STONED JESUS have released 'Jackal', a six-and-a-half-minute mini prog opera and the latest piece of 'Songs to Moon' to reach daylight ahead of the album's October 16 release on Season of Mist. It follows 'Under the Skin' and the '90s-styled 'Velvet' video, and it is by some distance the strangest of the three.
Frontman Igor Sydorenko frames it as a technical joke at the expense of the genre he is working in. "'Jackal' is STONED JESUS at our most theatrical. Even though the time signature is 4/4 through and through, it's the proggiest song on 'Songs to Moon'," he says — then plants an easter egg. "Bonus challenge for all the true prog nerds. See if you can find the early MARILLION line that I quoted word for word."
The song works as a walk through a house of horrors, with the title creature stalking the corridors. "In the darkness of the future past," Sydorenko whispers over drums that rattle with the dry, brushed restraint of ALICE IN CHAINS on 'Jar Of Flies'. "Hear me walking over skulls and dust." Behind every locked door is a scene closer to Huxley or Orwell than to anything the Kyiv band's stoner-rock reputation would suggest.
The lyrical question underneath it is not a subtle one, and Sydorenko does not pretend otherwise. "Lyrically, the question that 'Jackal' poses is pretty much on the nose," he says. "When you sell your soul for comfort, what kind of future do you get in return?"
Then the shape shifts. "Go to sleep," Sydorenko orders, and the track kicks the doors down with the heaviest — and funkiest — blues riff on the record. The verdict it delivers is bleak ("No money, no future, no reason to fight"), but the symphonic coda that closes the song argues the opposite about the band itself. The video was made by Phobia Artworks.
'Songs to Moon' is the middle panel of a trilogy. Where 'Songs to Sun' — which finished high on 2025 year-end lists — carried an existential shroud, this one is a straight descent into the dark night of the soul, and the most melancholic thing the band has put its name to.
'Songs to Moon' tracklist
- Under the Skin (5:29)
- Velvet (5:11)
- ZYX (5:30)
- Syzgy (4:50)
- Jackal (6:48)
- Window in My Room (8:22)
- One More Empty Day (4:41)
Available on CD digipak and on four 12" vinyl variants: black, turquoise, blood moon marbled, and natural transparent with green and purple marbling.
STONED JESUS bring 'Songs to Moon' to European stages this autumn, including October 30 — Vallet, France, WeStill Fest.
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Pre-order 'Songs to Moon': https://orcd.co/stonedjesussongstomoon Pre-save on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/prerelease/3eaQK0xSDe91fH92dLiMel