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2:30 pm in Montreal, and Michel ‘Away’ Langevin greets me from his home. We are here to chat about Symphonique, the stunning new album by Canadian legends VoïVod. A collaboration with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, and recorded in June 2025, it is incredible. Few bands are so suited to crafting a dystopian cinematic soundtrack, but then there are few bands like VoïVod.

VoïVod were formed in 1983, with 16 studio albums under their belt, the collaboration with an orchestra follows in the footsteps of a hundred Metal bands, but few make it sound so incredible. But before we get into the album, I have to clarify a question that has bothered me for years. Do the band call each other by their nicknames or their first names?

“We call each other by our nicknames,” laughs Away, confirming that even when Jason Newsted was in the band, they called him Jasonick!

Having lived with Symphonique for a few weeks ahead of the interview, I am in awe of the quality and complexity of the release. Away explains how it came together. “The Montreal Symphony Orchestra reached out three or four years ago. It took a couple of years to put together, but we knew some of the songs could be adapted to an orchestra”.

He refers to the Nothingface period (1989). “We were really influenced by modern composers like Shostakovich, Penderecki, Bartok, Stravinsky. So, we put a lot of that into our music. We knew that certain songs from Nothingface in particular would fit with an orchestra.

“There were other songs that were really influenced by the early cyberpunk movies like Mad Max, Blade Runner, and Terminator. Forgotten In Space was really influenced by Mad Max 2, Road Warrior. And the song has many movements, so we figured it could be a good choice.

“We tried to stay away from real Thrashy material, although we picked Nuclear War from the first album because we thought it could become a very scary military march with an orchestra. It came out really good.

“Of course, we wanted to try the Sid Barrett song Astronomy Domine with an orchestra. It was really fantastic. Some songs actually surprised me. I kind of knew that because of the drama and the songs like Into My Hyper Cube or Fall, I knew that it could become very interesting with an orchestra.

“But the song Fall in particular became even more dramatic. During all three performances in Montreal and Quebec, after that song, we had a standing ovation.

“But all of this took a couple of years to put together with the arranger, Hugo Bejan. We were very involved with him, supplied the charts and a lot of ideas. I was mainly involved with the graphics animated behind the stage, so a lot of work on my end regarding that. Now we have the show down, we’re actually going to do it again early next year in our hometown, where we formed in 1983, with the local orchestra. So that should be quite an event.”

Drumming for a band like VoïVod is intense anyway, but throw in working with a conductor with a symphony orchestra, and it is a different ballgame altogether. There was a lot of pressure resting on Away’s shoulders. How much adaptation did he have to make to fit the orchestral arrangements?

“Well, the difficulty was that we were coming off a tour where we were slowly including Symphonique songs into the set list until we finally did the performances with the orchestras. But these were new arrangements where I had to stop there and there, where I’m not supposed to. I really had to be focused.

“I worked a lot with Dina Gilbert, the conductor. She has very frank movements, and I was following her a lot. We had quite a few cues where she’d turn around, because there are many breaks in our music. We worked a lot with her, and she’ll be with us for the next show. Hopefully, she’ll be with us everywhere because otherwise we’d have to start from scratch.

“As a drummer, I really had to be super tight with the conductor. I even had to change my style of playing just a bit because, aside from punk and Metal, I learned to play a lot with proggy material like Magma, Van der Graaf, Soft Machine. So, there are a lot of ghost notes on the snare that I had to try to get rid of and to be more precise.

“Aside from that, it’s the same energy. These shows were a highlight in my career, but definitely the biggest challenge because of what you were saying earlier. If I missed a beat, the whole orchestra gets lost.

“The first show, I was really, really focused. I didn’t have time to look at the screen behind the public or the orchestra. I was very focused on being tight with the conductor. Second show was more relaxed. Show three, I could really enjoy it.

