D Minus
Power Pop, Krautrock, Pop Punk, Neo-Psychedelia, Noise Pop, Wonky, Death Metal, Sludge Metal and more!
Mornin’ y’all.
It has been a few weeks since I collected my capsule reviews in a post, and you can really tell I’ve split into two directions with my listening (outside of keeping up with new releases.) The two sides of my listening coin are on full display here - varying degrees of metal and… the wussiest of pop punk. Don’t worry though, there’s lots to dig into in-between including some new electronic releases and a handful of new indie rock records.
And with the weather turning slightly, my mental health is starting to rise out of a wintery rock bottom with the rising thermometers.
Here’s the requisite nature shot for ya:
On with the reviews. What have you been stoked about lately? What have you been listening to? Let me know.
Icon legend:
⛏️ denotes picks of the week, my favs.
🌱 seedling denotes albums I liked, but may grow on me.
✨ means worth a look, if you like the genres listed in particular.
✂ denotes favourite tracks from a given record.
As always, please reach out on the hellsite, the better site, or join the Rosy Overdrive Discord server where I can be found now and again. You can also find me in the corners of Rate Your Music scrounging for obscure emo, hardcore, indie rock and pop punk.
Don’t forget: if you’re reading this in your email it will be cut off. Read on the web for the full list of reviews!
⛏️ Bike Notes - Bike Notes (2025)
Genre: Noise Pop
This is a little hard to pin down, it comes from Bloated Kat Records, but isn't straight up pop punk. Reminds me particularly of that kind of UK-based fuzzy noise-pop indie rock like Martha, Woahnows or Doe. Definitely some punk energy in here and a big time focus on melody and hooks but not sure I'd go right into calling it pop punk tbh—though songs like "Splinters and Glue" approach skate punk attitude with their galloping beats. There's definitely overlap into the genre for sure. Anthemic and energetic, this gets an extra half-star from me just on sheer gumption. I'd maybe like the songs to be a pinch more memorable, but this is good stuff anyway.
⛏️ Echt! - Boilerism (2025)
Really good stuff if you like electronic that sits somewhere between the braininess of IDM and the base pleasures of EDM. Rhythmically, some of this is just wonderfully filthy ("Wacky Wave") when it's moving. It's also really fun. Sits right in a place I love, with wobbly tunes like "Moxy" sounding like a "What if Mr. Scruff made club bangers" type situation. Isn't afraid to get a bit abrasive too, at just the right times.
Well rounded and the kind of thing I can see returning to a bunch.
🌱 Telethon - Suburban Electric (2025)
Telethon have yet to become an "album" band for me. Swim Out Past the Breakers had some massive tunes ("Travelator" in particular) but didn't hit me as a whole. Suburban Electric feels a bit more focused and concise in a way that lets me engage with it as an album more, but I also feel like it lacks some of the huge highs that their other work has had. Kind of a conundrum really, but I also think that this is 36 minutes of catchy emo-forward indie-rock-power-pop-etc. and I'm always down for that kind of thing, so I dig it regardless.
🌱 Vacuous - In His Blood (2025)
Genre: Death Metal
Not really what I expected at all from an album with a lonely Death Metal main genre tag. As dewtaylo mentions in their review on Rate Your Music, definitely a cavernous sound but they do some really cool stuff with the death metal template. In particular, there were some cool in-focus tremolo riffs that segued out of the doom-y cave-drenched sound that seemed really impressive ("Public Humiliation") upon first listen.
What struck me the most about this was their ability to transition from slower more atmospheric stretches and back into the death metal while making the transitions themselves interesting and intriguing from a riff perspective. I feel like any band can just go from one texture to another, but Vacuous are doing interesting stuff within those transitions that kept a hold on my ears so to speak. Some cool production tricks too, like the almost shoegazey (reminded me of Medicine, haha) channel panning feedback in "Contraband".
Cool stuff. Have no idea how it stands up to their previous release and some people seem disappointed with this as a result, but it sounds good to me.
🌱 Mongrel - Baptized in the Gutter (2025)
Genre: Death Metal, Metalcore, Beatdown Hardcore
I came to this knowing that it was death/metal forward and hardcore/beatdown second so I had no issues comparing it to their other work that I haven't heard. I feel like there's a lot of overlap between death metal and hardcore but this feels like it's doing it just right for my tastes. Good stuff, short and to the point.
