Pachinko – Ransu Seisei Rock Opera

Pachinko is the fourth album by the Norwegian progressive and pop rock band Moron Police. It came out on 28 November 2025 on Mighty Jam Music Group AS; Marquee/Avalon issue the Japanese SHM-CD on 24 June 2026 as Ransu Seisei Rock Opera. The band describe it on their own site as a concept album about a man who turns into a sentient pachinko machine in Tokyo; "Hanabi" and "Okinawa Sky" are among its Japanese-themed songs. It follows A Boat on the Sea from 2019 and was made after the death of drummer Thore Omland Pettersen; the band dedicate the record to him. Billy Rymer of The Dillinger Escape Plan played the drums as a guest, and Pettersen's own playing survives on the outro of "Giving Up the Ghost". The line-up is Sondre Skollevoll on guitars, vocals and synthesizers, Lars Christian Bjørknes on synthesizers, piano and organ, and Christian Fredrik Holtsteen on bass. Skollevoll wrote the songs and lyrics and produced the album with Bjørknes; Mike Watts mixed it and Frank Mitaritonna mastered it at VuDu Studios in New York, and DULK did the cover artwork. The two-part title track runs about sixteen minutes. The Japanese edition adds the bonus track "Strange Empire". Fifteen songs.