Blog

Pre-order & stream the single here: https://theflowerkings.lnk.to/HOPE-Album

After more than three decades of pushing the boundaries of progressive rock, The Flower Kings return with the new album, HOPE, due out on the 23^rd October, 2026 on InsideOutMusic. The follow-up to 2025’s LOVE, stands as both a celebration of their legacy and a bold artistic statement. The album also finds the band returning to the side-long epic, with tracks clocking in at 18 and 28 minutes. 

Now the band are pleased to preview one of those mammoth new tracks, with the release of ‘The Gods of Rome, Part 2’. Listen to the track now here: https://youtu.be/QLHf26U42go

Roine Stolt comments: “This is one of several parts of an epic piece of music that has been swirling around for some years. I reworked bits and wrote some new lyrics that now have the backdrop of ancient Rome – but act more as a metaphor for modern day powerplay. Every nation and every leader/president want to shine and be remembered as the greatest – expansive dreams often tend to implode however.”

Rather than chasing trends or revisiting past glories, the band has crafted a work that comfortably exists between refined musicianship and fearless ambition.

Founding member Roine Stolt explains, “At a certain point in life – you arrive at a place where outside opinions matter less – and the process gravitates towards making an album that YOU yourself would LOVE but would perhaps normally not be viewed as a commercial attempt at all. We, the band – trust YOU, the audience – to be curious and to trust us that we want to bring you a grand glowing adventure.”

Watch the video for ‘In A World of Fools’ here: 

https://youtu.be/hlRgAYzu1x0

HOPE serves as a timely meditation on a turbulent time in the modern world. Without venturing into overt political commentary, its songs reflect on an era often marked by division and diminishing empathy while ultimately offering a message rooted in hope, acting as a roadmap, how to get there and re-ignite love in our hearts and our society.

The album’s compositions come from Stolt and keyboardist Lalle Larsson, with its centerpiece being the nearly 30-minute epic “The Gods of Rome.” Originally conceived from orchestral ideas developed more than a decade ago, the piece took an unexpected creative journey, at one point nearly becoming the musical foundation for another Anderson & Stolt project before ultimately finding its true home with The Flower Kings. Reimagined for the full band, it has evolved into a powerful reflection on contemporary life, using the imagery of ancient Rome to explore enduring themes of power, conflict, and the human cost of ambition.

Joining Stolt and Larsson once again are Hans Fröberg on vocals, Michael Stolt on bass, and Mirko DeMaio on drums. Supported by heartfelt performances from every member of the band, along with a number of special guests, the resulting album unfolds as a rewarding listening experience that reveals new details with each return. Stolt explains, “Like I said 37 years ago – ‘This is the band I will be in for the rest of my days’ – but I wouldn’t dream of us making one of our finest albums ever in 2026!”

HOPE will be available as Ltd.CD + Blu-Ray Digipak, featuring Dolby Atmos & 5.1 Surround Sound mixes by Rich Mouser, a first for the band. The album will also be available as Standard CD Jewelcase, Gatefold 2LP & Digitally.

Tracklisting:

    1.World Spinning – The Final Curtain (18:45)

    2.In a World of Fools (5:35)

    3.Mars & Minerva (4:40)

    4.The Gods Of Rome (28:15)

THE FLOWER KINGS online:

https://www.roinestolt.com/

http://www.facebook.com/TheFlowerKings

https://www.instagram.com/roinestolt8112/

https://www.facebook.com/pale.rider.127

INSIDEOUT MUSIC online:
www.insideoutmusic.com

www.youtube.com/InsideOutMusicTV

www.facebook.com/InsideOutMusic

https://www.instagram.com/insideoutmusic/

https://x.com/insideouteu

I’ll always wait for you

The promise that someone will wait forever has enjoyed an excellent reputation in love songs, considering how uncomfortable it can become outside them. Patience can deepen into devotion, but it can also give obsession an alibi, allowing someone to call an inability to let go proof of a superior kind of love. London trio Black Doldrums explore that uneasy territory on Waiting, a song whose tenderness comes with the unnerving suggestion that nobody has agreed on when the waiting should come to an end.

