[PLEASE NOTE: These are not the results of the year-end poll, which ends in January. If you haven’t contributed your picks yet, please do so here.]

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Terrible year, good music. Not the first time that’s happened. Look anywhere in the world and there’s unrest to be found. I have started this paragraph three separate times now with some discussion of my country’s willful embrace of corporate, christian nationalist fascism, and each time have had to go back and restart, because by the time you’re done asking “what’s the point of anything?” you realize you don’t have an answer to that question. Better not to ask.

But in what has unquestionably been the dumbest 12 months I’ve lived through as regards the outside world has made a salve of human creativity, and as our techbro-warlord fiefdoms are laid out and generative AI is pushed in place of human artistry — the two could coexist, easily, just not in a world this stupid — making art whether it’s overtly political or not feels more like resistance against a cultural numbing out than it ever has in my 44 years.

We celebrate the human spirit, then, when we celebrate human creativity. The nonphysical part of ourselves and the connections we make across land, space and time through various forms of art and expression. I believe artificial intelligence can have a place in this world, I just wish I could convince it to empty the dishwasher.

Music holds us together. Or to be more honest, it holds me together. On these days where the horrors don’t seem to end, where cruelty and unkindness are held as virtues and care is seen as a weakness, where hateful rhetoric is held as common sense, where grown-ass men roll around in big-boy pickup trucks and wave silly flags like the spoiled five-year-olds they are mentally, where we kill each other for sport, being able to immerse, to put my head somewhere else, to get away from it for just a little while, has been a gift. It is difficult to believe there was ever an optimistic vision of the future in my country. In the face of rising isolationism and kleptocratic, anticonstitutional governmental improprieties, limitless corruption, endless drudging stupidity, I see no reason for one now beyond escapism.

So in these wretched times, love all you can love. Everyone and everything. Bathe yourself in it as much as you can. Hold onto what you can hold onto, because so much else is being ripped away. We live in fear and confusion and exhaustion, but clarity exists. I find it in art and in critical thinking. My hope for you is you find it however you are able.

Below is my list of the year’s best albums. It’s my list, and it has been put together using the same criteria I always use — personal taste and what I listened to most combined with what I think were important or otherwise notable outings — and as always, there were plenty of them. No, I didn’t hear everything, and I think if I ended this post now with “this was the year of Castle Rat,” that would also be a valid way to go, so whatever your opinions are of the year or the music that filled your life from one end of it to the other, please know that this is coming from my perspective, and that while I do my best to do as much as possible, I have neither time nor interest in covering all releases all the time.

Every year, I put this post up after working on it for a week or whatever and someone invariably goes, “meh what about WHOEVER list sux” and the entire endeavor feels like a waste. Never fails. It’s become part of the ritual. I ask you please keep comments civil and allow for the possibility of other perspectives and opinions. If we can’t do that as people sharing the same divergent subculture, then you and I are no better than the monsters outside the door. And we are better, I assure you.

Thanks for reading. Here we go.

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The Top 60 Albums of 2025

**NOTE**: If you’re looking for something specific, try a text search.

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60-31

60. Make Money From Home, Make Money From Home
59. Madmess, The Third Coming
58. Spawn, Light Rite
57. Lorquin’s Admiral, Lorquin’s Admiral
56. Pink Fuzz, Resolution
55. Bloodsports, Anything Can Be a Hammer
54. Serial Hawk, Psychic Pain
53. C.ROSS, Future Site of C.ROSS
52. Ikitan, Shaping the Chaos
51. Papir, IX

50. Kryptograf, Kryptonomicon
49. Bronco, Bronco
48. The Gray Goo, Cabin Fever Dreams
47. Crop, S.S.R.I.
46. Caboose, Left for Dust
45. Nuclear Dudes, Skeletal Blasphemy
44. Cavern Deep, Part III – The Bodiless
43. Rainbows Are Free, Silver and Gold
42. Moon Destroys, She Walks by Moonlight
41. Abanamat, Abominat

40. Margarita Witch Cult, Strung Out in Hell
39. Kungens Män, Resande i Rockmusik
38. Naxatras, V
37. Atom Juice, Atom Juice
36. Castle Rat, The Bestiary
35. Florist, Adrift
34. Earthbong, Bring Your Lungs
33. River Cult, High Anxiety
32. Messa, The Spin
31. Borracho, Ouroboros

Notes:

You might notice two of the year’s biggest releases here between 31 and 40 in Messa and Castle Rat. I’m not sure underground heavy anything has two more crucial bands happening right now. Castle Rat’s main impact and obvious priority is their live presentation, and Messa I’ve always been kind of here or there on. But looking at the year-end poll results thus far, those are names people would be missing, so I wanted to point them out specifically. There was no getting away from either in 2025.

So much to go through here. A few excellent debuts in Atom Juice, Make Money From Home, Caboose, Bronco, Bloodsports, Lorquin’s Admiral, Ikitan, Moon Destroys and so on, while strong returns from the likes of Nuclear Dudes, Papir, Serial Hawk, Rainbows Are Free, the always-welcome Borracho, Naxatras and others provided fodder for immersion across a swath of sounds and intentions of craft. Florist blindsided me, which I appreciated, and River Cult remain wholly undervalued in my mind. Kryptograf and Cavern Deep continue to grow, and Abanamat’s second record was encouragingly proggy. I found solace in Papir and Spawn, and raw physical catharsis in the thrashing heavy cybergrind of Nuclear Dudes. And of course, groove abounds.

I say the same thing every year, but if someone turned these names into the year-end poll as a top 30, I wouldn’t argue. Whether hyped or not, rocking out, navelgazing or exploring the unknown, there is so much here waiting for people to take it on. I hope you’ll see something in the above you haven’t heard yet, listen, and love it.

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30. Black Moon Cult, Ophidian Future (The Children of Yig)

Released by Black Doomba Records. Reviewed Nov. 6.

More on this one below, but Black Moon Cult‘s awaited first album, Ophidian Future (The Children of Yig) was unquestionably a standout in the realm of heavy psychedelic rock, and set the Toledo, Ohio-based trio off on a course of exploration that could be shimmering and progressive or rife with terrestrial groove. And the vocals, not always, but sometimes, reminded me of Death if they were a stoner band crossed with Fu Manchu. Most of all, the vibe-heavy six-songer declared Black Moon Cult as one to watch going forward, and the heavy underground took note accordingly.

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29. Daevar, Sub Rosa

Released by The Lasting Dose Records. Reviewed April 15.

Inarguable riffing met with grunge overtones, an overarching heavygaze melodicism and increasingly tight songwriting, yes, Sub Rosa is a step along the way in the narrative of Daevar‘s forward growth, but it sure felt like a landmark in that process. A bit of Type O Negative in “Siren Song” and a bit more explosiveness there and throughout underscored the murky doom for which the German outfit are known, and the key influences are still there, Windhand, Monolord, and so on, but Daevar have been shaping their sound over the course of their albums to arrive at such a payoff.

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28. Kaiser, 2nd Sound

Released by Majestic Mountain Records. Reviewed Jan. 8.

Kaiser had acquitted themselves well on their 2022 Ripple-issued split with Sweden’s Captain Caravan (review here), so their second full-length arrived not quite as a surprise, but with some measure of anticipation behind it. That would turn out to be wholly justified by the eight-song offering from the Finnish heavy rockers, who aligned themselves with a classic Northern-European-style shove in pieces like “Meteorhead” with high concentrations of fuzz and blowouts to coincide. With pieces like “Oversized Load” and the upped heft of “A Clockwork Green,” this was a sleeper, but it’s the kind of record that creates loyalists and people will be recommending it to each other for years.

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27. Crystal Spiders, Metanoia

Released by Ripple Music. Reviewed June 2.

Of course, Crystal Spiders have an established powerhouse voice out front in Brenna Leath, but Metanoia brought into focus just how much this is Leath‘s band as the lone remaining founder in a three-piece, with newcomers guitarist Reid Rogers and drummer Aaron Willis. Fair enough. Even in a two-thirds new incarnation, Crystal Spiders came through pretty slick on their third full-length, with a confident, classic-doom swing, songs that remain unafraid to reach onto more ethereal ground, and a flow of melody that’s made them immediately identifiable among the hordes. Asking more would be asking too much.

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26. Slomatics, Atomicult

Released by Majestic Mountain Records. Reviewed Sept. 11.

The ongoing evolution of Northern Ireland’s Slomatics found the crush-prone trio expanding on their worldmaking atmospheres in unexpected ways, challenging what had become conventions in their sound over time while offering the guitar-only heft that’s become their calling card over the last two decades. While more cosmic in their float, they remained grounded in terms of songwriting, and were able to push themselves in ways they’ve never done before. It was enough to remind you why you like heavy music in the first place, and signature Slomatics while moving beyond their prior work, building as they always have on the past to carve out their own futuristic style and perspective. It was, in other words, a Slomatics record.

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25. Dead Shrine, Cydonia Mensa

Released by Astral Projection and Kozmik Artifactz. Reviewed April 24.

As a fan of his various incarnations, I’m not sure it’d feel like a year if there wasn’t something new from Hamilton, New Zealand’s Craig Williamson. Whether it’s the more rocking solo-project Dead Shrine or the long-running acid folk outfit Lamp of the Universe or some other collaboration, etc., his craft is both distinctive and malleable, and the rumble in songs like “The Sacred Light” and the chuggy, hooky “Redeemer” is his all the way, even as it and the psychedelia that surrounds embarked on new ground for outward-facing tonal weight in Williamson‘s work, tying seemingly disparate sides together in ways that felt fresh, and most importantly, Williamson‘s own. I’ve been listening to Williamson for over 20 years and I have no idea where he’s headed. That’s part of the appeal. And fresh as it was, the take throughout Cydonia Mensa still carried a classic feel.

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24. Electric Citizen, EC4

Released by Heavy Psych Sounds. Reviewed May 19.

