Ok, it's time for one of those collective write-ups again! Let's take a look at what has accumulated in the last weeks and months in the way of previously unreviewed small digital purchases and promos of 2025 releases:
GÛLDUR - Between the Moons, the Dead Rivers (2025)
We're easing ourselves into this slowly and steadily with an hour-long Ambient soundtrack for exploring mystical forgotten landscapes and ancient ruins. A lot of this mostly synth-based is beautiful, yet with a touch of eery dark suspension. And since there's not only a certain depressive bleakness in the song titles at play, as well as the Black Metal aesthetics of the artwork, yet the music has that certain nerdy, sometimes almost a bit cheesy tabletop role-playing game vibe and intentionally unpolished production, we don't ever call this Ambient, not even Dark Ambient, but Dungeon Synth!
Breaking this rule thrice is severly punished by either being whipped by a demon, being burned to a crisp by a dragon or being tickled by a horde of goblins! But no worries, despite its misty nocturnal qualities one witching hour of Gûldur's sonic pagan fantasy should be enough to heal you from any mental and bodily wounds those penalizations could cause.
LAIBACH (feat. BIJELO DUGME) - Die Kanone (2025)
Let's move from one hour of music to just three minutes:
Laibach have released a stomping short single celebrating both the fiftieth birthday of the famous Jugoslavian Folk Rock band Bijelo Dugme with a old school germanized cover version featuring the original artist - and somehow also the recent shift of German industry from cars to weapons, which has always been a good sign, right? (Please visualize this as the famous Anakin & Padme meme!).
The primitive sexual innuendo of lyrics like "I 'll buy a cannon / Someday, sometime / And then I'll be yours / Someday, sometime" is far from subtle, especially when delivered with such a pompous militaristic swing, which makes "Die Kanone" feel like a musical callback to "National Reservation" from Laibach's 1994 classic "NATO".
This song comes in stark contrast to the recent orchestral album "Alamut", which highlights a very different aspect of the Slovenian group's spectrum. Not top material for Laibach's eternal hall of fame, yet still a well executed, silly - yet somehow under the surface actually more serious than you want it to be - catchy little kitschy bombastic ditty.
Let's move from one hour of music to just three minutes:
Laibach have released a stomping short single celebrating both the fiftieth birthday of the famous Jugoslavian Folk Rock band Bijelo Dugme with a old school germanized cover version featuring the original artist - and somehow also the recent shift of German industry from cars to weapons, which has always been a good sign, right? (Please visualize this as the famous Anakin & Padme meme!).
The primitive sexual innuendo of lyrics like "I 'll buy a cannon / Someday, sometime / And then I'll be yours / Someday, sometime" is far from subtle, especially when delivered with such a pompous militaristic swing, which makes "Die Kanone" feel like a musical callback to "National Reservation" from Laibach's 1994 classic "NATO".
This song comes in stark contrast to the recent orchestral album "Alamut", which highlights a very different aspect of the Slovenian group's spectrum. Not top material for Laibach's eternal hall of fame, yet still a well executed, silly - yet somehow under the surface actually more serious than you want it to be - catchy little kitschy bombastic ditty.
CYNIC - Earth Is My Witness (2025)
Cynic's latest single actually is an old one, featuring both late band members Sean Malone and Sean Reinert. The very proggy "Earth Is My Witness" had been the bonus track on a special edition of the 2014 album "Kindly Bent To Free Us", which had just been too overpriced for me at the time. But now that this song has finally been released on its own, I gladly take it.
Of course the song could have easily fit on the regular album, but somehow the band had decided that it didn't fit with the overall flow of the album. I don't know... it may bear a little more resemblance to the Spiritual Prog Metal songwriting during the "Traced In Air" phase, but it absolutely wouldn't have bothered me on the album. No question, I'm happy it's finally out there as an official release.
Of course the song could have easily fit on the regular album, but somehow the band had decided that it didn't fit with the overall flow of the album. I don't know... it may bear a little more resemblance to the Spiritual Prog Metal songwriting during the "Traced In Air" phase, but it absolutely wouldn't have bothered me on the album. No question, I'm happy it's finally out there as an official release.
FRENDZ - The Strain (2025)
The Canadian duo frenDZ' debut mini album "The Strain" is one of those releases which makes you think you have figured it all out after a couple of minutes - an Electronic instrumental depiction of a simple little dystopian Sci-Fi story - only to throw you the first curveball with a detour into contemporary Jazz including a smooth trumpet performance.