“The one we documented in Quebec City, I was really at ease, and I was able to really enjoy the whole environment and watch the musicians and the animations behind and make eye contact with the public. I would say the main difficulty for me was technical because we all had in-ears with a belt pack. We couldn’t really have monitors. I was also playing in a glass cage on the side of the stage, so I had to adapt to that environment a little bit.

“Hopefully, we can take this show on the road with local orchestras. What they must do is, like what the Quebec Symphony Orchestra did, rent the charts from the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. So that’s the way to do it with a local orchestra.”

Being to the side of the stage to accommodate the orchestra rather than being centrally placed did slightly impact initially, with Away telling me that he felt a bit far from the action. It was only on the first show that the real challenge came to light.

“I didn’t realise when we were sound-checking for the first rehearsals that the projections were reflecting on the glass cage I was in. And so, once we started the first show, it was hard for me to see Chewy because I had the animations right in front of me, reflecting on the plastic.

“I didn’t realise that before all the lights were down, so it’s something I had to fix the next day. After that, it went well. But again, I think that Chewy was exaggerating his movements for me because we were so far away.

“Usually, I’m right there with the guys. I usually don’t like to have a super high riser for the drum. I like to be there. It’s so technical and proggy that we need to be very focused together. Even though it took me a while to get used to the in-ear situation with the iPad, with the LEDs and everything, it was wonderful to hear every single member of the orchestra. So that helped a lot. It made me feel like I was in the action with the other guys at least.”

Away tells me that VoïVod is a band that has always embraced the change in technology and developments in new equipment. “The whole thing was moving together with the art. I was switching to digital, trying to explore new technology. We’re doing the same in the studio.

“The big discovery was in Berlin, when time came to record Dimension Hatröss with Harris Johns, the producer at Music Lab in Berlin, who had done Killing Technology. The second time we went there, he had a bigger studio, and he had bought a sampler, also a Roland Octopad. I really enjoyed swimming around with this new gear.

“When we did Nothingface, everything was digital. It was brand new. So, back then, it was stressful in the sense that we always tried to be experimental. Piggy was a tape manipulator, and then he didn’t seem to have a problem with the engineer cutting the tape to do some reverse effects.

“I was sweating, man. I had just spent hours recording the perfect tracks, and suddenly we decided to have like this reverse thing going. Then the razor blade comes out, and oh my God.

“When Pro Tools showed up, it was like, wow. So as much as we still try to, I’m reluctant to play over loops, but I like to have this real sound here and there, hitting on a pad. So we’re not necessarily techno using sequences and all that. It’s still organic, no click track. I mean, we try to have a click track in the studio but not live.

“In the studio, it gets crazy because there are many accelerations and decelerations. We programmed the whole thing, and I just play along, and it’s quite amazing.”

Michel ‘Away’ Langevin has supplied a lot of art to many different artists. “They use different techniques to animate my characters,” he says. “So, some use 2D traditional animation, some use the 3D CGI, some use AI. I always dreamed of seeing my characters animated, but I just didn’t have time to do much of it.

“I did some with Commodore and Amiga in the ’80s, and I did some in the mid-’90s with Silicon Graphics and 3D animation. But I’ve always been so busy being a rock ‘n’ roll drummer on the road, in the studio, that I’m happy when animator people are animating my drawings with different mediums.

“Some of the artists were feeding AI with my art, and it was my characters moving. So, I didn’t mind that at all. I use it occasionally because I studied science. I didn’t study art at all at university. I don’t have the notions. Quite often, I will ask AI to give me an example of perspective.

“Let’s say you want to draw somebody running towards you. It’s hard for me. And so, I quite often ask for an example. But I learned to be satisfied very quickly because of the environmental problem that we all know now, how much water it takes to cool down the data centres and all that. So, I’m trying to do my best. I try to be very careful.”

