[photo courtesy of Shameless Promotions]

By Phoebe Giordano, Contributor

Brooklyn post-punk duo A Cloud of Ravens released a second single for their upcoming third album Lost Hymns, set to be released in February 2023 via Nexilis Records.

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Founded in 2018, Matthew McIntosh and Beth Narducci have left their mark on the post-punk scene due to the poetic and modern spin they put on the genre. Though inspired by the gothic bands of their youth, “their sound is not rooted stubbornly in the past – it feels of this time” says Post-Punk.com. This originality and creativity remains true in what we’ve heard so far off their third album. 

After hitting the ground running with a string of self-releases, the duo gained more attention with the release of their second album Another Kind of Midnight, and the following record of remixes. Since 2021, their music has left its mark on the contemporary dark music scene as they reflect on the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic and what McIntosh calls the, “glaring societal ills and moral injustices,” (SideLine) of our time. Following Lost Hymns, the band will be embarking on a US Summer tour accompanied by cold-wave artists Curse Mackey and Clan of Xymox.

In more Nexillis news, Chicago-based post-punk/dark alternative band The Bellwether Syndicate has also released a new single, “Dystopian Mirror”, as a preview of their upcoming third album Vestige & Vigil.

Six years in the making, this “goth rock tornado” outfit will finally be releasing their first full-length album. They chose to debut “Dystopian Mirror” first as it was written by a close friend of lead vocalist William Faith who lost first his mind then his life to drug abuse. Faith shares that this track is meant to represent the voices in his own head as one “descends into the unwell.”

Though all members of the band are veterans of the goth scene in their own right, Vestige & Vigil will be a first-time collaboration for the group as they seek to share intense emotions and experiences through new rough-and-tumble music that pushes the edges of the genre with ferocity. 

You can listen to The Bellwether Syndicate here and more from A Cloud of Ravens here.