The third single from Repetition Compulsion, due November 13th, 2026, via Fuzz Club, carries a particular connection to the band’s previous album. Written around the same time as In Limerence, it extends that record’s preoccupation with longing and romantic fixation into a love song that sounds both consoling and quietly bereft. Its accompanying video takes those feelings out into the city, where a solitary attachment becomes an increasingly threatening pursuit.

A deep, humming bass and the heavy thud of drums establish the song’s measured pace, while a cool, jangling guitar melody moves between high, glassy notes and lower, mournful phrases. There is something of The Chameleons in the guitar’s arcing melodies, and of The Cure in the funereal weight beneath it. Sheets of icy synthesizer widen the space around the instruments, giving the opening a peculiar calm: everything sounds composed, even as the melody suggests that something has gone terribly wrong.

When Kevin Gibbard begins singing, the synthesizers settle into warmer mid-range tones, bringing a little bodily comfort to that cold room. His voice carries some of Andrew Eldritch’s solemn authority in a slightly higher register, with an exposed ache that also recalls Ian Curtis. Beneath him, the guitar takes on an increasingly Cure-like character, its clear notes ringing against the low end. Then the chorus rises into “I’ll always wait for you,” stretching the promise into a lament. The guitar’s answering jangle supplies the small, involuntary chill, the sort that travels up an arm before the mind has decided whether the feeling is pleasure or dread.

For all that unease, the song began in an ordinary moment of affection. Gibbard wrote the lyrics early one morning while waiting for Sophie Landers to wake up, with the themes of their second album still close at hand.

“When we were going through the finished mixes of the second album, Sophie noticed this recurring theme of limerence, which pushed ‘Waiting’ further in that direction. I liked the idea of writing about waiting for someone you love, that if you love someone enough, you’ll wait forever. I wrote all the lyrics in one go, early one morning, while I was literally waiting for Sophie to wake up. I just started jotting it down.”

Landers also supplied the idea behind one of the recording’s stranger details, asking for a sound that would suggest a spirit departing its body. Gibbard found his approximation through a Mellotron, voice synthesizers, and pitch bend:

“Sophie wanted something that sounded like a soul leaving someone’s body. So I played around with a Mellotron and voice synths with pitch bend to create something similar. It seemed to fit nicely because it has this really haunting sound.”

That imagined departure hangs over a song devoted to staying. The warmer synthesizers offer closeness, while the guitars and spectral vocal textures suggest distance, absence, and the possibility that a promise might outlast the person it was made to. There is considerable romance in Waiting, though very little reassurance that romance will make anyone happy.

The video’s darker premise took shape during a recent viewing of Taxi Driver. Landers recognized connections between the film and the band’s interest in limerence, particularly its treatment of loneliness, idealization, mental distress, and destructive fixation. Black Doldrums developed those observations into a story about an isolated, obsessive man following a woman through the city, with his sense of control destined for a nasty correction.

Gibbard and Landers occupy a nocturnal world of café booths, shuttered shopfronts, graffiti-covered brickwork, and stretches of nearly empty pavement. He sits alone with a cup, writes on a loose sheet of paper, and eats in a café; she walks through the streets in a black leather jacket, occasionally looking back. The editing brings their separate movements into an uncomfortable relationship, while red-lit close-ups of her eyes interrupt the greenish darkness outside. The ordinary business of getting through a night begins to feel charged with the possibility of being watched.

As the distance between them closes, the action moves into a narrow pedestrian underpass, its fluorescent lights leaving little room for either figure to disappear. Landers walks ahead while Gibbard follows, until a look back changes the balance between pursuer and pursued. The closing image gives heartbreak an abruptly physical form, making the familiar business of giving someone your heart seem like an offer best considered carefully.

Watch the video for Waiting below:

Gibbard and Landers formed Black Doldrums in London, initially working as a duo built around guitar, drums, and vocals before expanding into a trio. Their 2022 debut Dead Awake and 2024 follow-up In Limerence, both released through Fuzz Club, brought their early interests in psychedelia, drone, and reverb into a more concentrated gothic post-punk form. Extensive UK and European touring followed, including arena dates supporting Archive and their own headline shows.

