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NOT another Black Friday email, I promise!
Afternoon!
It has been a while since my last newsletter, and I briefly considered not sending this one today since everybody’s inboxes are likely stuffed with Friday sales announcements… but I figured maybe a few of you out there would like a brief respite from that. Keeping the introduction brief again today, but have included today’s new music playlist for y’all to peruse on top of my usual cavalcade of capsule reviews.
And now, let’s get to the tunes.
New Music: Friday November 28th, 2025
Emoji legend:
⛏️ denotes picks of the week, my favs.
🌱 seedling denotes albums like a lot and expect could grow on me over the year.
✨ albums I would recommend to fans of the genre (i.e. it might not convert new listeners, but you should check it out.)
✂ denotes favourite tracks from a given record.
As always, feel free to reach out over on BlueSky 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!
Degraved - Spectral Realm of Ruin (2025)
Genres: Death Metal
Really meaty death metal that feels tailor made for me personally. This is total 90s death metal worship, super tough and straight ahead. Jumps between bashing you around and pummeling you by dropping heavy riffs on your head like an ACME anvil.
Maybe it’s the Seattle location on the artist page, but you could convince me there’s a little sludgey grunge influence going on as well. A few atmospheric moments sprinkled around (”Unseen”) to give you a moment to come up for air. Vocalist is pretty one-note in that non-derogatory way that suits this type of thing.
You could listen to this and say it blurs together, all sounds exactly the same, it’s incredibly derivative, they’re just banging on the same ol’ riffs etc. etc. but I’m truly not bothered by it at all. Sits perfectly in my wheelhouse. In the week or so since this was released it has become my go-to album to reach for, so I think that says something.
cootie catcher - Shy at First (2025)
Genres: Twee Pop, Indietronica, Glitch Pop, Slacker Rock
It’s twee/indie-pop so the bad band name is basically feature, not bug. This splits the difference between exuberant, jangly twee pop and clattering indie orchestra folktronica textures. This kind of thing walks a really fine line between cute and annoying, but thankfully they mostly stay on the former side. Their indie-pop tendencies shine through and songs like “Friend of a Friend”, “Dumb Lit” and “Diary” are quality little guitar-forward bops. The synthy diversions like “Do Forever” round the album out in a nice way. Really solid stuff if you aren’t allergic to twee.
Hélène Barbier - Panorama (2025)
Genres: Neo-Psychedelia, Art Pop, Psychedelic Pop, Art Punk
I really dug Regulus, which landed on my year-end list in 2021. Had no idea that Hélène Barbier had a new one coming out until I tried to catch up on Friday’s releases and saw this sitting in the bin.
Neo-psych is such a tricky genre for me, because there’s a lot of bands playing slick vaguely psychedelic indie-based pop/rock with that slinky bass tone and lots of syrupy melodies, but often times that results in music so airy and featherweight that it dissipates. Hélène Barbier seems to fit more alongside bands like Fievel Is Glauque, who really deftly balance the psych, the pop, and the moments of abrasiveness that make this kind of stuff stick to your brain.
You can head the building blocks scraping against each other instead of being so perfectly built from the ground up. But it never gets annoying, never stops being the kind of album I want to crawl inside to find out what makes it tick. Very hard thing to do! Enjoyed my 26 minutes with this and look forward to re-visiting. Year-end potential with some revisits, that’s for sure.
Terror Corpse - Ash Eclipses Flesh (2025)
Genres: Death Metal
This rules. Wish I had more to say but you should probably just go read dewtaylo‘s review. This is capital D primary genre Death Metal, but even though it seems they’ve taken a turn away from deathgrind there’s sprinkles of that sound in here if you’re listening for it (”Nuclear Winter”). When they’re not dabbling in that, it’s a mix of that mid- to upper-mid tempo heavy shit that you crave. It hauls, it’s heavy, and I really dug it.
Awich - Okinawan Wuman (2025)
Genres: Boom Bap, Hardcore Hip Hop
This was sick and I’m surprised by the low score. Awesome production from RZA and a lot of really dope features. I haven’t followed the endless solo releases from Griselda so hearing Westside Gunn pop up here was still novel for me. On top of that, Awich generally puts in a really great performance holding the album together. It’s a bit scattered in terms of having skits and bouncing between boom bap hip hop, some pop-esque hooks (”A Woman Hung Up”) and more soulful/R&B moments, but it hangs together well enough. Worst thing I’d say is that this feels a bit top heavy.
The Brokedowns - Let’s Tip the Landlord (2025)
For me, Species Bender has always been the key album from The Brokedowns. Maybe it was a time and place thing, maybe it was the simple fact that I heard it before any of their other albums. Regardless, I had some time for New Brains for Everyone and the albums that came after Species, but if I’m reaching for a Brokedowns album it’s gonna be Species. I admire that they are still pumping out records every couple years, but it’s not like they’re gonna ursurp a band like The Dopamines as my fav current band doing this type of thing, yanno?
