Ice Storming
Indie Rock, Bitpop, Hyperpop, C86, Twee Pop, Psychedelic Pop, Death Metal, New Wave and more!
Evenin’ y’all.
O.K., back to our regularly scheduled programming of music capsule reviews that aren’t (entirely) metal albums. I’ve got a bunch of metal in this post, as the rabbit hole has closed up but there was still a lot I haven’t shared since last time.
But! I also have a lot of newer albums and even some year-end contenders. Likely the highest concentration of “picks of the week” in one post ever, too. Just a lot of great stuff here, I couldn’t help myself!
Also, I’ve been posting reels-like videos over on the Substack notes section. Trying something new out:
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!
⛏️ saoirse dream - saoirse dream (2025)
Genre: Indie Rock, Emo-Pop, Power Pop, Hyper Pop, Bitpop, Midwest Emo
This kicks ass. I really enjoy the intersection of hyperpop songwriting with indie rock textures and modern emo vocals/lyrics. Might be too terminally online sounding for some people but I am on board for it, and the sick ASCII sword on their bandcamp page seals the deal tbh. A lot of this sounds like if 100 gecs had chiptune adornments with weed emo kind of vocals, lyrics and crunchy guitar hooks (plus the packing in of samples and vocal clips.) Other times it sounds like a dreamy indie pop band ("bug") with vaguely alt-country solos ("god knows i could tear us apart"). "something cool" has a post-Jeff Rosenstockian thing (by way of Modern Baseball but with Anamanaguchi chips) going on.
I'm a sucker for the chiptune-meets-indie thing while also enjoying hyperpop mostly from the outside looking in, so this is pretty great and matches my sensibilities pretty well.
Over the past week or so this went from “what a great album” to “I can’t stop listening to this, it will absolutely be on my year-end list.”
✂ down in flames, broad shoulders!! gold star!!, montage, god knows i could tear us apart, something cool
⛏️ Dwelley - Loons (2025)
Genre: Indie Rock
Really enjoyed this debut, which includes Deafheaven / Summoner’s Chris Johnson and members who played together in Blood Lightning. That all might lead you to believe this will be some kind of heavy act, but the names that kept coming to mind when I listened to it were Pinback and Rob Crow.
Definitely has a certain kind of 90s indie rock thing going on, but also a variety of other influences from a spectrum of genres. It's jangly and plucky in a way that first had me expecting something emo/indie adjacent ("Skate and Smoke") but they do get noisier in a 90s slacker rock way too.
It's all pretty melodic and satisfying, both when they vibe out on plucky Pinback-influenced spiky guitar lines, or when they let loose in cathartic Built to Spill-esque noisy guitar heroics (both heard on "Stone Heads".)
This has that "it'll be easy to listen to this a bunch over the course of the year" written all over it for me.
⛏️ Cheekface - Middle Spoon (2025)
Genre: Geek Rock, Power Pop, Indie Rock, Post-Punk Revival
Holy shit, Cheekface put out another Cheekface album! Some wildly catchy highlights ("Living Lo-Fi", "Content Baby", "Hard Mode") some stylistic diversions ("Military Gun", "Rude World") and some tracks that I don’t love but inevitably will grow on me ("Growth Sux"). I'll listen to it a lot in the car, like I did with It's Sorted. The highlights will become those songs that the AI DJ on Spotify plays over and over because I listened to them so damn much, making some kind of feedback loop. Yet again, this will not convince anyone who already dislikes them to start liking them, but for those of us who love 'em, here's some more.
⛏️ Horsegirl - Phonetics On and On (2025)
Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Pop, C86, Twee Pop, Slacker Rock, Post-Punk, Jangle Pop
Really nice stuff. Where Versions of Modern Performance was a take on 90s grey-day guitar-focused indie rock, I really enjoyed how on their second album they just said "this time we're doing another throwback take on a whole different kind of band's sound." This is way more twee and jangle in foundation, still with a bit of a slacker-y bent, but calling to mind more bands like Yo La Tengo, The Raincoats or bass-driven ("Well I Know You're Shy") 80s-influenced collegiate underground pop. Super delightful, very enjoyable, and will be an easy one to ease back into throughout the year.
Has that kind of wistful vibe that will make sense in the fall, make sense in the summer, make sense in the spring...
🌱 Impérieux - Rezil (2025)
Genre: IDM, Techno, Glitch, House
Very well rounded set of electronic music that touches on a variety of genres - techno, glitch, house, bass, IDM etc. This is definitely one of those records that glides by easily but doesn't exactly captivate in a "closer inspection" kind of way, but that's also what I'm into sometimes when it comes to this kind of record. A couple tracks aren't entirely my vibe, but there's also many vibes here so it's onto the next one before you know it. "Young" in particular is a huge tune. Highly enjoyable electronic music that will be easy to spin again and again over the course of the year.