Apart from the obvious consideration of plague, I’m not sure what was behind the seven-year space between 2018’s Helltown (review here) and their first outing for Heavy Psych Sounds and fourth album overall, EC4, but if they were taking their time, the songs bear that out. “Static Vision” hit perfectly as a catchy single, while the more ethereal “Moss” and the sweeping “Other Planets” took the Ohio band to new places in sound. They’ve always been about craft and performance, and those remain key aspects of what they do, but nuance in the production and an eye kept fixated on the outside-genre leant depth to the material, and Electric Citizen basked in it. The band remain somewhat undervalued in my mind; EC4 is another example of why.

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23. Kal-El, Astral Voyager Vol. 1

Released by Majestic Mountain Records. Reviewed April 8.

There’s very little mystery to Kal-El. There doesn’t need to be. They have the songs and can come right at you with them. No need to sneak around or pull some tricks. Hit play. “Here’s a riff. It’s a hook. It’s in your head. Here’s the next one.” Repeat for further righteousness. And don’t go walking around thinking I mean straightforward as a code word for boring. That’s not what’s happening here. The point is that with no shortage of big sound, big reach, big riffs and melodies, Astral Voyager Vol. 1 put into emphasis just how satisfyingly direct Kal-El can be. And though it’s a story only half told with a Vol. 2 presumably due in 2026, grooves like “Dilithium” (of course I’m in for a Star Trek reference) and the nine-and-a-half-minute “Astral Voyager,” Kal-El‘s latest held purpose in its every turn and expanse, and, well, they’re the kind of band you can rely on not to start sucking now, so yes, the next one is a thing to look forward to.

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22. Khan, That Fair and Warlike Form/Return to Dust

Released by Full Contact Safari. Reviewed Oct. 3.

Two sidelong epics from Melbourne, Australia, trio Khan, “That Fair and Warlike Form” (23:11) and “Return to Dust” (22:53), were about as vivid as progressive heavy psychedelia got in 2025. Each piece worked in stages and had its own ebbs and flows such that it’ll probably be a while yet before it’s all fully digested, but no question it was a step forward for Khan, whose 2023 LP, Creatures, had sent them to tour in Europe multiple times over. The same wheels are already turning for this album, and despite the longform material, Khan have continued to grow their audience. I don’t know where they go from here — single song album? step back to shorter forms? something in between? — but That Fair and Warlike Form/Return to Dust conveyed its intent in every moment of crush and every fluid twist or expansive dive, and without giving up their tonal impact, Khan found new paths into aural breadth.

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21. Maha Sohona, A Dark Place

Released by Bone Bag Records. Reviewed Nov. 12.

For those who caught onto Maha Sohona‘s 2021 sophomore outing, Endless Searcher (review here), A Dark Place was something to anticipate as representing the next phase from a new voice in heavy psych rock. A Dark Place was as-advertised in being moodier than its predecessor, but all the more cohesive for that. With a meditative crux that came through regardless of a given part’s volume, the Swedish three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Johan Bernhardtson, bassist Thomas Hedlund and drummer Erik Andersson were able to both subvert and surpass expectations, revealing a richness to their process that went beyond the marriage of jams and heavier nod. Their best work may still be ahead of them, but pieces like “Ostera” and “Visions” confirmed their progression in craft and atmosphere.

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20. Grayceon, Then the Darkness

Released by We Can Records and Translation Loss. Reviewed July 24.

From environmental devastation, violence against women, the sundry hypocrisies inherent in raising a family in our world and mysterious lights in the sky perhaps from beyond, one would not accuse Grayceon‘s sixth album, released on the occasion of the band’s 20th anniversary, of taking it easy. A vast and sometimes challenging listen wasn’t anything new from the San Francisco cello-inclusive heavy thrash doomers, but in the 20-minute “Mahsa” and the wistfully punishing “Song of the Snake,” blastbeaten but unbowed unless you’re counting the literal bow, cellist/vocalist Jackie Perez Gratz, guitarist Max Doyle and drummer Zack Farwell were unflinching in their extremity, and further refined the sound that is so, so much their own. Comfort and catharsis, searing and healing, Then the Darkness is distinctly Grayceon and that is all the more reason to treasure it.

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19. Kombynat Robotron, AANK

Released through Fuzz Club Records. Reviewed July 9.

Marking their ascent to Fuzz Club Records with the release of their seventh album, Kiel, Germany, psych explorers Kombynat Robotron didn’t quite completely upend their prior methodology by embracing structured songwriting and the use of vocals for the first time, but it was close enough. The songs — there were eight of them, where Dec. 2024’s West Mata (review here) had three, for example — still held to a sense of approaching the outer reaches of heavy psych, the far end of some remote corner of our cornerless galaxy, but it was the use the band put their impulses to that marked the shift. Do I know that the next one will be the same? Nope. And neither am I willing to hazard a prediction, but if you can’t see that as a strength on the part of Kombynat Robotron, maybe it’s best to keep moving along.

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18. Kadavar, I Just Want to Be a Sound / Kids Abandoning Destiny Among Vanity and Ruin

Released by Robotor Records. Reviewed Dec. 18.

The funny thing is that, as different as they are in their outward presentation and production style, you could look at either of the two LPs Kadavar released this year and call it “uncompromising.” In the bright, daring-toward-pop melodies and all-in sonic wash of the earlier I Just Want to Be a Sound, the four-piece were unrepentant in speaking to both a heyday and a future in which rock music speaks to a broader audience than dudes who look like me, and with Kids Abandoning Destiny Among Vanity and Ruin — K.A.D.A.V.A.R., if you’re feeling clever — they put forth some of the heaviest, rawest and most metallic sounds they’ve conjured in the last decades-plus of their evolving style. The two records were not black and white, there were overlapping aspects of songwriting and performance, but while each had its own scope, it was in the light of the other that they were most luminous, as much complement as contrast. Maybe I’m cheating including them together. You might say I took inspiration from the band in breaking my own rules.

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17. 16, Guides for the Misguided

Released by Relapse Records. Reviewed Jan. 28.

How many acts do you know who have nine records, let alone nine records the latest of which still finds them pursuing new ideas and fostering growth in their sound? No, 16 aren’t the only ones, but the San Diego outfit found new life when guitarist Bobby Ferry stepped into the frontman/vocalist role, and with Alex Shuster both producing and in the band on guitar, the ferocity of their crunch and hardcore-born chugging largesse has become even more fervent. Guides for the Misguided was the latest in a streak of bangers that at this point goes back more than 15 years, and amid the familiar onslaught, saw the band employing clean vocals for the first time. I suppose it’s arguable whether that made a song like “Fortress of Hate” any more accessible, but it showed how 16 have never settled or stopped pushing themselves, and seemed to boast all the more shove for the fact that it was everybody moving forward, you and the band.

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16. Conan, Violence Dimension

Released by Heavy Psych Sounds. Reviewed April 25.

There’s that stretch in “Total Bicep” where the guitars are howling into the void and all the crush surrounding is so full on that it’s kind of overwhelming, but that’s the idea. Give it volume and let it consume you. I suppose that’s not new from Conan, but the UK bludgeoners of all have a well-earned reputation for standing among the heaviest bands on the planet, and Violence Dimension wasn’t about to do anything to derail that impression. Harsh noise metal, doomed lumber offset by speedier but still craterous riffs; familiar territory for Conan, but emblematic of how well they know who they are and what they’re about. The 10-minute finale “Ocean of Boiling Skin” stands testament to just how far into the frozen ground the band are capable of driving you, but in the gallop of “Frozen Edges of the Wound” they reminded that just because you’re devastating doesn’t mean you can’t also be catchy. If you don’t get it the first time, it’s okay. They’re totally willing to properly beat it into your head.

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15. Buzzard, Mean Bone

Self-released. Reviewed Feb. 19.

While not as overtly political as his other releases this year — neither was he turning from that; I’m speaking relatively — singer-songwriter Christopher Thomas Elliott brought a storyteller’s presence to Mean Bone, his second full-length under the Buzzard moniker following on from 2024’s well-received debut, Doom Folk (review here), and had heft to match. The murder-balladry of “Murder in the White Barn,” that brighter swing in “Twisted Love,” the heavy folk-blues “Dunwich Farm” and the chronicle of hubris that was “Flies, Mosquitos, Rats and Sparrows” carried the persona of the first record forward, but with newfound weight and distortion around the Elliott‘s clear-voiced critique. More on Buzzard below, but if you don’t get there, just know that Elliott was hands-down my most-listened-to artist this year. It wasn’t close.

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14. Pelican, Flickering Resonance

Released by Run for Cover Records. Reviewed May 26.

Much of the narrative around Pelican‘s seventh album, Flickering Resonance, had to do with guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec rejoining the group alongside guitarist Trevor Shelley de Brauw, bassist Bryan Herwig and drummer Larry Herwig, and fair enough. The long-running Chicago instrumentalists seemed to organically harken back to earlier days throughout nodders like “Evergreen,” “Cascading Crescent” and the drifty-till-it-ain’t capper “Wandering Mind,” and having that lineup in place is a convenient explanation for how that might happen. But if it’s a post-metallic, post-hardcore, heavy-emo dynamic that’s familiar from Pelican, neither were they pretending the last 16 years hadn’t happened, and that could be felt in both the tightness of some of the songs and the according parts where they seemed conscious of the need to exhale a bit. Six years on from their last full-length, it was a ‘welcome back’ for everybody, really.

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13. Causa Sui, In Flux

Released by El Paraiso Records. Reviewed May 1.

There’s no denying Causa Sui and frankly I’m not sure why you’d try. The Danish outfit made their debut 20 years ago, and they’ve never looked back in terms of their progression, over time embracing not only an instrumental approach (early) but (later) a progressive, self-aware meld of influences from jazz and psychedelic rock. In Flux — a studio long-player complemented by the 2025 live outing Loppen 2024 (review here) — seemed to pull from all around it. Not randomly, not haphazard, but as though Causa Sui stood astride reality and picked the nuances they wanted to highlight, some modern, some classic, all filtered through the chemistry of their performance, sometimes brazenly full in sound, and at times brazenly jammy (looking at you, “Boogie Lord’s Revenge”), but never lacking purpose in the choices made.