I wondered if any of the band had ever objected to Away’s designs for album covers, given that he is responsible for all their artwork. Thankfully, this has never happened, and he also explores the generation of the striking artwork for Symphonique. “No, I was never told this is not your best drawing. I know that everybody is really pleased with the Symphonique album.”

Away tells me he used digital tools where you can test different colours. “I supplied the examples to the other guys. There was one that had more of a cold approach, dark and almost black metal. Then I had this other one that was more like golden sunny. And that’s the one.

“Chewy really liked it. He said the shows were luminous, and I didn’t see them as dark, even though they have a dystopian feel. I went for the bright colours, which will probably stick out a lot at the record shop.

“It’s always been a goal of mine, ever since I saw the first Iron Maiden album cover when I was a teenager. I keep that in mind, because when I first came into the record store, that’s the first thing I saw. I grabbed it immediately before all my friends did.

“So, when I did the War And Pain cover for the first album, maybe before, that’s what I had in mind as well. It was sort of my homage to the first Iron Maiden cover, really.”

I tell Away that is exactly what happened when I bought War And Pain back in 1984. It was the album art that caught my eye. You clearly got it right back then, I tell him.

“That’s perfect,” he says. “It’s what I also had in mind when I bought the first Iron Maiden album. One will buy Judas Priest’s British Steel, the other one will buy Ace Of Spades, and then I will buy Iron Maiden, and then we’ll go home.

“We had to hitchhike 500 kilometres to Montreal to buy our vinyl. But when I saw that cover, and I turned the cover around, and I looked at the band, I thought, this is my new favourite band. When I went home, and I put the needle on, it was exactly what I wanted to hear. It was Prowler.

“That’s what I had in mind when I did War And Pain. It had to represent the music perfectly. I felt I was the only one who could do that, being in the band.”

VoïVod will be heading back on tour in Europe by the time you read this. They start with their first visit to Iceland at Satan Fest before Holland and then a series of shows across the UK with Midnight in support. With a full month of festivals to come in July and August, Away explains that the key to maintaining some sense of normality on the road is to get as much sleep as possible.

“Of course, the drums keep me in shape. I try to eat properly. I don’t party anymore on the road. It’s been a while. 25 years ago, I saw Tommy Aldridge with Whitesnake, and he was doing 90 minutes of double kick drums. I thought, if I want to be that guy, I better take care of myself.”

Away is a big fan of the rental bikes available in most cities as well. “I have a series of exercises that I do daily. I can still do it. The only thing I did over the years is I changed the size of my drumsticks. Three times, from Chord drumsticks to now, normal sticks for my wrist to make sure nothing happens. It’s good, we can still rock, I can tell you.”

VoïVod famously supported Rush on the Canadian leg of the Presto tour in 1990. I can’t miss the opportunity to find out what Away thinks of the Rush 50 Something tour. He’s excited. “Hopefully we’ll be in town when they come to Montreal. I’m not sure yet. I think it might be in September, maybe. But hopefully I will be around. I’m really happy for them”.

Away explains that as the sole member of VoïVod from the start, he’s well placed to give his opinion on the critics who say it is not Rush. “It’s not obvious when people tell you it’s not the same since this and that. But people leave, some people unfortunately pass, and some people find another line of work.

“But for me, I dedicated my life to VoïVod for 43 years now, and it paid off in the end. A couple of times, my friends were telling me I was crazy to go on because Metal had a bit of a lower profile. But now everything’s fine.

“We pack clubs, and we’re very well established. We play great festivals, and so we’re enjoying what’s going on. We can live off our music, and so we are having a great time.”

VoïVod release Symphonique on 5 June 2026 via Century Media Records. Pre-orders are available from voivodband.lnk.to/Symphonique-Live.

VoïVod / Symphonique Turns Progressive Thrash Into Cinematic Sci-Fi Grandeur

Canadian sci-fi Metal innovators VOIVOD have announced a fresh batch of 2026 tour dates, spanning North America and an extensive Summer run across Europe and the UK.

