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STONED JESUS — Songs to Moon

STONED JESUS

Songs to Moon (2026)

Label: Season of Mist
★★★★ 8/10
By Scorpio

Track Listing

  1. Under the Skin
  2. Velvet
  3. ZYX
  4. Syzygy
  5. Jackal
  6. Window in My Room
  7. One More Empty Day

In 2009 Igor Sydorenko started a solo project in Kyiv that became STONED JESUS, a Ukrainian band that has spent most of its life filed under stoner rock. Songs to Sun came out in September 2025 as the first part of a trilogy. Songs to Moon, out October 16 on Season of Mist, is the second part and the band's seventh album, and it arrives about a year later. The third one already has a name. Igor told The MetalList it will be called Songs to Earth, that it will hold only two 20-minute songs, and that it should be out in fall 2027.

Most of these songs are old. Sydorenko started writing them at the beginning of the pandemic, five or six years ago, "and the mood back then was not the brightest," he told us. He doubted they were "Jesus-y" enough, and he now calls the result one of the most experimental STONED JESUS records. The running order carries the idea. He describes it as the lyrical hero, himself, going through disintegration: "You start with a ton of emotions, a ton of vocals, a ton of passion, and by the end it all becomes more and more minimalistic." The album opens loud and closes with one man and an acoustic guitar. At 40:53 it is short enough to hear in one sitting, which is how he wants it heard.

"Under the Skin" starts with a breath. Igor says it is the same breath that closes Songs to Sun. Then the harsh vocals come in, and the song sounds more like post-metal than stoner. For me it picks up where "Low" from the previous album left off. Further in, Igor's clean voice and the screaming start answering each other. "Velvet" opens on slow drums before the guitar and vocals join, and in the verses the groovy main riff trades lines with the vocals. The chorus is the hook. "Velvet" stuck with me more than anything else after my first listen, and the chorus turns out to be the newest part of it: the song sat unfinished for five years, and Sydorenko wrote the chorus two months before the band went into the studio.

"ZYX" is calmer and lighter in mood, and the distorted guitars only arrive later in the song. There is nothing stoner about it. "Syzygy" sits in the dead center of the album and of the whole trilogy, and it is the first instrumental on a STONED JESUS album: clean guitars over the sound of wind, calm and dreamy, with a guest solo from Reine Fiske of DUNGEN. The title is the astronomical term for three bodies lining up, in this case the Sun, the Moon and the Earth. When I looked the word up before our interview, I guessed the name of the third album. Igor also hid three bell melodies in the track: the chorus riff of "Shadowland" from Songs to Sun, a riff from "Jackal", and a 7/8 figure that will open Songs to Earth.

"Jackal" turns dark, with a jazzy feel to the mood. Halfway through, the singing gives way to storytelling, closer to speech, and the second half goes full prog. "Window in My Room" follows as melodic rock, an optimistic contrast after "Jackal". "One More Empty Day" opens and closes with the sounds of a city, and in between it is only Igor and his acoustic guitar. It is a pretty emotional song to end on.

Songs to Moon is a diverse album. Over seven songs it goes from post-metal screaming to a catchy single, a dreamy instrumental, a dark prog piece and an acoustic closer. If you come for the stoner rock the band is known for, this is a different record. It rewards people who listen to albums from start to finish and who have followed STONED JESUS as they change from one record to the next. I'm ready for the third part. Sydorenko also told us a vinyl box set of all three albums could happen if there is enough demand. Count me in.

★★★★ 8/10

STONED JESUS - Under the Skin (official video):

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Promo provided by Season of Mist.