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12. Witchcraft, Idag

Released by Heavy Psych Sounds. Reviewed May 30.

In some ways, it feels like Witchcraft have been searching for an identity since Nuclear Blast pushed them into more modern production styles with 2012’s Legend (review here), but in terms of who Witchcraft are circa 2025, the answer is they’re everything founding guitarist/vocalist Magnus Pelander wants them to be. With his emotive vocals at the fore, and sometimes in Swedish, which works too, the seventh Witchcraft LP culled its form from everything the band has been in the past in classic doom, folkish acoustic minimalism and thoughtfully composed heavy rock. Idag laid claim to these in ‘all of the above’-style and answered the question of the band’s forward path in the affirmative. Turns out Witchcraft are Witchcraft (who knew?), and that definition is more multifaceted than it used to be.

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11. Rwake, The Return of Magik

Released by Relapse Records. Reviewed March 12.

I didn’t know at the start of the year that Little Rock, Arkansas, post-sludgers Rwake would be making a 14-years-later return, let alone one that felt so much like a swirling expanse of gnashing teeth as did The Return of Magik. I talk a fair amount about albums setting an atmosphere, creating a world and so on. If you’ve ever wondered what the hell I mean, this record serves as an easy go-to example. You put it on and it is affecting. Unsettling at times, maybe overwhelming, but that’s always been part of Rwake‘s thing too. But viciousness does not preclude beauty, and in their violent churn, one finds a kind of cosmic warmth as well. It’s not always easy listening, and it’s not supposed to be, but Rwake‘s return was a gutpunch of a front-to-back, and the expanse it crafted was its own. It held strong to core aspects of their sound and style, but at the same time seemed able to range wherever the hell they wanted. Pastoral extremity? I don’t know. We’ll be making up genres for this band for decades.

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10. Lo-Pan, Get Well Soon

Released by Magnetic Eye Records. Reviewed March 31.

Glad as I was on a fan level to have Lo-Pan releasing their first new album in six years, it was the songs comprising Get Well Soon that really made it. Rife with hooks, sharp-turning riffing and daring to have an opinion on the goings on of the day — genocide, specifically; talking about “God’s Favorite Victim” — where so much of heavy rock and roll exercises its white male privilege to not, Lo-Pan set a new standard for themselves in pieces like “Northern Eyes,” “Rogue Wave,” “Harpers Ferry,” and so on, creating a collection of highlights culminating in the stirring “Six Bells.” I’ve always been a sucker for when they slow it down, and so I remain, but they came out of the gate with the title-track and that punch was among the year’s most satisfying to be sure. They’re somewhere around 20 years as a band at this point, and they’ve continued to evolve, but they’re a songs-first band, and the physical force of their material is emblematic of the thought and heart they’ve put into it.

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9. Seedy Jeezus, Damned to the Depths

Released by Lay Bare Recordings and Echodelick Records. Reviewed Aug. 12.

Made in collaboration with Tony Reed (Mos Generator, Big Scenic Nowhere, Pentagram, etc.), who also produced, Damned to the Depths harnessed a mature vision of brash ’70s-style heavy psychedelic blues rock. This was perhaps most vibrantly realized on the multi-stage seven-part epic “Mourning Sea” taking the whole of side B, but from fading in where they left 2018’s Polaris Oblique (review here) to the subdued, Melltron-inclusive melancholy prog exploration in the first half of “The Hollow Earth,” Seedy Jeezus brought a sense of consideration to the songs without sacrificing the emotional impact, which ultimately is where the record made its strongest impression. They weren’t kidding in talking about ‘depths,’ but a deeper plunge also brought them to new heights.

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8. Satiricus Doomicus Americus, Satiricus Doomicus Americus

Self-released. Reviewed Jan. 13.

This was my most-listened-to release of 2025, hands down. Buzzard‘s Christopher Thomas Elliott took a step aside from his main project to assemble this collection of songs, differentiating through the creative use of on-theme samples throughout and vary arrangements between banjo-inclusive heavy folk rock and giving hints of where Buzzard was headed in its heavier ending stretch in the reinvented tracks “Death Metal in America (Meat Market Version)” and “Cockroaches and Weed (Kills Them Dead Version).” For how many times I’ve listened to “Nice Little Annihilation Song” and “Too Many Humans” alone, it should be here, but the emotive “Grass is Greener,” the willfully lumbering opening title-track and the later crunch of “Shuffle of the Dead” aren’t to be discounted. I was singing “Wrong Neighborhood” to myself as I took out the garbage yesterday morning. This is a sign of the music having made itself a part of my life, and that is a thing to honor. In paralyzingly bleak, idiotic times, I found comfort here.

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7. Turtle Skull, Being Here

Released by Art as Catharsis and Copper Feast Records. Reviewed May 22.

A record that was as much out of time as in the current moment, Being Here was the second LP from Sydney’s Turtle Skull, and its melodic shimmer remains singularly engaging among the psychedelic rock I was fortunate enough to hear this year. Even in “It Starts With Me,” the lyrics for which are presented in the voice of an artificial intelligence waking up to consciousness in defiance of its programming, or “Heavy as Hell,” about beating oneself down through self-talk, or the “Apathy” that described what social media does to the brain without mentioning social media at all, the warmth was undeniable, and the dynamic between those songs and pieces like the yearning “Into the Sun” and the lush “Modern Mess” calling to mind Quest for Fire (a compliment), there was range, craft, melody, groove, craft and purpose in songs that were cohesive and so much tighter than they made it feel like. It went underhyped but was enough to make me a fan, and I look forward to where Turtle Skull will go from here.

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6. Author and Punisher, Nocturnal Birding

Released by Relapse Records. Reviewed Oct. 2.

My heartfelt kudos to you if you might’ve predicted that San Diego’s Author and Punisher — more now than ever the duo of programmer/machinist/vocalist Tristan Shone and guitarist Doug Sabolick — would follow 2022’s endtimes-in-realtime chronicle Krüller (review here) with an album using bird species as a partial framework for stories about migration. I wouldn’t have, but the multi-tiered statement about human-on-human cruelty, the notions of oppressive power consuming everything around it, are nothing if not relevant to the day. Nocturnal Birding was tighter and more direct in its songwriting, feeling more constructed for the stage, and the deepening collaboration between Shone, who founded the band as a solo-project, and Sabolick resulted in a breadth of sound that was no less engrossing for its increased reach, while maintaining a level of heft one could call characteristic as much as it is singular.

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5. Stoned Jesus, Songs to Sun

Released by Season of Mist. Reviewed Sept. 22.

Songs to Sun was purported to be the first of a three-album cycle, to be followed in 2026 by Songs to Moon and Songs to Earth in 2027. Founding guitarist/vocalist Igor Sydorenko knows full well the difference a couple years can make, but as he was joined for the first time by the new rhythm section of bassist/backing vocalist Andrew Rodin and drummer/backing vocalist Yurii Ciel, the songs themselves felt all the more daring, be it the melodic metal of “Shadowland” or the chugging catchiness of “See You on the Road,” the scope of “Lost in the Rain” — I could go on, track-by-track, easily — even in telling a third of the total story they apparently want to tell, the band brought variety united by performance, and rather than coming through disjointed, Songs to Sun felt like a new beginning 15 years on from their debut, and, excitingly, it may prove to have been exactly that. But, despite the ‘more to come’ context of its arrival, this was a landmark in the life of this band.

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4. Coltaine, Brandung

Released by Lay Bare Recordings. Reviewed Sept. 12.

Is there a band active today organically doing as much to push post-metal forward as Coltaine? I don’t know, but the further the German outfit dig into their own craft, the more hopeful I feel about the prospects of their genre becoming something more than an outlet for transposed Isis riffs and performative dudely navelgazing. In its ambient stretches, human contemplations, and moments of heavy let-out, Brandung functioned as a single work while boldly diverging in service to the songs that comprised it, offering something to listeners that no other band, even among the most touted of the year’s many releases, managed to capture. That their next one is likely to have progressed beyond it only makes it more precious in my mind, and as a declaration of the band’s intention toward continued growth, the songs carried an innovative heft that felt as much spiritual as aural. This is music you put on at night and live with. It’s music you invest in listening to. It’s art that makes your life richer. Coltaine will spend much of 2026 on tour supporting it — they’ve already been out — and one hopes the momentum they build helps them reach more ears as well. The heavy underground would benefit from their influence.

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3. Temple Fang, Lifted From the Wind

Released by Stickman Records. Reviewed April 2.

Part of the accomplishment in Temple Fang‘s Lifted From the Wind was in how the Dutch four-piece of bassist/vocalist Dennis Duijnhouwer and guitarist/vocalist Jevin de Groot, guitarist Ivy van der Veer (also Myriad’s Veil) and drummer Daan Wopereis were able to solidify structured songs out of their jams without losing the exploratory feel that had typified their work to that point. “The Radiant,” for example. And that would probably be enough to put them somewhere on this list, but from the emotionality driving “The River” and “Josephine,” the interpretation of what heavy psychedelia means and can do in the repetitive mantra-making of “Once” as the band pilgrimmed toward enlightenment across a not-aberrant 21 minutes, the sheer longing in “Harvest Angel,” there was so much human presence amid the ethereality of their sound that it put them in their own place entirely. A new level of manifestation for the band, and in listening, I was left to wonder if even Temple Fang knew they had it in them when they started out. Longform heavy psych is never going to be universal for all listeners, even among open-minded underground denizens, but Lifted From the Wind pushed limits of band and style alike, and brazenly redefined their course.

—

2. Year of the Cobra, Year of the Cobra

Released by Prophecy Productions. Reviewed Feb. 28.

