRIL 2025
Sabaton’s debut track release, “Templars” (April 25), was the first song of the LEGENDS (October 17) album campaign and first with Better Noise Music. Four weeks after the album was released, LEGENDS quickly reached 90m streams.
MAY 2025
·Five Finger Death Punch launched two re-recorded BEST OF – VOLUME 1 and BEST OF – VOLUME 2 packages (May 16), which included the re-recorded version of “I Refuse” featuring Maria Brink from In This Moment, which would continue the band’s string of #1 hit songs at Active Rock Radio in the U.S.
New signing Yellowcard launched their new deal with Better Noise Music with the lead single and title track “Better Days” along with album track “honestly i” (NEED LINKS May 28) from their debut album with the label, BETTER DAYS (October 10) produced by Travis Barker.
JUNE 2025
The HU released a new digital EP ECHOS OF THUNDER (June 13), which contains alternate versions of three standout songs from their 2022 album, RUMBLE OF THUNDER with special guests including members of Alice In Chains, Thousand Foot Krutch, Neon Trees, and ROME.
The Funeral Portrait—named by Pandora as one of their “Artists to Watch 2025: The Pandora Ten,” which spotlights a group of ten emerging artists across all genres that it believes will break through in the coming year–achieved their second #1 at Rock Radio with “Holy Water” featuring Ivan Moody from Five Finger Death Punch (June 24).
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus made their most bold statement yet with the release of “Slipping Through (No Kings)” (June 27) with an animated video depicting the dystopian reality that many felt was on the immediate horizon.
JULY 2025
In This Moment released their first new music since 2023 with “Heretic” featuring Kim Dracula (July 16), which marked their debut with Better Noise Music, just in time for their two massive summer and fall U.S. tours, “Hell Hath No Fury” and “Black Mass Tour.”
The Rasmus played a charity concert in Ukraine (July 19) headlining the Atlas Festival as the only foreign artist at the event in front of over 60,000 people, where they performed the powerful outsider anthem, “Creatures of Chaos,” which was re-released October 10 featuring vocals by Theory of A Deadman’s lead singer Tyler Connolly.
From Ashes To New’s “New Disease” (July 25) was the first new song from the band since June 2023 and hinted at the start of a new album campaign for the new year.
AUGUST 2025
Finger Eleven’s feature version of “Blue Sky Mystery” (August 1) with Richard Patrick from Filter announced their new album, LAST NIGHT ON EARTH (November 7).
SEPTEMBER 2025
The Rasmus released their highly anticipated 11th studio album, WEIRDO, (September 12) after debuting the album’s first single, “Rest In Pieces,” last year (October 24, 2024) and rolling out four more singles throughout 2025.
Yellowcard celebrated their first-ever #1 at Alternative Radio in their home market (U.S.) with “Better Days”
