(Here we have another monthly column of Daniel Barkasi‘s vivid reviews, this time focusing on six highly recommended albums released in April 2025.)

Sometimes, you need to savor the weird pastimes that make life grand. One of those things for me that I haven’t touched upon much in this space is theme parks. Ah, I love a good theme park. Disney does it best, and having been to every Disney park on the planet, we’re a tad invested – both emotionally and financially. No park is better than Tokyo DisneySea, and it’s not particularly close.

Recently, however, we attended a preview of the brand new Universal Epic Universe with KevinP (another theme park connoisseur) before it officially opens to the public on May 22. Everything wasn’t operational, as it’s in a testing phase, but what we experienced was pretty fantastic. We’ll be going again one more time before opening day, and hopefully we’ll get to do everything that we didn’t get to the first time. If you find yourself in the sweaty hellhole that is Orlando, I’d suggest giving it a whirl – especially fans of Universal Monsters and Frankenstein. That land – or “portal” as they’re calling it – is worth the price of admission itself.

More akin to the music subject, this time of year brings festival time. NCS’s beloved Northwest Terror Fest just wrapped up and looks like it was an amazing time. One of these years, I’ll make it out. We’ll be attending Maryland Deathfest, per tradition. Hopefully plenty of readers will be descending upon Baltimore, and if that’s you, don’t be shy and say hello! One of the best things about festivals is the awesome people, and we’re looking forward to seeing plenty of friends and making new ones. If you can make it out to a festival this year, definitely do so.

Whether or not a festival is in the cards, April was bountiful with new releases well worth your time. We could list well over ten that we really enjoyed, and we’d still feel like something is getting unjustly left out. We’ve got six slots, however, so kick back with me and slap on your best headphones. Continue reading »