🌱 Pyres - Yun (2025)
Genre: Sludge Metal, Progressive Metal, Southern Metal
I was a huge fan of Year of Sleep back in 2013, so this has been a long time coming. Year of Sleep was a dense slab of depressed, atmospheric and sludgy metal. This follows suit and doesn't change up the formula too much ("Granular Flow" in particular sounds like something that would fit right in on Year of Sleep). I'm not totally sure about the vocal performance here though. The singing is a bit clearer at times, and makes this sound generally less metal and more heavy rock-ish to my ears. It's not bad, and I'm happy to have one of my favs back again, but some of this didn't hit for me. There's still some good riffs and moments throughout, it's not a waste or anything. It's also possible I'll soften on this - I did wait 12 years for it after all.. jesus, I just realized that. What the fuck is time?
✨ Grave Infestation - Carnage Gathers (2025)
Genre: Death Metal, Death Doom Metal
Enjoyed this but an hour later it has already started to dissipate from my memory. It's solid doom-tinged death metal, but by track four I felt like I had already been listening to it for like 40 minutes or something. One of those "checked the track list expecting the album to be nearly over" moments for sure. It's dense and not really throwing you any curveballs, but in the moment it does the trick. Might have to circle back on this one and see if it improves over time or not. For now I'm leaning on the optimistic side of the scale though.
🌱 Dead Bars - All Dead Bars Go to Heaven (2025)
Totally forgot this was dropping today until it was in my new music playlist. I've been kinda waiting for Dead Bars to click with me over the course of 2 albums and many EPs but they never have. It's weird because they are exactly the kind of band that I should love - scrappy beer soaked punk, vaguely Springsteen-ish and hook-focused. This is totally fine though, a couple good songs, a couple misses, a bunch of just alright ones. Something I can toss on and enjoy but nothing that I'm going to be running back to.
✨ Act of Impalement - Profane Altar (2025)
Genre: Death Metal
As you can see by this batch of reviews, I certainly spent a bunch of time perusing the 2025 death metal chart in the past couple weeks. Ended up landing on this one afternoon, possibly by virtue of how smack dab in the middle of the genre it is.
Another in a long line of records that I would describe as meat and potatoes. I appreciate that they don't drag these songs out much past the 4.5 minute (with many coming in at sub 3 minute runtimes.) The kind of album that I'm going to need some time with to decide if it's comfortable (non-derogatory) or forgettable.
🌱 Eggy - From Time to Time (2025)
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Indie Pop, Krautrock, Post-Rock, Experimental Rock
Cromulent indie rock, some of this has that Stereolab-esque art-pop thing going ("Two Horses", "Open Field") that I am a mark for. There's also string-led indie vibes ("Are You Not Entertained?") and boppy piano pop ("Colouring the Silence") that kinda reminded me a pinch of Earlimart.
Not sure if this rose above "pretty good" while I was listening to it, but also probably a lot here for people that like the reference points they're cribbing from. Not too shabby.
Pyrex - Body (2025)
Genre: Hardcore Punk, Garage Punk
I dunno, in certain circles people seem to be going nuts for this album but it sounds really standard stuff to me. It's not bad, it's an enjoyable 16 minutes, but I feel like I'm missing something here. I fail to see how this differentiates itself, or even just does the one thing so well that it doesn't matter. Maybe their live show kicks ass? It's a-OK straight forward punk with some snarl.
⛏️ Zero Zero - AM Gold (2001)
Genre: Indie Pop, Indietronica, Neo-Psychedelia, Picopop
I first came across this album back when Location Is Everything Vol. 1 came out. That album was my introduction to a lot of stuff I ended up loving - Girls Against Boys, Denali, Strike Anywhere, Jets to Brazil, Pedro the Lion, Paint It Black etc.
Alongside those more well known acts was this odd side-project from Lifetime's Ari Katz. They were oddly ahead of the curve here, despite this having all the hallmarks of a toss-off album (toying with a varied set of genres, though mostly centered around synths in some way). In that way it's pretty uneven - some of the tracks feel like fully fleshed out tunes ("True Zero", "AM Gold", "Back to Hell") and some feel more like sketches or jams on a vibe ("Pink and Green", "Pep Sounds", "Xanadu"). A couple are even left-field of the currently established field of the record, like the bassy post-punk of "D Minus" or the early Stereolab influenced kraut-noise of "Speed Garage".