Probably a bit of an unfair comparison there, as there’s differences in the measurements of what the bands are grasping at, but there’s a venn diagram overlap nonetheless. Gun to my head, I’d say this one is a little more consistent and has more interesting curveballs than their last few. Maybe this time it’s recency bias, but I’m enjoying this. They pull some “we have Hot Snakes at home” riffs out now and again (”Summer Games”, which also sounds a LOT like The Arrivals) in a way that is a satisfying diversion.
Give me some time to see if this hangs with Species, but as far as org-y melodic punk rock in 2025, this is a solid addition.
Lone Wolf - Dark Thoughts (2025)
Genres: Pop Punk, Post-Punk, Power Pop
Really dug Haze Wave back in 2023 (seems longer ago tbh) but looks like it had narrowly avoided landing on my year-end list that year. Was happily surprised to read about a new one from them pop up on the blog Faster & Louder today though.
They play guitar-hook laden power-pop that dips into noise-pop and indie rock territories throughout these 10 songs. Definitely some emo-adjacent influences, though I hesitate to use the term pop-punk to describe them because mostly these songs are mid-tempo indie rock in foundation to my ears, though there’s similarities to garage-y Dirtnap style bands on songs like “Rip It Apart”.
Enjoyable stuff!
Moving Targets - Red Eyes (2025)
Genres: Post-Hardcore, Alternative Rock
Moving Targets are such an interesting band to me because a) they’re a punk/melodic hardcore/post-hardcore band from the mid-eighties still steadily releasing albums to this day and b) they seem to be very consistently a band that never clicks for me, despite my efforts. Their early stuff is Hüsker Dü-esque, and in the 90s through their reforming they settled into an alternative rock forward kind of gruff but poppy punk kind of vibe. I heard Wires when it came out, not knowing their history as a bit of a legacy act, and thought it was alright. Every few years, a new one from them pops up and I check it out thinking “I remember this band being pretty good” and I’m always unsurprised that yes, they’re pretty good. Total two point five to three star, not bad, doesn’t blow you away guitar rock music. Sometimes they get a little jangly in a college rock power pop way (”On the Run”) and sometimes they pull the energy level up a smidge (”Nine Lives”). I wouldn’t blame someone if they listened to this and said there was zero punk energy left in their sound.
Didn’t hate this, but it was total background music for me upon first listen and feels pretty forgettable. Eventually I do need to check their first album out though and see how that fares.
Siege Column - Sulphur Omega (2025)
Genres: Death Metal, Thrash Metal, War Metal, Speed Metal
First impressions would be that this is thrash-forward death metal with crusty-in-foundation aesthetics and drumming. I’m not an expert in War Metal yet so I’ll take the sub-genre tag’s word for it. They’ve got some punk bounce to them on songs like “Eternal Pentagram” which is a nice change of pace after being heads down in the modern death metal mines. Basically, the ingredients and measurements are here in good form but for whatever reason I found some kind of invisible ceiling to their songs that I can’t place my finger on. All of this is good, and could improve upon closer inspection, but I left finding it a pinch forgettable. Could be my relative inexperience with some of the origins of the ingredients? Who knows. Fun stuff though, and worth a look if it sounds up your alley.
Tony Molina - On This Day (2025)
Genres: Folk Pop, Power Pop, Jangle Pop
Incredibly pleasant. I admire the folky twee area that Molina has wound up in, but for my money they are still at their best when they are writing higher energy riff-based stuff. Some of the power pop and jangle pop tunes on here do work well though. I like the little acoustic ditties and the even-shorter-than-the-already-short-song interludes but wonder how this would sound with all the full-band songs stacked together in one-go. Anyway, a nice stack of enjoyable little tunes.
Home Front - Watch It Die (2025)
Genres: Post-Punk, New Wave, Oi!, Synthpop
This band is the biggest thing going in punk right now it feels like (or is that just up here in Canada and I’ve got regional bias?) and whenever I sit down to listen to their albums I feel like a grumpy old man. This is fine, good even, but nothing about it stands out to me. Lyrically this feels like corny bog-standard platitudes over post-punk with coldwave/synthpop textures that we’ve heard elsewhere.
At 43 minutes, I felt like I had heard everything they had to do here by track 6. “Kiss the Sky” feels 24 years late to the “let’s try to sound like The Faint“ party. Not that that’s bad, but it feels very obvious. I honestly came to this wanting to love it as much as everyone else and kept an entirely open mind, and again I don’t hate this, it’s totally pretty good.
I feel like this sits on the fence between the punk and the synthpop sounds in a way that sacrifices the best parts of both those genres - it lacks truly punk energy (could be the production, I know their live show is raved about and that may be my missing link here, not having seen them live) and leaves me wanting for more cold but sticky melodies and hooks. When they reach for punk (”Young Offender”) it feels surface to me. When they do coldwave it feels textural and the hooks don’t hang.
File this one under MP not a YP to be honest. People love this and I am happy it exists and hope to see them release an album that lands for me personally, some day.