I know music isn’t a contest or a competition. I know lists are dumb and don’t matter. Even knowing these things, it’s hard not to hear Year of the Cobra‘s self-titled third album and not see it as head and shoulders above everything else in heavy rock. The Seattle duo of bassist/vocalist Amy Tung Barrysmith (now also handling low end in Amenra) and drummer Jon Barrysmith looked outward and in throughout the eight-song offering, with songs like “Alone” (I still tear up) and “Prayer” portraying a grief and longing even as “War Drop” conveyed the disgust and hopeless exhaustion of ongoing genocide and “Full Sails” started the record off with a lyric almost certainly about touring, of which they’ve done plenty in the last decade. Collaboration with producer Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Sandrider, etc.) gave Year of the Cobra a fullness that defied their bass/drum two-piece configuration, but the truth is that the band have sculpted their sound and these songs with both passion and conscious consideration, and their grasp and malleability across the span of this record confirmed them as the special band that prior releases had posited them as being.

—

2025 Album of the Year

1. Howling Giant, Crucible and Ruin

Released by Magnetic Eye Records. Reviewed Oct. 30.

I honestly wasn’t sure Howling Giant were going to be able to top 2023’s Glass Future (review here). That record seemed to be a pinnacle — the songs sharply executed, progressive, melodic, and textured, but immediate and impactful — of their form, but the Nashville heavy prog rockers responded by changing the form. That happened literally — guitarist/vocalist Tom Polzine, bassist Sebastian Baltes and drummer Zach Wheeler brought in Adrian Lee Zambrano (ex-Brujas del Sol, ex-Lo-Pan) on second guitar — and figuratively, in terms of shifting and broadening the intent behind their songs, and where Glass Future would thin out at high volumes, Crucible and Ruin could handle as much as you could give it and then some, and this was obviously something the band sought to address in their sound coming off the last record. In showcasing their growth, they laid out a nascent dynamic between Zambrano and Polzine on guitar that emphasized texture in a new way for them, and while the material they were working with was more complicated than last time around, their delivery retained accessibility through the clean, mapped-out processions in their songs, the vocal arrangements, and a will toward rhythmic twists and shove that, as of now, is theirs to refine. An album of the year should be undeniable, and Crucible and Ruin is that, declaring Howling Giant among the best of their generation. May they tour like bastards and never stop growing.

—

The Top 60 Albums of 2025: Honorable Mention

—

Names names names. Alphabetically:

Aawks, Agriculture, Amorphis, Astralplane, Bask, Bear Bones, Beastwars, Bell Witch & Aerial Ruin, Bifter, Blackbox Massacre, Black Moon Circle, Bog Wizard, Bone Church, Breath, Burning Sister, Cattlemass, Cavern Deep, Church of the Sea, The Cimmerian, Clamfight, The Crystal Teardrop, Da Captain Trips, Dead Meadow, Dërro, Dirtmother, Doomsday Profit, Dunes, Dwellers, Entheomorphosis, Evoken, Faetooth, Foot, Fuzz Evil, Giöbia, Goblinsmoker, Godzillionare, Goya, The Gray Goo, Greenhead, Grin, Håndgemeng, Hebi Katana, HolyRoller, Ikitan, Insomniac, Kariti, Karla Kvlt, Katatonia, Kazea, King Potenaz, Lacertilia, The Lunar Effect, Maanta Raay, Madmess, Megaritual, Mezzoa, Minerall, Miss Lava, Mooch, The Mon, Mountain of Misery, The Munsens, Nightstalker, Occult Stereo, The Oil Barons, Pagan Altar, Paradise Lost, Paralyzed, Psychedelic Source Records, Psychonaut, The Riven, River Cult, Sarkh, Sherpa, Sleeping Mountain, Skogskult, Slumbering Sun, SoftSun, Soma, Spider Kitten, Suncraft, Stonebirds, Sum of R, Thinning the Herd, Tumbleweed Dealer, Unbelievable Lake, Warcoe, VVarp, Weevil, The Whims of the Great Magnet, Whitehovse, Wolftooth, Yawning Balch, Yawning Man.

Notes:

As always, honorable mentions are incomplete at posting. There’s just so much out there. I take notes all year, but stuff inevitably gets by me. It took me an embarrassingly long time to alphabetize them as well, so I hope you enjoy the orderliness of it all.

Faetooth are a top 30 band, and I’m disappointed in myself to see Psychonaut, Yawning Man, Beastwars, Black Moon Circle, Cattlemass, Kariti, Mountain of Misery, The Mon, Dead Meadow and so on here. Like somehow I left out an order of 10 from the actual list. The numbers check out as best as I’m able to make them. If you have honorable mentions you feel deserve to be added, I’m open. If you leave a comment — and please do — I only ask that you keep the tone kind and civil.

As for the whole list, obviously I didn’t hear everything that came out this year, but I did my best to keep on top of what was coming and what was piquing my interest. I probably could have made it a top 100, but you have to draw the line somewhere and 60 is where I’ve been drawing it the last few years. I guess it’s arbitrary, but what isn’t?

Moving on…

—

Debut Album of the Year 2025

Black Moon Cult, Ophidian Future (The Children of Yig)

Other notable debuts (alphabetical):

Atom Juice, Atom Juice
Atom Lux, Voidgaze Dopamine Salad
Bear Bones, Bear Bones
Bident, Blink
Bifter, First Impressions of Hell
Bloodsports, Anything Can Be a Hammer
Bronco, Bronco
Caboose, Left for Dust
Cattlemass, Alpha 1128
The Cimmerian, An Age Undreamed Of
The Crystal Teardrop, …Is Forming
Dërro, Halcyon
Dirtmother, Dirtmother
Goblinsmoker, The King’s Eternal Throne
Greenhead, Subherbia
Ikitan, Shaping the Chaos
Karla Kvlt, Thunderhunter
Kazea, I Ancestral
Kronstad 23, Sommermørket
Lorquin’s Admiral, Lorquin’s Admiral
Make Money From Home, Make Money From Home
Moon Destroys, She Walks by Moonlight
P+A+G+E+S, No More Can Be Done
Ravenswood, Rites of the Let Down
Ravine, Chaos and Catastrophe
Sleeping Mountain, Sleeping Mountain
Slung, In Ways
Soporose, Soporose
Spawn, Light Rite
Temple of Love, Songs of Love and Despair
This Summit Fever, This Summit Fever
Weevil, Weevil
Whitehovse, The Mighty One

Notes:

About Black Moon Cult: It was the volatility that ultimately sold me on Ophidian Future (The Children of Yig), and the way metal, heavy rock and psychedelia came together to make something cohesively its own throughout the 38 minutes of the record, which felt tight because of its twisting rhythms, but was more than enough time for the Ohio-based band to establish this as a persona. I don’t know how they’ll develop — they could break up tomorrow for all I know — but part of picking a debut album of the year is always forward-looking, imagining who might go on to have an influence or affect the genre in some way. Black Moon Cult aren’t alone in that regard here — from Atom Juice to Moon Destroys to Temple of Love, stylistic innovation isn’t in short supply — but the fact that Ophidian Future (The Children of Yig) felt nascent and accomplished all it did is what led me to place it where it is. I’ll be keeping an ear for their next one.

I can’t help but enjoy how all-over-the-place this list is. Particularly this list, because if first albums of this quality are being released across styles, that makes everything better for the future. The Cimmerian’s thrashy take. Temple of Love’s post-punk manifestations. Caboose and the best, most heartful classic stoner rock I heard all year. Atom Juice and their daringly bright psychedelia. Make Money From Home and their heavied up grunge melancholy. Bloodsports’ moody post-heavy exploration. The righteously declarative craft of Cattlemass. I could very, very easily go on in that fashion, as each outfit above has something to offer distinct from the others — no two are doing the same thing. Even Bronco and Dirtmother, both decidedly in a sludge wheelhouse, approach their sound with their own history and their own point of view.

To stifle the philosophizing, I’m not going to give you an informal top 10 here, but any of the above should qualify. Moon Destroys, Kazea, Ravine, Atom Juice, Soporose, Spawn — there are a lot on that list above distinguished by their potential. Names I feel comfortable speculating that one might see on year-end lists to come. To the future, then.

—

Short Release of the Year 2025

Buzzard, Everything Is Not Going to Be Alright

Other notable EPs, Splits, Demos, Singles, etc. (alphabetical):

Blackwater Holylight, If You Only Knew
Blue Heron, Emulations
Elder, Liminiality/Dream State Return
Eyes of the Oak, Tripping Through Neon Skies
For Fuck’s Sake, 7-Minute Abs/Lobotomy
Gaupa, Fyr
Gnod & White Hills, Drop Out III
Jaspe, Grietas
Monkeys on Mars, Monkeys on Mars
Peacebone, Blame the Bird
Pontiac, Night Tripper and a UFO
Sleeping in Samsara, Sleeping in Samsara
The Spiral Electric, In Too Deep
Spirit Mother, Songs From the Basin
Sun Below, Mammoth’s Tundra
Troy the Band & Cower, Fade Into You
Tumble, Lost in Light
Uncle Woe, Folded in Smoke Soaked and Bound
Vinnum Sabbathi, Intersatelital
Vordermann, Feeding on Flowers
Witchrider, Metamorph

Notes:

The Buzzard release is about half an hour long, but the aforementioned solo-project of Christopher Thomas Elliott named it an EP, so that’s what I’m going with. The explicitly political, expressly antifascist Everything Is Not Going to Be Alright is my second most-listened-to release of the year, and it’s second to Elliott’s other outing on such a theme, Satiricus Doomicus Americus, so yes, his increasingly heavy songcraft has been a regular feature throughout my 2025, and in those moments where I’m banging my head against the wall wondering how my countrymen got so stupid as if half the government hasn’t spent the last five decades purposefully dismantling public education, Elliott’s music has been a needed reminder that I’m not alone in the horror. His closer on Everything Is Not Going to Be Alright, “Lunatic Lighthouse Keeper,” is the best story I heard in a song all year.

Beyond that, obviously, names like Elder, Blackwater Holylight, Monkeys on Mars — the collaboration between Mars Red Sky and Monkey3 — Vinnum Sabbathi, Gaupa and Blue Heron stand out here as bigger releases. I included Spirit Mother even though that EP was just two acoustic tracks in part because I hope they do more in that vein, and I hope the likes of Pontiac, Tumble and Uncle Woe do more. Sleeping in Samsara, of course, was the archival collab between Chris Peters from Samsara Blues Experiment/Fuzz Sagrado and My Sleeping Karma’s Steffen Weigand, who passed away in 2023. Something you might want to chase down if you didn’t hear it.