Repetition Compulsion completes the band’s interconnected “State of Mind Trilogy,” exploring the emotional patterns people carry into relationships, memory, and self-understanding. Across eleven songs, the record expands those concerns into inherited behaviour, politics, and mental wellbeing. Waiting provides a particularly intimate connection between the trilogy’s final two chapters, holding affection and fixation close enough for their resemblance to become unsettling.

The album arrives November 13th, 2026, on 180-gram neon-yellow vinyl limited to 350 hand-numbered copies, 180-gram ultra-clear vinyl, and CD. Pre-order the album here. Listen below and order via Bandcamp.

Follow Black Doldrums:

• Instagram
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Spotify
• Bandcamp

The post London Post-Punk Trio Black Doldrums Lose Their Hearts to Limerence in Video for “Waiting” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Posted on September 24th 2026, 11:01am

Sienna Spiro is an English singer-songwriter from London whose music draws on pop, soul, jazz, and the dramatic vocal traditions of artists she grew up listening to. She began writing songs when she was young and built an early audience by posting performances online before releasing her own music. Her debut single, “NEED ME,” arrived in May 2024, followed by “MAYBE.,” “TAXI DRIVER,” and “BACK TO BLONDE.” Those recordings introduced a style built around expressive vocals, piano-led balladry, and emotionally direct songwriting. Her first major collection, SINK NOW, SWIM LATER, arrived in February 2025 as an eight-song EP. Along with

The post Complete List Of Sienna Spiro Songs From A to Z appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

Bullet For My Valentine have announced the details of their new full-length album ‘Social Apocalypse’.

The record is set to be released on March 19 2027, via Spinefarm. It follows their 2021 Self-Titled effort.

It will also feature two special collaborations, with Against The Current’s Chrissy Costanza joining them on ‘In The Absence Of You’ and Lorna Shore’s Will Ramos on ‘I Don’t Trust Tomorrow’.

Here is the full tracklisting:

1. Social Apocalypse
2. In The Absence of You ft. Chrissy Costanza
3. I Don’t Trust Tomorrow ft. Will Ramos
4. Here Without You
5. Acid Rain
6. Fragile
7. CVLT
8. Masquerade
9. Read Between The Lines
10. Enough Is Never Enough

And the artwork looks like this:

Vocalist Matt Tuck had this to say about what the record represents for him, stating, “Everything in life is changing at such a rapid pace, and it is hard to find a great deal of positivity when you look at events in the world. People are being pitted against each other. The world is full of conflict instead of unity. As a father, I look at what the world is like for younger people, and how completely different it is now.”

The band have also brought this sentiment to a head by sharing their first song in four years: the album’s title track. A caustic, soaring takedown of modern life and how we are viewing the end of all things through the bright lights of our phone screens.

The band will also be hitting the road for an extensive tour of the UK and Europe, with support coming from Pendulum and Dark Divine. Here are all of the dates:

JANUARY 2027

21 – LISBON Sagres Campo Pequeno
22 – MADRID Palacio Vistalegre
23 – BARCELONA Sant Jordi Club
25 – MILAN Forum
26 – ZURICH Hallenstadion
27 – DUSSELDORF Mitsubishi Electric Halle
29 – HAMBURG Sporthalle
30 – COPENHAGEN K.B.Hallen
31 – STOCKHOLM Annexet

FEBRUARY 2027

02 – HELSINKI Ice Hall
04 – KATOWICE MCK
06 – MUNICH Zenith
07 – PARIS Zenith
09 – LUXEMBOURG Rockhal
11 – FRANKFURT Festhalle
12 – STUTTGART Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle
13 – VIENNA Stadthalle
15 – BUDAPEST Budapest Arena
16 – PRAGUE O2 Universum
17 – BERLIN Velodrome
19 – AMSTERDAM AFAS Live
20 – BRUSSELS Forest National
23 – GLASGOW OVO Hydro
25 – BIRMINGHAM bp pulse LIVE
26 – LONDON The O2
27 – MANCHESTER AO Arena

The post Bullet For My Valentine Announce New Album ‘Social Apocalypse’ appeared first on Rock Sound.