In 2001 though, not many artists primarily known for emo/punk/etc. were going and making weird synth electronic indie neo-psych pop like this. It also pre-dates a lot of the "indie band goes synth" stuff that would gain even more popularity in the mid- to late-00s like when Yeasayer or The Ruby Suns made that turn in the wake of Merriweather Post Pavilion. Hell, it even pre-dates label-mate Bazan doing it with Headphones.
Regardless, I don't need stuff like this to be consistent and I don't need every song to have a hook or hell, even a point beyond someone stretching their legs and seeing what comes of it. But a lot of people probably don't want this kind of studio-experiment-as-full-length-album thing so I can't imagine a lot of people loving it. But I do!
It reminds me of that feeling when you're musically goofing around outside of your comfort zone with some friends, and more often than not I find it engaging even if the best tracks here would tally up to merely a great EP.
Also a weird footnote: produced/mixed by The DFA and engineered by James Murphy.
Trial by Fire - Ringing in the Dawn (2002)
Genre: Melodic Hardcore
A band I'm investigating further after having only heard 1 song over and over due to owning Location Is Everything Vol. 1.
Something like "Process of Elimination" had me thinking maybe this was a melodic punk band from the singer of Snapcase because in the second half vocally it reminded me a little bit of End Transmission. Not reallllllly, though but it came to mind. The real comparison point here though is Kid Dynamite for sure. They were signed to Jade Tree and appeared on comps with Paint It Black so it checks out.
This is one of those albums that really hits the spot and then you look at how long it's been on and you're on track 5 of 11 and then realize that you've already heard all it has to offer. A couple of these songs hit pretty hard but the rest of them are just alright.
The Bollweevils - Stick Your Neck Out! (1994)
Genre: Pop Punk, Skate Punk
If you read a lot of Punk Planet zines, they're always comparing bands to The Bollweevils or name checking them in reviews for other bands. In general the Dr. Strange Records stuff seemed to get a ton of love in that zine. And then you listen to them, and they are absolutely just pretty good. Snotty pop punk that sounds a lot like a less garage-y Scared of Chaka. Nothing super memorable, but it blasts along at a good pace and is suitably melodic. It's right there between the scrappy skate punk side of the pop punk coin and something more three chord-y. Not bad.
Pinheads - Hand in Head (1995)
Genre: Pop Punk
EpiFat style 90s pop-punk from Brazil with vague melodic hardcore (the 90s melodic punk kind, not the 00s kind) foundation to it. Big time Bracket ("Slowmotion") or No Use for a Name ("Take a Decision") kind of vibe going on here. On songs from other albums they also give off a The Fiendz sound ("Plutoflipper's Land.")
Sounds like a demo tape (the Spotify upload even still sounds like a cassette rip) but definitely up to the quality of other stuff from this era. I've heard records that sound about this good released by indie labels in the 90s. The songs aren't amazing or anything, but there's a youthful charm to this kind of thing for me and it definitely sits somewhere above "forgettable" but just below "memorable".
A couple of these songs seemed to be re-recorded for a 4-band compilation called Flying Music 4 Flying People featuring 3 other bands from Brazil. Those tracks for that sound slicker and subdued a pinch, so I'm surprised they didn't end up with a full-length release on a real label after working up to that. It seems like they broke up just afterwards, though.
Interesting for people on the look out for this kind of forgotten thing, but not exactly a gem or anything.
Punchline - Action (2004)
Genre: Pop Punk, Emo-Pop, Midwest Emo
I used to be really allergic to this kind of stuff, even though I listened to a lot of emo-pop as a kid in College. I know I've tried to listen to this band in the past, pretty sure it was this album, but I was expecting catchy pop-punk and not squeaky clean Fueled by Ramen emo-pop that happens to have some crunchy pop-punk-esque hooks. I also had a weird assumption that this band sounded like those emo bands trying to do indie-pop because of 37 Everywhere's Chutes Too Narrow-coded album art.
This attempt to listen stuck a bit more, but this is still overlong and suffers from a lot of the same weaknesses that comes with a band that feels like they are overreaching a little. There's a few too many slower emo tracks with the overdramatic lyrics ("Even a heart transplant / Wouldn't show you how I feel" lol what?) and the band is best when they're doing the fast and catchy, multiple singer sing that feels adjacent to Taking Back Sunday etc.