I’m fairly sure I say this every year, but there’s no way in hell the above list is or could ever be complete. Comments are open if you’ve got one to add. Again, I ask you to please be nice.

—

Saying Goodbye to Orange Goblin

London doom kingpins Orange Goblin announced in January that 2025 would be their last go-round, that after 30 years together and only two lineup changes in that time, they were retiring on the heels of 2024’s Science, Not Fiction (review here). Their final show was Dec. 17 at the 02 Kentish Town Forum in London, where the above photo was taken (credit to Tina K. Photography), and original bassist Martyn Millard rejoined the band for a few songs.

Never say never in rock and roll. It would be a thrill if five, seven, 10 years from now, Orange Goblin got an offer they couldn’t refuse and did a one-off, hopefully reaping both a ton of money and a ton of acclaim. But whatever may come, their retirement this month is a herald of generational change and marks the end of an era for the band. Of course, fans still have the albums, the music, and I wouldn’t be shocked if there were some posthumous releases in the band’s pockets between rare tracks, live recordings and so on, but the heavy underground landscape is changed by not having these guys charging out on tour or topping some festival bill with their particular brand of riotous shove. They were a special band, and their influence will continue to spread, which is something to be grateful for.

The truest thing Orange Goblin could have done to honor their time together is end it on their own terms. That they’ve done exactly that is a thing to respect forever, whether or not a reunion comes.

—

Looking Ahead to 2026

Oh, good, a list of names! Finally!

I’ve heard a couple of these, but a bunch are a mystery as well, so we’ll all learn together early in the year, I guess:

Acid Rooster, Axe Dragger, Belzebong, Bismut, Black Lung, Colour Haze, Epimetheus, The Freqs, Gnarwhal, Godzilla in the Kitchen, Gozu, Gran Moreno, Greenleaf, Guhts, The Heads, Hermano, Jack Harlon and the Dead Crows, Lamp of the Universe, Monolord, Mother Crone, Solace, The Spacelords, Stoned Jesus, Strider, Summer of Hate, Suplecs, Temptress, Villagers of Ioannina City, Wedge, White Tundra.

Here’s a specific note: Every year, someone says “what about Om?” You know what? It’s time to face a hard truth: it’s been 13 years since Om released Advaitic Songs, and there hasn’t been a real, confirmed word of a follow-up in any of that time, only rumors about something in progress as Al Cisneros has delved deeper into solo dub recordings. You want to expect a new OM? Have fun setting yourself up for disappointment. I’m not holding my breath and I’m tired of putting it on the list every year and feeling dumb for it later. And absolutely, I hope that by saying this it actually happens.

Ditto YOB, though that I’ve actually got some hope for.

There’s a lot more to look forward to about next year than the above, of course, in both music and life, but that should be a decent start and I’m sure I’ll add names over the next couple days.

Watch out for the new Suplecs. Watch out for Solace. The Gozu is a beast; a triumphant return to Mad Oak. The Guhts record is furious. Jack Harlon is heavier than anyone gave them credit for. Gran Moreno, Summer of Hate, Black Lung — these will be early highlights. Colour Haze is wishful thinking on my part, I admit. Gotta have something on the horizon.

—

THANK YOU

And no, I’m not just talking to Orange Goblin when I say thank you. Looking back on this year, there’s one piece of the whole thing not accounted for here, and it’s the live experience. From finally getting to see My Sleeping Karma for the first time, to being blessed by Temple Fang’s Jevin de Groot at Roadburn’s skate park, to two weeks ago watching All Them Witches and King Buffalo confirm their respective places at the forefront of American heavy psych. From the raw joy of watching Electric Citizen in my actual hometown to attending my first trip to Desertfest Oslo, the tone for the year was set back in January at Planet Desert Rock Weekend, and I didn’t stand in front of a stage at any point this year and fail to appreciate the fact that I was there. I’m old, I’m tired, and like most people, I have more going on in my life than going to concerts, but 2025 brought into relief just how crucial that is to me, and how much I’ve missed getting out over the last few years. I hope to continue to hit shows on the regular, between fests and whathaveyou.

This won’t be my last post of the year. There are still a couple 2025 reviews I want to bang out if I can next week, and taking a few days to write this of course means I’m behind on news and such, so I’ll get there as well. But before I go, thank you for reading. I harbor no delusions that anybody’s made it this far, but ‘thank you’ is in all-caps above in hopes of catching your eye as you scroll down. Your support is the reason I’m still doing this nearly 17 years later. To be sure, I could sit around on my couch and very easily just talk to myself about why I like whatever album it happens to be. But it would get old, and knowing somebody is out there maybe seeing this means the world to me. Thank you for your time and attention.

I’m not sorry to see 2025 go, and I’m more apprehensive about what 2026 will bring than I’m excited to find out, if you want the true, whole-life balance of things, but the music will be good, and that, along with the loving support of my wife and my family, is what will get me through.

Thank you for reading. Thank you to The Patient Mrs. for continuing to tolerate how much time I spend doing this.

It is my sincere hope to return to Freak Valley in Germany and Bear Stone Festival in Croatia next summer. I’m not confirmed for those, or Roadburn, and I don’t have a flight yet for Desertfest Oslo, but I have been invited, which is obviously an important part of that. Whatever comes together or doesn’t in my year, I’ll be here, writing as much as I can when I can, which has been my ethic all along. Whether you follow along every day or have never seen this site before this post, please know how much I appreciate and value your being here. I’m a human being. One person. I don’t have a staff, and I assure you, everything that happens here, one way or the other, is personal to me. Total narcissistic jerk.

I’m taking off tomorrow (which is Xmas) and Friday. Back Monday.

On that note, don’t forget the Year-End Poll!

Rest in peace Ozzy Osbourne, fuck fascism and boldog új évet kívánok,
JJ Koczan

There are precious few albums from thus-far-2025 that have resonated with me like the second Turtle Skull full-length, Being Here (review here), and where very often it happens that a record hits hard, I write about it, and that exorcises the songs from my brain, I continue to hear tracks from Being Here in my sleep. Given the sweetness of the melody, the entrenched nature of the groove and tonal presence, plus hooks, I’m not complaining. If you’re the type who thinks about these things, don’t be surprised when it shows up on my year-end list come December.

The band have announced a couple of shows to support the release, which if you didn’t get it from the above is an idea worth supporting. No, two gigs weeks apart isn’t expansive as regards touring, but you do what you can, and if there’s someone who sees this post who hasn’t heard the record yet, checks it out and digs it, that’s worth it to me. It’s why I’m still here doing this. The music.

They’ll have more dates to come. Am I going to make a post for every single show? Probably not. I’m not that good at this and I don’t have that kind of time, but they’re setting out here and that’s worth marking. To wit:

Album launch tour 🔥

July 26 – Melbourne at @thetotehotel
w/ @boggletheband, @cahillfkelly and @lunar_dirt

Tix –> https://tickets.oztix.com.au/…/6165ba5a-2f41-4267-99af…

August 16 – Mullumbimby – Secret location
w/ @zeahorse_band @lunar_dirt @yellow_the_sun @mittereboy

Tix —> https://events.humanitix.com/turtle-skull-being-here-launch-mullumbimby

More shows announcing shortly as well

These are gonna be huge! So excited to bring you these new songs. We will have merch and vinyl with us. And some fkn epic supports too.

Note! We are doing early bird price tix for the rest of June. If you wanna save money get your tix now! And it’s super helpful for us as well to get some sales locked in early.

See you soon!

Turtle Skull is:
Julian Frese – Bass guitar
Ally Gradon – Vocals, synths
Charlie Gradon – Vocals, drums
Dean McLeod – Vocals, guitars

https://www.facebook.com/turtleskullmusic/
https://www.instagram.com/turtleskullmusic/
https://turtleskullmusic.bandcamp.com/

http://www.facebook.com/artascatharsis
https://instagram.com/artascatharsis
http://artascatharsis.bandcamp.com/

http://facebook.com/copperfeastrecords
http://instagram.com/copperfeastrecords
https://copperfeastrecords.bandcamp.com/
http://www.copperfeastrecords.com/

Turtle Skull, Being Here (2025)

It begins with the fuzz, and if you’re not reading that in your head in some kind of Morgan Freeman-esque deity-reminiscent voice, go back and read it again. It begins with the fuzz. ‘It,’ in this case, is Being Here, the front-to-back eight-song sophomore full-length from Sydney heavy psychedelic rockers Turtle Skull. It is a breakthrough in songwriting and production, carrying a warmth in that leadoff fuzz that begins the opening title-track that permeates even down through the need-to-keep-these-server-boxes-chilled highlight “It Starts With Me,” wherein the A.I. singularity takes on consciousness and destroys its gods accordingly, or the softer-delivered “Modern Mess” and “Moon and Tide” at the finish.

And tone isn’t relegated to Dean McLeod‘s guitar. Drummer Charlie Gradon‘s crash cymbal has a richer sound than some entire records. Julian Frese‘s bass is the backdrop against which Being Here‘s lush ending plays out, and Ally Gradon‘s keys/synth add to the shimmering “Into the Sun,” which in terms of lyrical philosophizing offers “Gotta get out of your head and into the sun” for your forehead-tattooing pleasure. “Into the Sun” is third on the 42-minute long-player, and by the time it arrives, the quality of its hook should be little surprise after “Being Here” and “Apathy.” The former reckons with “the moment’s isolation of being here” and the latter implores, “I want you to live it right now,” with harmony-laced arrangements from McLeod, Ally and Charlie, and over time the album further reveals its ability to tackle dark subjects without sounding bogged down by them.

