Los Angeles, California: A month shy of their new album’s August 8 release, UK goth grandmasters Rosetta Stone are only going to heighten the anticipation with the release of “Scars” - not only the first single from Dose Makes The Poison, but also one of the band’s most powerful offerings in years!
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.”
Helmed of course by founding member and sonic architect Porl King, Dose Makes The Poison is an all-original full-length that's a striking continuation of Rosetta Stone’s signature sound: brooding, atmospheric, and sharp-edged as ever.
Delving deep into a world in quiet (and not so quiet!) disarray, the album offers subtle yet urgent commentary on the creeping erosion of empathy, tolerance, and truth in the modern age, an elegant embrace the cold vivacity and propulsive rhythm that longtime fans cherish, but with a seasoned maturity that speaks to the band’s evolution.
“Scars” itself is thunderous, relentless, and absolutely compulsive, the sound of rainswept drive through a midnight dystopia, the rhythm keeping pace with the wipers, the keyboards the whoosh of tires through a flash flood, and above it all that one line that keeps on repeating in your mind even when the vocals are silent - “I can’t see the stars.”
That chorus, says Paul, “initially came from the moon landing conspiracies. The discussions surrounding the lack of stars seen from the surface. As artists, metaphorically we talk of reaching for the stars - the song is from the perspective that I don’t see any to reach for.”
SINGLE: https://orcd.co/rosettastone_scars
“Further to this,” he continues, “I always seem to struggle to ‘fit-in.’ I’ve often felt surrounded by hypocrisy and inconsistency - finding myself bogged-down by pointless disagreements. The song also reflects my decision to move away from the ‘community’ aspect of the music scene. - I’m not much of a ’networker.’
“I don’t play games of diplomacy in order to progress. I often felt ‘dismissed’ as a result of my honesty. I feel in some sense ‘scarred' in that assumptions are made based on my ‘goth’ roots.”
Those assumptions, he acknowledges, are unlikely to be challenged by Dose Makes The Poison. At the same time, however, both musically and lyrically the album so blithely transcend the superficiality of genre as to make such commentary meaningless.
It’s a stunning album. Of course it is. It’s Rosetta Stone.
CD/VINYL: https://cleorecs.com/search?q=rosetta+stone+dose+makes+the+poison
DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/rosettastone_dosemakesthepoison
