Archive for the ‘Singles and EPs’ Category

Listen: ‘Terrified’ (full EP) by Slaughterday

Posted: 21 November 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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SLAUGHTERDAY let loose their new grindcore tribute EP Terrified today, on November 21, 2025. The German death metal veterans are dedicating this EP to the original firestarters of grindcore.

SLAUGHTERDAY commented: “This EP differs stylistically from our regular releases, because it is a tribute to the old grind bands like Repulsion and Napalm Death, which is also reflected in the cover and the logo”, guitarist Jens Finger wrote. “Of course, this immediately brings to mind Repulsion’s title ‘Horrified’ – which was exactly our intention. Every track is a short, sharp attack on the ears. What you hear is what you’ll get: bursts of explosive energy, razor-sharp riffs, and relentless rhythms – uncompromising and unrestrained!”

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On their Terrified EP, death metal aficionados SLAUGHTERDAY deliver four short sharp chops as a tribute to the early pioneers of grindcore. This EP should therefore be regarded as a crushing interlude between two albums rather than a foretaste of brutal things to come on their next full-length.

Great Old Ones, forbidden sounds, tentacled death metal is rising… the German death metal powerhouse comes with a pedigree that amounts to nobility in the northwestern corner of their country.

SLAUGHTERDAY were formed in the East Frisian city of Leer in 2010. The original and still remaining core duo consists of string-shredder Jens Finger, who served as the guitarist of Oldenburgian death metal legends OBSCENITY from 1994 until 2010 and is also the growler of new label mates TEMPLE OF DREAD. The other half of the duo is personified by vocalist and drummer Bernd Reiners, who has also lent his voice to Aurich based death thrashers BK 49 among other acts.

From the start, SLAUGHTERDAY have channelled the raw, morbid spirit of such old school giants as AUTOPSY, DEATH, and MASSACRE. Yet while they always deliver crushing riffs and brutal pounding, these Germans come with captivating choruses and haunting melodies that set them apart from many of their deadly peers.

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Listen: ‘Tensor’ by Omen Code

Posted: 20 November 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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OMEN CODE reveal the pulsating and vibrant new SF-track ‘Tensor’ as the sinister final advance single taken from their forthcoming album Alpha State. The debut full-length has been announced to be released on December 5, 2025.

OMEN CODE comment on ‘Tensor’: “This was the second Omen Code track that I have recorded as a vocalist”, frontman Agi Taralas reveals. “Everything about it came very natural to me and exactly in the way that the vocals turned out in the end. As far as I am concerned, this track includes a few Nitzer Ebb tribute moments, which is hardly a surprise as they have largely shaped my personal preferences in electronic music.”

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With their debut album Alpha State, OMEN CODE deliver the sound of the future – and the future is grim and dark! Their future is also firmly built upon the remains of the past. Certainly constructed to fill the dance floor, the international duo channels the bleak, cold precision of mid-tempo FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY and the cinematic story-telling soundscapes of John Carpenter electronics into a thrilling sound that is both resurrecting a classic 80s vibe and also fresh at the same time.

OMEN CODE are the new rising star on the EBM firmament. Deep, dark, and gritty industrial sounds are channelled into captivating mid-tempo tracks that create the atmospheric feeling of a dystopian future ruled by technology and marked by social decline.

This grimdark science fiction approach is not meant to indicate that OMEN CODE embrace any political agenda or message. Rather the international duo took inspiration from the writings of Philip K. Dick and Alfred Bester as well as cinematic masterpieces by British director Ridley Scott such as Alien and Blade Runner among others. 
OMEN CODE were originally intended as a one-time project by Kevin Gould. The engineer, programmer, and lyricist was a member of the English Industrial EBM trio JOHNSON ENGINEERING CO. together with Sean Bailey and Ian Hicks, which released the album Unleash in 1988. He went on to found the electro-industrial act ELECTRO ASSASSIN with Ian Taylor. Following the release of Jamming the Voice of the Universe (1992), Taylor was replaced by Richard McKinlay with whom the next albums Bioculture (1993) and The Divine Invasion (1995) were recorded.

