We live in turbulent times today, but few bands offer a more effective soundtrack than Rosetta Stone, to the hours we spend not doom scrolling our phones.
Yes, their name and reputation might be firmly preserved in the amber glow of the gothic movement, but with every new album or single release, Stone mainman Porl King delivers both the music and the lyrics that can, for as long as you listen, remind you that there’s a lot more to life than the online headlines are willing to admit.
Rosetta Stone’s first album since 2025’s acclaimed Dose Makes The Poison, Executing Nostalgia, is released on September 25 on CD and startling starburst vinyl. Ahead of that, however, the driving, near-Motorik pulse of “Shadowban” offers an early glimpse into all that is to come, a mantric chant that could go easily have lasted far longer than its 3 minute 40 lifespan, but is no less effective for its brevity.
SINGLE: https://orcd.co/rosettastone_shadowban
Of course, King is an old hand at elevating his audience out of the daily grind. It is 35 years since Rosetta Stone initially arose from the seething miasma of the gothic renaissance, and seven since a recalibrated reformation delivered Seems Like Forever – one of the last truly great albums to hit the pre-lockdown world.
Since that time, Rosetta Stone have been nothing if not prolific – even as King oversees a gorgeously curated series of reissues and rarities collections, this is the band’s fourth new album in little over two years, a poised and perfect successor to Under The Weather (2024), the covers collection Nothing Is Sacred (2025) and the aforementioned Dose Makes The Poison.
As for the album’s foreboding title, Executing Nostalgia is surely just another way of reminding us that the future still holds as much promise as the past now appears to – and all we need do is steer our way towards it.
Because, although there is nostalgia aplenty to be drawn from the album, it is twisted around King’s devastatingly fresh interpretations of some of the gothic movement’s most cherished oldies – “Moya” (Southern Death Cult), “Pagan Love Song” (the Virgin Prunes), “Talk About The Weather” (Magazine) and more.
The result is a collection that not only delves deep into your consciousness, but also reawakens it, a vibrant minor key clarion call to cut through the endless discordant saxophone solo that so much of modern life now resembles.
And with that in mind, let’s all go execute some nostalgia. And then realign it in a way that makes sense.
CD/VINYL/CASS: https://cleorecs.com/search?q=rosetta+stone+executing+nostalgia
DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/rosettastone_executingnostalgia
Track listing
1. Shadowban
2. Someone
3. Regression
4. Negative
5. Rejection
6. Incubus Succubus
7. Pagan Love Song
8. Alone
9. Moya
10. Talk About The Weather
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