My gosh, you’re in for a treat today, ladies and gents! We have so many amazing albums for us to check out, so let’s dive in!
Tokyo Blade: Time is the Fire
One of the most underrated bands from the NWOBHM movement are back with their whopping 14th studio album, just three years after the awesome Fury. If you are into this sort of style, this is going to be right up your street! It does a good job at maintaining the band and genre’s core style while also modernising it for new ears. And it’s a damn solid album in doing that, too. It feels like the kind of resurgence and renewal that bands like Saxon and Tigers of Pan Tang have had recently, and it’s so great to hear bands of that sort of generation have such an excellent new lease of life. Tracks like the opener, the menacing, plodding ‘Man on the Stair’ and ‘The 47’ are all awesome, and definitely album highlights. However, there isn’t a bad song on the album, honestly!
My only issue is that at 74-minutes, it is a long release. Especially when a lot of the tracks are at a similar, mid-tempo pace; it’s a lot of the same stuff. It’s all great, but it’s a lot of Queensryche-like almost prog-heavy metal which, while great, I got a little bored of after 45-minutes. Still, it gets a solid 7.5/10 from me, though it would have been a little higher if the fat was trimmed a touch!
Drown in Sulphur: Vengeance
This is a very interesting release for me, and one that I’ve been anticipating highly since it was announced. I reviewed their last release just last year, and actually rather enjoyed it! However, since then they’ve had a rather public exit from their label, citing that they were being made lighter by them, and promised a heavier release with this new chapter of their careers.
It certainly is HEAVY, that’s for sure. The title track alone had me screwed up in a stank-face for the entire 2:30 runtime. The whole thing, however, is modern deathcore at its very best. It’s 38-minutes of heavy excellence. It’s honestly almost impossible to pick highlight tracks out of it, as every song is awesome and they all flow together so well! Having said that, I do like when the tracks have a bit of time to breath around the heaviness, like ‘Scaret Rain’. They definitely deserve to be up there with the bigger names in the genre these days. It’s very Lorna in the best ways. It feels like a completely different band to their last album, so it’s hard to compare, but there are plenty of times on this album that go hard. All I know is that I love it, and it gets a solid 9/10 from us!
Willow Avalon: Southern Belle Raisin’ Hell
One of the first country releases of the year (following Nolan Taylor’s awesome debut last week) and my god, are we starting off 2025 with a bang! This is right up my street; an old-school, dark, folky country release packed full of strings, great lyrics, and catchy vocal and melodic hooks. ‘Homewrecker’ has been popping off on my socials for a few months now and is one of my favourite recent songs, an easy highlight of the album. However, the album is chocked full of highlights, with songs like ‘Yodelayheewho’, the title track, and ‘Hey There, Dolly’ also all being awesome! It feels like a blend between Dolly, Sierra Ferrell, Kaitlin Butts and a touch of Megan Moroney, and I love it all! It’s a chilled-out, well written and fantastically performed 43 minutes, and is set to push Willow to huge new highs off this sophomore album. If you’re into this sort of style I cannot recommend it enough. It’s another easy 9/10 from us, too! It’ll certainly be up there in the discussion when it comes to albums of the year in December, I’m sure!
Sarcator: Swarming Angels & Flies
This is old-school death metal at its very best. From the blinding pace and thrashy riffs to the insane drumming to the harsh vocals and dark lyrics, it all slots together fantastically. Heck, even the production and mixing is a little muddy, lending itself perfectly to the style and genre. If you’re into this sort of thing, it’s a really excellent release. ‘The Deep Ends’ is probably the best showcase of the band as a whole, and is a huge highlight track. However, for me the slower, more darker and epic ‘Where The Void Begins’ is my favourite song on the album. I love the slightly prog-edge to it all, the eight tracks being a combined 44-minutes, everything having plenty of room to breathe. While it can get a bit samey by the end, it’s still a damn good album, and another solid 7.5/10! Check this out if you like it heavy!
Evan Nicole Bell: Shades of Blue
I know it’s only been 20 days, but this is the best vocal performance of 2025 so far, and it’s going to be very difficult to top! It’s also an incredibly interesting record to listen to, drawing together a whole host of different styles. Whether old-school blues, R&B, roots or easy listening, it’s all thrown into this mixing pot and done so well. The instrumentation, from awesome guitar solos to piano to strings to the driving bass and drums, it’s all SO GOOD. And Evan’s vocals, from that Christina Aguilera-like grit and power to some amazing delivery and even the odd insane whistle note, it’s incredible. Plus, the lyrics she’s written for it all fit each track perfectly and drip with emotion. From the powerful opener to tracks like ‘It’s not My Cross to Bear’ and ‘Catfish Blues’, it’s all incredible! We even get a live version of the latter to close out the album that sounds just as amazing as the studio one.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s certainly not going to be for everyone reading this, it’s considerably lighter than a lot of the stuff we cover. However, as a big blues guy, I loved all 40+ minutes of this. And there is plenty of variety throughout too; I’d recommend checking it out regardless of what you’re into. I’ll definitely be listening to this a bunch in the coming weeks and months, and it gets a solid 9.5/10 from me!
