What an incredible album. Unlike Turnstile, Honningbarna from Norway don't make soft-washed post-hardcore, but post-hardcore with as many rough edges as possible. With noise, with din and with a whole lot of anger. Interestingly, the end result is similar: an album that euphorises, makes you happy and allows you to identify with it.

I don't understand a word, but you can understand the content, the important stuff, even without mechanically translating the lyrics (which I did, of ... read more

This album is perhaps the greatest miracle in music history; the mere fact that it exists is a miracle. Perhaps the most important band of my life, certainly of recent years, is releasing a new album after 26 years. Five years after the death of Tim Smith, the genius behind the Cardiacs. Seventeen years after his cardiac arrest (how cynical) and a subsequent life in a wheelchair.

And yet 2025 is the year in which the Cardiacs release another album, their last. And I get to be there. I get to ... read more

Very hyped and the album is also very catchy, even if it is a bit lengthy in places.

Controversial, but I thought "I Disagree" was better back then. Poppy was never heavier though, I like.

Don't really have much to add to the album title, better get back to making your own albums, James.

What an album opener, St Chroma is brilliant. The rest of the album can't quite keep up, but it's still some of the best hip-hop at the moment.

I've never heard something sounding so much like Cardiacs since Cardiacs. I love it!

Let's take a quick look at the number of monthly listeners on Spotify. 55. I think I'm at least 7 of those 55 listeners. Seriously, what PeroPero rip off on their new disc is literally out of this world.

They already played their way straight into my heart with their last album, and on "Massive Tales Of Doom" they join the ranks of the greats. First and foremost for me is the single ‘The Rip’, for me the song of the year. How can a song be so catchy and fucked ... read more

One of the best albums of 2023 is not even from this year. BRICKS was released on December 16, 2022 into absolute no man's land and was therefore even overlooked by me in the first few weeks. It wasn't until I was in the recording studio in January to record my own songs, Christoph asked me if I had heard the new Lake Cisco album, which had finally come out after 12 years and the following evening I had my first listen.

Even on the first listen, I can remember it vividly, tears of joy welled ... read more

"Knower Forever" is the masterpiece that has always lain dormant in Louis Cole and Genevieve Artadi.

The songs themselves are one thing, they are all phenomenal. How these songs were created, recorded completely live in a house (see their numerous playthroughs of the exact album takes on album takes on YouTube) is the one thing but, above all, how the musicians harmonize on these recordings is just surreal.

Every drum beat from Louis Cole is divine, I swear. MonoNeon and Sam Wilkes ... read more

What are y'all smoking, seriously...

Long live King Gizzard!

"Wait a minute, that sounds familiar", was the first thought on the first sounds of the first run-through of "You Belong There". And indeed, Daniel Rossen was Grizzly Bear's shadow man for years - and as we now by know, probably responsible for some of their outstanding albums. But this album puts every magical Grizzy Bear album in the shade once again.

Rossen's guitar playing leaves me amazed and with watery eyes, his sense for arrangements and compositional red threads is ... read more

Quite a strong thesis: "A Light For Attracting Attention" is one of the three best Radiohead albums ever. Fair, you could also call The Smile simply the best Radiohead side project, but that wouldn't quite do justice to the quality of the album around the godlike human being Thom Yorke. I don't need to say another word about him, he is the voice of the last 30 years. Greenwood's work is, as always, song-serving and never uncreative. What really stands out is the great drumming of the ... read more

One of the discoveries of the year. The violinist (!) of the hype band "Black Country, New Road" can sing, and how she can. But the focus of the whole album is its production, which is basically flawless and so far unheard by me.

The musical and production ideas flow only from the ten wonderful songs, every sound, no matter how small, seems to have been considered, seems to have been intended and every sound, no matter how small, ultimately stands for itself. Rarely has such ... read more

After the all-shattering predecessor "Cavalcade", which is now one of my all-time favourites, I had the chance to see Black Midi live this year. What a spectacle, what a band. Breaking genre boundaries, shaping modern rock music for years to come. "Hellfire" does a lot of things right, but can't quite top its brilliant predecessor (how could it?) - except in one thing: the album's production is a lot better than its predecessor.

Otherwise, the absolute madness, which seems ... read more

This is a well-worn pill by now, but did you know that I am a huge Steven Wilson fanboy? His solo album "The Raven That Refused To Sing" is still the highest rated album of mine, his early works with the band Porcupine Tree have influenced me musically more than very few others. After Steven couldn't really convince with his last two solo albums and became even more commercial, the announcement that there was to be a new PT album after a 13-year break was at least cause for hope for ... read more

Rarely has an album title been more fitting and at the same time misleading, because what Destrage burn off here on their latest album is, to my ears, not too much, but rather just right. I hadn't really taken the crazy Italians into account after their last albums were still challenging but less rewarding to listen to - that changes in 2022 in a striking way.

What you get to hear here is bloodcurdling guitar work, partly reminiscent of Car Bomb, paired with a simply unbelievable drummer who ... read more

Even at EP length, the Hirsche work exceptionally well for me.

Modern mathcore? Exactly like this, please. Almost everything here makes me think of The Dillinger Escape Plan, only with a slightly more sarcastic approach. Everything about this band is enjoyable, from the wonderfully crude music videos to the fact that the singer says he's a huge Biffy Clyro fan (?!), it just fits. At the latest with the alarm clock in the second song, everyone is standing in the room anyway, then you can also bludgeon on it. Behind so many corners there are unpredictable ... read more