Shorts: Release Friday – 22 August 2025
It’s been a while again. My summer has been busy. I guess at this point I can be happy if I manage to post a Release Friday once a month. Sorry sorry. Here’s what caught my attention recently:
Firstly, let’s start with a fresh release today from one of my favourite German bands: Versengold released a new single, this time featuring the German rock band Madsen. Falscher Leuchtturm is a very typical Versengold-song that makes me tap my feet:
A highly awaited new release for me was Private Line’s new single Alterlife. Private Line are a Finnish sleaze rock band I’ve been listening to since my teenage days. They went on a break for a few years, then announced their return last year with a live show. And now they’ve released their first single after many years, which is a bit „milder“ than most of their older stuff, yet pretty much sounds like the old Private Line.
On 20th August, The Halo Effect released a new single If You Were Here. It’s very calm, yet has a distinct The Halo Effect sound. Nevertheless, I personally am not as caught as by most other of their songs.
On August 15th, there was a new release from I Prevail‘s upcoming album Violent Nature. With Annihilate Me they released a single that has a bit more clear singing and while I was worried of the post-Brian Burkheiser-days I am relieved to say that this song sounds amazing and gets me very excited for their new album:
One day earlier, on August 14th, there was also a new single from Lorna Shore. With Prison of Flesh, Will Ramos tackles the topic of dementia in his own family. It’s the third single released from their upcoming album I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me and I admit that I could not watch the video clip yet because it was a bit too bloody for me. But the song slaps. Oh my god, the song slaps.
On August 9th, Bad Omens blessed us with a new song after quite a while of more or less silence. The beginning of Specter gives me a bit of an „old Linkin Park“ vibe before the song enfolds its true potential as a beautiful Bad Omens song that asks the question: Do You Feel Love?
On August 7th, there was finally a new song by my beloved Swedish band Aviana. Singer Joel Holmqvist announced the release stating that this was one of his own favourite Aviana songs – and I understand why. Evermore is stunningly beautiful and I am so so so excited for their next album because every single song so far was a banger:
On August 1st, one of my favourite smaller German bands released a new single: Ghost by Oceans is the first single from their upcoming EP We Are Nøt Økay Part II, and it hurts as much as any other Oceans-song, as the lyrics deal with social anxiety:
Another release from August 1st is part of the soundtrack of Dämmerland part II. It’s once again a feature with Versengold, whose singer Malte Hoyer is one of the founding fathers of Dämmerland – and Schiff aus Glas is perhaps my new favourite Versengold-song:
And another one from the 1st of August: The amazing Samurai Pizza Cats released another pizza-related banger called Fear No Slice and I have no words, I just love it.
On 29th July, one of my favourite band discoveries this year released perhaps my favourite single of the year. Orbit Culture‘s Hydra is an incredibly good song that got me massively excited for their upcoming album. I love every single second of this song and I can’t wait to see them live on their headline tour this fall with Gaerea and Atlas.