🌱 Anxious - Bambi (2025)
Genre: Emo-Pop, Post-Hardcore, Pop Punk
Likely not going to be a surprise for anyone who followed Anxious' post-Little Green House singles, but they've expanded beyond their emo-pop / emo-rock that had vague hardcore-adjacent influence and soft-grunge moments. They've incorporated a lot of jangly, orchestrated alt-pop elements here, while also keeping some of their more muscularly hooky features ("Head & Spine"). Some of this sounds post-grunge in a Abandoned Pools kind of way or something ("Audrey Go Again"). Generally, they kind of feel like they are taking a similar approach as Oso Oso took over the course of their last few records, as far as how they are altering their emo-pop sound.
Whereas seeing Anxious play songs from Little Green House made me realize how obfuscated the hardcore influence could be on their album (it was way more apparent in their energy live), here I think they are even further away from that. When it does get heavier, they're off-setting a wide screen distorted guitar solo it with honey dipped "ooh ahhs" ("Tell My Why"). Honestly, some of this even reminds me of the softest of 00s emo-pop like the more direct songs on Mapping an Invisible World.
If their syrupy nature was a bug not a feature to some listeners of their last album, not sure this will convince them otherwise. But it continues down a path I'm willing to follow them, and it's pretty solid and enjoyable all around.
🌱 Biche - B.I.C.H.E. (2025)
Genre: Indie Pop, Psychedelic Pop, Dream Pop, Krautrock, Space Age Pop
This doesn't get any points for originality, since it sounds exactly like En Attendant Ana-esque Stereolab worship (even featuring the former on the record). But, I really enjoy that kind of thing and so this goes down smooth and easy. Works with all the expected ingredients - some vaguely Kraut-esque droning rhythms ("Americanism"), Neo-Psych instrumentals, crackly synth chords, space age pop gurgles ("Ça va?), jazzy drumming, horns, etc. Good stuff, and while it lost points for not being particularly original, it gains them back a bit for execution.
🌱 Pyre - Where Obscurity Sways (2025)
Genre: Death Metal
I have listened to a lot of death metal in the last year, but make no mistake I do not believe I have any grip on the subtleties of the varying sub and sub sub genres. As far as I can tell, this exists somewhere in the modern genre that is playing tribute to both OSDM and Swedeath varieties of the sound. I think I read a review of this that name checked both Entombed and Fuming Mouth, which makes sense to me. I'm also hearing a lot of little elements hiding in here, from traces of punk, moments of blackened riffs, a sprinkle of doom-y riffs, some thrashy solos etc.
Basically, this is the kind of modern band that is paying tribute to a lot of classics of the genre - albums and bands - at once and that's probably going to land one of two ways for most people: either you'll find them derivative and hand wave them away, or think their mix of ingredients is a satisfying one. I'm definitely in the latter camp. I thought this was super enjoyable and another one that feels like a no brainer on the "I'll be tossing this on throughout the year" pile.
🌱 Wormface - Gore Furnace (2025)
Genre: Death Metal, Death Doom Metal
Very enjoyable doom-y death. Love that mid-tempo stomping, crushing vibe. I haven't gone head-first into doom-related metal other than my stoner-adjacent experience in the past, but I do really like the intersection of death and doom from what I have heard lately. This also benefits from being 25 minutes. Just gets in, hits you with some really satisfying riffing, some super deep and evil groaning vocals, and then gets out of its own way.
🌱 Sarcator - Swarming Angels & Flies (2025)
Genre: Thrash Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal
Very solid modern thrash with death and (I guess) some black metal elements baked in there. Seems too thrashy to really be comparable to black metal but that's definitely a genre of metal where my knowledge is thinner and more based on broad generalizations I've probably made up over the years lol. This has some good heavy shit, the title track really works itself into a kick ass place. I enjoy some of the more atmospheric moments like how they pull back into a more textured place on the title track about 2/3rds of the way through before going back into a capital-T thrash solo moment. I say it all the fucking time, but it's a nice balance.
