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Shorts: Release Friday – 18 July 2025
Oof. It’s been a while. I’ve been kinda busy throughout the last weeks, so now is actually the first time I find the time to put together my personal list of new releases. Bear with me, please. I’ll catch up on some of the things that I’ve missed. Let’s start with the most recent releases of last week: Fit For A King released a new song – and it comes with a feature. Chris Motionless of Motionless in White joined them for Witness The End and it’s a total banger: My slightly belated birthday present this year was a new single by Amon Amarth. We Rule The Waves was released on Thursday and it sounds very much…
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Oelde Open Air 2025
And here’s another small festival to have on your radar: Oelde Open Air takes place on 22nd and 23rd August 2025 at the Vier-Jahreszeiten-Park in Oelde, a small town in the north of Northrhine Westfalia, more or less between Münster and Bielefeld. The two days are rather to be considered two separate concerts, as there are no combined tickets available. Friday’s line up is finest German metalcore / post hardcore with Pentastone, Any Given Day and headliners Annisokay. Saturday is more on the German (Indie) Rock side with Friends Don’t Lie, Kapelle Petra and Madsen. Tickets can be purchased via Eventim or on the event’s website. The tickets are 49€ each.
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Music Forge Festival 2025
Support small festivals. That’s an important motto to keep in mind, given the fact that more and more smaller festivals are struggling with their ticket sales. So let’s give some spotlight to one of those „smaller“ festivals that comes with an insanely good line-up. Headliners this year include Callejon, Crystal Lake and Attila. From August 21st to 23rd, the relatively young Music Forge Festival invites you to party hard for three days. The festival takes place in Lich, a small town close to Gießen. The festival site is close to a public outdoor pool located in a forest, which can be visited for free during the festival days. Camping facilities are close by…
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Book review: Alice Oseman – Loveless
One of the big struggles when you’re trying to find books covering all the letters of LGBTQIA+ is finding books that match the A. And I. Honestly, this is a call to action: if anyone has any book recommendations concerning Inter representation, drop them in the comments or send me an email. Anyway, on the hunt for books representing aro/ace characters, I came across Alice Oseman’s novel Loveless. I hadn’t read any Alice Oseman books before, and I haven’t even watched the Heartstopper Netflix series, mostly because I used to be in a bubble where it was hyped so much that a typical thing happened that I observe in myself when I…
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Album review: Caliban – Back From Hell
I’ve planned to write this album review for way too long, but never found the time to do it. I know that by now it’s pretty pointless, as the album’s been out for way too long, but I don’t care because I’m listening to it right now and I have feelings about it that I need to put them into words. Allow me a moment of being a weird fangirl, please.
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Book Review: Vitor Martins – Here the Whole Time
This time I’m not cramming in my long-term memory to say a few words about a book I’ve read about a year ago. Instead, I’m reviewing a freshly read queer romance that was a delightful, easy and fast read – and super heartwarming. Vitor Martins‘ „Here the Whole Time“ is a young adult own voice story about two boys falling for each other – and their struggles. Short info: MLM, gay protagonists, bisexual & lesbian side characters, WLW side couple, gay author, Brazilian author Hint: I’ve read the German translation „Fünfzehn Tage sind für immer“, published by ONE
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Book review: Aiden Thomas – Cemetery Boys
It’s pride month ❤🧡💛💚💙💜 No better way to celebrate that than by advertising some queer books. I decided to use this time of the year for recommending some of the books I’ve read but either forgot or didn’t find the time / energy to review. Because there are indeed a few books that deserve a recommendation. One of those books is Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas. I’d easily call this one of the best queer books I’ve ever read and I’ll let you know why. Trans masc protagonist, MLM romance, trans author (Latinx) Hint: I’ve read the German translation published by Dragonfly as „Yadriel & Julian – Cemetery Boys)
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Shorts: Release Friday – 27 May 2025
I’m a bit late. My weekend was busy and my energy level was low – and so was the amount of new songs on my personal radar, but here’s the small fine selection: Schandmaul released their first single with their new singer Till Herence. It’s called In der Hand and while it’s very different from what Schandmaul fans might be used to, it’s still very Schandmaul. As a quick summary: Schandmaul recently posted a very emotional video in which singer Thomas officially handed the microphone over to Till, a long-time companion of the band and one of his stand-ins for the live shows last year. Unfortunately, Thomas’s cancer treatmand caused too much…
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Book Review: Matti Laaksonen – Nach dem Sturm die Stille
Before I start talking about the book, here’s an important note: I’m writing this review in English, but the book is only available in German. German? Matti Laaksonen? Yes, German. Despite the Finnish (pen?) name, Matti is a German author and unfortunately the books are only available in German. I’ve discovered Matti on Threads because we’re kinda in the same bubble – we both share a taste in music, in Finland and, obviously, my reading interests align with Matti’s writing. Queer YA romance? I’m all in for it. Even more so if the author is a queer nonbinary person with Annisokay songs in their writing playlist. I’ve had Matti’s books…
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Shorts: Release Friday – 23 May 2025
I’m a bit late to the party this time, but here’s my personal overview with my favourite releases from this week. Not a Friday release is Lost Society’s new single Dead People Scare Me (But The Living Make Me Sick), which is the first release since their album If The Sky Came Down in 2022 (and the intro to „their new era“). Another favourite of mine is Electric Callboy’s new single Revery, which is thematically on the darker, heavier side while, stylistically, it kinda carries a Power Metal vibe (I’ve read a comparison to older Sonata Arctica and it kinda fits?). One of my favourite Finnish Gothic Metal bands For My Pain…, who have recently started being…
