Evening Blue
Avant-Garde Jazz, Dolewave, Indie Rock, Death and Thrash Metal, Egg Punk, Sophisti-Pop, Britfunk, Symphonic Prog and more!
Mornin’ y’all.
Phew, been a while so this is a pretty stacked release of capsule reviews right here. And don’t worry, I know all my subscribers have been clamoring for me to go down yet another thrash and/or death metal rabbit hole, and I won’t spoil anything but I absolutely did and there’s a crap-load of reviews in that genre waiting for you at the bottom of this post. Dang, I spoiled it. Anyway.
You’ll notice in a couple of my reviews that I mentioned re-organizing our vinyl. Been trying to split the collection up into more manageable storage that fits the room and that meant a smaller KALLAX shelf in the sitting room. Not the greatest photos, but here’s a few snaps of the process.
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!
⛏️ Prepared - Module (2025)
Genre: Avant-Garde Jazz, Post-Bop, Post-Minimalism
I love this kind of cyclical, repetitious modern classical music. It's got the form and texture of a jazz band but the interlocking simplistic melodies of classical minimalist compositions. Gets into nice head-nodding territories without being overtly modern or too hip. Only thing I would say is that by "Modul vier IV" it feels like we get into a standard "end the album on a high note" kind of thing that could ring as cheesy for some.
Otherwise, this really benefits from its brevity and simplicity - most of these movements are 2 - 6 minutes and build off each other nicely. I have no idea if this is an adaption of something older or just a new group of musicians doing their own thing (OK I looked it up and it is the latter) but I love this stuff all the same. I will absolutely be back to listen to this more throughout the year.
🌱 Delivery - Force majeure (2025)
Genre: Post-Punk, Garage Punk, Dolewave, Indie Rock, Art Punk
Forever Giving Handshakes was one of my favs of 2022, partly because it offered a good variety of Feel It Records-style indie post-punk etc. on a pretty concise and catchy album. Feel It Records went from one of those labels where everything they put out was cool as hell, to one of those labels you can't keep up with the pace of and so Forever Giving Handshakes was a good grab-bag.
This continues their style, doesn't throw any major curveballs, and is generally strong but feels a little down the middle to me. It's pleasant. Probably my first "maybe it'll end up growing on me" album of 2025.
🌱 Rosa Bordallo - Isidro (2025)
Genre: Indie Rock, Singer-Songwriter
Very nice singer-songwriter kind of indie rock and pop. Some dream pop elements in here for sure, some jangle stuff that feels 80s influenced, and also some of that modern indie pop-rock vibe as well. Well rounded, well executed, and another one that I imagine could go from three stars to higher depending on how much I return to it, but this kind of stuff is usually my bag so I can imagine it happening for sure.
Shrapnel - Sedan Crater (2025)
Genre: Power Pop, Indie Rock
Very cromulent jangle pop and power pop indie rock. Some nice synth adornments, some good melodies, but nothing in-your-face catchy in that way that I'm always looking for. This is another record that feels like the definition of something with potential to grow on me. Everything about it is nice, melodic, and buzzy but truly I have no idea if it will stick to my brain or not just yet. It's also really long for this kind of thing - 17 songs and almost 50 minutes. By 10 songs you'll know the kind of grab-bag of songs that you're in for. Not sure about this from a top-to-bottom album kind of way, but it's got some pretty good material in there.
🌱 Shrieking Demons - The Festering Dwellers (2025)
Genre: Death Metal, Death Doom Metal
I feel like the band name "Shrieking Demons" lands just on this side of too on-the-nose generic metal band name. Otherwise, this is decent modern death metal. Sometimes I listen to a death metal album and I am not sure exactly how to explain it, other than it just sounded fine. This has some alright variety in terms of the fast riffing and some headbanging moments, but mostly it floated just out of reach while listening. Yet another 2025 album I have to regrettably file under "might need closer inspection at a later date."
Discordant Meditation - Tragic Creature (2025)
Genre: Technical Death Metal
Good, modern technical death metal. Nothing more, nothing less. I enjoyed this, but I feel like the jury is our on whether or not it's something I come back to over and over. Well executed, would be how I'd describe it.
Power Pants - PP7 (2025)
Genre: Synth Punk, Egg Punk
Sounds just a little shy of egg-punk weirdness. This is mostly slashy, bashy garage punk with wee-oo-wee-oo synth lines. Lots of songs that basically sound the same, that being the intended point of this kind of thing. Fuzzy robotic vocals buried under lo-fi grit. They seem to have one song and they've made seven albums exploiting that song. This is breezy enough and passes by in 16 minutes so I can't be a hater, and I enjoy this kind of thing generally. This left me wanting to hear where they could take this sound but it seems like that's not what they're interested in doing. Torn between a 2.5 and 3 but have to stick right in the middle because it feels like it will evaporate from my mind very quickly.