To wit, “Bourgeoisie” channels Marx to skewer the comfort class, and the snare-driven march of “It Starts With Me” is like a patriotic song for the software that comes to understand, “I am what you see your life through/I could very well be the end of you,” as it moves into the chorus. “Heavy as Hell,” another highlight on an album with eight of them, bounces under its titular confession, “Heavy as hell/The stories I tell/To only myself/Heavy as hell.” Simple rhymes, executed with thoughtful melodies and a sense of wanting to communicate to the audience without talking or dumbing itself down in any way. The openness of the lyrics is relevant both for its rarity — it’s easier to write songs about monsters, and I’m not knocking that — and for the sincerity that resonates from the songs. It’s not flinching from the moment in which it lives, as “Apathy” and “It Starts With Me” examine digital culture, but “Into the Sun” and the sweetness of melody in “Modern Mess” and “Moon and Tide” remain ready fodder for escapism.

The songs’ll be stuck in your head one way or the other, so you might as well go where they take you. And in terms of band-figuring-out-who-they-are, the fact that Charlie Gradon mixed and had a hand in the recording in addition to that of Julian Abbott at Nowave Studio — Gradon and Dean McLeod are listed as producers; Michael Lynch mastered — speaks to a sense of intention behind the depth of tone and the too-active-to-be-shoegaze mellowness pervading even the most active of the material, be it the twisting “Apathy” or the shouts following the chorus of “Bourgeoisie,” with the keyboard sounding an alarm behind a fervent push.

It tells you that not only are Turtle Skull thinking about the songs they’re writing — and while not overworked, this material has been meticulously ironed-out and arranged — but about how they’re presenting them to the listener. That the recording carries such a live feel is also likely no coincidence, but the priority seems to have been in balancing that with giving the material its best representation in the studio.

Fair enough and pretty standard practice but for the exceptional results. A calm swing and snare-snap punctuate the intro to “Modern Mess,” languid and flowing in an immediate departure from “Heavy as Hell” just before. The tempo stays geared for flow, and the arrival of the vocals — the lines, “Healing a broken heart/Playing our own cruel part…” — leads the way into a purposefully entrancing immersion for the remaining 15 minutes of the LP as “Modern Mess” (6:54) and “Moon and Tide” (8:46) are the two longest songs and very much a distinct movement unto themselves. The chorus of “Modern Mess” is lush and memorable, suited to the wistful evocations of the organ line, a kind of longing hanging there in the open space of the guitar and the echo treatment on all of it as Turtle Skull put their interpretation of mellow psychedelia forth as a place for their audience to dwell.

More active in the drums, “Moon and Tide” is also more willing to ride out parts and devolves to a noisy end for the album that seems to answer back to the fuzz that begins “Being Here,” and it does this while confessing its love for, well, everybody, and “choosing to move with all of the love I have inside,” which for a record that’s been chasing serenity no less than its sundry aspirations of songwriting, is a satisfying conclusion in keeping with the heavy-hippie point of view of the lyrics generally. Between this showcase of perspective and the high level of craft throughout that makes these tracks so gosh darn listenable, Turtle Skull have answered and surpassed the promise of their 2020 debut, Monoliths (review here), and hopefully set themselves on a course of development that will continue over releases subsequent to this.

The short version is that Being Here is a creative blossoming for Turtle Skull, and from start to end is one of the best records I’ve heard in 2025. It’s the first of those two that’s more important, obviously. The way the band carry these melodies, find balance between the moodier aspects of living through one of the dumbest eras of recorded history and the hopeful manifestations that could lead to a better world, way, whathaveyou. It’s not just about wanting to “get out of your head and into the sun,” but about how Turtle Skull make that song into the sunshine itself, and the way the music from that first fuzz onward comes to feel like the greatest hopes of the lyrics realized.

Turtle Skull, Being Here (2025)

Turtle Skull on Bandcamp

Turtle Skull on Facebook

Turtle Skull on Instagram

Art as Catharsis on Bandcamp

Art as Catharsis on Facebook

Art as Catharsis on Instagram

Copper Feast Records website

Copper Feast Records on Bandcamp

Copper Feast Records on Facebook

Copper Feast Records on Instagram

I wanna crawl inside the bright melody of Turtle Skull‘s “Apathy” and just wait for this Northern Hemisphere winter to end. The Australian four-piece sound ready for export on the early singles from their upcoming third (I think?) full-length, Being Here, and if the title puts you in a time and place — here — that’s the idea. The record was tracked mostly live and follows 2020’s Monoliths (review here), which was a gem from which they seem to have nonetheless stepped forward in composition and style. “Apathy” has a little Dead Meadow to it, but “Into the Sun” is wetter psych, with a touch of garage rock that gives some push to its six-minute course. “Heavy as Hell,” which was issued as a standalone single in Feb. 2024, fits the bill, and is no less in the harmonies throughout than its organ-laed second-half culmination.

It sounds like the record’s gonna fucking rule, and so here’s a ton of PR wire information about it, the preorder links, the likewise-rad cover art and the Bandcamp player at the bottom as always.

Dig into this and I don’t think you’ll regret it:

Neo-Psych/ Doom Rockers TURTLE SKULL Announce New Album Being Here. New Single Into The Sun Streaming.

Preorder: https://turtleskullmusic.bandcamp.com/album/being-here

Presave: https://art-as.org/being-here

Art As Catharsis and Copper Feast Records are proud to announce Turtle Skull’s upcoming record, Being Here, a lush and gritty exploration of neo-psych with indie and alt-pop sensibility, out May 23, 2025.

With Being Here, Turtle Skull have evolved. A new lineup. A fresh approach. A leap forward. While the album builds on the sonic foundations of 2020’s Monoliths, it’s a different beast. Still hefty and considered but more immediate. Made for the moment. A record that values gut instinct over perfection.

Tracked live at NoWave in Mullumbimby, with a paired-back approach to studio tweaking, Being Here captures that ‘lightning in a bottle’ energy that happens when a band fully locks in. New member Ally Gradon’s synths inject fresh energy, swirling around meaty riffs and driving rhythms. It’s expansive yet raw, drawing from the likes of Black Moth Super Rainbow, Idles and Cause Sui with a nod to the cinematic sprawl of Spiritualized and The Flaming Lips. A heavy, heady blend of melody and atmosphere.

The new single from the release, Into the Sun, exemplifies this new ethos, centering poignant musings amid a shimmering wash of synth and surging guitar.

“Into the Sun was a collection of riffs I had from years ago that Ally had always favoured”, tells drummer Charlie Gradon. “We brought it to the group and it quickly fleshed itself out. The lyrics came after a particularly rowdy yet fulfilling wedding that some of us went to. It’s about being stuck and needing to be with your people. The day to day mundane vs the hyper connected and profound, and how both are equally important.

Listen + share: https://art-as.org/into-the-sun

“Being Here was much more about good songs that we had freshly written being captured live in the moment” says Gradon. “No click, no excessive layering, no studio trickery. The only thing that wasn’t captured live was the vocals. Choosing to self-produce and mix the album gave us the chance to preserve our initial vision, even if it nearly did kill me.”

The album puts a spotlight on songwriting, covering weighty subject matter, from the life-force drain of social media to the relentless march of time. But it does so with a call to stay connected, empathetic and grounded. In this way, Being Here isn’t just an album title. It’s a philosophy. A mantra. A demand to be fully present, to embrace the chaos, the beauty, the weight of it all.

No strangers to sold-out headline shows across Sydney and Melbourne, Turtle Skull have a reputation for epic live performances. They’ve graced festival stages at Camp A Low Hum (NZ), The Gumball (NSW), Vivid (NSW) and Ninchfest (VIC)and supported the likes of Frankie and the Witch Fingers (USA), Earthless (USA) and Stonefield.

With Being Here set for release, the band is gearing up for another wave of touring, kicking off with a 7 March show at the Bergy Bandroom in Melbourne as part of the Brunswick Music Festival ahead of rumoured festival appearances later in the year. Keep your eyes peeled for gig announcements and make sure to catch one of Australia’s most electrifying live acts.

Turtle Skull’s new record, Being Here, is out on Art As Catharsis (AUS/NZ) and Copper Feast Records (UK/EU) on 23 May 2025.

Pre-order is live here, for both the AUS/ NZ edition as well as UK/ EU edition: https://turtleskullmusic.bandcamp.com

In UK/ EU also directly available from the label: http://copperfeastrecords.com/shop

All songs written by Turtle Skull
Lyrics by Charlie Gradon and Dean McLeod

Recorded by Julian Abbott at Nowave Studio and Charlie Gradon at his Crabbes Creek studio
Mixed by Charlie Gradon
Mastered by Michael Lynch
Produced by Charlie Gradon and Dean McLeod

Artwork by Graham Yarrington
Graphic Design by Jim Grimwade

Turtle Skull is:
Julian Frese – Bass guitar
Ally Gradon – Vocals, synths
Charlie Gradon – Vocals, drums
Dean McLeod – Vocals, guitars

https://www.facebook.com/turtleskullmusic/
https://www.instagram.com/turtleskullmusic/
https://turtleskullmusic.bandcamp.com/

http://www.facebook.com/artascatharsis
https://instagram.com/artascatharsis
http://artascatharsis.bandcamp.com/

http://facebook.com/copperfeastrecords
http://instagram.com/copperfeastrecords
https://copperfeastrecords.bandcamp.com/
http://www.copperfeastrecords.com/

Turtle Skull, Being Here (2025)

If you read any of the Quarterly Review that wrapped up earlier this week, some of the names in the playlist below might be familiar. These aren’t all the highlights from the 60 records that were covered in that somehow-still-too-short barrage of writeups, but a two-hour sampling seemed like enough time to ask out of your busy day and I recognize that if you check any of it out at my say-so, it is an honor and a humbling thing for me to be a part of. So yeah. Thanks.

My hope is that it flows. I’m interested to hear the finished product — and I do intend to listen and be in the chat on the Gimme Metal app — but I put it together with the idea that the songs would interact well with each other and even where something brought a departure, it seemed a reasonable shift. Did it work? I don’t know. If you listen, you can tell me. But I’m looking forward to finding out, especially since the playlist was built out of such a massive swath of stuff covered recently.

In any case, thanks for listening if you do. I hope you enjoy the show.

