MINNESOTA SOUND REVIEWS - 10/22/2025
Reviews by: Alexandra Haynes, Writer @xalexonlinex
Edited by: Andrew Perrizo, Owner/Editor @melodicnoisemedia
If you like what we are doing please consider supporting us on Patreon, PayPal, or Venmo.
VVakefield “Snares”
Hardcore with metal bones, VVakefield’s “Snares,” released in September 2025, packs a big punch. With high impact instrumentals and powerful vocals, this track has a theatrical scope, taking the listener on a journey through heavyweight but snazzy drum work and hammering guitars that don’t falter on delivering tunefulness and ear-catching hooks. Look for VVakefield to release an EP on November 7th!
GrayBeat “Oh I Just”
Teeming with life, “Oh I Just” is a whirlwind of sound which harmonizes with itself, flowing into one swirling, glimmering end result. Released in September 2025, this single from the talented GrayBeat is a jungle track, leaning fully into the artist and producer’s multi-genre influences. The vocal sample was highlighted on a fun, interactive Instagram post from the artist, showing the original and his version side-by-side for comparison. This behind the scenes peek at GrayBeat’s process adds a layer of authentic depth to the listening experience, as you can certainly appreciate the careful mixing that goes into weaving in such a key melodic element, transforming it in an old school fashion. Lively and classic, “Oh I Just” has a certain charming, electronic timelessness.
Aloysius the Band “just a tickle in the throat”
Aloysius the Band released “just a tickle in the throat” as track four of eleven on the LP mortise+tenon in July 2025. Romantic and eloquent storytelling is sung with timber and twang over a rich, shimmering quilt of warm guitar playing that gets infused with many layers of surprising and welcome sonic additions. Finding itself somehow both expansive yet rooted, this unique flavor of folk rock is fresh and satisfying, a good example of pretty composition and experimentalism that doesn’t see the song lose its core identity.
Gully Boys “Mother”
With the memorable refrain, “What did you say to me? / Would you say that to your mother?” this track from Gully Boys embodies feminine rage of the sort provoked by double standards and the misogynistic hypocrisy of a tactless man-in-pursuit (“Remember your manners / Keep your hands to yourself.”) “Mother” is featured on the band’s eponymous album released in October 2025. It has a crisp production which refuses to drown out the otherwise purposefully distorted vocals that are perfectly gritty and beautifully controlled. The tight instrumentals are viscous, with snarlingly good riffage and rapid, heavy handed percussion driving the deservedly angry pace.
Damn Phibian “Afterbreakfast”
Released as a single in August 2025, Damn Phibian’s “Afterbreakfast” has an effortless cool to it, each vocal quirk and woozy indie melody boogieing along seamlessly. With a vintage quality, this song captures a funky, carefree vibe without losing focus on its serious instrumentalism and driving, looping melodies which densify over time. Its lyrics are equally playful, an illusive retelling of bumping into people you probably shouldn’t have (“I love you / I hate you / I wish I hadn't seen you today” … “You tryna take me for a sucka? / Well two can play at that game / You know I wanna try you like you wanna / But not til after breakfast, babe.”)
Soulkeeper “Go Ask Alice”
From the album Join Us in Creating Excellence, released in September 2025, “Go Ask Alice” samples Jefferson Airplane’s iconic “White Rabbit” (1967) which has had serious staying power in popular culture, often as the soundtrack to on-screen drug use. Of course, the Alice in Wonderland references are plain for all to see in “White Rabbit”; hearing the iconic “One pill makes you larger” lyric at the beginning of “Go Ask Alice” primes the listener to understand that we are invoking psychedelic aestheticism while transmorgifying Matrix-coded, pill-laced poetics into extremely rambunctious and technical metalcore. Soulkeeper also utilize a ritualistic, Catholic symbology (“Your shepherd, my wandering lamb,” “Follow the choir and sing /Devotional ecstasy”) to highlight their gothic metaphors while plowing heavily through sonic space with unrelenting energy and speed. Their choppy instrumental breaks add a hefty noisiness to the style, deranged and glitchy as things break down throughout.
