A storm arrives with Planet Hunter’s Soothsayer
Some albums feel like weather systems. Slowly gathering, darkening the horizon, then arriving at once with force. Soothsayer, the new record from Wellington heavy-rock outliers Planet Hunter, does just that.
Forged in Wellington, shaped by the city’s damp edges and restless pulse, the album is loud and sharp. In comparison to debut album Moscovium the riffs remain colossal, yet there is a revealing sense of warmth inside the noise. Tracks like Unholy Union and One Thousand Years From Now reveal a band leaning into menace, threaded with melody, and humour.
This album reads as a portrait of life in Aotearoa’s capital. Its clammy rooms, its strange beauty, its unrelenting motion. Planet Hunter have always sounded theatrical and otherworldly. Here, that imagination feels grounded in place and time.
Soothsayer is heavy in vision, sharp in craft, and confident in its weirdness. It showcases that distortion can still carry meaning, and that Wellington continues to birth music that sounds like survival set to volume.
