Let There Be Rock's Best Single of 2025
- Let There Be Rock
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
🏆 Best Single of 2025
Airbourne - 'Gutsy'
It had been a long six years without any new music from the mighty Aussie rockers Airbourne, then right before their appearance at 2025’s Download festival they surprised fans and unleashed an absolute belter of a rock anthem. The track ‘Gutsy’ is fresh out of the hard rocking Aussie playbook, bringing that familiar fast paced and fired-up guitar heavy anthem we have missed from them. Produced by Brian Howes, who worked with the band on 2013’s ‘Black Dog Barking’ album, engineered by Canadian studio legend Mike Fraser (AC/DC, Aerosmith, Rush, Metallica) and mixed by Zakk Cervini (Dayseeker, BMTH, Architects, Machine Gun Kelly), ‘Gutsy’ was the first note of new music since the Australian outfit’s 2019 offering, ‘Boneshaker’.
For me, as a massive fan of that AC/DC championed Australian hard rock, ‘Gutsy’ was just the tonic needed after so many years. Airbourne aren’t shy about their heritage, yet despite the comparisons over the years to the mighty AC/DC, they have always brought their own signature sound to their tracks. Reminiscent of their best releases, and echoing the sentiment of my favourite Airbourne album, ‘Breakin’ Outta Hell’ (2016), it's fair to say that the band are back to their best with this single. For frontman / lead guitarist Joel O’Keeffe, his brother Ryan on drums, plus longstanding bassist Justin Street and more recent recruit Brett Tyrrell, rhythm guitar, this high energy rock is their bread and butter. Heavy guitar riffs, fast paced energy and a killer guitar solo, what’s not to love?! Aside from being a big fan of Airbourne, one of the main reasons I chose the track as my best of 2025, is because of its signature feel good high-energy. In recent years there has been a shift away from such hard-rock style amongst the playlists, with only the likes of all female Swedish rockers The Gems and Thundermother matching Airbourne’s pace and sound in their absence.
At the time of writing, the band are yet to reveal when exactly their new album of the same name will be released, but an early 2026 UK tour and the tease of a bonus Christmas single was enough to keep fans in a state of excitement. Let's just hope the album lives up to the hype that the single has generated. We’ve missed the Airbourne energy!
Album: Gutsy
Released: TBC
Label: Spinefarm Records
Website: https://airbournerock.com
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