Afternoon Astronauts is a relatively new name for 2025, but ahead of the release of their debut album, their single ‘Times Like These’ suggests that the band are about to click with an audience of melodic, heavy riff lovers in a rather big way.

From the outset, a huge drum sound and dirty guitar lines set a stoner inspired sound in place, but this isn’t necessarily a track that’ll attract the Kyuss and Goatsnake obsessed. As the music builds, it takes on more of a classic rock crunchiness, peppered with post-grunge tones for a little extra dirtiness, tapping into more of a melodic sound. This gives the guitars a little more room to hit upon a definite groove, occasionally sounding like a solid blend of Black Stone Cherry and Shinedown, before the vocals hit with a dark, yet melodic tone.

With everything in place, and having delivered a verse that has more than enough of a confident air to sell the track, the chorus takes everything up a notch: not just with an easy, sing-along hook, but with the help of an even bigger vocal that uses longer, smoother notes – again, with a dark tone – to contrast the sharper end of the main riff. By the time the lead guitar break hits, Afternoon Astronauts actually sound like a band you’ve loved for years, and despite a few very 80s influenced vocal screams threatening to derail everything (or at least change the mood for something even more defiantly old school), this is a brilliantly arranged track that’s guaranteed to win these Finnish rockers a wealth of new fans.

Afternoon Astronauts will release their debut album ‘Fly Among The Storm’ this Friday (7th November 2025). In the meantime, you can check out the excellent ‘Times Like These’ below.