Dear Seattle: TOY
The Aussie indie/garage rock band are back with their third album, and somehow have gotten even better! There’s an edge of early-mid 2000s emo which I of course loved (I grew up in that scene), making it all pretty nostalgic to me as well as sounding generally great. There’s also just a little bit of Foo Fighters in some of the riffing, which I loved. Tracks like the opener, ‘Evergreen’ and ‘idc’ are all awesome! The lyrics, while a little juvenile and dated, are still relatable and fairly well written, fitting over the top of the great instrumentation perfectly! Don’t get me wrong, it does get a touch slow and repetitive towards the latter stages, but it is still a damn good album, and most likely excellent for people really into this style! I certainly wouldn’t turn it off if it came back on again, and I really enjoyed it in short bursts. It’s a solid 8/10, and an easy, fun listen!
Pestilent Scars: Meadows of Misfortune
More death metal up next, but this time of the melodic variety. It certainly fits into both camps very well too, being both heavy and epic in equal measure. It’s been really interestingly crafted too, with the cleaner vocals fitting in just as well as the screams, it all coming together into a really perfect amalgamation of various metal genres. Right from the intro into ‘Internal Torment’ I was hooked and intrigued, not being released until the last notes of ‘False Messiah’. It feels like a mixture between everything from In Flames to Machine Head to even a sprinkling if black and power metal, and I love it! I had to chill myself as I would have happily added the vast majority of it to our playlist. It’s impossible to pick highlights as it’s all so good. It feels pretty unique due to all the genre-blending, and the band definitely deserve so much more recognition after releasing such an amazing album. My only slight issue is that it did feel a touch repetitive by the end, I feel like an epic ballad tucked in there somewhere, while maybe not fully fitting of the band’s sound, would have been awesome. Still, it’s a phenomenal release and one that I cannot recommend enough to anyone into the heavier stuff. 9.5/10, great stuff!
LANCO: We’re Gonna Make It
The Americana-fuled chilled-out country band are back with their sophomore album, almost seven years to the day after their debut. I haven’t heard that release, but if it’s anything like this, I’m sure I’d love it! Don’t get me wrong, it’s corny, pop-ish country music, but it’s so well written and performed that I can’t help but love it! It feels like Dan & Shay, but with a healthy dose of modern-day Bon Jovi, and it’s very quickly got ‘Joe’s new guilty pleasure’ written all over it. Tracks like ‘Low Class Lovers’, ‘You’ll Always Be’ and ‘Sound of a Saturday Night’ are big personal highlights, but honestly pretty much bangers from front-to-back. It’s certainly light compared to a lot of music on this list, but is a fantastic listen, a fun time, and went by in a flash. If you like more poppy, anthemtic sort of stuff, or soft-country in general, I can’t recommend this album enough. I don’t know what’s going on this week, but I seem to be reviewing banger after banger. And I’m as shocked as y’all are, but this is getting my first 10/10 of the year!
The Weather Station: Humanhood
Some soft rock now from the Canadian bands seventh album. There’s still a smattering, an aura of their folk-rock roots, but it feels a lot closer to early 2000s soft/pop rock than anything else. Then again, I did get vague Paula Cole vibes throughout, so maybe it’s more folky than I give it credit for. In that vein, I really enjoyed ‘Window’. It’s certainly the best of the bunch, in my opinion. It certainly isn’t a bad album; it’s well written and performed and Tamara Linderman’s vocals are incredible throughout. It’s really well put together too, with the intro and interludes etc. However, a full album of this isn’t really my sort of thing. I love it in short bursts, but nearly 45-minutes is a bit much for me. If you’re into this sort of style it’s well worth checking out, as it’s definitely a good entry in the genre! However, for me, it gets a 6.5/10
Pujus of Jukra: Tree Wishes
The Finnish prog/psych trio released their highly anticipated debut album this last Friday, and it’s pretty damn good! Don’t get me wrong, it’s long, but that’s to be expected on a prog record. The musicianship throughout is off the charts though, and the genre-hopping is done so effortlessly well. It’s heavy yet also has elements of jazz and rock and god knows what else, it all blending together seamlessly. The riffing is on a whole-nother level, and impressed me across every track and minute of the album. It’s so hard to pick highlight tracks as they all flow so perfectly together and are all unique and quirky and enjoyable in their own way. However, I think I enjoyed ‘Close Enough’ the most out of the tracks, if I had to pick! It’s certainly not going to be for everyone, but for the sheer balls and talent it took to crest this, I can’t give it any less than 7.5/10!