Tag Archives: max rael

The Real Gone End Of Year Round-Up, 2025

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We’ve reached the end of another year, and for Real Gone, 2025 was a special one. Not only did we celebrate our sixteenth year online, but we gained a truckload of new and regular supporters – both from an industry perspective and in terms of regular readership. Our visitor stats have seen a huge increase on 2024, and the materials we’ve been sent for review have been more varied than ever.

We’ve heard a lot of enjoyable albums and EPs over the past twelve months, but as is traditional, we’ve whittled our favourites down to ten, and then given a well deserved shout out to a few titles we think are also worth checking out. As always, our picks for the best of the year are limited to releases we actually reviewed – it’s only fair. We hope you’ll check out some of the artists and releases featured below, if you’ve not already done so.

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Watch: Max Rael shares new video for ‘Almost’

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Max Rael’s ‘The Enemy Is Us’ is one of 2025’s most interesting albums. Its blend of often melodic electronica and synth based sounds with spoken word, confessional lyrics is really striking. It has taken Rael’s experimentalism with Decommisioned Forests somewhere more accessible, but without feeling remotely in tune with the mainstream.

As part of the album’s ongoing promotion — this really is the kind of album that’ll only reach it’s audience through committed word of mouth — Max has shared a new video for one of the record’s more accessible tracks.

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Max Rael shares new video for ‘Pressing Against The Glass’

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History of Guns man Max Rael has delivered one of 2025’s most interesting albums. By taking all of his electronica influences and fusing them with the spoken work aesthetic of his experimental project Decommisioned Forests, Max;s solo debut ‘The Enemy Is Us’ fuses a world of synth pop with strong 80s influences with touches of Kraftwerk which, joined by a world of slam poetry and introspective thoughts, to create a deeply personal record.

Personal it may be, but never in an exclusional way. There’s a real appeal in the material’s honesty. …And never more so than in the current single ‘Pressing Against The Glass’.

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MAX RAEL – The Enemy Is Us

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Barely three lines into the opening number of his solo debut, experimental musician Max Rael has already embraced differences not being like anyone else and told his audience he feels exhausted. The frankness in which the artist’s neuro divergence is discussed throughout ‘Slightly Less Than Human’ is a signifier of the album’s honest approach as a whole. ‘We Are The Enemy’ isn’t so much a collection of songs; more a world of personal statements, shared with a heart and disarming honesty, but also with the hope that Rael will attract kindred spirits. Obviously, this doesn’t aim for a broad commercial potential, but as albums go, it’s never less than interesting.

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MAX RAEL – Slightly Less Than Human / When The Only Winning Move Is Not To Play

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Max Rael’s debut single ‘Brighter Future’ pushed the alternative envelope by applying spoken word passages to bleak sounding synth backdrops, creating an almost dystopian musical landscape. The number’s darker side was effectively offset by the History of Guns man offering listeners a positive lyric, where he suggested we can look to the past and learn from mistakes to forge a brighter future. Issued at a time when the world seemed incredibly negative with seemingly little escape from a political turmoil, Rael’s optimism – no matter how obtusely applied – offered fans of less mainstream music a small beacon of hope.

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