Metal Storm's outlet for nonmetal album reviews
The place where we'll talk about music without growls or blast beats
unless they still have those but still aren't metal
unless they still have those but still aren't metal
We here at Metal Storm pride ourselves on our thousands of metal reviews and interviews and article; metal is our collective soul and passion, which is why we bother with this junk. That being said, we'd be lying if we stuck to our trve-kvlt guns and claimed that metal is the only thing we ever listen to. Whether we want to admit it or not, we do check out some other stuff from time to time; some of us are more poptimistic than others, but there's a whole world out there aside from Satan-worshiping black metal and dragon-slaying power metal. We do already feature some nonmetal artists on our website and have a few reviews to back them up, but we prefer to limit that aspect of the site to those artists who have been a strong influence on the metal scene or who are in some way connected to it. This article series is the place for those artists who don't matter to metal in the slightest but still warrant some conversation - after all, good music, is good music, and we all know metal isn't the only thing on this planet for any of us.
Down below, you might find some obscure Bandcamp bedroom projects or some Billboard-topping superstar; as long as it ain't metal and the album itself isn't a best-of compilation, it fits. Obviously, we're certain that not everything will be for everybody (you guys can be viciously territorial even when metal is the only thing on the menu, and we're all supposed to like the same things), but we do hope you find at least one thing that you can enjoy, instead of just pointing and screaming in horror "Not metal!" as if that would be an insult.
Here are our previous features:
June 2025
May 2025
April 2025
And now to the music...
Pulp - More
[Art Rock | Art Pop]
While Oasis and Blur were bickering in the ‘90s over who is the #1 in brit pop, there was another band whose career had started much earlier and who were also in the brit pop business (roughly speaking). That band was Pulp, and they were more artful, more clever, and more classy than the other two. With spectacular albums, like His ‘n’ Hers, Different Class
, and This Is Hardcore, Pulp offered an alternative and original kind of art rock/pop, with a theatrical frontman stealing the show, named Jarvis Cocker, aka Brian Ferry of his generation. Their last studio album, We Love Life, came in 2001, when brit pop was pretty much dead and buried. And, out of the blue, there is More.If you are wondering what is Jarvis doing here 24 years later, the answer is simple; the same that he had always been doing. He's being the same expressive persona and the same gifted voice that sings tongue-in-cheek lyrics. More is a surprisingly well-made album, given how long it’s been since the last one, with engaging compositions, beautiful orchestral arrangements, superb production by James Ford, and it has something to say in the now. The bass of the late Steve Mackey is missing, but he is credited in two songs. Tracks like “Spike Island”, “Tina”, “Grown Ups”, “Partial Eclipse”, and “A Sunset” could be in any 'best of' compilation by the band, which is no mean feat after all these years. It’s not perfect, since there are a couple of uninteresting cuts, but all can be forgiven even just for the absolutely brilliant disco funk “Got To Have Love”, which also has one of the best lyric lines of the year (“Without love, you’re just jerking off inside someone else”). With a cover art that looks like a cigarette billboard from way back when, and with emotional honesty that cannot be questioned, More is Pulp being more mature, but still remaining witty, cheeky, bittersweet, and, of course, classy.
Bandcamp | Apple Music | Spotify
by nikarg
Kaschalot - Anemoia
[Math Rock | Post-Rock]
With the regular critique of identikit ‘crescendocore’ post-rock bands that struggle to establish a clear identity, one of the routes via which groups have distinguished themselves is by incorporating math rock. Estonia’s Kaschalot take things further than most on that front; this is, right from the off, a rhythmically turbulent and at-times cacophonic release with constant time signature changes and a crunching heavier side adding heft to the syncopated guitar stabs. That said, in spite of the rambunctious beginning to opening track “Flourish”, those post-rock references are applicable; once it’s got its initial chaotic urges out its system, it segues into a compelling and effective chill groove and gradual build back towards mathy pandemonium.
Kaschalot are an instrumental-only band; there’s moments when the heaviness of the release would call for a harsher vocal style if present, given the Swancore-esque weight and volatility of the instrumentation. That said, there’s also songs that revel more in the uplifting ‘twee’ tonality commonly explored in math rock and post-rock, with “Glitter” and “Kaleidoscope” serving as prime examples. There’s also some moments of real technicality that remind me of the modern prog guitar virtuoso scene, with an elaborate meandering lead guitar part in “Neon Dreams” that sounds like it could have been the work of somebody like Plini. Kaschalot do a solid job of exhibiting many of the virtues of instrumental rock without falling into the various pitfalls that can cause a band to blend into a saturated scene.