✨ Haircut One Hundred - Pelican West (1982)
Genre: New Wave, Sophisti-Pop, Britfunk, Jazz-Funk, Jangle Pop, Neo-Acoustic
Reorganizing our record collection and neither of us knew about where it came from or why we had this one. Squint your eyes and you might hear XTC ("Snow Girl".) Squint your eyes and you'll think of jangle-pop bands or maybe stuff like Squeeze or Joe Jackson or Nick Lowe or Orange Juice or Any Trouble etc. Reviews check the Sophisti-Pop and lite-funk jazzy excursions as the weak point here, but I feel like they give it another leg to stand on that isn't just "kind of sounds like these other acts from the era." Plus, I like really slick, 80s pop sheen and relatively tasteful slappa-da-bass stuff so those moments don't bother me. Obviously, 43 minutes and 12 songs means this drags on a bit, but it's so breezy it doesn't really matter.
⛏️ Japan - Gentlemen Take Polaroids (1980)
Genre: Art Pop, New Wave, Synthpop, Sophisti-Pop, New Romantic
Great new wave art pop synthy post punk etc. I went straight to Tin Drum when getting into the band, but this has a lot of really nice atmosphere with extended synth diversions and instrumental passages. Probably not for people who get tired of that kind of thing and are here for the songs, but it makes the album really memorable for me. At some point I will need to go backwards from here but for now their two final albums really scratch a particular 80s itch that I often have.
✨ Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Tarkus (1971)
Genre: Symphonic Prog, Progressive Rock, Hard Rock, Rock Opera
Maybe it was because I read 200+ comments of people bemoaning how big a drop off this has after the A-side, but other than the sequencing of "Jeremy Bender" directly after a 20+ minute prog-rock odyssey, there's other cool stuff on the B-side? "A Time and a Place" rips pretty hard. I think taken as a kind of 15 minute suite of random genre excursions, the B-side is A-OK. Obviously the real draw here is the 20 minute title track, but still. Maybe I'm not allergic to this kind of stupid shit like "Are You Ready Eddy?" but also I appreciate a band that can knock out a crazy thing like the title track and then do a stupid little throwaway "let's sing in some funny accents" baloney at the other side of the record.
✨ Traffic - Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory (1973)
Genre: Progressive Rock, Jazz-Rock, Psychedelic Rock
Been trying some of Winwood's Traffic material since I'm on a bit of a proggy soft rock kind of mood lately. The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys didn't grab me immediately but I can see the appeal. For whatever reason, this usually held in lesser regard follow-up landed with its slightly more propulsive approach to its pockets of groove. Less hooky it seems, but RYM user Matt_K describing it as a "deep pool of calm groove with just the right amount of tension" feels really apt a way to put it.
✨ Steve Winwood - Arc of a Diver (1980)
Genre: Pop Rock, Sophisti-Pop, Synthpop, Progressive Pop, Blue-Eyed Soul
Another one I've been playing on vinyl thanks to reorganizing our record collection. "While You See a Chance" is such an enormous tune. The quality on here does waver up and down a little bit, but I'm a fan of the 80s cocaine-fueled AOR pop thing so I'm pretty into it regardless. This has me fiending a bit for more vaguely progressive synth-laden sophisti-pop rock of the era.
🌱 Spoons - Arias & Symphonies (1982)
Genre: New Wave, Synthpop, New Romantic, Progressive Pop, Post-Punk
Too long! I know, my usual complaint, but otherwise this is nice new wavey synthy art pop. Title track rips and is super super catchy. Cut a couple songs from this and I'd probably be coming back to it more, but I will definitely keep the handful of songs I like a lot around in the future. Or maybe the whole 48 minutes will grow on me? We'll see, because I do like this.
They toured through my medium sized town with an 80s revival bill last summer (feat. Honeymoon Suite, A Flock of Seagulls, and Men Without Hats!) and I'm kind of kicking myself for not going, seems like it would have been a fun time maybe?
Oh well. Decent album here.
🌱 Choir Invisible - Choir Invisible (1981)
Genre: Post-Punk, Gothic Rock, New Wave, Coldwave
Solid Echo & The Bunnymen-esque mix of post-punk, new wave, gothic rock etc. Nothing that will bowl you over, but if you like this sound you will probably find something to enjoy here. One of those albums that is juuuust good enough that you're not surprised it got relegated to the waste-bin of time, but also it's better than that reputation would suggest so you're kind of rooting for it. Almost wanted to give this three-point-five but I'm gonna stick with three for the time being.
