German shoegazers FELT reach goth greatness with their sophomore album Soil and Sky, parading crisp production values, tight songwriting, and a singer with dynamic aplomb.
Release date: November 6, 2026 | Independent | Bandcamp | Instagram
From the moment I first heard Aachen, Germany three-piece FELT, it was evident that their music would click with me. Equal parts drop-C gothic metal tunings and cotton candy shoegaze fluff, their second full-length outing, Soil and Sky, is a cavernous mix of fuzzy nostalgia with plenty of melancholy. FELT give themselves only eight songs–seven of them being originals–to prove that their heavier spin on shoegazing isn’t just like everyone else’s. It’s a difficult task, but the result is an impressive feat thanks to the strength of the songwriting, the production, and the voice.
Depending on the band, shoegazers either really prioritize lyric writing (for example: Catherine Wheel) or they really don’t (case in point: My Bloody Valentine). FELT fall into the former camp. Even with their longer, doom-influenced instrumental passages, they fit some of their most honest and vulnerable lyrics in between, just as their official Bandcamp page says. Opener “Heavensent” gets the ball rolling with foreboding chants of ‘ahh ahh ahh ahh ahh‘, like a church choir summoning Laurie Anderson. There are lyrics, too, but they feel as secondary as scenery when compared to the action provided by the band–bombastic drums and gazed-out bass and guitar work. Each metallic burst of distortion conjures another reverie as their frontwoman’s voice falls deeper into the abyss.
One of the singles from this album–and my favorite FELT single at that–is the second track on Soil and Sky, “Here As I Am”. With chiming guitars a la early Coldplay, FELT emerge out from the abyss of “Heavensent” with a shimmering pop rock hook. The booming drums and washes of white noise that pile on by the track’s conclusion are significantly galvanized by excellent song structure and distant, belting vocals. It’s not one of the heavier tracks, and the band knows this, but there is still that undercurrent of distortion, and it is glorious.
As noisy as FELT are, I find it strangest of all how their gaze-iest moment under the sun is actually a cover of an Alex Cameron song, but I’m not complaining. “Miami Memory” is a blissed-out piece of sugary, Best Coast-like psychedelia that doubles as an ode to a very, very good lover. It’s honestly hard for me to ignore their singer going ‘eating your ass [arse] like an oyster‘, but it sounds better when FELT does this line, so make of that what you will. Instrumentally speaking, the band have never sounded better than they do here. That’s before you get to original song “Acolyte”, though, where crisp production values play a key role in defining what this group are all about.
According to their Bandcamp information, Sebastian Omerson produced the entire album, recording it at Number Nine Studios in Ghent, Belgium. Without even hearing anything else from the guy, I can tell that he also has some real talent! I’m admittedly a big drums and percussion kind of listener, so I was pleased to hear drums that actually have some grit to them, unlike a lot of modern shoegaze and dream pop acts. On riff-laden tracks such as “Acolyte” and “Phantom Friends” (the latter of which is another single), this added punchiness works wonders when each song inevitably goes from quiet to loud and then back to quiet again. Simply put, Omerson’s production is phenomenal, which I attribute to it making me think of Paradise Lost, Katatonia, Lacuna Coil, and all those other cool (in my opinion, anyway) depressive metal bands.
“Phantom Friends” serves as the penultimate track, and it’s again one of the band’s more vulnerable lyric-writing moments. Though I probably prefer “Acolyte” for its slower, more gothic lurch of a tempo, Soil and Sky‘s second-to-last number is appropriately raucous. Both songs also begin with the sound of organ, but the vibes are completely different. ‘I am holding onto what’s left of you‘, repeats the frontwoman of FELT. Her voice may not have much in the way of range, but it’s one of those voices that can suck you in no matter what. As such, it’s incredibly promising and even invigorating underneath faint clouds of reverb.
With a trained ear keen on sturdy hooks, a sometimes-ominous wall of sound, and tight production that brings out the best in their drummer, you can bet that FELT‘s Soil and Sky will end up as one of my personal favorite records this year. If you’re a fan of the holy trinity of gothic alt-metal (again: Paradise Lost, Katatonia, and Lacuna Coil), you might dig this, too. And of course, if you’re a fellow shoegazer, this album has those types of ‘staring at the edge of the earth‘ tunes aplenty! It might not be Swervedriver or My Bloody Valentine, but it’ll still satiate the most ravenous of alternative rock music consumers.
