Verona Florrist – Self Titled

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · November 7, 2025

Verona Florrist is a stoner rock/ doom band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Formed in 2024, the three-piece consists of Joe Narducci on guitar and vocals, Dan “Gonzo” Gonzalez on bass, and Alex Van Der Heyden on drums. They just released their Self Titled debut album on October 1st 2025 on Fuzzed and Buzzed Records. It contains seven tracks at thirty six minutes long.

This album was a big surprise for me! I thought the band name Verona Florrist was a bit bizarre but once I started listening, I was blown away! The slow entrance of “Ice Storm’98” creeps in and then crushes you with an obliterating doom riff. The trippy vocals are a great fit for such devastating music. Simple but highly effective riffs are positioned perfectly in sequence to completely capture your attention and soul. There is something so pure and organic with their sound that appeals to me. The heavy groove rocking of “Satan’s Choice” hits you next with a riffalicious delight and more uptempo rhythms than you can handle. The driving flow of the music with the trancing vocals are very satisfying. The dark tones are felt on the next track, “When It Starts”. The clean and melodious guitars strum along to the smooth vocals of Joe Narducci. The song has a dark and doomy essence and strikes hard when the heavy fuzz kicks in. There’s some off kilter drum fills that are cool and unique too.

“Sincerity” is a beautiful orchestrated guitar composition that lasts about two minutes. It’s a musical interlude that also has blankets of keyboards placed on top. The next track entitled “Vandalism” is one of my favorites. It has a great heavy riff that changes from crushing to mellow. The song features some dense ambience in the music to flow with the fuzzy guitar tones. The next song is another monster of a track. “Before All The Bad Things Start To Happen” is one devastating opus. It begins with a couple of measures of a drum beats until the bass drops a deadly riff. Everything builds up from there and they splice in some cool rhythms in the midst of the doom. It’s the most grandiose song on the album.

The final song, “Burrs From The Thicket” is a fade instrumental jam extravaganza of acid rock and heavy psychedelic. The song evaporates into the wind with some eerie gusts of distortion and atmospheric noises. It finally kicks back to full glory but only for a few hazy moments before the track ends. I am really enjoying this band and debut album immensely! They are able to conjure up some sick stoner doom riffs that are simple but extremely effective. Verona Florrist are another amazing heavy rock band from the great country up north. The Canadian heavy rock underground scene is brewing with excellence and this band is one of the reasons why.