(October 2025 is done and dusted, Gonzo has survived another month, and so he surfaces here to present reviews of four recommended albums released in the year’s 10th month.)
At the risk of sounding cliched, it’s always a depressing reality when Halloween comes to an end. It’s even worse when daylight savings time kicks in on the same weekend, reminding us that the Big Dark is already upon us, signaling the months of snow and rain and subzero temperatures that lurk around the corner.
Choose your coping mechanism as you wish, but whatever they are, I recommend you add these four new releases to distract you from the horrors.
PSYCHONAUT, WORLD MAKER
Few bands can skate their way across the subgenre divide as skillfully as Belgium’s Psychonaut. And with World Maker, they’ve not only expertly navigated subgenre divisions, but they’ve also raised the bar for anyone who tries to follow.
Albums like World Maker, in which the incredibly talented trio out-maneuver themselves in every musical effort, just don’t come around very often. It’s a perfect nexus of doom, psych, post-metal, and prog. Tracks with monumentally complex but still catchy grooves like “Endless Currents” wouldn’t sound out of place on a Leprous album. Others like “You Are the Sky” feature the paint-peeling roar of vocalist/guitarist Stefan de Graef, also of Hippotraktor, as he expertly trades rounds with the cleans of bassist Thomas Michiels.
Each of the 10 tracks here is most certainly its own separate journey, but at no point does Psychonaut ever lose the plot. The temptation for branching off into self-indulgence might’ve been high in some moments during the writing process, namely the brilliant instrumental “Origins,” but its Floyd-isms never come across as anything but transcendent. How one band can seamlessly sound like so much without being derivative is an achievement in and of itself, and World Maker is an absolutely essential listen.
https://psychonautband.bandcamp.com/album/world-maker
http://facebook.com/psychonautband
WRETCHED, DECAY
Eleven years have passed since we last heard from North Carolina’s Wretched. With a saturated scene and five other bands sharing the same name, you’d be forgiven if your memory drew a blank about them.
Decay makes a damn strong case for why you shouldn’t forget about them, though. With members sharing time in such acts as Through the Eyes of the Dead and Allegaeon, you’d be right to expect a flurry of searing riffs and gut-wrenching vocals, and Decay delivers on both. Vocalist Billy Powers puts on a clinic of how far the human vocal cords can be stretched, while the ax deforestation provided by Steven Funderburk is downright monolithic. I mean, you’ve definitely heard riffs like the one on “The Royal Body” before, but when they’re pulled off this adroitly, you can’t not bang your fucking head.
While Decay is packed with razor-sharp riffage, it’s also got some unexpected surprises. The whiskey-dusted piano dirge of “Clairvoyance” is a gem, and the 16-minute prog-tinged epic “Behind the Glass” brings to mind… Dream Theater? It’s unusual, for sure, and as unexpected as it might be, it’s all part of what makes Decay a damn solid comeback record.
https://wretchednc.bandcamp.com/album/decay
http://www.facebook.com/wretchednc
COASTLANDS, S/T
“Always sick, sometimes sad” reads the very brief Spotify bio of Coastlands. And all it took for me to agree with that was listening to the first half of their new self-titled album.
Tied up somewhere in the midst of post-metal/rock/hardcore, this band’s music is characterized by alternating forays into atmospheric heaviness and staring-at-the-rain-outside melancholy. It’s a formula that works, especially on “Hollowing” and “Vessels,” two of the album’s heavier moments. The booming, fuzz-laden basslines give the music a gleaming underbelly throughout, even in the more experimental side of things. “Porous” would be the most notable example.
Other songs on the second half of the album like “Feeding” perpetuate a sound that I’ve nailed down as This Will Destroy You meets Soft Kill. It’s not as cinematic as the former and not as shoegaze as the latter, but the middle ground they find is no less pleasing.
https://coastlands.bandcamp.com/album/coastlands
https://www.facebook.com/coastlandsofficial
THE MUNSENS, DEGRADATION IN THE HYPERREAL
Blackened doom/death crew The Munsens were really heating up on the local Denver scene, but it seems like they’re doing just as well in their relocated home of New Jersey.
The band’s performance at Denver Metal & Beer Festival a year ago put them on my radar. They debuted “Sacred Ivory” at that show, and the Mantar-like riffs and grooves immediately got my attention. It’s the same story throughout Degradation of the Hyperreal, an album that has “breakout” written all over it. “Drauga” evokes a certain kind of heaviness that screams “90s” to me for reasons I can’t quite identify, while “The Knife” dishes out more of the same. I almost want to say it’s evocative of Peaceville’s glory days. The darkened riffs atop mid-paced tempos are the kind of metal that should have universal appeal to fans of death, doom, and thrash alike.
Even with the inexplicable eight- and 10-minute lengths of “Eternal Grasp” and “Supreme Death,” respectively, the band maintains a steady course. The sludgy passages of “Supreme Death” are no less menacing and satisfying, and the overall feeling I get from listening to this entire album is that this band’s arrow is decisively pointing upwards. Keep an eye out for these guys.
https://themunsensnj.bandcamp.com/album/degradation-in-the-hyperreal
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Munsens/190708174389539
Like what you’ve heard? Follow my best-of-2025 playlist for selections from everything you’ve just read, and a whole helluva lot more.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7zWqE685GVpuB5M3qRDvog?si=08d80939b43e4d89