April 2025 Release Radar
Hopefully derailing the 2025 Disappointment Train
I don’t know about any of you reading this, but 2025 has been awful so far on my end. And the twelve reviews that have posted thus far have not provided a whole lot of light just yet. If you’re subscribed and have wondered why not a lot has hit your inbox this year, it’s because only two of the twelve have hit the Teal threshold.
Still, we press on. We’ll get some real contenders sooner or later.
Albums On Deck
I’ve managed to get through all but three of the albums I had in my backlog for March’s release radar, but there were a lot of new albums in the last month to more than make up for it. Here are the eighteen albums I have on deck:
Lisa - Alter Ego
Arion - The Light That Burns the Sky
Rebecca Black - Salvation
Messengers From the Empire - Lost & Found
Spiritbox - Tsunami Sea
Sasami - Blood On the Silver Screen
Jason Isbell - Foxes in the Snow
Lady Gaga - Mayhem
Jennie - Ruby
Coheed and Cambria - The Father of Make Believe
Steven Wilson - The Overview
Rwake - The Return of Magik
Japanese Breakfast - For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)
Bloodywood - Nu Delhi
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco - I Said I Love You First
The Cat Empire - Bird in Paradise
Alison Krauss & Union Station - Arcadia
Lucy Dacus - Forever is a Feeling
Not included above is Avantasia’s latest effort; that review is completed and scheduled for tomorrow (Friday April 4th).
So first up we have Lisa, a Thai rapper and member of Blackpink. Further down the list, her bandmate Jennie has also dropped a solo album this year. This is the first solo effort for both, following on the heels of Rosé’s debut solo album late last year. This leaves only Jisoo without a solo LP released, though she did drop and EP in February.
On the Metal front, we have Arion (Symphonic/Power) coming up fast; Spiritbox (Prog Metalcore) is one of my most-anticipated releases of the year (and the first listen did not disappoint); I’m hoping Coheed and Cambria can duplicate some of the Prog Metal moments that made their last outing so damned good; Rwake will give us a bit of Doom; and, lastly, Bloodywood is Nu Metal from India, and they’re fucking feisty.
I can’t not mention Messengers From the Empire, my first advance review. Their album is being released in a very non-typical fashion, with (roughly) one song dropping every month. So I’ll finish this review and sit on it until a good time to release, probably coinciding with the song that drops in June to mark half of the album being out.
Jason Isbell is one of my favorite Country artists out there. He’s a solid lyricist who doesn’t fall into the hyper-patriotic, formulaic trap of the majority of what’s coming out of Nashville these days. Nor does Alison Krauss. Together with Bluegrass band Union Station, Krauss was very highly regarded before that boulder started careening after 9/11.
I can’t not call out Steven Wilson, a musical mastermind whose solo albums are always different and unique — at least to anybody who listens to a good amount of Prog Rock. He has a cult following, and for good reason.
Lastly, I want to highlight Lucy Dacus, who dropped an album at the end of March without me knowing about it. She’s become a pretty big name in the Indie world, especially in collaboration with Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers. The three of them, together, comprise Boygenius. After the group’s debut album, the three of them are going to be turning heads anytime they pop up. They were all already doing okay on their own, but their collaborative work really lit them up.
April Release Radar
4/11
Elvenking
Epica
The Man-Eating Tree
Bon Iver
4/18
Julien Baker/Torres
Wu-Tang Clan (4/12)
4/25
Eluveitie
Ghost
That’s it — just eight albums flagged for April, and none scheduled for the first Friday. I’m okay with this, considering my backlog.
To be clear, there are still plenty of albums coming out. I review less than a tenth of albums that I see in the various lists I browse. I’m just one guy. These are just the ones that pique my interest.
And there are some big releases here.
Epica is one of the biggest names in Symphonic Metal. Period. And while Elvenking might not be the biggest name in Power, they’re still respected. Having the two of these releasing together on the 11th already makes that day very exciting.
And then there’s Bon Iver, who was already pretty well-loved before Justin Vernon’s duets with T-Swift. This will actually be my first experience with one of their albums, though.
Ditto for The Man-Eating Tree, a Finnish band billed as “atmospheric Gothic Metal”. I’m hoping this scratches the itch that Lacuna Coil’s album didn’t.
The Wu-Tang Clan is dropping an album on April 12th. I’ve been getting further into Hip-Hop, so I really can’t pass this up, given their cultural status and significance.
On the 18th, Julien Baker is releasing an album as part of a collaboration project with Torres. Again, take note. Baker is usually a Slowcore/Indie Rock artist, and Torres is Indie Rock, but the promo material for the album shows them in cowboy hats and Western gear. I guess we’ll see what they’ve got cooked up soon.
The month ends with releases from Folk Metal band Eluveitie and Heavy Metal band Ghost. The latter remains controversial on many fronts — their anti-Christian imagery gets them a lot of dislike from one direction, and a sizable section of the Metal community (mostly the old Thrash-heads and the Extreme-or-nothing crowd) disputes their Metal status.
Again, genric labels don’t work that way, but I’ll continue using only the metal labels for acts like Ghost and Sleep Token just to make their eyes twitch.
Beyond April
The full radar is always available, and lists offerings which are still months away. Here are five things to expect in the coming months:
Eric Church has joined Lights for the first Friday in May. The pair of them are each top five for me in their respective genres, so it should be a good day.
IT’S HAPPENING! Sleep Token are dropping their next album on May 9th. I was looking for their next album next year, so this is a little early, in my opinion; it’s been two years since their last album, but given the transition from ending the last trilogy to, as I understand, starting a new one, I expected a slightly longer delay than their usual two-year turnaround.
Joining Sleep Token on May 9th is Maren Morris. She’s a solid Pop Country artist with a high ceiling, and she often incorporates touches of R&B into her sound. This will be her fourth album.
Miley Cyrus has announced a release date of May 30th for her next effort. Hopefully this one will have more than two good songs on it, even if those two were fucking amazing.
Our first entry in the annual September/October madhouse is Nova Twins, whose next album is scheduled for August 29th. If you want something with attitude, this one is for you.