The post VoïVod / Michel ‘Away’ Langevin Discusses Ambitious Symphonique Project first appeared on MetalTalk – Heavy Metal News, Reviews and Interviews.

Great new prog you must hear from Long Earth, Pelagic United, Ditch The Demon, John Bassett and more in all new Tracks Of The Week

Posted on June 5th 2026, 12:08p.m.

A war of words, They want you on their side, It’s all for power, To conquer and divide.

Promises have a strange power: they ask us to believe in something that has not happened yet, turning a word given in the present into a bridge toward the future. At their best, they hold up friendships, love affairs, movements, contracts, countries, and songs — invisible, but load-bearing. But somewhere along the way, the promise became another tool of persuasion, polished into a slogan, stamped onto a product, fed through a corporate choir, and sold back to us under fluorescent light. Now promises arrive dressed in branding, panic, and performance, offered by people who profit when everyone else starts doubting the ground beneath their feet. The word remains, but the weight has changed: what once carried trust now often carries leverage.

That crisis of faith runs through “World of Promises,” the new single from Scottish synthwave and synthpop artist Michael Oakley. The track appears on his new album Prologue, out now via NewRetroWave, and finds Oakley turning the bright machinery of retro-futurist pop toward something darker: a world of overstimulation, public fracture, and language drained of meaning.

Musically, “World of Promises” moves with a sleek, late-night pressure: a seductive bass synth, compressed dance-floor stomp, warping metallic accents, cinematic pads, and Oakley’s silk-smooth vocal delivery cutting through the dry ice. The reference points are there — Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, The Midnight, FM-84 — but Oakley pushes the track into a glossier, more high-stakes register, where synthpop romance meets corporate dread and the dance floor starts to look like a control room.

Lyrically, “World of Promises” takes aim at false hope, weaponized messaging, corporate agendas, and the way public life turns people into factions. Oakley frames the song as a question of trust: “Do our words still mean a thing?” From there, the track spirals through cracked social bonds, power games, and the sense that every statement arrives with a hidden hand behind it. The song’s title becomes less a phrase of optimism than a warning label for an age built on empty guarantees.

The video turns that idea into a neon-noir surveillance thriller. It opens inside a red-lit club world of dark glasses, glowing tubes, shadowed faces, and bodies caught in the blur of VHS damage. Oakley appears amid the party’s controlled chaos, while a red-haired woman in patterned sunglasses watches from above, then from a bank of monitors, studying security footage as if she were tracking a target through a private system of power.

From there, the clip cuts between bound figures, gloved hands, a blindfolded man wrapped in rope, a silver briefcase, and a gun and martini left under club lights. The imagery plays like a retro cyber-crime caper spliced into a nightclub fever dream: CCTV grids, scan-mode graphics, coded data, red rooms, blue corridors, and sudden flashes of violence held back by the video’s stylized restraint. Captions break the tension with “WHOA. HEY!”, “THAT’S HER!”, and “STOP!!!” as the video’s mystery red-haired femme fatale, brandishing the silver briefcase, gives two men the slip—giving the clip the feel of the Tech Noir scene in The Terminator, The Starck Club scene in Robocop, or a late-night broadcast from a cult film aired on Nightflight.

By the final stretch, the video widens into a chase for the woman with the case, moving through backstage rooms, club corridors, a logo wall, and a burst of falling papers. When her pursuer tries to vaporize her, the blast rebounds, turning the weapon back on him and leaving smoke curling around his boots as she slips outside to a waiting car. There, the case is opened for a man whose interest only deepens the mystery — a sly nod to the glowing, unknowable MacGuffin at the center of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. It is sleek, theatrical, and slightly absurd in the best way: part espionage fantasy, part nightclub power struggle, part commentary on who gets watched, who gives the orders, and who walks away with the prize.

