Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

Truly classic Goth albums… the ones you know you’ll be playing for years to come… don’t come along too often these days. So, when they do, it’s worth jumping in on the very first day – and that’s exactly what is happening now, as legendary UK goth veterans Rosetta Stone uncage Dose Makes The Poison, founding member and sonic architect Porl King’s deep dive into a world of quiet (and not so quiet!) Disarray.

A subtle yet urgent commentary on the creeping erosion of empathy, tolerance, and truth in the modern age, it’s an elegant embrace of the cold vivacity and propulsive rhythm that longtime fans cherish, but with a seasoned maturity that speaks to the band’s evolution.

It’s been a busy year for Rosetta Stone – 2025 is barely halfway through and Dose Makes The Poison is already the band’s second album of the year, following the so aptly-titled all-covers collection Nothing Is Sacred; and that appeared just months after the almighty Under The Weather.  In addition, Rosetta Stone also appear on the upcoming Black Album compilation, with a spine chilling take on Cliff Richard (!)’s 1976 hit “Devil Woman.”

“Subject matter has never really been a problem for me,” King explains. 

“There’s always something to ‘observe’ and, for good or bad, I am and always have been highly opinionated. 

“Social media, friendships, far right conspiracists, anti-vaxxers, indifference, ignorance and apathy are all in there somewhere. I read a lot of social media although I don’t engage – I’ve nothing to gain from it in that sense.”

Nothing, that is, aside from a sense of blazing injustice.  As he told Sonic Seducer,

“The album as a whole relates to a lack of nuance in social interactions – contradiction and inconsistency. Misinformation – the choices people make relating to what they want to believe – as opposed to simply seeking the truth.”

That misinformation, those choices, were more than a guiding spirit, however.  Dose Makes The Poison, he says, originally came to life from what he read on “a huge board on which I wrote phrases and words that I would see in my  social media feed. It really helped when I came to write the lyrics.”

For example, “I still have a real issue with how society dealt with Covid during the emergency phase, and the current ‘approach’ we have collectively in terms of simply ‘living’ with it” – frustrations that fed directly into the album’s opening track and Rosetta Stone’s own next video, “Dive Down Spiral.”

King’s own favorite track on the album,  “Dive Down Spiral” is based around “society’s impatience to return to normal at the outset, whilst thousands were dying and hospitals were overwhelmed.

“People who I had deemed intelligent were crying over wanting to eat in restaurants or go to the gym – the preposterous notion that wearing a mask somehow impeded a person’s freedom. It affects me to this day – it’s truly changed the way I view society.”

What has not changed is King’s musical imprimatur – if anything, he admits, his attitude and approach have circled back to a time when Rosetta Dstone were still effectively unknown, those first days of the 1990s, as their debut album An Eye for the Main Chance, came together.  

“I’m not trying to innovate or surprise people,” he says, “because that’s never particularly served me well in the past. There is an attempt to follow ‘expectations’.

“But I am also trying to write ‘real’ songs as opposed to just sounding ‘goth’.”

And that, as is demonstrated by the aforementioned paucity of classic albums within the genre, is what makes Dose Makes The Poison such a magnificent monster.

You really need to try a couple of spoonfuls today.

CD/VINYL: https://cleorecs.com/search?q=rosetta+stone+dose+makes+the+poison
DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/rosettastone_dosemakesthepoison

Track listing

1. Dive Down Spiral
2. Connect The Dots
3. Kick The Can
4. Scars
5. Dose Makes The Poison
6. Unfriended
7. Ill Informed
8. Another Exit Wave
9. On Which We Die
10. Dead To Me
11. Source Neutral