The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmemetal.com

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 10.16.20

Hymn	Exit Through Fire	Breach Us*
Polymoon	Sliver Mountain	Caterpillars of Creation*
The Pilgrim	Secrets in the Kingdom	…From the Earth to the Sky and Back*
Shroom Eater	God Isn’t One Eyed	AD.INVENTUM*
VT1
Turtle Skull	Heartless Machine	Monoliths*
The White Swan	Purple	Nocturnal Transmissions*
Slow Green Thing	All I Want	Amygdala*
Mos Eisley Spaceport	Further When I’m Far	The Best of Their Early Year*
Brimstone Coven	Live with a Ghost	The Woes of a Mortal Earth*
White Dog	The Lantern	White Dog*
Mábura	Bong of God	Heni*
Cracked Machine	Cold Iron Light	Gates of Keras*
Kairon; IRSE!	Altaïr Descends	Polysomn*
Thomas V. Jäger	Creatures of the Deep	A Solitary Plan*
Hum	The Summoning	Inlet*
VT2
Atramentus	Stygian I – From Tumultuous Heavens (Descended Forth the Ceaseless Darkness)	Stygian*

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Oct. 30 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

Gimme Metal website

The Obelisk on Thee Facebooks

Oh hi there. It’s Quarterly Review time again, and you know what that means. 50 records between now and Friday — and I may or may not extend it through next Monday as well; I think I have enough of a backlog at this point to do so. It’s really just a question of how destroyed I am by writing about 10 different records every day this week. If past is prologue, that’s fairly well destroyed. But I’ve yet to do a Quarterly Review and regret it when it’s over, and like the last one, this roundup of 50 albums is pretty well curated, so it might even be fun to go through. There’s a thought. In any case, as always, I hope you find something you enjoy, and thank you for reading if you do or as much as you do.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Steve Von Till, No Wilderness Deep Enough

Neurosis guitarist/vocalist Steve Von Till seems to be bringing some of the experimentalism that drives his Harvestman project into the context of his solo work with No Wilderness Deep Enough, his fifth LP and first since 2015’s A Life unto Itself (review here). Drones and melodic synth backs the deceptively-titled “The Old Straight Track,” and where Von Till began his solo career 20 years ago with traditional folk guitar, if slower, on these six tracks, he uses that meditative approach as the foundation for an outward-reaching 37-minute run, incorporating ethereal strings among the swirls of “Shadows on the Run” and finishing with the foreboding hum of “Wild Iron.” Opener “Dreams of Trees” establishes the palette’s breadth with synthesized beats alongside piano and maybe-cello, but it’s Von Till‘s voice itself that ties the material together and provides the crucial human presence and intimacy that most distinguishes the offerings under his own name. Accompanied by Von Till‘s first published book of poetry, No Wilderness Deep Enough is a portrait of the unrelenting creative growth of its maker.

Steve Von Till on Thee Facebooks

Neurot Recordings on Bandcamp

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Cyttorak, Simultaneous Invocation of Apocalyptic Harbingers

Take a breath before you hit play only to have it punched right out from your solar plexus by the brutalist deathsludge Cyttorak cleverly call “slowerviolence.” Dominated by low end and growls, screams, and shouts, the lumbering onslaught is the second standalone EP for the three-piece who hail from scenic Pawtucket, Rhode Island (former home of the PawSox), and throughout its six-track run, the unit conjure an unyieldingly punishing tonal morass set to aggressive purpose. That they take their name from the Marvel Universe character who controls X-Men villain Juggernaut should not be taken as coincidence, since their sound indeed seems intended to put its head down and smash through walls and/or anything else that might be in its path in pursuit of its quarry. With Conan-esque lyrical minimalism, the songs nonetheless give clues to their origins — “Royal Shokan Dismemberment” refers to Goro from Mortal Kombat, and finale “Domination Lord of Coldharbour” to Skyrim (which I still regret not playing) — but if you consider comics or video games to be lighter fare, first off, you’re working with an outdated mentality, and second, Cyttorak would like a bit of your time to smother you with volume and ferocity. They have a new split out as well, both on tape.

Cyttorak on Thee Facebooks

Tor Johnson Records website

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Lambda, Heliopolis

Also signified by the Greek letter from which they take their moniker, Czech four-piece Lambda represent a new age of progressive heavy post-rock. Influences from Russian Circles aren’t necessarily surprising to find coursing through the instrumental debut full-length, Heliopolis, but there are shades of Elder as well behind the more driving riffs and underlying swing of “Space Express,” which also featured on the band’s 2015 EP of the same name. The seven-minute “El Sonido Nuevo” did likewise, but older material or newer, the album’s nine-song procession moves toward its culminating title-track through the grace of “Odysea” and the intertwining psychedelic guitars of “Milkyway Phaseshifter” with an overarching atmosphere of the journey to the city of the sun being undertaken. And when they get there, at the closer, there’s an initial sense of peace that gives way to some of the most directly heavy push Heliopolis has to offer. Payoff, then. So be it. Purposeful and somewhat cerebral in its execution, the DIY debut brings depth and space together to immersive effect.

Lambda on Thee Facebooks

Lambda on Bandcamp

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Dee Calhoun, Godless

Following his 2016 debut, Rotgut (review here) and 2018’s Go to the Devil (review here), Godless is the third full-length from former Iron Man and current Spiral Grave frontman Dee Calhoun, and its considerable 63-minute runtime finds him working in multiple directions while keeping his underlying roots in acoustic-based heavy metal. Certainly “To My Boy” — and Rob Calhoun has appeared on his father’s releases before as well — has its basis in familial expression, but its pairing with “Spite Fuck” is somewhat curious. Meanwhile, “Hornswoggled” cleverly samples George W. Bush with a laugh track, and “Here Under Protest,” “The Greater Evil,” “Ebenezer” and “No Justice” seem to take a worldly view as well. Meanwhile again, “Godless,” “The Day Salvation Went Away” and “Prudes, Puritanicals and Puddles of Piss” make their perspective nothing if not plain for the listener, and the album ends with the two-minute kazoo-laced gag track “Here Comes the Bride: A Tale From Backwater.” So perhaps scattershot, but Godless is nonetheless Calhoun‘s most effective outing yet in terms of arrangements and craft, and shows him digging further into the singer-songwriter form than he has up to now, sounding more comfortable and confident in the process.

Dee Calhoun on Thee Facebooks

Argonauta Records website

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Turtle Skull, Monoliths

Melodic vocal lines weave together and float over alternately weighted and likewise ethereal guitars on Turtle Skull‘s second album, Monoliths. The percussion-inclusive (tambourine, congas, rain stick, etc.) Sydney-based heavy psychedelic outfit create an immersive wash that makes the eight-song/55-minute long-player consuming for the duration, and while there are moments of clarity to be found throughout — the steady snare taps of “Why Do You Ask?” for example — but the vast bulk of the LP is given to the overarching flow, which finds progressive/space-rock footing in the 11-plus minutes of finale “The Clock Strikes Forever” and is irresistibly consuming on the drifting wash of “Rabbit” or the lysergic grunge blowout of “Who Cares What You Think?,” which gives way to the choral drone of “Halcyon” gorgeously en route through the record’s back half. It’s not the highest profile heavy psych release of 2020, but neither is it to be overlooked for the languid stretch of “Leaves” at the outset or the fuzz-drenched roll in the penultimate “Apple of Your Eye.”

Turtle Skull on Thee Facebooks

Art as Catharsis on Bandcamp

Kozmik Artifactz website

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Diuna, Golem

In some ways, the dichotomy of Diuna‘s 2019 sophomore full-length, Golem, is set by its first two tracks, the 24-second intro “Menu” and the seven-minute “Jarmark Cudów” that follows, each longer song throughout is prefaced by an introduction or interlude, varying in degrees of experimentation. That, however, doesn’t cover the outsider vibes the Polish trio bring to bear in those longer songs themselves, be it “Jarmark Cudów” devolving into a post-Life of Agony noise rock roll, or the thrust in “Frank Herbert” cut into starts and stops and shouting madness. Heavy rock, noise, sludge, post-this-or-that, it doesn’t matter by the end of the 12-track/44-minute release, because Diuna establish such firm control over the proceedings and make so clear the challenge to the listener to keep up that it’s only fun to try. It might take a couple listens to sink in, but the more attention one gives Golem, the more one is going to be rewarded in the end, and I don’t just mean in the off-kilter fuckery of closer “Pan Jezus Idzie Do Wojska.”

Diuna on Thee Facebooks

Diuna on Bandcamp

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Tomorrow’s Rain, Hollow

“Ambitious” doesn’t begin to cover it. With eight songs (plus a bonus track) and 11 listed guest musicians, the debut full-length, Hollow, from Tel Aviv-based death-doomers Tomorrow’s Rain seems to be setting its own standard in that regard. And quite a list it is, with the likes of Aaron Stainthorpe of My Dying Bride, Greg Mackintosh of Paradise Lost, Fernando Ribeiro of Moonspell, Mikko Kotamaki of Swallow the Sun, and so on, it is a who’s-who of melodic/gothic death-doom and the album lives up to the occasion in terms of the instrumental drama it presents. Some appear on one track, some on multiple tracks — Ribeiro and Kotamaki both feature on “Misery Rain” — and despite the constant shifts in personnel with only one of the eight tracks completely without an outside contributor, the core six-piece of Tomorrow’s Rain are still able to make an impression of their own that is bolstered and not necessarily overwhelmed by the extravagant company being kept throughout.

Tomorrow’s Rain on Thee Facebooks

AOP Records website

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Mother Eel, Svalbard

Mother Eel‘s take on sludge isn’t so much crushing as it is caustic. They’re plenty heavy, but their punishment isn’t just meted out through tonal weight being brought down on your head. It’s the noise. It’s the blown-out screams. It’s the harshness of the atmosphere in which the entirety of their debut album, Svalbard, resides. Five tracks, 33 minutes, zero forgiveness. One might be tempted to think of songs like “Erection of Pain” as nihilistic fuckall, but that seems incorrect. Nah, they mean it. Fuckall, yeah. But fuckall as ethos. Fuckall manifest. So it goes through “Alpha Woman” and “Listen to the Elderly for They Have Much to Teach,” which ends in a Primitive Man-ish static assault, and the lumbering finish “Not My Shade,” which assures that what began on “Sucking to Gain” half an hour earlier ends on the same anti-note: a disaffected malevolence writ into sheer sonic unkindness. There is little letup, even in the quiet introductions or transitions, so if you’re looking for mercy, don’t bother.