When vocalist and lyricist Agi Taralas was hand-picked from a stack of applications for the frontman position, the chemistry between the two artists proved so productive and strong that Gould and Taralas decided together to turn OMEN CODE into a permanent project that would also aim to perform live. The vocalist had already left his mark on the scene in a joint project with German electronic musician Stefan Böhm under the moniker OUR BANSHEE that released an album entitled 4200 in 2017.

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Watch: ‘A.I. Hive Mind’ by Zu

Posted: 19 November 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Legendary Italian experimental trio Zu recently announced their return with Ferrum Sidereum (produced by Marc Urselli), a big and bold double album arriving on House of Mythology on the 9th January.

The music combines the complexity of progressive rock, the grit of industrial music, the precision of metal, the spirit and energy of punk, and the freedom of jazz. The result is a sonic journey that is as cerebral as it is visceral, defying easy categorisation while remaining unmistakably Zu.

Today they share the new single and video for ‘A.I. Hive Mind’ – about which the band comments, “Smart cities, brain computer interfaces, internet of things, singularity. This particular track addresses all of these things as well as questioning the loss of self, the idea of single consciousness and collective predictable behaviour. Perhaps the most burning question for us is: What does it mean to be human in a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, simulated realities, and technological control?”

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Zu have also shared live dates in support of the new album – dates and details below.

2026 LIVE DATES

10/01/26 – Bologna, TPO – Italy
21/01/26 – Caserta, Lizard Club – Italy
23/01/26 – Palermo, Candelai – Italy
24/01/26 – Catania, Zo Culture Contemporanee – Italy
28/01/26 – Milano, Santeria – Italy
29/01/26 – Verona, Colorificio Kroen – Italy
30/01/26 – Zagreb, Mocvara – Croatia
31/01/26 – Nova Gorica, Mostovna – Slovenia
01/02/26 – Bratislava, Žalár – Slovakia
02/02/26 – Prague, Palac Akropolis – Czech Republic
05/02/26 – Berlin, Neue Zukunft – Germany
06/02/26 – Copenhagen, ALICE – Denmark
07/02/26 – Malmo, Inkonst – Sweden
09/02/26 – Bruxelles, Magasin 4 – Belgium
10/02/26 – Eeklo, N9 – Belgium
11/02/26 – Amsterdam, OCCII – Netherlands
12/02/26 – Paris, Le Chinois – France
13/02/26 – Bulle, Ebullition – Switzerland
14/02/26 – Torino, Magazzino sul Po´ – Italy

Ferrum Sidereum – Latin for ‘cosmic iron’ – draws inspiration from the mythological significance of meteoritic iron, found in artefacts like ancient Egyptian ritual objects, Tibenta ‘Phurpa’ blades, and the celestial sword of Archangel St Michael. This elemental force imbues every moment of the album’s apocalyptic sound. Whilst heavy in tone and subject matter, bassist Massimo Pupillo comments that their music also aims to "raise good energy… people would come up to us after the show and tell us that they felt alive."

The trio – Paolo Mongardi (drums, percussion), Luca T Mai (baritone saxophone, synth, keyboards) and Massimo Pupillo (electric bass, 12-string acoustic guitar) – spent a year refining this sprawling 80-minute epic through relentless rehearsals and live studio recordings in Bologna. Produced and mixed by three-time Grammy-winning engineer Marc Urselli, known for his work with Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, and Mike Patton, the album balances raw intensity with refined production tweaks and textures.

“We are very spiritually-oriented people,” says Massimo. “Machines and AI do not have spirituality. So they can mimic and they can assemble existing things, but they cannot create. That spirit is probably the most important thing that our music carries.”