Watch the video for “World of Promises” below:

Michael Oakley is a Scottish synthwave producer, songwriter, and musician whose work draws from synthpop, new wave, and widescreen 1980s studio craft. Born in Glasgow, Oakley moved to Los Angeles in 2016 before settling in Canada in 2018. A self-taught musician, he first broke through with the California EP in 2017, followed by his debut full-length, Introspect, in 2019 and Odyssey in 2021.

Across his catalog, Oakley has become a key figure in the modern synthwave world, balancing polished pop songwriting with the romantic voltage of vintage machines. His work has appeared in gaming projects including Wave Break: High Tides and Retro Drive, and he has also designed sound packs and synth patches for producers working in the same retro-electronic orbit. With Prologue, Oakley returns after nearly five years with a sharper, bigger, and more politically charged sound.

“Imagine what Depeche Mode’s Violator album would have sounded like if it was produced by Trevor Horn.” Says Oakley, “Or if Peter Hook stumbled into Haddaway’s recording sessions. That’s Prologue.”

Michael Oakley’s new album Prologue is out now. Available in red and blue editions across multiple formats, including vinyl, cassette, CD, and MiniDisc.

Order the album here.

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The post Synthwave Maestro Michael Oakley Surveys a Broken System in Neon-Noir Video for “World of Promises” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Oppenheimer MKII’s Oh! My Mind Is a Storm is paranoia rendered as pop machinery: compact, severe, oddly catchy, and built around the sense that the private mind has become a public emergency. The duo of Andy Oppenheimer, on lyrics and vocals, and Mahk Rumbae, on arrangements and production, work inside a strain of icy synth-pop that has always understood dread as a useful dance partner. Here, that dread is internalized, digitized, and sent back through the screen as a command.

Mahk Rumbae’s production tightens around it with crunchy drums, rippling minimal synths, and ghostly pads that recall an eighties science-fiction serial caught between public-access television and a government transmission. Andy Oppenheimer’s soft-clipped delivery lands like a machine reciting beat poetry after reading too many classified reports.

That sense of psychic pressure is the point. Oh! My Mind Is a Storm drives panic into club form, with Andy Oppenheimer declaring, ‘When I go dark, I’m into demon mode’. The line is funny, faintly ridiculous, and unnervingly current, catching the way contemporary anxiety often borrows the language of online performance. Demon mode becomes a state of overload, a persona, a coping mechanism, a threat.

The accompanying video is deliberately austere: Andy Oppenheimer faces the camera, his head floating in greyscale, the image warped and reduced until he appears less like a performer than a transmission that has survived from some late-twentieth-century broadcast bunker. There is a touch of Max Headroom in the presentation, though drained of commercial smirk and turned into something more spectral: a pair of cathode-tube ghosts, bending time while barely moving at all. The minimalism suits the song. Nothing distracts from the faces, the voices, or the sense of a mind caught in feedback with itself.

Watch below:

The track also sharpens the broader concerns of Embrace The Dark, the long-awaited second album from Oppenheimer MKII, due June 30th via Wave Tension Records. Embrace The Dark does exactly as its title suggests: it welcomes dark, apocalyptic themes for our current turbulent times. In nine mind-blowing tracks, Mahk’s thunderous dance rhythms and addictive synth-pop melodies combine with Andy’s latest dystopian (and sometimes utopian) visions of our past, present and future.

Andy Oppenheimer, formerly one-half of the cult 1980s synth-pop duo Oppenheimer Analysis, brings the clipped authority of the early minimal-synth era, while Mahk Rumbae, known for Codex Empire, Mitra Mitra, and Konstruktivists, gives the material a harder frame. Since their 2013 debut, The Presence of the Abnormal, Oppenheimer MKII have issued singles through Falco Invernale Records, Peripheral Minimal, and TONN Recordings. With “Oh! My Mind Is a Storm,” Oppenheimer MKII turns mental overload into a stark little broadcast from the edge of the future.

