February 2025 Release Radar
The coldest month of the year looks heavy
The release schedule is still on the slower side, but we’ve got a few noteworthy albums coming up.
Albums On Deck
Much of January was focused on the agonizing process of preparing and sorting and finalizing and then producing the annual Top 40 list. It’s a whole process, which started even later this year. I’m hoping to find a better rhythm in 2025. (I say, posting this half a week late)
Larkin Poe - Mockingbird
Harakiri for the Sky - Scorched Earth
Avatarium - Between You, God, The Devil and The Dead
Iniko - The Awakening
The Weeknd - Hurry Up Tomorrow
Ethel Cain - Perverts
Our first review of the year will be Larkin Poe — a project comprised of Rebecca and Megan Lovell, sisters from my home state of Georgia. Their brand of Roots Rock, tinged heavily with Country and Blues, can pack a punch. They’ve certainly got a bit of attitude, too. Their last effort, 2022’s Blood Harmony, ranked 26th in that year’s Top 40 countdown.
Harakiri for the Sky and Avatarium will be the first heavy offerings for the year, and both are groups I’m unfamiliar with. They are billed as Black/Post-Metal and Doom Metal, respectively.
When I made my Most Wanted Albums lists for 2025, I thought about adding a section for most wanted debut albums, but I didn’t really have time to run through and research it, so it would have, at most, just been two artists — one of those was Iniko, a musician from Brooklyn whose melodies and rhythms stand apart from the crowd. Their single, “Jericho”, has been making waves for a couple of years now and has 164 million streams on Spotify.
Then there’s The Weeknd, whose Hurry Up Tomorrow is the final album in the trilogy which started with 2020’s After Hours. Please note, though, that he’s on thin ice, as far as I’m concerned. A new album will bring a fresh round of scrutiny, and it will become apparent very quickly if Tesfaye’s behavior has improved — or if maybe it deserves blacklisting.
Finally, Ethel Cain is a name I’ve heard mentioned several times, and I missed her when I was scrolling through possibilities for January. I’m adding her now and excited for it. Perverts looks good at a glance.
I’ve already been listening to most of these, though the actual review process has been delayed due to moving apartments. I’ll be looking to post the first review, probably, on or about Feb 17th.
February Release Radar
Ten flagged releases for February must be some kind of record:
2/7
Dream Theater
Jinjer
Marko Hietala
2/14
Lacuna Coil
2/21
Tate McRae
2/28
Architects
Avantasia
Lisa
Arion
Rebecca Black
It makes a little sense, though, since half of those are on the last day of the month, and the schedule usually upshifts in March.
We’re starting off strong on the Metal front with releases from Dream Theater, Jinjer, and Marko Hietala (ex-Nightwish) all on the 7th, then Lacuna Coil on the 14th.
DT is over 35 years old now, and they’ve sat atop the Progressive sphere for at least half of that tenure. They’ve been getting a little stale, but they’ve just gotten Mike Portnoy back on drums, which should breathe a little life into them, and they took extra time on this album cycle. Maybe they still have a few surprises left in them. I hope so. They’re an old favorite.
Jinjer is a darling of the extreme metal world, despite that they’re technically classified under Prog, Groove, and Metalcore. The band’s status largely hinges on the love for Tati (Tatiana Shmayluk), who has become the poster-woman for female vocalists who do both harsh and clean vox. She’s like a Siren — lures you in with her gorgeous, ethereal voice, then does a hard pivot and melts your face when you least expect it.
Shit’s wild.
Hietala is an interesting one. He was the bassist for Nightwish, the top Symphonic Metal band in the world, for just shy of twenty years — 2002-2021. Hietala’s departure from the band was both to allow him to focus on other projects and, more importantly, to allow him to focus on his mental health. His personal hiatus saw him completely withdrawn from the public eye for a year-and-a-half before he resurfaced with supergroup Northern Kings in mid-2022. This will be his second solo album; the first released in 2019 (and re-released in English in 2020).
Lacuna Coil, a Gothic and Symphonic Metal group from Italy, is the only release I have flagged for Valentines Day. Their discography has trended heavier and harder as they’ve aged, which is the inverse for most of the bands that I’ve followed over the years. They refuse to mellow; I’m expecting hard-hitting Gothic from this one.
February 21st features Canadian Alt/Dance Pop artist Tate McRae. McRae has been making waves — I’ve seen her name popping up all over, so I’m very curious about what she’ll provide here. This will be her third album.
And then there’s the 28th — the last Friday of February this year is also the last day of the month. And this is where we’re going to start getting busy with releases for the first big rush of 2025. One of these is the rescheduled Rebecca Black album, which was originally meant to release in mid-January.
Three of the others are various Metal releases — Architects are very silky, polished Metalcore; Avantasia is an Ayreon-style Metal Opera project with a rotating cast; and Arion is a Symphonic/Power/Prog group that I’ve been following for a while.
The only other non-Metal offering here is Lisa — a Thai rapper and singer and a member of Blackpink. I should note that Lisa’s compatriot, Rosé, just released a solo album late last year which was well-received; I was too slammed to add that album to the pile, but the single “APT” has been everywhere. Lisa’s album should, likewise, be pretty spectacular.
The month, as a whole, is more Metal-heavy than expected, but I’m not complaining.
Discussions
2024 in Review
There was a strong positive bias in 2024; it was a very different vibe from 2023, which saw more “middling” reviews but a small number of extreme outliers at the top — 2023’s top 3 would all have made 2024’s top 5. I’m including some comparative numbers below:
Review Release Schedule
Clearly, I overbalanced last year. So I’ve been rethinking how I can try to find a better balance and stay on schedule. This year, I’m going to try an approach that should help me manage my buffers so that I can keep reviews posting regularly without needing to stress over the busy times when I can’t get to them for days or a whole week.
Reviews will post only M/W/F, unless the buffer extends past two weeks, at which point I will start filling in Tu/Th dates as needed/possible
Tu/Th will be largely reserved for non-review posts, such as this Release Radar
Posts will be scheduled for the Monday of the next week at the earliest if no buffer exists.
I love this project, but I do teeter close to burnout now and then. This schedule should hopefully help to prevent that.
Beyond February
The full radar is always available, and lists offerings which are still months away. Here are five things to expect in the coming months:
The first album on my list for March is the highly-anticipated sophomore album from Spiritbox. I would have had this one on my 2025 wishlist if they hadn’t already announced it. They made waves in the Metal world with their debut; if they hold that momentum, this should be a contender for AOTY.
Jason Isbell is also releasing on March 7th, though his Alt Country should be very much the polar opposite of Spiritbox. Still, Isbell is among the best artists in Country at the moment, even without his much-loved 400 Unit.
March 14th currently features releases from Steven Wilson and Coheed and Cambria. Both are Prog, though much different flavors. Wilson’s releases are always among the most interesting albums of any given year, whether solo or as part of some project.
Alison-FUCKING-Krauss is dropping an album — with Union Station — on March 28th. Regardless of whether you like or dislike Bluegrass (or Country or Gospel, because she’s done it all; the inclusion of Union Station indicates Bluegrass, though), you cannot deny her voice. If you don’t want to risk your pride by looking up her older Bluegrass/Country, I must ask you to at least listen to some of her work with Robert Plant — YES, THAT ROBERT PLANT, from LED ZEPPELIN. Here, sample “It Don’t Bother Me”.
If you like Slowcore, Julien Baker has partnered with Torres for an album. It’s due out April 18th.