MINNESOTA SOUND REVIEWS - 2/18/2026
Reviews by: Alexandra Haynes, Writer @xalexonlinex
Edited by: Andrew Perrizo, Owner/Editor @melodicnoisemedia
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Pain Portal “Halls of Poison"
"Halls of Poison” is track 6 of 10 on the LP Portal of Pain, released in December 2025. Staying in the lower, brutal registers of deathgrind at its gnarliest, Pain Portal slam themselves into your earholes with ferocious intent, showcasing skillful speed and vicious melodic character. Everything rapidly swirls together in a violent cacophony that still finds time to linger in tuneful relevance.
Mayfly Moon “Tomorrow”
Mayfly Moon frolic in a certain jangling indie goodness that makes for familiar, pleasant listening - you can become quickly absorbed in their flowering tones that evoke coming-of-age movie darlings and get complimented by loud, crashy, cymbal-heavy percussion. The slowdown at nearly three minutes in, before the pendulum swings back to an almost punk rock pace, is a satisfying motion that introduces a more complex softness to “Tomorrow.” Despite its instrumental charm, the lyrics are solemn, wrestling with a desire to leave sadness in the past. “Tomorrow” released on The Creature, a drop of two singles in November 2025.
Products Band “Y’all Tower”
Laying indie rock over what at first appears to be a microdose of contemporary psychedelia, Products Band nail a highly dynamic sound in “Y’all Tower,” a single released in May 2025 which was an outtake from the 2021 album Pink Puma. The song’s true nature steadily reveals itself over a nearly seven minute runtime — as often occurs to the best of us, the microdose ends up being not-so-micro, with the second half of this song delving into increasingly hypnotic territory. It slows itself down almost imperceptibly at first but, unrelentingly, the tempo continues to slow at a consistent rate until the frequencies are low enough to be Ambien-soaked and bizarre. As the band’s name suggests, the messaging can take a turn towards material analysis; the looping lyrics devolve into purposeful absurdity (“I’m dollar, bill me / I’m corporate, shill me / I’m doctor, Phil me / I’m pickle, dill me”) to embellish an earlier, more confrontational message (“Wake up mental state an instant fight for control / Wrestle down the impulse ‘cuz my room has a soul / It wants what it wants and slowly swallows me whole / Compressing this depression til it becomes the role I play.”)
The Morning Kings “Funky Soul”
See fellow hyper-local blog Mostly Minnesota for a great interview with The Morning Kings published in July 2025.
“Funky Soul” is feel good alternative rock which dabbles with funk influence, as the song’s title suggests. The funk is found in strategically groovy riffs and snazzy chord progressions that loop and mingle with fresh, punctuating drum licks. It has pop appeal, with The Morning Kings’ lead vocalist winding smooth and catchy “da-da-das” into the melody, filling space. This song makes me think of sunshine, warm sand in between my toes, and having fun with my friends. It’s the last track on the EP Soulstice which released in July 2025.
The Very Bad Days “Devil’s Door”
“Devil’s Door” released in June 2025 and is for fans of horror-comedy and indie flick end credit songs. Theatrical in tone and in lyricism, the song tinkers with storytelling as the band often does, setting up a scene of descending into hell, of “what you get when you walk through the devil’s door.” Advertising its release, The Very Bad Days stated on Instagram that “[the] latest single [is] inspired by @theblacktapespodcast [and] is a melodically charged 90s meets classic rock ballad to Dr. Strand and the BTP cast!”
Thomas Abban “Superstar”
Once given a feature in Rolling Stone, Thomas Abban is still deserving of his flowers as he continues to single-handedly create intriguing, complex, artistic compositions. Here, he has crafted an alternative ballad with smooth, soulful bones and diverse, multi-layered instrumentals which ground an otherwise expansive, electronically-infused swath of sound. The pairing of intricate, roomy electronic production with the equally weighted acoustic elements never clashes, mixed instead to harmonize and compliment, one enriching the other. Auxiliary percussion tempers bass-boosted accent beats and moves the total composition towards a certain earthiness, where other swells of strings and digital synths invite an ethereal character. Duplexity is the name of the game here — Abban’s vocals match that vibe too, sometimes soft, and sometimes strong. The strength is found in prayer as Abban weaves spiritual metaphors together and calls out for someone to “save [his] soul / Freedom won’t let [him] be free.”
