Turns out there are still some short comment archives that fit perfectly with my current Listening Notes format—and coincidentally, they contain six releases from artists whose names start with the letter A. Not bad as installments for next month. Lol :v Here they are: A-Gnosis – Death to War (2024) 79% A solid core-driven album with atmospheric vocals and instrumentation, without abandoning modern traits such as electronic elements, chugging guitars, or proggy touches. What surprised me is that I can honestly say this has become the most enjoyable pure post-hardcore album I’ve encountered so far in my journey through this genre. AADM – AADM V – Spaghetti Western Post-rock Doom (2008) 66% Well, album titles don’t always reflect the actual content. Despite the “post-rock” tag, none of the tracks really touch that genre. Instead, it’s all about acoustic guitars with a Latin/country cowboy flavor, just like the cover art suggests. The country style here f...

Time passed so quickly that January finally reached the end of the road. As I mentioned before, this moment would be filled with seven releases from artists whose names start with the letter Z. Here we go! Zabumbo – Shallows.1 (2024) 76% Zabumbo actually sits at the very end of this playlist, below Zatrebil , making it function nicely as a cooldown. Starting with a typical atmospheric hip-hop/vaporwave opener, it then shifts into a comfy ambient style from “ Mrcnhrtbrk .” onward, all the way to the finish. For me, the best tracks are those other than “Mrcnhrtbrk.” and “2023-12-05.” The reason is simple: they carry stronger experimental vibrations. Zac Crye – Three Finger Lid (2020) 72% A solid EP in the grunge/rock realm, although the cover art is rather gory. The track “Possession” brings to mind Papa Roach , Three Days Grace , and Nirvana . The other two tracks have slight touches of stoner/southern rock, but they don’t quite click with me. Overall, T...

Have you ever heard of maidcore ? Or music projects whose names end with The Maid? Well, maybe some people here know, but I’m not really interested in explaining what maidcore is. Simply put, it’s more about a visual identity that leans toward maid-style aesthetics à la Band-Maid , though it usually appears as anime-style maid characters serving as the project’s icon. One such example is Yoru the Maid . Yoru the Maid is based in Moscow, Russia, and started being active on YouTube in August 2024, later creating a VKontakte account in September. The first release, Feeling , was dropped in December, exploring black/doom metal , followed by three EPs and two singles up to now. Member: Name unknown Discography: Feeling (EP, 2024) Puppentheater (EP, 2025) La Mort (Single, 2025) Cult of Melancholy (EP, 2025) Love and Nuclear War (Single, 2025) The Land of the Stars (EP, 2025) What’s the Impression? It definitely needs repeated listens to leave a deeper impression, but the very first tra...

86 / 100 The Just Because! OST is not merely background music but an emotional trigger—intimate, melancholic, and deeply personal. Ah… this is all because of that damn post-rock/ambient ! Because of those two genres, I started feeling emotional while watching anime during the pandemic era—especially Just Because! . Even though it is “only” a romance/slice-of-life anime, I admit it is a melodrama with a chest-piercing, underrated soundtrack. The composer behind it is the well-known singer Yanagi Nagi , who also performs the opening theme, which was quite surprising at the time. One of the most important tracks here is “Shinkan no Mae wa,” which inspired me to form Oaksean , despite having no instrumental background whatsoever. Somehow, almost magically, I was able to grasp the notes of its opening part, which I approximated in C4 as far as I know: C–D–E C–C–A3–G3 C–D–E C–C–E–D C–D–E C–C–A3–G3 C–A–G– … Yes, that’s all I could really follow. But it...

With two days left in January 2026, I plan to spend them reviewing releases by artists/bands whose names start with Y and Z. Today, it’s Y first. What’s on the list? Check them out! Yaw Evans – Memories of Now (2020) 73% Yaw Evans comes from the UK electronic scene with a hip-hop flavor on “ Respect Yeah Yeah ” and “Lion Paw.” After that, the EP title track functions like a beatless interlude, leading into techno/house territory on the final two tracks. If I had to choose, “Respect Yeah Yeah” proves itself as a strong hook at the start of the release, while “512 (Live Jam)” closes it with laser-like sounds that I can imagine being quite engaging as well. Years Passing – The More Beautiful Everything Is, the More It Will Hurt Without You (2012) 78% Years Passing from Sweden presents an ambient style driven by guitar, leaning toward post-rock in the vein of Luke Pigott , Breath Before the Plunge , Matt Borghi , and perhaps also relevant to Carlos Ferreir...

Well, with quite a bit of free time on my hands, the activity of giving impressions to each release could move along fairly quickly—especially with the help of notes from some time ago. So, what did I listen to this time? Let’s take a look… Scale of Attrition – Broken Bonds (2024) 71% Scale of Attrition come from London, England, consisting of Richie (vocals), Chrissy (guitar), and Martin (guitar), who are also part of Meridian Sun alongside David (bass), with Spyridon from Decades in the Shadows on drums. Despite describing themselves as modern melodic death metal , their two debut tracks, “Broken Bonds” and “Panacea,” lean more toward metalcore , with post-hardcore–style melodic touches in the interlude sections of both songs. There’s nothing I’d call truly special here, but their playing and overall quality are still commendable. Hopefully, they’ll deliver a more straightforward melodeath approach on future releases. Ta-BẞВ – Gemuruh Rendah (2025) 79% ...

Back again with me to briefly review several releases. This time, it’s the turn of artists/bands from the letters M through R. Let’s go! Marco Lucchi – I Could Sleep for a Thousand Years (2022) 64% Italian modern classical artist Marco Lucchi presents a single here with several versions, also performed by M.Nomized , Mean Flow , and Henrik Meierkord . Most versions are filled with rough, flowing synthesizers, with M.Nomized adding light drum beats that sit nicely on the ears. However, Marco’s own extended version still takes the top spot for me, as it adds piano—something I can further consider for inclusion in my playlist. Necromoss – Necromoss (2025) 63% Necromoss is an alternative project from Utah-based Spaceseer , still moving along similar lines within experimental/dungeon synth territory. Dark ambient/noise sounds as the backdrop depict waves of sound around us, both above and below ground. Then the synths in the foreground emit signals of fun...

This time I’ll continue with brief impressions of what I went through today, still using alphabetical order. However, Fleshpress , A Headless Horse , and Ironica are taken from old notes, without any editing at all. Let’s check them out! Fleshpress – No Return (2010) 75% Psychedelic natural sounds flow into despairing guitar picking, leading to Marko ’s possessed-sounding screams—like black metal in an imaginary peat swamp forest . That’s “No Return,” or another name for the track “Dead End Life Crawling Thru Shit and Blood Soul Burning.” Meanwhile, “ Spiral Filter ” follows a similar path, only now filled with proto-doom riffs accompanying that possessed soul spinning, flying, and headbanging toward the peak of esoteric gnosis—or plunging into a spiral abyss, as suggested by its alternate title, “Spiral Filter Forcing You Down to Black Pyramid.” In short, this 22-minute EP will take you on a transcendental experience full of convolution and absurdity, much like what’...