Honestly, cut this to 30 minutes and I probably would be rating it a bit higher because when it's done well it's executed nicely and the hooks are just good enough to stick, but not quite earworm worthy.
Oblivion - Shoot Me a Waco (1996)
Genre: Pop Punk, Skate Punk
Perfectly cromulent pop punk from Chicago released by Johann's Face Records. Could be filed alongside stuff by The Bollweevils or Apocalypse Hoboken (the former they share a member with and the latter they released a split with.) Nothing mind blowing but this sits firmly in that "average, but not bad" section of the genre for people who are scraping the pop punk barrel looking for stuff they haven't heard yet.
MxPx - Slowly Going the Way of the Buffalo (1998)
Genre: Pop Punk, Skate Punk, Alternative Rock
I've never fully understood the appeal of MxPx. As a teen, I guess I thought "Chick Magnet" was a fun tune, but even then "Punk Rawk Show" felt cloying. Every few years I try and put one of their albums on (and have tried this one in particular a few times) and I never last long enough to really have any thoughts about them. They have always felt like also-rans that happened to generate a pretty sizable cult fanbase. I don't like giving up on bands like that though, so I put on this record with intent to finally listen top-to-bottom.
Wish I could say that my opinion was changed but this is mostly what I expected from what seems to be a transitional album. They've got more mid-tempo momentum here versus the pseudo-punk of their older work. They're starting to lean more towards just being a power pop kind of pop punk band (this album brought to mind stuff like Blue Skies, Broken Hearts... Next 12 Exits a few times). Sometimes they sound like a slightly more credible Good Charlotte (only with nothing as annoyingly catchy as "The Anthem.") When they try and do the "prove we can still play punk rock" song "Fist vs. Tact" it just doesn't work for me and feels put on.
A few songs like "Under Lock and Key" or "Tomorrow's Another Day" are solid and do make me think they have something in them, but at 40 minutes and 16 songs... yeeesh. Can't decide if I'm being generous or mean with the 2.5 star rating but I'm not sure I would say 8 of these songs are great so maybe the former.
Relient K - Mmhmm (2004)
Genres: Pop Punk, Pop Rock, Alternative Rock, Power Pop, Emo-Pop
Someone should go back in time and tell Relient K that they have absolutely no business making albums between 40 - 50+ minutes. Like, every album the released is wildly overstuffed!
I had a soft spot for a few songs off Two Lefts Don't Make a Right...But Three Do in College, but ultimately the only album of theirs I would listen to in its entirety was this one. And in hindsight, it's still toooo loooong. But, when I'm looking for that massive, squeaky-clean emo pop punk sound, this has some bangers. This is basically video game soundtrack "pop punk" fused with drippy emo-pop textures (piano asides on multiple songs, random inclusion of banjos, multiple tracks of oooh's and aaahhh's etc.)
The run from "The One I'm Waiting For" through the first two thirds of "Which To Bury, Us or the Hatchet" is great. The ballad outro of the former song into the sappy "Let it All Out" lets the air out of the album, and while "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been" and "Maintain Consciousness" are OK late-album tracks, the album really crushes itself under its own weight. The second half is wayyyy more forgettable than the first side, even as they try and broaden their sound into emo-pop with screams on "Life After Death & Taxes (Failure II)." Of course they end it with a near-seven (!!!!!!!!!!) minute acoustic song. Talk about ending on a bleecchh!
Ultimately, the strength of the first half makes this is one of those guilty-pleasure kind of albums that despite its many faults, I still have a lot of time for.
Flavor Channel - Plexicom (1996)
Genre: Indie Rock, Twee Pop, Indie Pop
Pretty weird coming from a label primarily known for poppy punk, but this starts as a relatively expected 90s crunchy alt-power pop kind of thing but then takes a bit of a turn into a subdued dream-pop kind of place ("Dream of Wednesday") followed by the noisy garage-y loudspeaker rock of "On the Highway." Then the band goes full organ-backed surf rock on "Incident at Plexicom."
It's kind of interesting because all of this stuff makes sense when viewed through the lens of the kind of music power pop obsessed pop punkers usually like, but it's not always presented so cut-and-dry isolated onto their own separate songs. Like the first three or so songs all feel like what you expect and then they just swerve into "now we want to do a twee song" territory ("Ride Your Bike").
