In June 2025, one man band Dotsun Moon released their third album, ‘Tiger’. Coming almost a decade after the previous Dotsun Moon album, you certainly couldn’t call multi-instrumentalist Richard Flierl prolific, but the record was certainly worth the wait. A clutch of pre-release singles suggested it would be a strong album, but those tracks didn’t quite capture the fullness of how great ‘Tiger’ would be. What’s more, those singles actually sounded even stronger when heard as part of the bigger picture.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
FALSE GODS – Lost In Darkness And Distance
In a pre-pandemic age, False Gods released a two track EP ‘The Serpent and The Ladder’, a twelve minute musical assault that blended industrial and hardcore influences with a pinch of sludge and black metal, improving upon their earlier work. Via a couple more digital singles and their eagerly awaited full length ‘No Symmetry…Only Disillusion’ (released between 2020 and 2023), the band cemented the feeling that their often uncompromising sound had enough power to take on many of the scene’s most intense bands.
THE GYPSY MOTHS – Five By Five From Four EP
On a pair of albums released in 2022 and 2023, The Gypsy Moths served up a very melodic brand of rock pop, with a strong leaning towards influences from jangly 60s sounds and late 70s power pop. Their 2025 EP release ‘Five By Five From Four’ finds the band sticking firmly to what they know, but with a couple of huge choruses found en route and some very natural melodies playing to a very retro crowd, it becomes obvious that taking a familiar path is a wise move.
RAVINE – Chaos And Catastrophes
Labelled “extremely brutal” by Eyehategod guitarist/Down drummer Jimmy Bower, Ravine pull no punches when it comes to delivering a heavy riff. The Oregon band’s brand of sludge/doom and hardcore mightn’t reach the insane levels of heaviness set by Byzanthian Neckbeard or Dopethrone, but the best moments on their 2025 release ‘Chaos and Catastrophes’ are on a par with many a great and muddy sounding, riff wielding act.
HAPPY LITTLE CLOUDS – Embers
Unless you happen to be Guided By Voices, it’s rare that albums come together quickly, but some take a fair bit longer than others. It’s fair to say that this album from Happy Little Clouds had a gestation period that was a little longer than most. Its lead single appeared on Bandcamp almost a year and a half ahead of the full length release, and other tracks have been slowly drip fed to an audience over time. In terms of promotion and with everyone streaming, this actually turned out to be a good move: at the point where people might’ve started to forget about this Boston based trio, they’d pop up with another tune, and receive another round of positive online press.
Befitting of something born from a slow creative process, ‘Embers’ is bigger than a mere collection of tracks. There are lyrical themes of questioning, of introspection, and an underlying aspect of emotional growth and change. This makes the material more sophisticated than some of its very 90s, often feel good arrangements might suggest on a surface level.