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Photo credit: Marco Franzoni

Watch: ‘Entangled’ by Now After Nothing

Posted: 18 November 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Atlanta, Georgia – based darkwave act, NOW AFTER NOTHING has unveiled their latest video for the single, ‘Entangled’.

‘Entangled’, the final track on the band’s latest release, Artificial Ambivalence, is a song about the reality of being completely enveloped in those people (or things) that do little more than stir massive amounts of chaos and anguish into our worlds. Lyrically, the song represents a moment of clarity as the protagonist begins to physically and emotionally struggle with trying to separate themselves from the situation.

The concept behind the video was to reimagine the lyrics through a sequence of hazy and mostly dreamlike scenarios as if to echo memories, feelings, and a general flood of emotions.

A highly unorthodox song to release as a single with its near two-minute long, dreamy instrumental introduction and unique song structure, ‘Entangled’ is a favorite of NOW AFTER NOTHING founder, Matt Spatial: “It’s one of my most favored songs that I’ve ever written. I felt very strongly about wanting to bring a visual dimension to it.  From the soothing intro through to the climactic cacophony of multiple, intermingling voices (representing the chaos and intensity of emotions) it is certainly the most ambitious song I’ve ever written and recorded.”

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Atlanta indie darkwave duo, NOW AFTER NOTHING strikes with a thrum and thrill. Songwriter Matt Spatial is a multi-instrumentalist with a flair for the fierce, joining forces with drummer Michael Allen. Together, they twist classic roots into modern reverberations, sparking a sound that’s as sinuous as it is savage. There’s My Bloody Valentine’s lush lilt and Sonic Youth’s fierce, unfiltered power.

Spatial melds these influences into something electric and exhilarating—goth-glam grooves slick with sweat, raw enough to leave a mark. Fans have called it “S&M disco,” a sinister shimmer of punk, industrial grind, and nocturnal new wave.

“Starting this band was a return to music for me, and more so a reclaiming of my identity, after a relatively difficult time in my life,” Spatial reflects. “I had become lost and depressed without a creative outlet with which to express myself…”

NOW AFTER NOTHING released their first single, ‘Sick Fix’ in January, 2023, and the road leading toward the album’s release in September, 2024 was a bruising one: pain, self-reckoning, and restless nights shaped each song. That agony bore fruit, however, landing the band a #15 spot-on the Deutsche Alternative Charts just a month later.

True to their namesake, Matt Spatial’s lyrics stitch together themes that bite and burn—social, political, personal truths—into instrumentals layered with darkness. Each of the six tracks on Artificial Ambivalence tells a tale: sometimes blunt, sometimes blurred, about lives twisted in familiar binds, a story born from someone’s raw reality. At its core, Artificial Ambivalence lays bare toxic ties—to others, to addictions, to the churning echo chambers of social media, news, and power.

“Artificial Ambivalence, as a concept, to me represents the state of feeling lost and/or the ‘shutting down’ from the negativity and toxicity around each of us,”  -  Matt Spatial

The album was mixed by Carl Glanville (U2, Joan Jett) and mastered by John Davis and Felix Davis. Additional guitar work from Mark Gemini Thwaite (Peter Murphy, Gary Numan, Mission UK) can be heard on ‘Sick Fix’ and ‘Dare’.

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Watch: ‘Alive And Well’ by Tombstones In Their Eyes

Posted: 17 November 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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LA-based indie rock outfit Tombstones In Their Eyes presents ‘Alive and Well’, a beautifully raucous psychedelic rock revival hymn, following the brooding lead track Under Dark Skies. This unexpectedly fierce and defiant declaration of strength is the second taste of their Under Dark Skies album, to be released via Little Cloud Records (for North America) and Shore Dive Records (for the UK and EU). This 2-track offering also includes the radio edit.

This song is dedicated to TITE guitarist Paul Boutin, who recently lost his battle with cancer. As Paul Lovecraft, he was a prolific musician, releasing music even after an operation nicked his vocal chords. Having met Tombstones’ main-man John Treanor at Kitten Robot Studios about 10 years ago while working on his own projects, they fell into the same orbital realms until Paul eventually joined the band.

