EP REVIEW: Mothica – Somewhere In Between


Mothica’s Somewhere in Between (Sharptone Records) steps away from the darker synth pop of her previous full-length, Kissing Death. Her sound has now evolved into something closer to the sonic zip code of artists leaning toward the version of modern metal that blends the genre with pop, like Poppy and Spiritbox. Heavier guitars are just being pushed more to the forefront, so it’s not a huge leap from her previous sound, and it does not feel like she is jumping on a bandwagon. The pop sound she toyed with on her last album is being refined and brought to a larger-than-life, cinematic scale. Lyrically, conceptual, but it deals with themes of inner struggle.

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END OF YEAR STAFF LIST: Wil Cifer’s Top 20 Albums of 2025 and 2026 Predictions


I know you’ve already read at least 10 top lists for the year, and I’ve written at least 20 of them in various corners of the internet for different genres. So what I’ve done to keep things fresh is make this a look at the top 2O artists whose albums set the bar in their respective genres for 2026, and the bands most likely to rise to the occasion and take the top spots for 2026. Being neuro-spicy, I of course had to arrange them ranked by how many times I listened to each album, so thanks to Last FM, the total plays of each album are included as an additional data point, in case you have an official ranking kink. So here’s my top 20 albums for the year and my hopes for the bands to watch in 2026. 

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Brian Burkheiser’s Scatterbrain (ex I Prevail) Shares Debut Single and Video


Scatterbrain, the new project from former I Prevail member, Brian Burkheiser, have just launched their first single. The new track, a cover of Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do,” also comes with an official music video. Watch it in the article below.
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