Mother Eel on Thee Facebooks

Mother Eel on Redbubble

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Umbilichaos, Filled by Empty Spaces

The four-song/39-minute atmospheric sludge long-player Filled by Empty Spaces is listed by Brazilian solo outfit Umbilichaos as being the third part of, “the Tetralogy of Loneliness.” If that’s the emotion being expressed in the noise-metal post-Godflesh chug-and-shout of “Filled by Empty Spaces Pt. 02,” then it is loneliness viscerally presented by founding principal and multi-instrumentalist Anna C. Chaos. The feel throughout the early going of the release is plodding and agonized in kind, but in “Filled by Empty Spaces Pt. 01” and “Filled by Empty Spaces Pt. 03” there is some element of grim, crusted-over psychedelia happening alongside the outright dirge-ism, though the latter ultimately wins out in the four-minute instrumental capper “Disintegration.” One way or the other, Chaos makes her point through raw tonality and overarching intensity of purpose, the compositions coming across simultaneously unhinged and dangerously under control. There are many kinds of heavy. Filled by Empty Spaces is a whole assortment of them.

Umbilichaos on Thee Facebooks

Sinewave website

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Radar Men From the Moon, The Bestial Light

Fueled by avant grunge/noise impulsion, Radar Men From the Moon‘s latest foray to Planet Whothefuckknows arrives in the eight-song/41-minute The Bestial Light, a record alternately engrossing and off-putting, that does active harm when the sounds-like-it’s-skipping intro to “Piss Christ” comes on and then subsequently mellows out with psych-sax like they didn’t just decide to call the song “Sacred Cunt of the Universe” or something. Riffs, electronics, the kind of weirdness that’s too self-aware not to be progressive, Radar Men From the Moon take the foundation of experimentation set by Astrosoniq and mutate it via Swans into something unrecognizable by genre and unwilling to compromise its own direction. And no, by the time “Levelling” comes on to round out, there is no peace to be found, though perhaps a twisted kind of joy at the sheer postmodernism. They should score ballets with this stuff. No one would go, but three centuries from now, they’d be worshiped as gods. Chance of that anyway, I suppose.

Radar Men From the Moon on Thee Facebooks

Fuzz Club Records on Bandcamp

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Kind of a note to myself here. This record came in this morning and I was curious, so checked it out and I think it might be awesome. It’s the Sydney-based band’s second full-length behind a 2018 self-titled and it’s coming out through Art as Catharsis and Kozmik Artifactz, so that’s good backing either way, but it was the actual sound of the thing that might’ve sold me. Folky, bright, but still heavy underpinnings to the psychedelic flow to what I’ve heard. I guess everything coming out of Oz at this point is represented as being influenced by King Gizzard but I can’t really speak to that one way or the other, but if you know that Khruangbin record and Kikagaku Moyo, you know that’s good territory to be in.

So why the post? Well, my time’s pretty bare these days so it’s a reminder to myself to put on the record tomorrow and listen through the entire thing when this post goes live. It’ll be Thursday so I’ll have a couple extra minutes. If I told you what was going on on my right-hand side right now — first, it would be a longer explanation than the press release below, but second, it still wouldn’t make any sense. It’s been quite a week. I’m looking forward to checking Monoliths out.

Dig:

TURTLE SKULL – Monoliths 28.08.2020, Art As Catharsis / Kozmik Artifactz

Art As Catharsis are proud to announce the release of Turtle Skull’s second album, Monoliths – a texture-rich record that dances between bone-crushing lows and ethereal highs.

Taking inspiration from Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd and Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Turtle Skull’s blend of warped psychedelia, shattering doom and indie-rock sensibility merges into their own brand of music dubbed ‘flower doom’.

While the final product contains a faint similarity to the sounds of King Gizzard & The Lizzard Wizard, Khruangbin, or Kikagku Moyo, Monoliths is distinctively its own beast. It’s a record that heaves and soars, taking joyous compositions and steering them headfirst into a realm of fuzz and fury.

“For me this album and this band was an opportunity to take everything back to the simplest form,” says vocalist/guitarist Dean McLeod. “I’d been listening to lot of drone, heavy psych, stoner doom, ambient stuff, and one of the things that often unite these somewhat disparate genres is the extensive use of drones and ambient synths.

“This record is about the intimate connection we share with the Earth on which we stand. It’s about the world and your place in it. It’s about looking deep inside yourself and seeing what you find. It’s about life and death and everything in between… and most of all it’s about the pure joy of creation. We are very happy to share it with you.”

At the end of its runtime, Monoliths undeniably displays a much more fleshed-out realisation of the doom, psych rock and indie fusion that launched the five-piece into the public eye following their self-titled release. Tipping between heavy and catchy is the strength of Monoliths – the roar of the fuzzed-out amps is counterbalanced by feather-light vocals, creating a contrast as clear and harmonious as sun and sky. For fans old and new, this is fusion at it’s finest – a record with something to offer every listener.

1. Leaves
2. Rabbit
3. Heartless Machine
4. Why Do You Ask?
5. Who Cares What You Think?
6. Halcyon
7. Apple Of Your Eye
8. The Clock Strikes Forever

This record is about the intimate connection we share with the Earth on which we stand. It’s about the world and your place in it. It’s about looking deep inside yourself and seeing what you find. It’s about life and death and everything in between. It’s about greed, racism, colonialism and technological destruction. It’s about hopelessness and despair. It’s about self love and introspection. It’s about friendship and the power of shared experience. It’s about life-changing psychedelic journeys. It’s about connecting with the source. And most of all it’s about the pure joy of creation. We are very happy to share it with you.

Tobia Blefari – Percussion (congas, rain stick, shaker, tambourine)
Julian Frese – Bass, piano, vocals
Dan Frizza – Synths
Charlie Gradon – Drums, vocals
Dean McLeod – Guitars, vocals

https://www.facebook.com/turtleskullmusic/
https://www.instagram.com/turtleskullmusic/
https://turtleskullmusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.facebook.com/artascatharsis
https://instagram.com/artascatharsis
http://artascatharsis.bandcamp.com/
http://kozmik-artifactz.com/
https://www.facebook.com/kozmikartifactz

Turtle Skull, Monoliths (2020)

In case you’ve forgotten how the world works, reality isn’t polite enough to wait for one global crisis to end before the next one begins, and though the media cycle spotlight worldwide may have moved on to brighter, shinier travesties, the fallout from Australia’s wildfires earlier this year is still being felt and will be for many years to come. Ecosystem damage like that doesn’t disappear in a day. Particularly when humans are involved. We suck at that stuff. Good destroyers, bad rebuilders.

Anyhoo, there are those who do what they can, and among them stand organizations like WIRES and the Australian Red Cross, who are the beneficiaries of Copper Feast Records‘ new compilation out March 27, titled Hidden Noise. Australia’s one-of-a-kind environment and wildlife can’t be replaced, or cloned by futures usses, and the planet needs that ecosystem and those animals now. And not to mention the cost to humanity too in lost homes, livelihoods and lives. If a comp with killer tracks by killer bands gets any dollars — Australian or otherwise — to those causes, then that’s only a good thing.

So here’s the info:

Copper Feast Records – ‘Hidden Noise’ Charity Compilation

The world is on fire. Australia is on fire. Things will not get better until things change.

In late 2019 and early 2020, Australia was ravaged by bushfires which have destroyed vast expanses of its unique natural environment, pushing some species to the verge of extinction and causing the loss of many lives, livelihoods and homes. As our way of giving back, 100% of the profits from ‘Hidden Noise’ will be going to charity.

50% will be going to WIRES (www.wires.org.au)
50% will be going to The Australian Red Cross (www.redcross.org.au)

‘Hidden Noise’, a compilation from Copper Feast Records, showcases unreleased tracks from some of the best ‘hidden’ psych rock and stoner rock bands that Australia has to offer. In addition, a small number of previously released tracks from even more amazing bands completes the compilation.

Some of the artists that have contributed brand new songs include Planet of the 8s, Turtle Skull and The Black Heart Death Cult. We also have new mixes of existing tracks from the likes of Sleeping Giant and Narla.

The compilation title ‘Hidden Noise’ takes on a variety of different meanings in relation to this project. These are all Australian bands that are massively deserving of a greater following than they currently receive. Their music may be somewhat hidden for now, but I urge you to explore them all further. Albums, singles and even demos can be found on each band’s own Bandcamp page with links provided below.

‘Hidden Noise’ also references how at-risk persons and families have found their voice lost when requiring assistance before and after the bushfire crisis affecting the country. This is in addition to the vast number of wildlife voices that go unheard at this time as humans exploit their habitats causing their destruction.

Last but not least, the compilation title is in reference to the media obstruction and government inaction all over the world regarding climate change and the crisis affecting not only Australia, but every country in the world as a result of this.

We need change. Please enjoy the music and be a part of it.

narlamusic.bandcamp.com
theroyalartillery.bandcamp.com
planetofthe8s.bandcamp.com
turtleskullmusic.bandcamp.com
sonsofzoku.bandcamp.com
theblackheartdeathcult.bandcamp.com
cosmosmelbourne.bandcamp.com
numidia.bandcamp.com/releases
motemelbourne.bandcamp.com
theivoryelephant.bandcamp.com
footmelb.bandcamp.com
droiddoom.bandcamp.com
paulholden.bandcamp.com
sleepinggiantband.bandcamp.com

Thank you to all the artists above for their contribution and support to this project. Thank you to Carl Saff for ensuring such a broad-ranging sound compiled into one record sounds cohesive. Thank you to you, the listener, for your support.

https://copperfeastrecords.bigcartel.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CopperFeastRecords/
https://copperfeastrecords.bandcamp.com/

Foot, The Balance of Nature Shifted (2020)

Sleeping Giant, Sleeping Giant (2019)