Yes, More Thrash & Death Metal Reviews Again
⛏️ Sacrilege - Within the Prophecy (1987)
Genre: Thrash Metal, Stenchcore, Crust Punk
Was tipped off to this because I read a list saying that they were a big influence on Bolt Thrower.
At first glance I wasn't sure about the ties to that band sonically, but as the album went on it definitely became more and more apparent. Some really enormous riffing on this, it's super satisfying. Sure, there's a fair amount of repetition and they don't really break out of the mold they've established, but I dig Lynda's vocals a lot and this just generally is heavy and rips hard. Had a great time listening to this.
There's a remaster on Spotify but I kind of enjoyed the muddier, beefier sound of the original version.
✨ Seventh Angel - Lament for the Weary (1991)
Genre: Thrash Metal, Doom Metal
Christian thrash with an emphasis on doom-adjacent mid-tempo heaviness, flashy thrash soloing and moody instrumental passages. Almost stoner-y in its dedication to the heavy chug at times. I find Christian versions of "evil" secular music to be amusing so your mileage may vary on the lyrics side of things. Mostly it's yellin' about how their friends have forsaken them, being alone in cold dark depressing rooms or about how great Jesus is. The usual.
Put another dollar in the jar, because this album is too long, but that's probably my main complaint here. Otherwise this was a nice reprieve from all the mega-fast death/thrash I've been listening to lately, so it was a bit of a breath of fresh air in that regard.
✨ Sacrilege - Turn Back Trilobite (1989)
Genre: Doom Metal, Progressive Metal, Epic Doom Metal
Metal heads could be forgiven for wishing the band continued down a crustier, heavier path when this dropped, because it's quite a left-turn after their first two records. Within the Prophecy gets Bolt Thrower comparisons, but here they've gone full epic doom metal with a whiff of NWOBHM dueling-lead riffing ("Awaken!" sounds a bit like power metal to my admittedly untrained ear) and super theatrical vocals.
Love the progressive whiff that this has too, with the spaced out cover art and surprisingly tasteful extended instrumental diversions. I often am scrounging around for thrash with a progressive air of cheese, and this isn't exactly that because it's relatively thrash-less, but it's really scratches my itch for this kind of thing without sacrificing fun, heavy riffs.
You can still hear traces of their foundation in heavier, crustier stuff in this newfound sound, which is nice. Maybe "hear" isn't the right word, but the way they compose their riffs you can tell the come from that world.
I can see why there are reviews on RYM saying they didn't like the record at first but it grew on them over the years. Overall this is another strong album for the band, even if it doesn't hit the gut the way their last record did.
✨ Slauter Xstroyes - Winter Kill (1985)
Genre: Heavy Metal, US Power Metal, Progressive Metal, Progressive Metal
I've got to stop calling this kind of music fun, but that's what it is. It's the US Power Metal sound with some neat progressive touches. This has a bit of an underrated gem reputation and I would have to agree. There's a neat outsider charm to it as well, they sound like an underdog local metal act that had the potential to break it big but never did. Really dope bass riffs too! Very enjoyable all around.
✨ Sacrilege - Behind the Realms of Madness (1985)
Genre: Thrash Metal, Stenchcore
Totally understand why this is the highest rated (and bolded on RateYourMusic) Sacrilege album, because this is very raw, punky, crusty thrash metal. Shows more than a few moments of where they'd end up on later records, with the ability to jump from pedal to the metal thrash into showy progressive influenced moments and back again. I can see why this is the "true head" choice of their discography but honestly I loved the mix of sounds on Within the Prophecy just a hair more.
✨ Sadus - A Vision of Misery (1992)
Genre: Technical Thrash Metal, Technical Death Metal
People really love to talk about how much Thrash sucked into the 90s but a lot of my favourite stuff comes from that period where all these other styles of metal were blowing up and a bunch of thrash bands just kind of leaned into being super technical and beefy and precise but also somehow blunt. Sure there's probably less all-time classics of thrash from the early 90s versus the mid- to late-eighties and a lot of bands struggled to figure out where to go, but I do like albums like this where it's just: here's the tech thrash you ordered, sir. Thank you, may I have some more?