Listen to Oh! My Mind Is a Storm below and order the album here.

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The post Oppenheimer MKII Returns in Ghostly Cathode-Ray Form in Video for “Oh My Mind Is a Storm” — New Album “Embrace the Dark” Out Soon! appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

SZ‘s Higher is a masterclass in progressive techno restraint, building momentum through subtle shifts rather than obvious peaks. Driven by hypnotic grooves, atmospheric textures, and a finely tuned sense of tension, the track unfolds with patience and precision, drawing listeners deeper into its immersive late-night world. Rather than chasing instant gratification, Higher thrives on gradual evolution, allowing its layered sound design and rhythmic pulse to generate a captivating sense of forward motion. Sleek, focused, and dancefloor-ready, this is a track that understands the power of anticipation.

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Ahead of them taking over the main stage at Download Festival next weekend, South Arcade have shared another ace single.

Titled ‘DEADMEAT’, it further cements how great the band are at channelling the bright breeziness of yesterday alongside the pep and heart that makes modern rock so compelling. Sugary sweet and cute in all the right ways, it’s the sort of song designed to get lodged in your head for weeks on end. A love song to end all love songs.

The band had this to say about the sentiment of the song, stating, “We went into writing wanting to tell a sort of modern Romeo and Juliet story (but with a less depressing ending), and we left with DEADMEAT. It has this reckless optimism about it where the two characters’ worlds shouldn’t really overlap but they’ve found each other regardless – they want to escape all of that noise, steal a car and leave town. It had this ‘us against the world’ energy that we loved.”

It follows on from the incredible ‘SUPERMAN’, which sounds like this. Make sure to watch the video in 240p for the full 2005 experience

As well as taking over the main stage at Download Festival next weekend (June 11), the band are also set to headline the iconic Brixton Academy early next year on February 25.

The post South Arcade Share Cutesy New Track ‘DEADMEAT’ appeared first on Rock Sound.

Black Bordello’s latest single, Numb-Lock, is a song that begins in a theatre of injury, but its drama is never decorative. The London art-rock group, led by Sienna Bordello, treats excess as a form of precision: operatic singing, gothic glamour, piano-room grandeur, and lyrics that peer into psychic damage without turning it into costume. Here, the band narrows its aim.

The subject is physical abuse, inflicted by a former friend, and the strange afterlife of the body once trust has been turned into threat. Numb-Lock is concerned less with spectacle than with the slow return of sensation: the frozen mind, the private inventory of harm, the labor of self-protection when the danger has passed but the body has kept its own evidence. Bordello sings with an almost formal control, allowing emotion to gather through restraint rather than volume alone. Her soprano can recall Kate Bush’s bright altitude, Kristeen Young’s melodrama, and Siouxsie Sioux’s theatrical command, though its force here comes from the way she lets beauty carry dread without sweetening it.

The arrangement has the broad, dangerous elegance of a Bond theme, but Black Bordello gives that scale a bruised interior. Classical flourishes rise against post-punk undertow; the song moves with ceremony, yet its emotional motion is jagged, as if each grand entrance must first pass through a locked room. Altsach’s production gives the instruments enough space to loom without crowding the central performance. When the track swells, the effect is architectural: arches, chandeliers, cracked plaster, a voice standing in the middle, too exacting for easy rescue.

Produced by Balazs Altsach, the single takes the shape of an orchestral post-punk ballad, built for velvet curtains and hard facts, with strings and bass pressure moving around Bordello’s voice as if the room were being rearranged by memory itself.

Numb-Lock suggests that a band’s most powerful work often may come when the music is made to serve a wound, and the wound is allowed to speak in a voice large enough to survive it.