Bandcamp | Apple Music | Spotify
by musclassia
Closure - The Sweet Suffering
[Post-Hardcore]
With their first singles dating all the way back to 2019, Sydney-based post-hardcore act Closure have taken their time in working up to a release containing a collection of songs, with debut EP The Sweet Suffering arriving 6 years later. This is a collection of new music rather than a compilation of their standalone singles, however, with no track released prior to 2025 among the six-song tracklist. The album’s title offers an implied contrast, and the album’s Bandcamp blurb discusses how dark times can often lead the way to something beautiful; it may be implied that this long journey to the EP’s release has been a difficult one, but keeping in theme with the title, the end result is an uplifting outcome at the end of the journey.
The EP is best categorized as post-hardcore, with mathy rhythms, punky romps and emotional vocals both clean and harsh. Opening song “Echoes Of You” offers all of these, with Lucy May’s clean vocals given the spotlight ahead of the screams that pop up frequently across the EP. There’s a degree of technical complexity to this first song, but catchy accessibility is prioritized more on the EP, particularly on the bopping “A Cold Space Between”. Most songs are around the 3-minute mark, but there’s also the 90-second “Every Time That I Close My Eyes”, which is also perhaps the most aggressive and janky song featured here. While Closure don’t necessarily do anything new here, they’ve assembled a consistently enjoyable collection of songs in this style across The Sweet Suffering, perhaps peaking with the particularly evocative “Hindsight”.
Bandcamp | Apple Music | Spotify
by musclassia
Agropelter - The Book Of Hours
[Progressive Rock]
One of the most enlightening aspects of writing for this article series has been discovering just what a hotbed for progressive rock Norway is. The latest project from those shores to creep onto my radar is Agropelter, the project of Kay Olsen. While Olsen handles a variety of instrumental duties on debut album The Book Of Hours, he is joined by some impressive session and guest musicians on the record, most notably Jonas Reingold (The Flower Kings, Steve Hackett) on fretless bass. Armed with an armada of keyboards, synths and organs, and with influences spanning from prog legends like Genesis and Camel to composers such as Vangelis and Terje Rypdal, The Book Of Hours is built upon promising foundations.
Musically, it is pretty much what you would expect from an instrumental prog rock album: whimsical, elaborate and complex. The opening trio of tracks are more concise, from the synth meanderings of “Flute Of Peril” to the driving rock and virtuosic guitarwork of “Levitator”, but the bulk of the album is comprised of the four-part, 33-minute title track. The 11-minute opening movement is wide-ranging, from frantic rock to morose classical piano, and offering glimpses of darkness as contrast to the bright synthesizer solos. The extent of the synth/keyboard presence across The Book Of Hours is somewhat reminiscent of Zopp, and while I wouldn’t say I enjoyed The Book Of Hours as much as the albums from that project to date, it’s an album that fans of synth-heavy prog rock should lap up.
Bandcamp | Apple Music | Spotify
by musclassia
Etnobotanika - Kosmobotanika
[Deep House | Psybient]
Polish duo Etnobotanika have taken their eclectic electronic music in an interstellar direction on third album Kosmobotanika. Influences heard throughout the album are derived from house, ambient, trip-hop and even jazz music, and the end result is one that can simultaneously or sequentially be both serene and cinematic yet also lively and groovy. A short intro piece focuses more on the former, but the first full song “Trzy Doby Na Orbicie” slides quickly into a different gear with jazzy piano and slick drum grooves alongside trippy synths.
Songs more on the ambient end of the spectrum include the spacious, trippy “Planeta Radio” and airy “Grzyby Na Marsie”, while Etnobotanika explore more substantial musical styles on “Kosmiczny Jazz” (unsurprisingly jazz, but also techno) and “Nim Zamkną Portal” (breakbeat). The tracks that veer towards the psydub of artists like Globular and Ott (most notably “Kosmici Na Ziemii”) perhaps play most to my tastes, but I find the album as a whole to be a satisfyingly trippy chillout vibe, one that does capture a sensation of remote galactic exploration while retaining a soothing psychedelic aura.