🌱 Scare - In the End, Was It Worth It? (2025)
Genre: Metalcore, Blackened Crust, Sludge Metal
Very sludgy hardcore with a sprinkle of metallic hardcore influence in some of the riffing. I think this plays with a nice set of ingredients, even if the sum of their parts isn't going to blow you away. Little punky melodic moments like the lead-guitar entry point of "The Black Painting" pull focus from the slight monotony of the vocals. If there's a weak point here it's probably the vocal performance (they might as well just be yelling "Rargh! Rargh! Rargh! Rargh! Rargh!" on "Thrash Melrose".) But the alternating between hardcore punk intensity, melodic soloing, tremolo riffing ("Crowned in Yellow") and the bleak sludgy atmosphere does satisfy for about 30 minutes regardless.
🌱 Gored Embrace - In the Presence of a Malevolent Soul (2025)
Genre: Death Metal
Is this death metal for hardcore kids? Is this deathcore? I was absolutely AFK for the deathcore thing in the 00s so I have no frame of reference, but this feels like it touches on both death metal and varying -core (metal/hard/etc.) foundations in a way that I enjoyed.
This feels juuuuuuuuuust on the right side of the whole "brootal tik tok" breakdown music where it doesn't feel disingenuous yet, but it does still have brutal, slow garbage disposal breakdowns ("Organic Severance") with pinch harmonics and all that shit. Fun!
🌱 Guts - Nightmare Fuel (2025)
Genre: Death Metal, Sludge Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Stoner Metal
This strikes me as a good balance between "trve" death metal and melodic death elements. Maybe it's the album art but it's giving me big time throwback death metal vibes. There's a good amount of thrash influence on the solo work ("571") that probably adds to the melodic death sub-tag too. This worked for me as a very blunt object. Nothing surprising, just a good chunk of modern death metal with OSDM vibes and some heavier groove-influenced elements.
🌱 Mutagenic Host - The Diseased Machine (2025)
Genre: Death Metal, Groove Metal
I don't mind this, but I don't mind a lot of groove influence in my death metal. This was nice to work alongside and it's got some good heavy riffs but nothing stood out at me on my first spin as something I'd need to hear again and again. Might end up coming back to this, but I also have recent albums that have a similar vibe to this that I prefer.
✨ Vulture Feather - It Will Be Like Now (2025)
Genre: Indie Rock, Post-Punk
I'm not always in love with what's going on here but I find it fascinating. It brings to mind certain bands - maybe a less anthemic Criteria - but not many that you can point to as specific comparison points. Knowing it has members of Don Martin Three and Wilderness gets you part of the way there, since at its core this feels like an overlap of a certain strain of emo and "theatrical" indie rock music, alongside some angularity of post-hardcore. Definitely a little Archers of Loaf in the vocals now and again too.
Basically, with all those reference points this should be a home run for me, but it's more intriguing to me than it is successful. May just be one to think on and revisit over the year, though.
✨ Oddly - Swerve (2025)
Genre: Indie Rock, Shoegaze
Solid fuzzy buzzy music that gets labeled as "shoegaze" because they use "effects pedals" but really this is poppy alt-indie rock stuff with an emo-adjacent bent from Kyoto. They have some noisier moments where they get into shoegaze textures and elements of dreamy pop, but not sure that's the core of their sound at all.
✂ Nautilus, (In) Mates, Zero
Spy - Seen Enough (2025)
Genre: Hardcore Punk
Sorry, but this continues the trend of Spy being maybe one of the most overhyped bands in the hardcore punk genre right now. This is absolutely fine, mid-tempo hardcore with alternating moments of fast punk stuff, and really standard throat shredding vocals. I couldn't tell you any distinguishing factor in any of these songs that total 9 minutes.
I feel like when they hit the scene in 2020 there was more room for something like this to feel like a fresh throwback but the scene is so crowded right now with stuff that sounds exactly like this.
⛏️ New Musik - From A to B (1980)
Genre: New Wave, Synthpop, Art Pop, Jangle Pop
Assumed that this was so popular in synthpop circles and rightly heralded as a hidden gem by so many that it must have a ton of reviews on RYM, since this is the kind of place where albums most people think as overlooked can have thousands of ratings. Really shocked it's got less than 1K ratings, to be honest.
I was listening to the SomaFM Underground 80s internet radio station the other day and they played something off this, reminded me to give it a spin since it has been a year or two. Still really love this, it has a lot of wildly catchy new wave-y synthpop songs, with just enough live band elements to keep things organic. "Sanctuary" is such a major jam! I enjoy when they lean into the synthscapes-meet-acoustic moments on songs like "A Map of You" or "On Islands". And when they bring up the tempos like on "This World of Water" it's so fun. There's a real undercurrent of jangly art-pop that works as a nice counterpoint to the synthpop elements.
Definitely one of those albums where despite having a couple weaker tracks here or there, the production and performances keep things interesting.
⛏️ The Cardigans - Emmerdale (1994)
Genre: Twee Pop, Indie Pop, Chamber Pop, Sophisti-Pop, Jangle Pop
The Cardigans gotta be one of the most undervalued bands with a huge hit right? everybody knows “Lovefool” (amazing song) but their run of four LPs from 1994 to 1998 is a goddamned delight.
I do think they are a better band when they lean into being a bit more energetic ("Sick & Tired", "Over the Water", "Rise & Shine") but when they go quiet-mode on some jazzy twee pop, it's still so fucking comforting. Nina Persson one of the best to ever do it.
This is for sure dragged down a bit by some of the slower songs and could probably have been cut by a track or two, but for a band with two big reasons they get overlooked (one huge hit, the fact they do Sabbath covers making them seem like a novelty act ((even though their covers kick ass))) their albums are always remarkable to me.
Stack their best songs off these first four albums and you have an unbeatable set of tunes.
⛏️ Aloha - Some Echoes (2006)
Genre: Indie Rock, Progressive Rock
I've always had a spot for Aloha, one of those acts who are near impossible to pin down across their six full lengths. Are they a post-rock and jazz influenced band like Tortoise or The Sea and Cake (see: Chicago School)? They had a bit too much emo in their sound to really fit into that though, and each album saw them incorporating more and more "traditional" song structures.
And how does the prog rock influence fit into those genre signifiers? Not to mention, getting labeled as the "the band with the vibraphone". All this to say, they have a lot going on across their records, even if ultimately you can say they settled down into a prog-rock influenced indie rock and emo blend.
Some Echoes is their first that really flirts with being progressive rock forward, at times ahead of their indie and emo foundations. There's still a heaping helping of 00s indie in here ("Big Morning" reminds me so much of another act of this era that I cannot conjure up from my dusty ass brain right now. Maybe something off that first Tapes 'n Tapes album?) It all comes alongside a fair amount of 60s psych pop as well ("Between the Walls"). When they do lean in to simplicity, they can reach pretty gorgeous places like the drum machine and brushed snare backed synth-and-piano ballad "Ice Storming". These kind of songs almost call to mind Sufjan Stevens-esque indie from the 00s. The B-side has a few more songs that feel like they fit into that The Sea and Cake-esque Chicago School thing ("Come Home", "Weekend", etc.)
Some of this might be a bit to sleepy or ballad-y for listeners, but tossing the vinyl on the other night reminded me why they've always been a fascinating and satisfyingly consistent band to follow over the years.
✨ Eight - Delight in Eight (2022)
Genre: Indie Rock
The prolific Mimi Gallagher (Nona, Year of Glad, Golden Apples, Cave People) leads this mix of grey day indie rock ("At the End") and noisy power pop ("Puzzled") with a grab-bag of textures including skittering 90s electronic-backed indie-pop experiments ("Rainbow", "I Wanna B a Boat".) It's full of mid-tempo, churning kind of tunes that work themselves into hooky melodies rather than beating you over the head with them. Probably not the most cohesive album from Mimi, but I'm a big fan of their work and this is another little gem of an album if you like hooky, mid-tempo albums like I do.
Spin - Spin (1976)
Genre: Jazz-Funk, Progressive Rock, Jazz-Rock, Jazz Fusion
Very nice jazz funk fusion kind of deal. Added to my 🐉 D&D Fusion list because stuff like "Sea And Seasons" has a floating, misty-aired vibe to it that feels like it fits in there. Dope as hell synths on "Beautiful Queenie". It's all-around really pleasant and hits me right in the "I'm super into this when it is on, won't think a ton about it when it's not" kind of place. But that's where I like this stuff to sit sometimes.
Prism - Prism (1977)
Genre: Jazz Fusion, Jazz-Rock, Jazz-Funk, Progressive Rock, City Pop
Slick, proggy jazz funk fusion. Pretty incredible bass performance, as mentioned in the comment box. Some of this sits in a bit of a straight-forward, slinky jazz-funk box ("Love Me") but the performances are sick and there's a lot of whiffs of prog and out-there moments peppered throughout (like when the aforementioned "Love Me" eventually takes off.) I personally like the stuff that lands square in the fusion target ("Tornado") but all of this is very nice through and through.
You thought you’d get away without more 80s or 90s metal albums? Hahahaaaahaha
⛏️ Dismember - Like an Ever Flowing Stream (1991)
Genre: Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal
God, this rules. Often times I peek into the realm of the bolded Death Metal album, and they're good but they don't bowl me over the way they probably have everybody else. I'm to blame, since instead of starting with the classics I went straight to "what obscure underrated shit can I scrape up", but I digress.
This is so well tuned. I say this all the time about records, but Like an Ever Flowing Stream is truly a "the right ingredients at perfect measurements" kind of album. Brutal and heavy in the right ways, coherent songcraft, sick drum performance, intense but still legible vocals. And riffs! Damn the riffs here kill.
✨ Invocator - Weave the Apocalypse (1993)
Genre: Thrash Metal, Groove Metal, Technical Thrash Metal
On Excursion Demise, Invocator had more of a standard technical thrash metal vocal performance, but here the whole band takes the "well, it's the 90s so we have to become a groove metal band" approach with one key difference: they kept a lot of their their tech thrash in tact.
This feels like the platonic ideal of a thrash band going groove metal, because there's ton's of really interesting percussive and rhythmic stuff going on all the time. There's definitely a bunch of slam influence here, as a lot of this feels made specifically for the pit. It kinda fucking rips!? I enjoy that this feels like a borderline sophisticated approach, rhythmically, to what is otherwise brain-slamming music like groove metal. Some of the riffs at time even bring to mind early 90s metalcore?
But the vocals have a real affectation to them that will be a road block for some people. It's kind of half-way between metal,. NYC hardcore and even some whearrrl-yearrrl 90s grunge moments. All on top of having an accent. It doesn't bother me though. I really dug this stuff.
✨ Аспид [Aspid] - Кровоизлияние [Extravasation] (1993)
Genre: Technical Thrash Metal, Progressive Metal
Really sick Russian technical thrash. Probably narrowly avoids a higher score just because it is so thick a slab of tech thrash. This likely needs time to simmer and revisit before I called it a masterpiece or anything, but if you really like high-ass-density riffing with an almost oppressively technical atmosphere then you definitely should be checking this one out.
✨ Apocrypha - The Forgotten Scroll (1987)
Genre: Neoclassical Metal, US Power Metal, Power Metal, Speed Metal
I really don't listen to much metal that would fall under the Neoclassical umbrella, but as I've written in the past I can really enjoy stuff that is entrenched in really nerdy vibes, if the timing is right. I think what benefits this album is that they are taking elements from the pointdexter side of the neoclassical spectrum - flashy Malmsteen soloing, organs and shit, power metal ass melodies - while keeping a slight speed metal aspect to their foundation. Also got some proggy elements here too.
They might go a little too far into the symphonic metal areas (instrumental "Tablet of Destiny" is a bit much) but this is a fun and satisfying listen regardless.
Dunno why, but the cover makes me think of the movie Evil Speak, even though it looks nothing like the VHS art for that, lol.
✨ Despised - Twisted (1993)
Genre: Thrash Metal
One of the more obscure-ish ones I've found digging around in the trenches of thrash stuff. I would say this is capital-T thrash metal from Germany. No death influence going on here, but there's a couple faster blasty moments where you go, ah I see how thrash's evolution is so tied into how death metal broke away from it. Some nice little technical riff moments here and there as well.
It's pretty quality thrash, particularly as this strain of it was going out of style the deeper we got into the 90s. Nice to see the booklet name checking their lyrical themes of criticizing social ignorance, racism, sexism, political injustice etc. too.
✨ Deathrow - Raging Steel (1987)
Genre: Thrash Metal, Technical Thrash Metal
This is called cliché-ridden in another review on RYM, but that doesn't bother me. This is fast and heavy thrash, no frills at all other than some nice technicality. Something like "Pledge to Die" is cranked up so fast it probably could be accused of touching on other sub-genres but it's so quintessentially late-80s thrash that there's really no reason to try and sift through the elements. It's just a riff-tastic good time.
Detritus - Perpetual Defiance (1990)
Genre: Thrash Metal
This band was really asking for it by calling themselves Detritus (waste or debris of any kind.) I guess they meant it more in the organic waste material from decomposing plants/animals way though. That's a more metal take.
Anyway, I had high hopes for this record because the flaming sword album art kicks ass and it sounded like some really solid, well rounded thrash. It's also Christian, and I've mentioned in other reviews I find the Christian approach on secular or "evil" music genres to be fascinating.
Well, this is fine. It's 45 minutes (too long!) of pretty standard thrash metal with some classic heavy metal influence. The kind that will mosey along mid-tempo for three minutes before having an classical acoustic guitar and solo break before picking back up again ("Playing With Fire").
Some songs here are totally fine and worth putting on a playlist, but it's pretty forgettable otherwise.
That’s it, that’s all. Be excellent to one other.