For their fifth studio album, the Geneva-based indie rock outfit Sonic Rade shares “Berlin”, an intensely resonant record heavily steeped in the aura of its namesake city. Relocating to the legendary Meistersaal the former Hansa Studios where acts like Bowie and Depeche Mode once operated the band allowed the physical walls of the room to hijack their live tracking. You feel those historical reverberations bleeding straight into your skull.
The album drops you squarely into the street lights with the title track, “Berlin.” It leans deeply into the band’s euphoric synth-pop sensibilities, serving as a bright, fast-paced tribute to the glowing pulse of a sleepless metropolis. It gives me a bizarre sense of mental clarity. However, Sonic Rade quickly drags us beneath the concrete on “Subterranean,” an alternative metal descent built on thick, gritty distortion. It feels wonderfully claustrophobic, contrasting directly with the chaotic, rapid-fire stamina of “Everyday,” a punk-leaning anthem absolutely determined to survive modern collapse.
Things mutate heavily on “Electrify My Dreams.” Here, a wailing, high-register vocal progression crashes into a deeply pulsing electronic foundation, grappling openly with existential dread. I honestly haven’t heard apocalypse anxiety sound quite this sprawling or compellingly danceable. They follow up this atmospheric tension with the brooding hard rock of “Under Shelter,” tackling the exhausting mental extraction from toxic dynamics with a frantic, desperate solo that hits a very raw nerve.
Eventually, we get a stadium-sized catharsis on “The Awakening.” Focused squarely on the heavy, helpless desperation of watching a loved one fade out of consciousness, its massive mid-tempo climb somehow engineers a sense of pure triumph from pure panic. It strips away all your remaining armor, leaving you entirely exposed for the dark folk finale, “Alone.” Grounded by a mourning, cyclical pattern, the closer dissolves everything into beautiful, overwhelming isolation.
Sonic Rade has managed to sequence genuine human wreckage and sheer survival through an incredibly historic, echo-heavy sonic landscape. When those cavernous studio reverberations finally fade, what exactly is the feeling that takes over the empty space?
