After 13 years of silence, an unsettling sound that is strangely familiar yet somehow even more haunted re-emerges from the Arkansas depths. There is no mistake as to what this is. RWAKE has released a new transmission. The Return of Magik has arrived. Today, RWAKE share the second single and official visualizer video for “You Swore We’d Always Be Together”, the opening song from The Return of Magik, out March 14, 2025 on LP/CD/Digital via Relapse Records. Watch on YouTube and listen to and pre-save on all streaming platforms below.
Artwork by Loni Gillum of Minerva’s Menagerie and RWAKE
Pre-Order / Watch / Listen:
https://orcd.co/rwake
Additionally, RWAKE announce their first shows of 2025 around the release of The Return of Magik including a hometown release show on March 15. Tickets are on sale now and available below!
The Return of Magik is out March 14, 2025 on LP/CD/Digital via Relapse Records. Pre-Order here: https://orcd.co/rwake
RWAKE LIVE:
3/14 in Nashville, TN @ Eastside Bowl [Tickets]
3/15 in Little Rock, AR @ Rev Room [Tickets]
4/11 in Shreveport, LA @ Bear’s [Tickets]
4/12 in New Orleans, LA @ Siberia [Tickets]
YOU SWORE WE’D ALWAYS BE TOGETHER
Photo Credit: Brett Cole
Years have now fed into an album that reaches into a swirling, cosmic unknown – RWAKE have grown, and the perspective of the material has shifted accordingly. Overwhelming at its peak and haunting during moments of respite, The Return of Magik is undeniably RWAKE; and every moment feels like an emotionally engrossing journey.
Arrangements carefully and thoughtfully built in layers over a period of years lend mystique and a feeling of building toward a cathartic release. There is no box into which the material might fit other than one with the band’s name on it.
Recorded in early 2024 at East End Sounds in Hensley, Arkansas, The Return of Magik introduces RWAKE’s new lead guitarist Austin Sublett with a barrage of shredded solos suited to the angular, progressive metal riffing of the album’s most jaw-clenching moments, while presenting a through-line of molten, immersive ambience. The opener “You Swore We’d Always Be Together” – already a fixture of live sets – and the expansive sprawl of “Distant Constellations and the Psychedelic Incarceration” move with cruelty and grace alike. Foreboding, syncopated riffs sway against Moog-driven space and guttural bellows. The Return of Magik’s songs stand alone as individualized post-metallic blends of genres.
RWAKE remain dually fronted; Chris Terry’s powerful vocals lay against Brittany Fugate’s visceral screams. Jeff Morgan returns to the drum kit, in addition to acoustic guitar and 12-string bass. Bassist/noisemaker Reid Raley, Sublett, and fellow guitarist John Judkins set an instrumental backdrop that is vast and engrossing in itself – quiet, contemplative passages often explode into gut-wrenching, doomed out distortions. The Return of Magik burns brighter and beyond the ferocity of the band’s already storied catalog.
Although the Magik may be bleak, the manner in which RWAKE revels in it can only be called a celebration.
THE RETURN OF MAGIK TRACKLIST:
You Swore We’d Always Be Together
The Return of Magik
With Stardust Flowers
Distant Constellations and the Psychedelic Incarceration
In After Reverse
Φ
RWAKE Is:
C.T. – vocals, words, theme
Reid – bass guitars & distortion
John – guitars, lap & pedal steel, 12 string bass
Austin – guitars
Brittany- energy peddler, keys and a microphone
Jeff – drums, acoustic guitar, 12 string bass
Psychedelic Incarceration written and spoken by Jim “Dandy” Mangrum February 17, 2024 in Black Oak, Arkansas.
RWAKE Online:
https://facebook.com/rwakeband
https://www.instagram.com/rwakeband/
https://rwake.bandcamp.com/