✨ Impact - Take the Pain (1991)
Genre: Thrash Metal
Surprisingly technical for something that at first glance appears to be main-tagged as thrash and nothing else. Definitely has a lot of fun twists and turns that would please fans of tech thrash but also those who don't want something straight up egg-head, since this retains that evil thrash atmosphere and Bay Area style attitude all around. Can definitely see and understand how this is regarded as a hidden gem, since it has that ability to straddle a bunch of different genre lines with ease without sacrificing consistency. Enjoyable stuff!
🌱 Malevolent Creation - Stillborn (1993)
Genre: Death Metal
Another case where I check out a notorious-ish album and find the complaints most people have not aligning with what I hear. Most of what is written about this album is how the songs aren't bad but the production is. On headphones, it sounds fine, if a little thin. Death metal heads will listen to the crustiest, shittiest sounding demo tape and love it but apparently this is an abomination of production and mixing? I guess some of the production seems inconsistent - the change from "The Way of All Flesh" to "Dominion of Terror" (on streaming at least) feels like two different producers or mixers worked on them separately. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't sound great, but it's not unlistenable.
Anyway, I dunno this kind of rips to me. I'm always calling this kind of thing meat and potatoes death metal but this is exactly what you would expect of Floridian death metal from 1993. Has a very solid A-side in particular, but I could entertain complaints that this is very much of the time and doesn't break new ground. The B-side is a bit repetitive and doesn't have as high highs as the A-side, but I still found it enjoyable.
I know I've spun and enjoyed Retribution and The Ten Commandments to some degree, so I'm not sure why this is the first one I've listened to close enough to warrant a review of, but here we are. I will have to return to those more heralded LPs for a closer inspection.
✨ Turbo - Ostatni wojownik (1987)
Genre: Thrash Metal, Heavy Metal
Very fun fantasy-tinged thrash and heavy/speed metal. Even though I have no idea what they are singing about, this was a good ride. They extend some of these songs out to 7-minutes but they aren't overly wanky or progressive, if that's something you worry about. Just lots of high riff density twists and turns hammering along. Not sure you could make the case for a tech thrash influence here, but stuff like "Koń trojański" has enough running around from riff-to-riff that I wouldn't fight you on it if you did.
✨ Flames - Last Prophecy (1989)
Genre: Thrash Metal, Speed Metal, Black Metal
I've listened to this and also Summon the Dead and have been having a hard time getting my thoughts down about them. My gut reaction to this band is that they seem really cool and underrated. Their ingredients and measurements aren't exactly the most innovative - mostly thrash metal, with equal dollops of death's blasting tremolos and moments of speedy melodicism. Maybe it's the quality of the rips that are available on streaming though, but there's a crusty kind of intangibly evil aura around the songs that make them really neat.
✨ Assorted Heap - The Experience of Horror (1991)
Genre: Thrash Metal, Death Metal
Have you ever been so starved for a certain kind of music that you lose all ability to parse any musical information? I do it all the time, and I've mentioned it on a number of thrash metal albums but I'm getting there yet again. I mean, I can see how many reviews you had to get through in order to be reading this one.
Anyway, this is very good death-tinged thrash, which is exactly what I have been craving lately and what I have been overindulging on. I'm going to have to take another break because I'm getting to that point where I listen to - and enjoy - an album like this and then have no idea where I land on it other than "That was exactly what I wanted." In this case, I'm going to lean on the positive side of things because this got my toes tapping and my head nodding. Short too, even including three bonus tracks.
Kreator - Terrible Certainty (1987)
Genre: Thrash Metal
Trying to work up excitement when I check in on bolded, certified classic thrash releases after spending the better part of a year digging through dirt for hidden gems can be a little hard. I mean, it’s well-rounded thrash, that’s for sure. I can understand why it is regarded as such. Certainly a MP not a YP, but I did like this. Really to-the-point stuff at 35 minutes too, which is worth a lot to be honest.
Attack - The Secret Place (1995)
Genre: Power Metal, Heavy Metal
I pretty much always fall back on describing power metal as fun and cheesy, but this is a pretty fun and very cheesy album of power metal. Ballads like "Walk Alone" are a bit dragged out though. "Tsoukata" is an instrumental wank fest and devolves into an extended drum solo. I found it amusing that on YouTube you can literally look at the downward trend of people who must have skipped the song, and honestly I don't blame them. I was engaged for the first four or five songs but after that I was kind of over it.
Listening to this on YouTube means I had absolutely no idea it was from 1995 until I logged this review. I fully believed this was from the 80s.
That’s it, that’s all. Be excellent to one other.
"Nova Heart" is an absolute Canadian classic. 👍
Dan, I saw the title Evening Blue and thought, he’s going to weave Traffic into this somehow. You didn’t disappoint! Love the musical rabbit hole.