a review of an album by a guy who doesn't prioritize music

Longtime Brooklyn musician Brian Russ finally lets the music surface

Brian Russ has a family, a job, he coaches baseball—stuff that often comes with mature adulthood. But he found time to put this album together. He calls the project Hand Gestures.

Some people—maybe especially once they reach their 40s—try to be in the moment but also frequently find themselves thinking about the past and trying to relate it to now. That’s what happens in these simple little songs.

For starters, “Once it Starts to Kick In” is a simple little jam about opening up oneself to whatever good there is in whatever reality has become. The song includes an overdriven guitar that intrudes in a way that is at odds with the easy-going sound of the drums, acoustic guitar, and vocal. And mid-song, a little keyboard offers a toy melody that plays well with that overdrive.

Most of the album is like this: simple songs—songs that feel like they were already written, and Russ just had to channel them for himself.

Russ has been playing music a while. Check out the video “I’m Not Lying” by a band he was in, Backwords, posted more than 10 years ago. Man, that is a good song. The pining, the purity of the voice? Lovely. The loose composition and modest hi-hat tapping away the time. That oldie has a kind and rooted sound.

 

The Hand Gestures self-titled album will be released October 31, 2025, on Russ’s own label, Campers’ Rule Records. But today he needs to stop at Home Depot to get a spare key made and pick up some weed killer.

Notes: A lot generous, this review. I don't think Russ is even the singer for Backwords. That song was the main reason I wrote this.

some good—really good—death metal lyrics for anyone to use

ʿAtā Reborn into Royalty
 

Black robes flow from the princess, armed with a shining knife
Her cult of worshipers beneath stained glass kneel and prepare for death
The hate she has for those who love her expands, exploding stars
“Please kill me” they chant in verse, shrieks of love, all their breath

Skin and sinew give way to the blade, she spits venom into their eyes
She of endless sight and time exacts torture on their souls
Goat bleats and human gurgles unite in praise for ʿAtā
Another three-toed creation feeds and feasts and grows

She birthed ninety-nine precious young who hunger for human flesh
But the last one, stillborn, hangs rotting, suspended over her bed

about July 22, 2025

On Saturday, August 23, 2025, she finally cried about Ozzy Osbourne dying, of all things. “Goodbye to Romance” and “Mama, I’m Coming Come.” She was so sad. Cried while listening. She also read a couple of old emails she exchanged with a boyfriend and was impressed by those people. She read an email from her sister. Christ, she was feeling a lot. A three-hour-tour situation.

 

On that Diary of a Madman tour, a midget was always swinging from a noose overhead during the performance. 

Notes: Ozzy was 76.

 

another review, this time of a punk band from Sweden

Fast, dirty songs give you that little kick in the ass you need

Maybe try some fast living vicariously with Spøgelse and these speedy elbow-throwing songs. The Swedish hardcore punk band advertise a lifestyle of motion, momentum, and attitude.

Of course the first song is titled “Who Cares,” but it shortly introduces the band and singer’s confident, chin-out sound—“No, I don’t want that attitude, I don’t want to love you, No, I don’t need that shit from you, I guess I don’t.” It’s a good fuck-you of a song with fuzz-busted guitars and mind-made-up tempo. “Terrible Head” offers more of the same, but Spøgelse at least sound like they’re having fun.

The production throughout leaves instruments muffled and buried, for better or worse. And the drums, which run a little ahead of the rest of the band, sound buried under the distortion and noise.

Most of these songs are barely a minute long, but “Kick Them Where It Hurts” manages almost two and a half minutes of okay stuff, starting with a chunky little riff that beckons the rest to come jam. The song even makes space for some hot licks. The playing on this song outshines the vocal. Everywhere else, that voice is the album’s strength.

If you’re looking for a RIYL, it’s probably Motorhead. Listen to “East Coast Nightmare” and try not to hear that influence.

Spøgelse debuted with a self-titled album in spring 2023. This follow-up, “Spøgelse II,” came out via Welfare Sounds & Records on October 24, 2025.