Listen to the song below, or via the band’s streaming page here:

Since forming after the pandemic, Black Bordello have built a career on theatrical risk. They have shared stages with The Libertines, Goat Girl, Fat Dog, and Pete Doherty, while recent appearances at Left of the Dial and New Colossus have placed them in a wider transatlantic frame. With a third album drawing attention, and 2026 dates including London’s 100 Club, Kendal Calling, Oslo, Berlin’s 8mm Festival, and selected shows supporting David J, Black Bordello are moving with unusual assurance, gathering baroque ambition into something hard, lucid, and oddly intimate.

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The post London’s Black Bordello Delivers Dark, Wounded Elegance With Bond-Theme Ballad “Numb-Lock” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Cabra‘s What’s The Word? effortlessly bridges the gap between nostalgic R&B smoothness and contemporary UK rap swagger. Built around an infectious groove, playful lyricism, and a memorable hook, the track radiates confidence without ever feeling forced. Its laid-back flow and polished production evoke the golden era of early-2000s crossover hits while maintaining a distinctly modern edge. Catchy, charismatic, and packed with feel-good energy, What’s The Word? is the kind of track that slips naturally into late-night drives, summer playlists, and repeat listens alike.

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The background of Leoni Jane Kennedy is well documented. PRS Guitars official artist, chosen by Roger Taylor and Brian May for the Freddie Mercury Scholarship and a regular contributor/performer for the RUSHfest Scotland Songs for Neil albums. She is also responsible for the fine New World Woman Rush covers release in 2023.

Leoni Jane Kennedy – Synthetic

Release Date: 15 June 2026

Words: Paul Hutchings

Years in the making, this remarkably talented singer and guitarist is now poised to release her debut album, Synthetic, and the wait is worth it. It is not an overly long record, seven songs stretch just over 34 minutes in total. But they say it is quality, not quantity, and, on this occasion, that is spot on. 

Given her association with the world of progressive rock, one could be forgiven for anticipating the meandering noodling sometimes produced. Not so. There is a smoky, slow drawl on the opening title track, which slowly builds.

It is a gentle introduction to the album, subtle and calming, yet possessing the potential to get just a bit more wild at any moment. It does not explode instantly, yet the chorus that does kick in has ample dramatic elements. The pace is perfectly crafted, the clever and intricate guitar work reminding you that whilst Leoni has a stunning voice, she is a great guitarist as well.

Each piece of work has familiarity yet presents something new. There is plenty of blues rock in here, but she switches to semi-bluegrass, pop, and alternative styles with such ease that you quickly see and hear why there is such a bright future for her.

One listen to Closer is ample demonstration of her talent, as it morphs from one style to another.

The songs are emotional, wrapping imaginary arms around you as they ease along. It is impossible not to be drawn deep into the web, for there is a passion that runs deep.

Sloe is absorbing, switching tempo with an ease that is too often taken for granted. There is something incredibly special about the punctured style that mixes with some lush Hammond. 

Synthetic works in many ways. Ideal work accompaniment, it is also perfect for a lazy evening deep dive with decent headphones and a glass of red. The punchy beat of Test The Water compliments the laid-back Different Woman. Both tracks work superbly, but together they add a delicious yin and yang that fits neatly. 

This is an album that is both instant and yet demands attention. Yes, you can give it a cursory listen, but there is plenty to unpack and enjoy in more detail.

Closing track Temple shows the perfect way to conclude this release, with some delicate strings stirring in the background as the track slowly unfurls.

I feel it is one that will get repeated plays for some time to come, and I will be watching this talented woman with great interest as her career unfolds.

With support slots to Solstice and the incredible Walter Trout coming later this year, as well as a slew of summer appearances, you can only see one direction for Leoni Jane Kennedy. And that is up.

Leoni Jane Kennedy releases Synthetic on 15 June 2026. A pre-save of the album is available from here.

Leoni Jane Kennedy / From Setbacks To Synthetic, A Story of Resilience

The post Leoni Jane Kennedy / Synthetic Is A Debut Album Worth the Wait first appeared on MetalTalk – Heavy Metal News, Reviews and Interviews.