Miss Lava – Under A Black Sun

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · May 12, 2025

Miss Lava is a stoner/ psychedelic rock band from Lisboa, Portugal. They formed in 2005 and currently consists of Johnny Lee on vocals, K. Raffah on guitars, P. Gonçalves on drums, and Ricardo Ferreira on bass. The band’s releases includes: 2008’s Self Titled EP, 2009’s Blues for the Dangerous Miles, 2013’s Red Supergiant, 2016’s Sonic Debris, 2017’s Dominant Rush EP, and 2021’s Doom Machine. Now, after twenty years of existence, Miss Lava just released their fifth album called Under A Black Sun, on April 25th 2025. The band opted with long standing label Small Stone Records for this release also. Under A Black Sun contains eleven tracks at fifty two minutes long.

Opening track “Dark Tomb Nebula” doesn’t hold back. The nice and mellow clean guitars strum a beautiful melody as Johnny Lee lays in on the tuneful vocals. The music is a combination of Pink Floyd and Monkey 3 as the beginning plays out. The more progressive and psychedelic music evokes the heavier and fuzz-laden chorus. Miss Lava goes right into the heart with this opening cut. The band are able to float back and forth between clean and lush melodies to hard driving rhythms. The second track “Neon Gods” is another introspective journey into good hard edged rock. The song has a cool and chilled vibe along with a solid drum beat, met with metallic riffing and leads. The vocals fit nicely and are powerful, melodic, and aggressive on certain parts. It’s another great demonstration of how on point Miss Lava are and what message they are sending us. “Evil Eye Of A Witch” continues to crank out the rocking jams but stays somewhat laid back while incorporating heavy psych textures and more cosmic riffs.

The fourth track called “Chaos Strain” is a mid tempo rocker! It has a hardcore feel with the pounding percussion and grungy rhythms. The short track is a welcome transition from the first three, which are longer, more drawn out, and varied. “Chaos Strain” is a more forward and in your face song that is a great lead in to one of my immediate favorites, “Woe Warrior”. This song is a ripper! Once the pounding drums and bass commence after the clean guitar intro, it’s game on! “Woe Warrior” is a straight ahead rocker with a very catchy- almost chanting chorus. The song does branch out and stirs in some atmospheric elements and keys into the music, as one might expect from Miss Lava. The songs on Under A Black Sun are very well crafted and quite intricate. The music will take a few spins to really sink in, but time well spent. “The Bends” is another fantastic song! It has a little different vibe happening musically but in a great rocking way. Miss Lava has a beautiful seventies sensibility to their sound too which just makes everything better.

“Fear In Overdrive” has some nice decorative transitions within it. The guitar strumming and vocals begin the track with some cool airy tones and melodies. The build up is immaculate and natural as the divine flow of the song carries it along deliberately. “I Drown” is another great rocker. The excellent vocals and hard driving rhythms are delightful and engaging. Miss Lava is not giving us any filler on this record. Each and every song has its distinct and unique place on Under A Black Sun. “Blue Sky On Mars” is another incredible piece of sonic excellence! The perfect blend of melody and heavy are in full effect on this one. The spacy and cosmic rhythms are enhanced greatly on this album by Miguel “Veg” Marques. He plays the keyboards on this track, along with opener, “Dark Tomb Nebula”, “Evil Eye of the Witch”, “Woe Warrior”, and the quick number, “Elara”. The minute and a half song, features vocals by Alexandra Quintas “Bebé”. This is yet another example of the diversity in song structures that Miss Lava adapt to and incorporate into their music.

The eleventh and final song is the title track, “Under A Black Sun”. This was the first single dropped, and it’s great! It has a beguiling mix of where the band is at musically, and what they are capable of performing. The four year lag between releases did not seem to have affected the band in a negative way, at all. If anything, it sparked new life and creativity into their already expansive sound. Under A Black Sun might take some focused listens but the music will permeate inside and latch on thereafter. I am very impressed and satisfied with how excellent this album is. Small Stone Records has done it again and delivered a ginormous performance start for 2025, with the return of Miss Lava.