And as soon as the second track "Tricillium" starts with piano, even more brass and an inkling of Dub, yet then develops into a not quite synthwavy, but still very 80's soundtrack vibe, only to conclude in "Dark Side Of The Moon" Rock atmosphere, you know that anything could happen here. And it does!
Weirder, glitchier, more experimental Electronics, funky guitar licks, Berlin school Ambient mixed with Doom in the style of Pinkish Black, mr. bungleish upbeat Jazz Bass freak-outs, wild jumps from genre to genre all around. This highly entertaining half hour could hardly fly by faster. What a wild ride! There are even some arrangements which sound like Voivod, yet with a non-Metal instrumentation.
The latter should actually be the least surprising part of all, since one half of this project is none other than Voivod bassist Rocky Laroche, whose brilliant performance is mostly very different to what he usually does in the band, yet also impressively solidifies why he's the perfect match over there as well.
I don't know if it's the lack of a physical release, but this amazing side quest should attract way more attention than it's doing so far!
And as soon as the second track "Tricillium" starts with piano, even more brass and an inkling of Dub, yet then develops into a not quite synthwavy, but still very 80's soundtrack vibe, only to conclude in "Dark Side Of The Moon" Rock atmosphere, you know that anything could happen here. And it does!
Weirder, glitchier, more experimental Electronics, funky guitar licks, Berlin school Ambient mixed with Doom in the style of Pinkish Black, mr. bungleish upbeat Jazz Bass freak-outs, wild jumps from genre to genre all around. This highly entertaining half hour could hardly fly by faster. What a wild ride! There are even some arrangements which sound like Voivod, yet with a non-Metal instrumentation.
The latter should actually be the least surprising part of all, since one half of this project is none other than Voivod bassist Rocky Laroche, whose brilliant performance is mostly very different to what he usually does in the band, yet also impressively solidifies why he's the perfect match over there as well.
I don't know if it's the lack of a physical release, but this amazing side quest should attract way more attention than it's doing so far!
EXDIRECTORY - Vitamine (2025)
A much more 70's-heavy breakfast of Stoner, Prog and Psychedelic Rock is brought to us by the Cologne quintet Exdirectory. With unstoppable grooves, swirling organ (later also smooth electric piano) and space-battling guitars this band doesn't waste much time to jump into full wild action. Given the sheer amount of perfectly executed gradual playful shifts and sudden twists and turns in a relatively short time, it's actually quite remarkable that the whole three-track EP is taken from a completely improvised live session.
Even if you like your Psych to evolve at a more steady pace over longer distances the well-attuned chemistry of these guys is just undeniable. "Vitamine" definitely recommends Exdirectory as a band to look out for live.
Even if you like your Psych to evolve at a more steady pace over longer distances the well-attuned chemistry of these guys is just undeniable. "Vitamine" definitely recommends Exdirectory as a band to look out for live.
mʊdʌki - The Labyrinth (2025)
Last but not least let's go oomph!oomph!oomph! with some very Experimental dystopian Electronic sounds from Belarussian producer (living in Czechoslovakia) Polina Khatsenka aka mʊdʌki!
This stuff definitely isn't the easiest material to listen to from this bunch, and over sixty minutes of these often very angular loops over stomping, yet not always reliable beats can either be either too damn demanding if you're not in the mood for a sonic post-apocalypse - or an in all its discomfort still hypnotic revelation. Weird and uneasy, but also undoubtly atmospheric. I cannot claim it doesn't intrigue me.
Shout-out to Stoned To Death, who are always very generous with free surprise promos, as I got the download for this - and a couple of older releases by Jah Cuzzi, Jan Tomáš and Klamm & Pelikán with my latest order of cassettes from the label!
Last but not least let's go oomph!oomph!oomph! with some very Experimental dystopian Electronic sounds from Belarussian producer (living in Czechoslovakia) Polina Khatsenka aka mʊdʌki!
This stuff definitely isn't the easiest material to listen to from this bunch, and over sixty minutes of these often very angular loops over stomping, yet not always reliable beats can either be either too damn demanding if you're not in the mood for a sonic post-apocalypse - or an in all its discomfort still hypnotic revelation. Weird and uneasy, but also undoubtly atmospheric. I cannot claim it doesn't intrigue me.
Shout-out to Stoned To Death, who are always very generous with free surprise promos, as I got the download for this - and a couple of older releases by Jah Cuzzi, Jan Tomáš and Klamm & Pelikán with my latest order of cassettes from the label!
