A huge, grungy guitar riff hooks you in immediately, while GK’s commanding vocal ensures she remains every bit its equal. Doomy drums stalk through the verses as ‘Mother Knows’ moves effortlessly between the swagger of classic 70s rock, the shadows of 80s goth and the grit of 90s grunge. But its most spine-tingling moment arrives during the bridge, when guitarist Eliza Lee swaps the conventional approach for a violin bow. “I’ve always loved the haunting effect you can get with a violin bow that I don’t really think you can replicate with gadgetry,” she explains. “It felt like the right move for the graveyard ambience of the song.” She’s absolutely right; the resulting sound is genuinely eerie, sending a shiver down the spine and pushing the track even further into its macabre world.

The accompanying visualiser keeps things comparatively simple, capturing VENUS GRRRLS performing together while their goth-rock aesthetic and formidable presence do the rest. Yet ‘Mother Knows’ practically begs for an entire cinematic world to be built around it – preferably after dark, amongst crumbling headstones in an appropriately mist-covered graveyard. For a band already adept at drawing upon gothic literature, film and imagery without allowing those influences to become empty aesthetics, ‘Mother Knows’ feels completely at home. VENUS GRRRLS don’t simply borrow from gothic rock; they seem to instinctively understand what makes it so intoxicating in the first place.

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Known for crafting immersive soundscapes where gothic textures meet post-punk urgency and new-wave allure, Sylvia Black has built a reputation as one of the most distinctive voices in today’s dark music revival. Across the album’s 11 tracks, Black ventures deeper into uncharted sonic territory. Set against a lush backdrop of new romantic and goth-tinged textures, the project weaves between ethereal and dance-driven soundscapes, as Black explores a longing for a return to beauty, love, and freedom.

Alongside the announcement, Sylvia Black has kicked things off with the new single and visualizer, ‘Talking in Tongues.’ A dark, hypnotic blend of gothrock, new wave, and shoegaze, it’s an eerie, haunted warning to those who might let loose enough to invite the spirits to take over. Black says, “It’s about one who has lost their agency by letting outward elements control them and deceive them. Or, a drunk bitch.”

Shadowtime:

1. The Snake
2. Talking in Tongues
3. Hey You
4. Soft Power
5. Anyway
6. Blooms of Babylon
7. Long Gone Gardens
8. Shelter of Shadows
9. Begin Again
10. Happy in Hell
11. Forever

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