The song features John Treanor on vocals and guitar, Paul Boutin on guitar, Nic Nifoussi on bass, Paul Roessler on keyboards, Stephen Striegel on drums and percussion), and Courtney Davies, Clea Cullen and Joel Wasko on backing vocals,

“When our beloved friend and guitar player lost his life on 10/18/25, we were shocked, confused and incredibly saddened. Paul was so kind, generous, intelligent and always optimistic. Being in TITE was a source of pride and joy for Paul. He was so easy to be around and was dedicated, driving many hours for practices and shows, always bringing his cheerfulness and optimism. We miss him greatly and are glad he is all over this record,” says John Treanor.

“We were initially going to scrap ‘Alive and Well’ as a single after Paul’s passing (for obvious reasons), but because it was one of Paul’s favorites and a song on which he played guitar, we are going ahead with the release. The lyrics are about rising out of desperate circumstances with newfound strength – something Paul himself experienced, having dragged himself out of his own difficulties to ultimately rebuild a life full of joy and purpose. While not planned that way, ‘Alive and Well’ ended up being a statement of intent – a story of a journey from despair to strength.”

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The accompanying video was created by Italian multi-arts visionary Francesca Bonci, known for her work with Federale (BJM’s Collin Hegna), British bard Philip Parfitt, The Dandy Warhols’ Peter G. Holmström a.k.a. Pete International Airport and Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell.

A year on from their Asylum Harbour album, this record emerged during a year of intense personal change, before finally moving into a place of light and gratitude. Recorded and engineered by Paul Roessler (The Screamers, Nina Hagen, 45 Grave) at Kitten Robot Studios, this album was co-produced by John Treanor and mastered by multi-platinum engineer Alex DeYoung at DeYoung Masters (Michael Jackson, BTS, Macy Gray, The Linda Lindas, TSOL).

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Listen: ‘Fever Stone’ by Mother Crone

Posted: 16 November 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Puget Sound’s progressive sludge-metal collective Mother Crone have shared another glimpse of their long-awaited second album Embrace the Death, set for release in early 2026.

After revealing of the title track, the band now present their brand-new single ‘Fever Stone’. A bold and foreboding taste of what’s to come, ‘Fever Stone’ marks Mother Crone’s return in towering form – a storm of crushing groove and progressive textures that announces a powerful new chapter for the band.

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Formed in the Puget Sound area of Washington in 2013, Mother Crone are a band forged from diverse musical backgrounds, converging to create a sound that is as heavy as it is dynamic. Drawing on influences that stretch from the psychedelic depths of Pink Floyd, the classic heaviness of Black Sabbath, and the groove-driven attack of Pantera, to the progressive and atmospheric worlds of Bison B.C., Alcest, and Shrinebuilder, the band weave a progressive/post-metal tapestry that shifts seamlessly between doom, thrash, and groove.

The band introduced themselves with their debut album Awakening in 2015, followed by two years of extensive touring across the region. Life’s demands eventually forced the group to slow down, but Mother Crone have now returned revitalized and refocused, ready to deliver their most ambitious material yet.

With their forthcoming sophomore record Embrace the Death, Mother Crone push their sound to new extremes, heavier, darker, and more expansive. Backed by a refreshed lineup featuring Preston Wilson (bass), Charlie Romano (drums), Edoardo Curatolo (guitar), and Joe Frothingham (guitar/vocals), the band aim to raise the standards of energy and execution in the Seattle scene and beyond.

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Watch: ‘Your Eyes Are Mirrors For The Stars’ by ATMAEN

Posted: 15 November 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Italy-based melancholic ambient artist ATMAEN has released the song ‘Your Eyes Are Mirrors For The Stars,’ taken from the artist’s new EP Lullabies From The Dark Ether out on December 12th via Inertial Music.