I can't say this is entirely successful but I appreciate that they just went for whatever they wanted to, genre be damned. In that way this feels like something that came as a side-project between other band members. Probably rating this a smidge higher just because I admire the gusto but not sure there's more than a couple songs here I would ever feel like returning to.
Yes, it is time again for another stack of throwback death metal reviews:
⛏️ Thanatos - Realm of Ecstacy (1992)
Genre: Death Metal, Thrash Metal
Came across this by looking at the Esoteric Death Metal chart and filtering by 1990 through 1995 or so.
This sits right in the pocket between thrash metal's inability to sit still and need to cram riffs in your face and death metal's intensity. Some big time neck-snapping head-banging moments in the first couple tracks. Title track "Realm of Ecstacy" approaches Bolt Thrower levels of the mid-tempo, anvil-heavy stomp in the opening half. Then they go full-on death metal before turning back into a show-offy thrash metal solo with a whiff of war metal. (I may be not using war metal right here but I just like the war torn battlefield vibe is hiding in there somewhere. It just hauls, okay?) The title track alone just ticks so many of my boxes. I just love how this whiplashes you between being crushed slowly and run through a thresher.
I dunno, this perfectly encapsulates why a lot of this 90s deathrash is such a peanut butter and chocolate situation for me. Just uhh… don't bother reading the lyrics lol.
⛏️ Jungle Rot - Slaughter the Weak (1997)
Genre: Death Metal, Beatdown Hardcore
A four star review from dewtaylo on a death metal album with less than 1K ratings is an instant spin for me. This totally hauls. Groove-forward death metal with sprinkles of slam. Definitely ranks high on the "makes me want to punch a wall" scale. dewtaylo is right that there's probably a good amount of that mid-career Bolt Thrower in here where the grind started to dissipate from their sound and it became all about riffs that kill.
27 minutes too! Thank you for not dragging this out to 45 minutes y'all!
⛏️ Jungle Rot - Skin the Living (1995)
Genre: Death Metal, Groove Metal
After hearing their debut album, I figured why not go backwards to their demo? And as far as demo albums go this is up to the quality of their debut, and it kicks just as much ass. Definitely has everything I liked about Slaughter the Weak but with a bit rawer feel and more of a snappy hardcore snare sound (positive in my books.) Maybe a slight thrash influence here but it's a light touch.
This is good enough that it made me consider dropping the debut’s score down a pinch in order to rank this one slightly ahead of it, but who cares they both are hard as hell.
✨ Envision - The Gods That Built Tomorrow (2023)
Genre: Metalcore, Hardcore Punk, Heavy Metal
Amusing to me that there's a big debate on Rate Your Music about whether or not the vocals on this ruin this, and then you go listen to it and they sound like so many other talk-shouting hardcore vocalists you've heard over the years. The ingredients here seem to be shouty hardcore, some metalcore breakdown influence, and a sprinkling of cheesy heavy metal riffery. I hear a bit of later-career Propagandhi in some of the riffing, though they are obviously taking their stuff to a thrashier, punkier place as opposed to what's going on here. But I think they're pulling from some of the same influences.
People in the comment box saying "if One Step Closer listened to a lot of Rush and Iron Maiden" (PinkHeno) or "basically metalcore gone glam metal, lots of Dokken riffs on this one" (tomcat_ha) are truly not that far off. Maybe overstating the measurements of those influences, but they're in there.
I had a lot of fun with this and could have seen it being on my 2023 year-end list that year because it's just really satisfying and entertaining.
✨ Simulakra - The Infection Spreads (2022)
Genre: Metalcore, Death Metal, Deathcore
Needed a pure shot of aggression this afternoon and this was exactly what the doctor ordered. "Mankind is a Disease" in particular is fuckin' ruthless and perked my ears up while listening. Definitely has some death riffing in there but not so much that it overtakes the crushing moshability of it all.
A.R.G. - Entrance (1989)
Genre: Death Metal, Thrash Metal
Solid extreme thrash that kind of lands in that pseudo-death area by virtue of their speed and evil aggression. This is good enough that I want to see where they take their sound on their next album, but not so great that I could remember much about any particular track on here. Kick ass name though (Ancient Rotten Graveguards).
That’s it, that’s all. Be excellent to one other.