Bandcamp | Apple Music | Spotify
by musclassia
Rival Consoles - Landscape From Memory
[Ambient Electronic | IDM]
musclassia's pick
Rival Consoles is quite the prolific project, evidenced not only by the multiple albums I’ve already covered in the few short years of this article series’ existence, but also the fact that new album Landscape From Memory comes but a month after the release of the soundtrack album for the video game MindsEye. My recurring coverage of these releases is testament to the esteem in which I hold Ryan West’s production work, and Landscape From Memory follows ably in the footsteps of its predecessors by offering up yet more soothing, mind-expanding ambient electronica. There’s a real vulnerable tenderness established in the emotional and delicate opener “In Reverse” that suitably establishes the at-times fragile yet beckoning tone of the record as a whole.
Bouncing, rhythmic synth tones is a regular feature of Rival Consoles’ music, and the floating motif in “Catherine” with the muted but lively backing beat creates a very soothing soundscape. “Drum Song” has many of the same integral components, but with a warmer, more uplifting feel to it that offers a welcome dose of bliss in comparison. The album switches to more of an IDM mindset from “Gaviotas”, with that song’s glitching rhythms threatening to become dancefloor-worthy without ever quite building sufficient momentum, while “Coda” and “Known Shape” whip out more consistently danceable beats. The tonality across the album is consistently very light and dainty, but mechanical sounds in “2 Forms” add some contrast, before the album dissipates into delicate euphoria courtesy of its title track.
Bandcamp | Apple Music | Spotify
by musclassia
Ramleh - Hyper Vigilance
[Post-Rock | Noise Rock | Industrial Rock]
Ramleh is one of those bands that have been here for more than 40 years, pioneered several genres and still release quality material. They are an exceptional band in many ways, and Hyper Vigilance is here to remind us of that. Now, I am mostly familiar with Ramleh’s early power electronics days, but their noise rock era of the 90s is often regarded as their best and most consistent, and it is that sound that mostly inspires Hyper Vigilance. However, with its strong post-rock elements, it is far-removed from Ramleh's usual abrasiveness, and offers something new to their extensive catalogue.
In fact, I would argue that post-rock is what really shapes this release, with an average track length of around 9 minutes and a lack of aggression in the songs beyond the excellent “Nothing Here But Fire” and “Frisson”. The rest of the track list remains nonetheless very diverse, ranging from electronic music on “Into The Termite Mound” to drone metal in “Nityapralaya”, with the easy stand-out track being the nearly 20 minutes long epic “New National Anthem”, which goes through a wide array of genres and inspirations while remaining thoroughly interesting and coherent. It highlights Hyper Vigilance’s greatest strength: it makes 80 minutes go by in what feels like 40. Each track is memorable and enjoyable; there’s nothing here that I wouldn’t see myself coming back to. And for a band with 40 years of baggage playing outside of their comfort zone, that is madly impressive, and I cannot recommend this album enough to anyone with an appreciation for post- and noise rock.
Bandcamp
by doez
Quadeca - Vanisher, Horizon Scraper
[Art Pop | Experimental Hip-Hop]
I first encountered Quadeca with 2022's I Didn't Mean To Haunt You, feeling somewhat spoiled that I arrived just as he became a fully-fledged artist, having already went through the "transitional album" in 2021's From Me To You. Now we're at the point where the "YouTube rapper" beginnings of Quadeca is something that barely deserved a passing mention in a "look how far he's come" way. With only a compilation of EPs of something akin to outtakes in the form of 2024's Scrapyard released since, it's up to Vanisher, Horizon Scraper is the album that has to actually deliver on the potential and standard set by I Didn't Mean To Haunt You.
Just like its predecessor, Vanisher, Horizon Scraper also comes with an accompanying movie, one whose slow moving visuals do make it clear that the movie was made for the album rather than the other way around. Sonically, a lot of the same sounds, from hip-hop flows to folktronica to sound effect experimentations, make their way from the previous album, albeit creating something with a different flow. What sets it apart most is the final track, "Casper", whose guest performance by Maruja feels like it not only adds a jazz component to it, but it shifts the album's momentum to another level in its final moments.
Bandcamp | Apple Music | Spotify
by RaduP
And that was it. You've made it through still alive. Congrats. See ya next month. Here's a Spotify playlist we compiled out of stuff featured here:
