Best New Releases January 2025
Your girl is starting off 2025 on a good note, increasing my best of the month album count from a measly two releases in December 2024 to a whopping eight on the first month of the new year. And, while eight is no epic feat, it's nothing to sneeze at for me. Maybe you caught me in a good mood, maybe it's the Aquarian energy afoot...I certainly won't question it.
I was expecting a few highly anticipated albums this month, but in its last few days, January actually surprised me with several new and new-to-me bands with some very solid new releases.
Let's start off the list with an honorable mention:
Honorable Mention:
Parish - Queen of the Skies b/w Sisters of the Light
The only reason this beauty didn't make my January Doom Charts list is the simple fact that it's a two-track single, not offering up quite as much material as the usual selection for the monthly list. However, Parish captivated me so much with their latest release, Queen of the Skies b/s Sisters of the Light, I purchased it on Bandcamp barely 20 seconds into the first track.
Queen of the Skies b/s Sisters of the Light is Parish's first release since their debut album in 2022, and it's a powerful comeback, delivering more of the epic proto-metal goodness we know and love from the band. This time, each track explores humanity's relationship with the sun. Queen of the Skies is a celebrational hymn, appreciating the sun's life-giving properties and offering up praise. Conversely, Sisters of the Light recounts a tale about the blood recklessly spilled over such religious convictions, shining a light on "the darker side of sun worship".
Favorite Track: Sisters of the Light
January Doom Charts
Here's everything I submitted to the Doom Charts in descending order:
8.) TFNRSH - Book of Circles
Book of Circles, the highly anticipated sophomore album from instrumental progressive/psychedelic trio TFNRSH, is the soul cleanse you didn't know you needed.
To me, the album is an introspective journey. It feels like holding up a mirror and looking long and hard at some of life's heavier emotions, particularly when it comes to the power that they have over us. TFNRSH sonically illustrates these feelings in such a vivid way, as clearly as if they were painted with a brush. It bears emphasizing that this is done in the absence of vocals and lyrics to underline each song's meaning. Instead, the band communicates with liberal use of contrast, creativity, and as TFNRSH aptly calls it, "bursts of energy". This is a meditative sonic journey that requires no words, only an "embrace of the soul".
Favorite Track: Zemestan
Read my full review here.
7.) Fidel A Go Go - Diss Engaged
Fidel A Go Go is a band from Australia who, with their infectious blend of math rock, prog, stoner, grunge, and hard rock, delivers a candid portrait of some of the ugliest parts of the modern world. Their new album Diss Engaged keeps true to the signature sound the band developed on their 2022 debut while adding layers of darkness, realism, and grit, digging deeper into what ails us.
Favorite Track: Sandstorm
6.) Mountain Dust - (self-titled)
Mountain Dust is a modern hard rock, stoner, desert, and heavy psych band from Quebec who has been making music since about 2013. The band is a true chameleon, whose sophisticated and poignant tunes move fluidly between lighter, colorful psychedelic moods and heavier, grittier earth tones. Most of the songs on Mountain Dust's new self-titled album are saturated with notes of the desert, but these vacillate between nods to West Asia and the southwestern US, truly giving the listener the best of both worlds. As if that's not proof enough that Mountain Dust's music is noticeably flexible, the emotive vocals and adaptive instrumentals carry each track through a gamut of feelings, illustrating a complete cycle of mental processing within each. This is one of those albums that is meant to be savored, enjoyed, and deeply felt, much like a compelling novel.
5.) Idol Lord - The Other Side
Idol Lord is a band from Los Angeles whose debut, The Other Side, has made a very positive first impression on the heavy underground with its six tracks of deliciously trippy, viscous, distorted, and down-tuned stoner/psych goodness. There's much more going on, however, as the band incorporates a ton of dimension into their sound, ultimately concocting something that is both steadfast in its weightiness and fluid and warm in its desert tones. The gritty, hazy atmospheres are topped with gruffly melodic vocals that are altogether hypnotic in their consistency, delivering highly infectious choruses.
With this promising debut and a slew of impressive live gigs under their belt (playing alongside the likes of Howling Giant, Gozu, The Obsessed, Mr. Bison, and Max Boogie Overdrive), Idol Lord immediately demonstrates that they're here to stay (and that's more than ok with us)!
Favorite Track: Caught Inside
4.) Hey Satan - Flamingoes
Formed by longtime friends, Hey Satan is a band from Lausanne, Switzerland who's been making music since about 2017. The band is influenced by a wide variety of heavy music, including Led Zeppelin, Rage Against the Machine, and Kyuss, all of which are evident in their kaleidoscopic sound.
On their newest release, Flamingoes, Hey Satan continues their habit of ensuring each track packs a powerful punch. Constructed from a baseline of warm and fuzzy stoner that's never stingy in its heaviness, each song smooths things out in the chorus with soaring psychedelic and heavy rock tones. This has a way of carving many facets into Hey Satan's sound, providing variety and a ton of scintillating dimension (beautifully demonstrated on the EP's instrumental closer, The Monster).
In a nutshell, Hey Satan is the perfect band for the stoner/desert fan who appreciates both the heavier and lighter sides of the genre, while giving nods to the influences that helped mold the style's modern landscape.
Favorite Track: Rubicon
3.) Century - Sign of the Storm
Sign of the Storm, the sophomore album from Swedish NWOBHM band Century, picks up right where their debut left off, continuing to deliver concentrated and energetic doses of old school heavy metal. The band also preserves their retro production style, bringing a dark and hazy quality to the sword and shield vibes and calling to mind bands like Angel Witch and Diamond Head. The ten tracks on Sign of the Storm are powerful, confident, and anthem-like with impressive instrumental chops, charging riffage, and wailing solos. The vocals recount each epic tale, soaring above the instrumental battleground and often punctuating stanzas with a characteristic heavy metal wail. In a nutshell, Sign of the Storm shows Century steadfastly wielding the torch of the NWOBHM bands that came before them, and they keep that flame burning brilliantly.
Favorite Track: Sacrifice
Read my quick review here.
2.) Godzillionaire - Diminishing Returns
Accurately described as Godzillionaire's most eclectic release to date, Diminishing Returns delivers and builds upon everything we know and love about the Kansas-based stoner/alternative rockers, while successfully exploring some new stylistic components. The band maintains their foundation of stoner rock, grunge, and alternative rock (with some nods to metal in the mix), but experiments with sounds that are on both the lighter and heavier ends of the spectrum in comparison to their previous releases. Frontman Mark Hennesy's lyrics are more heartfelt and personal than ever, and his vocals elevate their use of contrast, expanding upon their trademark approach of alternating between soothing and frenzied moods. However, I think the most important takeaway from Diminishing Returns is less about its specific genre affiliations (or lack thereof), and more about its incredibly accurate illustrations of emotion and the human condition. This is one of those albums that you can both rock out to and identify with on a profoundly deep level.
Favorite Track: Drowning All Night
Read my full review here.
1.) Dax Riggs - 7 Songs for Spiders
Dax Riggs' first album in fifteen years is everything you expected and more.
7 Songs for Spiders could realistically be translated to "7 Psalms for the Jaded Realist". Each track candidly explores demons (both real and those that reside within us), death, love, belief (or lack thereof), and the afterlife. For all of this darkness, there's just as much bright optimism, or in this case, a brutal but peacefully relayed honesty and acceptance of one's inability to care, comply, or jump on the bandwagon.
What makes this subject matter stand out on 7 Songs for Spiders is its presentation as a hymnal of sorts, the songs deeply grounded in swampy southern gospel tones, inspired by the culture of Louisiana where they were authored. The album also incorporates an undercurrent of darkened and slowed proto metal, muddy grunge, and enough buzz and hum to satisfy the stoner rock fan. Surprisingly, there's also an electronic component on a few of the tracks, giving them a danceable goth groove.
7 Songs for Spiders isn't an album to be taken lightly; it's incredibly thought-provoking and relatable, made to be savored and pondered upon. More than anything else, I personally found it to be reassuring and downright comforting, a reminder that life is often about finding a way to amicably reside alongside both your inner demons and those that hang out around you.
Favorite Track: deceiver
You can read my quick review here.
There you have it, the best of January according to Doomcakes. I hope you enjoyed these amazing albums as much as I did. As always, don't forget to check out this month's Doom Chart and show your favorite heavy underground artists some much-deserved love!
Comments
Post a Comment