Moon Goons “Lady of Many Faces” 2024. Romanus Records, limited edition tricolor variant. Heavy psychedelic + spacey prog rock from Indianapolis, their third LP. If the little gnome-like wizard drawings on the cover weren’t enough of a clue, Lady of Many Faces is a fantastical trip into what I can only describe as medieval space, a cross between Devo and Black Sabbath. With song titles like “Telesmatic Figures,” “Hidden Hermit of the Hills” and “Wizard Prison” (which is one of my favorites), the imagery is a mushroom trip with steroids and synths. Space age bleep bloops one second, epic heavy metal shredding guitar the next. Wild shit! Every song is a journey, with twist, turns, and startling creatures jumping out of the darkness when least expected. While likely categorized as stoner rock (besides the other labels I’ve already slapped on above), I can’t even imagine zoning out while listening to Lady of Many Faces: it’s way too interesting. I also won’t put the “experimental rock” label on it (though it clearly is very unique, edgy and explorative) because, well, it somehow makes sense in all of its glorious weirdness. There are melodies, harmonies and clear beats (though those beats change – a lot), giving the album an element of pop. Though I can’t imagine any of these songs will make to a Top 40 playlist, ever.

The band itself seems to view their record through a prog-rock lens that’s got 50ish years of blurry goo smeared on it, never cleaned from back in the era of the 70’s epic concept album. From an article on Nuvo, frontman Corey Standifer says of the plot of Lady of Many Faces (inspired by keyboardist Brooke Rice’s dream of a three-faced woman), “There’s the Wizard, who is unfortunately in his own prison. He’s pure, but he doesn’t know it yet. Same with the ‘Hidden Hermit of the Hills.’ He’s a total nomad of sorts, who lives by his own book. But the Lady [of Many Faces] needs him in order to fulfill this prophecy of good and spreading your true potential. The ‘Doom Tomb Giant,’ however, is wanting to take that away from them. The song ‘Phantom Erasion’ is essentially the concept of wiping away all the negative forces within your life and really trying to tackle that as best as you can. The Lady has many faces, so [that equates to] many characters and many concepts. But she represents really digging inside of your inner self and exploiting your selfless soul.”

Here’s the entire album, performed in order at their record release show in Indy in November 2024.