sunn O))): Eternity’s Pillars (2025)

BWOOOOOOWWWWWMMM! How a band like sunn O))) can basically take that feeble attempt at onomatopoeia and twist it into something so hypnotic, so mesmerizing and frankly…beautiful is beyond me. Such is the case with Eternity’s Pillars, the new EP/single from the band’s recent signing/partnership with Sub Pop Records. Unhurried and as intentional as ever, the band doesn’t so much rip as thrum their way through three massive tracks that spill molten love all over you.

ChrisDecember 5, 2025Leave a comment

agriculture - the spiritual sound album cover

Cassette

Agriculture: The Spiritual Sound (2025)

Welcome to an experiment. As I write this, my brief take on The Spiritual Sound, the phenomenal sophomore LP from California’s Agriculture, I’m actually listening to their self-titled debut – an album I really, really did not care for. Summoning the joy and fervor the new album gave me while revisiting a debut I found anonymous and cowering behind a wall of bricked production, I began to identify fragments of the things that would fully bloom two years later. I won’t say I’ve come around yet, but man: what a giant leap this album takes – and lands – successfully.

I think.

ChrisDecember 4, 2025December 4, 2025Leave a comment

Vinyl

Kadavar: I Just Want To Be A Sound (2025)

This was supposed to be a different review. But I watching a review on YouTube for the latest from German psych/stoner/prog rock band Kadavar for their just-released second album of 2025, Kids Abandoning Destiny Among Vanity And Ruin and we needed to pivot. Not to review that album – the vinyl doesn’t come out until January – but to address the other album the band released this year, the one a lot of critics and content creators rolled their eyes against and fretted and squawked about the change in direction. And yeah, sure: I Just Want To Be A Sound is a bit jarring if you came expecting more of the deep stoner and ’70s rock worship Kadavar have embraced to varying degrees of success since their debut. A few more listens, though, reveal a real sense of adventure and a fine ear for hooks that recall both ’90s and ’00s rock/pop hybrids even as they remain tether to their flared, bellbottom roots.

ChrisDecember 3, 2025Leave a comment

Hiromi: Out There (2025)

Similar to my last review, the where’s and how’s of my discovering the indelible virtuosity of jazz pianist Hiromi are lost to the fog of age (and probably weed, who are we kidding?). Maybe it was during my heady exploration of the fusion and jazz rock coming out of Japan in the ’70s, but however the path was laid, I’m so glad it led me to Out There, her latest album and collaboration with her full band unit Sonicwonder. It’s a heady mix of styles, exuberant and joyful and packing so much excellence in the performance aspect once I put it on, it’s hard not to let it replay over and over again.

ChrisDecember 2, 2025Leave a comment

Star Period Star: Twilight Saving Time (2025)

I can’t remember for the life of me where or how I discovered Star Period Star. Or how I wound up with the CD of their fifth studio album, Twilight Saving Time. Maybe it was Sea of Tranquility reviewing it on their YouTube channel; maybe it was elsewhere. And maybe it was a case of the difference in price between the digital download and the CD justified retaking the plunge and grabbing a CD. Whatever the reason, grab it I did, listened once, and promptly forgot about it in the rushing onslaught of releases and reissues. This morning I brewed some piping hot coffee and did some dedicated listening. Good stuff, modern and poppy with hints of ’70s vintage and ’80s neo prog that despite some small reservations works as a fun diversion from the same old bands doing the same old thing.

ChrisDecember 1, 2025November 30, 20251 Comment

between the buried and me's the blue nowhere album cover

The 9C Files, Vinyl

The 9C Files: Between The Buried and Me’s The Blue Nowhere

This is how I know I’m old: I remember Between the Buried and Me before they were one of the elder statesmen of progressive metal. Those origins of metalcore and slamming death started to evolve almost immediately, and 23 years later here we sit with The Blue Nowhere, an unapologetic progressive metal album that sounds like a rebirth. Their first as a quartet and the first for progressive super label InsideOut Music, The Blue Nowhere stretches into more unexplored sonic territories for the band, getting downright funky and heavy in equal measure. It’s a great rebound after a somewhat lackluster Colors II, and a bold step into a revitalized future.

ChrisNovember 30, 2025November 26, 2025Leave a comment

Consuming the Tangible

We are what we consume

Author: Chris