The song is inspired by (and dedicated to) someone who’s dear to the artist who has “eyes made of stars.” Someone who can look beyond and deeper, who can give shape and color to invisible energies and fantasy worlds. It’s also an invitation to follow our own inner vision, trusting our intuition and heart to navigate the unknown and still feel that we are a part of the whole.

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ATMAEN is a project created by Valentina Buroni. She’s a singer, a songwriter, and a researcher in the field of sacred ritualistic chanting and of self-transformation through sound and music. Her songs are prayers, invocations to the spirits of nature, sacred chants to connect with the spiritual dimension, medicine chants, sonic journeys and meditations to expand the consciousness. She creates dreamlike, magical, otherworldly atmospheres in her songs. She is influenced by Celtic music, folk music from Western Europe, ritualistic chants of contemporary indigenous cultures, electronic music, ambient music and movie soundtracks.

Valentina is trained in early music singing, modern singing, Irish traditional singing, overtone singing, Gregorian chant singing. She also plays the frame drum. She is a dance therapist and a professional holistic operator with more than 20 years of experience in the use of voice and singing for personal growth and well-being.

She has released 7 full-length albums with different music projects (Dragonheart Records, Standing Stone Records, Inertial Music) ranging from heavy metal, to electro-acoustic ambient, to world folk music. She has played big festivals like Triskell Celtic Festival, Nomad Dance Fest, and Wave Gotik Treffen.

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ATMAEN Photo 2 by Roberta Lo Schiavo(1)

Watch: ‘Midnight Pad’ and ‘Sun Halos’ by Paris Music Corp.

Posted: 14 November 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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As we approach winter and the solstice draws closer, Texas-based electronic composer Paris Music Corp. a.k.a. John Andrew Paris presents two new tracks – ‘Midnight Pad’ and ‘Sun Halos’ – that juxtapose light with dark, similar to how night turns to day and to night once again.

Nature and cycles are themes explored on his new Ecotone album as he takes us on an electronic odyssey that is both deeply personal and geographically-inspired. This record is rooted in the artist’s relocation to his childhood home in Brownsville, South Texas, just miles from the border and the coast. Paris wrote, recorded, mixed and mastered this at Tarantula Studios over the past two years.

“’Midnight Pad’ was another late-night writing excursion using some mind expansion influence. Another piece that started with my phone and ended up with hardware synths and drum machines in the studio one it was built. And ‘Sun Halos’? Creating a song just happens sometimes. Brian Eno always talked about his main theory in that “music just happens”. It’s really like a magic trick sometimes when what you turn out is an earworm of a piece that is memorable,” says John Andrew Paris.

Originally from Austin, John Andrew Paris has spent decades creating music and collaborating with artists, including Arthur Brown (The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, perhaps best known for his hit single ‘Fire’), as well as DJ Rev Kathy Russell, DJ Lucas Ray, Catastrophe Ballet, Le Reve, Life’s Eyes, Beast of Eden, OBOYO and Don Wigwam.

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“The Ecotone album made sense to me because you have a transitional zone, where two different ecological communities or ecosystems meet and intermingle, often resulting in high biodiversity. I feel a lot closer to nature.. Some of my song titles reflect where I am. I actually lived in this area as a child and have come back to my roots,” says John Andrew Paris.

“A lot of these pieces were started on a phone app called Ableton Note. With this application you are able to scratch-pad a lot of cool ideas and then import them into you music workstation and finish them out. When I first moved to my new place I didn’t have a spacious studio setup and I wrote a lot just sitting up all hours of the night writing ideas on Ableton Note.”

Known for his cinematic and ethereal music, on this album, Paris Music Corp.’s music also shows its dark underbelly and futuristic imagination. Often with elements of 80’s darkwave and ambient soundscapes, his trademark sound includes heavily processed guitar and bass instruments locked into layered loops and further manipulated using software. Also employing live hand percussion, these dense soundscapes take the listener on a sonic journey to otherworldly places.