U.K. - Danger Money (1979)
Genres: Progressive Rock, Symphonic Prog
Took me a couple of attempts to put this one on to finally line my mood up with it. Dunno why, but kinda bounced off this my first tries but today it’s sounding great. Love the slight detour into dad prog rock here compared to the last one, which was a lot nerdier sounding and (as mentioned in that review) sometimes dipped into a bit of circus-prog-fusion vibes.
This is progressive rock with a big focus on sweet electric violin jams (”Caesar’s Palace Blues”) and smoke machine synths (”Nothing to Lose”) with a foundation in dad-core melodies and hooks. Closer “Carrying No Cross” dives head-first into fusion-forward prog through and really wraps it all up in a great way. Kind of gives everyone what they want, in some ways, be that progressive dad rock or honest-to-good-ness progressive fusion, it’s all in here somewhere.
Tyrant Trooper - Insane Sickness (1995)
OK so to get it out of the way, a lot of this really drags on and on but what they are doing is sick enough that it doesn’t really matter. To my ears this sounds weirdly ahead of its time for 1995?
Obviously there were death metal bands in the 90s doing mosh riffs with foundations in groove but there’s something about the mix of influences here that kills. Seeing someone in the comments box say the band “admitted they were a deathcore band” makes some sense. At times this feels like it anticipates elements that would come to life in deathcore. That’s another genre I have a very limited understanding of, but it seems to make sense when I listen to this. Is it a bit of a stretch? Maybe. It all comes down to there being enough death metal in here alongside the sick mosh-ready breakdowns, dope and flashy drumming and thrashy solos that it all goes down easy.
47 minutes feels like it’s way too much but I admired what they were doing regardless.
Eternal Solstice - The Wish Is Father to the Thought (1995)
Genres: Death Metal
Good, heavy shit from the Netherlands. This had a nice mix of fast paced and mid-tempo stuff alongside that thrashiness you’d still hear in death from around this time. Tossed this on because it was on a 100 Obscure Death Metal Albums list on RYM and it caught my eye for whatever reason. I didn’t exactly play the closest of attention but it was also 38 minutes that kinda flew by so
I’m leaning on the side of generosity because I enjoyed this quite a bit on a gut level. Brain level, we’ll see if I return to it, but worth a look.
Diabolic - Supreme Evil (1998)
Genres: Death Metal
I haven’t quite reached the level of digging for esoteric death metal records that I found myself doing for technical thrash a year or so ago, but I’m dipping my toes into stuff with lower review counts now and again. I’m also no expert on Floridian 90s death metal, as I also didn’t dive straight into the classic bolded records of the genre either.
So this sits somewhere where I’m a little unfamiliar, being a slightly lesser known release that gets compared to a lot of stuff I’m only slightly familiar with. Likely the reason why this was a little in-one-ear-out-the-other this afternoon. Solid stuff, pretty cool drum performance as well. There’s a good level of diversity in their sound while still sounding like classic 90s death metal. “Dwelling Spirits” perked my ears up with some fun extended soloing and lightly technical elements. On that song, when they bounce around their three core elements - their thrashiness, the classic 90s OSDM vibe, and anvil-heavy riffing - they really get a stew goin’. They do some similar dumb-heavy riffing on “Wicked Inclination”, and in particular I think the B-side kinda hauls overall. Maybe it was me getting comfortable with their sound, or maybe it was the strength of the second half?
For that reason I’m coming down on the generous side of things with a 3.5 rating when I was originally thinking 3, just by virtue of it leaving me on a high note. Will have to file this under something to return to though, for sure.
Exoto - Carnival of Souls (1994)
Genres: Death Metal, Thrash Metal
Cromulent death-thrash, maybe more emphasis on the thrash but I clocked the track lengths here and figured this was going to be a little more to-the-point type death influence and less massively heavy and I was mostly right. They stretch out here and there, particularly in the second half. Certainly well rounded and enjoyable, but also the kind of album you’ve heard before so I can’t imagine it blowing any minds.
The Smooths - (No Brakes) (1998)
Genres: Third Wave Ska, Ska Punk, Reggae
Pretty well-rounded as far as third wave ska that seems to have gone un-remembered goes. This has a lot of that “third wave ska band made up of band geeks” thing going on, and only touches upon the ska-punk side of the third wave (”Farewell”, “Look Out” and a couple others get close). Mostly, they do the dated 90s reggae-voice (”Big Decisions”) and generally fuse more “classic” ska influence into their upbeat poppy third-wave blend.
I was about ready to give this 3.5 stars since it’s pretty above-average for the A-side, but it drags on and by the 7th or 8th track it was getting clear that I had heard most of what they have to do here. Still, if you’re scrounging for some overlooked third-wave ska, a few of these songs should do the trick on your playlists.
✂ Farewell, Commander 7 to Spaceboy, History’s Burning, Look Out
That’s it, that’s all. Be excellent to one other.
Fair points on the Home Front record! I totally get where you're coming from, but for me, that picking from the best of each genre is a large part of the appeal. And once in awhile it's nice to put on a record I know'll be a sure bet (for lack of a better term). I know they'll sound good loud, and odds are high I'll dig most of the tracks on the record.
That's totally fair!