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Vamberator – I Need Contact (Rolo McGinty Mix)

Posted: 13 November 2025 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
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New Reality Records – 7th November 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

Almost a year to the week on from the release of their dark, emotionally powerful album, Age of Loneliness, Vamberator – the duo consisting of Jem Tayle, formerly of Shelleyan Orphan, and former drummer with The Cure, Boris Williams – have given a welcome poke to remind us of their existence with the release of a new single, in the form of a remix of ‘I Need Contact’, courtesy of Rolo McGinty of The Woodentops. The pedigree is rich here, and so is the quality.

McGinty’s reworking is sensitive, subtle, and what is adds is very much attenuated to the themes and underlying concept of the song, and, indeed, the album as a whole. Yes, the title renders these concepts self-evident, and while the project was spawned during the pandemic, when solitude and loneliness reverberated around the lives of so many in ways which had been hitherto unimaginable, where we find ourselves now often feels little better, with social fragmentation, social division, and the whole equation of work / life balance and all the other endless shit raining down day after day, maintaining connections – real connections, not those false connections of yelling into the void on social media – has never been more difficult. The things which were supposedly designed to bring people together – from open-plan workspaces to instant messaging and social media – have, in reality, trashed the threads of real-life social interaction. Millennials no longer meet down the pub after work or on a Friday night, and kids watch YouTube Shorts instead of going down the park. Gen X and older… who knows? We’re all lost, drifting.

‘I Need Contact’ captures that sense of desperate anguish, and McGinty adds something else – not least of all an enhanced sense of sadness and poignancy, with the addition of cellist Asakura Momoka and a field recording of an old diesel train engine. These add, respectively, shades of brooding and nostalgia (and who would have thought, not so long ago, that a diesel train would be a source of nostalgia? Time marches on, and at pace, and leaves us all behind eventually). But these additions are made subtly, keeping the soulful vocal to the fore of a minimal arrangement.

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The release is augmented by another Rolo McGinty remix, also lifted from the album. Here, ‘Creature in my House’ is stretched from its original five-and-a-half-minute duration to closer to double that. Pumped along by a retro ‘baggy’ beat (I can’t but be transported back to the 90s, as well as being reminded of the vibe of The Cure’s Mixed Up), and it does offer up a very different side of Vamberator. While the original version blends a mid-pace glammy stomp with hints of The Cure at their more playful, this lifts both the tempo and the spirits, and slings in some zany guitar breaks. Funky isn’t quite the word, but groovy might well be, and one might add ‘buoyant’, too, although it ventures into more experimental, and even dubby territory during its second half.

These are quite different versions, and make for a great single in the classic sense of A and B-side contrasting. They work well, and provide a well-timed reminder that the album’s out and well worth investigating – or giving another spin.

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Watch: ‘Vom Traum zur Pflicht’ by Vrîmuot

Posted: 13 November 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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VRÎMUOT present the lovingly illustrated lyric video of the balladesque song ‘Vom Traum zur Pflicht’ ("From Dream to Duty") taken from the forthcoming new album Lupus Viridis ("The Green Wolf").

The German dark folk innovators’ second full-length has been chalked up for release on December 5, 2025.

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VRÎMUOT comment: “The song ‘Vom Traum zur Pflicht’ is a musical journey through the fog-shrouded realm of my own soul”, mastermind Lupus Viridis reveals. “Only those who are willing to descend into the depths of their own existence may embark on a path of knowledge and seek the light of truth. Only those who are willing to make sacrifices may overcome the glass mountain and triumph over themselves.”

“Solve et coagula”! For death is the path to reverence … and to love.

This song is dedicated to my wife and son.

“Aus den schwarzen Schleiern heraus,
wurde ein weißer Stern geboren
und feuerrot brennt die Seele in mir!"”

“From the black veils,
a white star was born,
and the soul burns fiery red within me!”

Lupus Viridis

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