Hamburg’s True Gloom have turned the leap from a raw 2024 demo into a fully fleshed debut LP arriving October 3rd, 2025—an album built by former members of Glasses, Just Went Black, Krank, and No Weather Talks, and driven by a shift into something heavier, stranger, and far more layered.
The record keeps its core in hardcore punk, but the edges are full of risk: Australian-style wrecking ball rock’n’roll colliding with 90s Swedish hardcore and the sludge tones of New Orleans, then stitched with percussion layers, keyboards, glockenspiel, trumpet, even strings. “Sounds like an overblown mess? Don’t worry,” the band said, underlining that beneath the details it’s still “a white-hot lump of hardcore punk—but with a deep love for classic outlaw rock’n’roll from the 70s and 80s and a bold approach to weird ideas.”
There’s a constant push and pull in these songs—reckless one moment, deliberate the next. The band puts it simply: the lyrics live “somewhere in the wide zone between extended middle fingers and self-care in an increasingly hostile environment.” That shows up in different ways. “Black Dog” wrestles with inner demons, flipping between the voice of the self and an outside observer. “Rise Of The Pigs” goes straight for the gut with stomping drums and bass, a blunt chant stacked with hidden layers. “Defeated” is the real turning point, the song that cracked their sound open and set the tone for everything that followed.
View this post on Instagram
Other tracks stretch out in different directions. “True Gloom” sits in isolation and emotional walls. “This City” drags into a sludgy haze of disillusion. “PMS/PMA” dives into cycles of turbulence, while “The Best” swings hard the other way, pushing into empowerment with a ragged gang chorus of friends yelling together in one room. In between, they drop the atmospheric cuts “Dreams II” and “Dreams III.” As the band puts it, “Seriously: there will never be a TG release with several songs that will not include such a track. Better dust off your cowboy boots!”
Through all of it, the same undercurrent keeps coming back—pressure, fractured identity, the grind of carrying on, and the small flashes of relief when self-preservation wins out. “Constant Pressure” closes it out by tightening that knot until there’s no air left.
The singles “Defeated / Rise Of The Pigs,” “PMS/PMA,” and “Black Dog” already laid the groundwork, and the full album just drives those ideas further. The band’s track-by-track commentary digs deeper into how each piece came together. Check it out below.
To launch it, True Gloom will hit German stages through the fall with Ritual, R.O.S.A, and more, before stepping beyond home turf in 2026. See more details below.
Dreams II
Yes, we do love atmospheric intros or interludes. It all started on our demo tape – and seriously: there will never be a TG release with several songs that will not include such a track. Better dust off your cowboy boots!
True Gloom
This is one of the older tracks on our album, musically it’s still breathing the more „hardcore“ vibe of our demo-tape-era-songs. Nevertheless, it’s a dark, introspective song about emotional walls and feeling alone and isolated despite being surrounded by people. So it kinda sets a tone for the record.
Black Dog
After one of the oldest songs we got one that almost didn’t make the album because it was just an idea when we entered the studio. We recorded some drum tracks and then put everything else on top. After we finished the instrument recording process, we started snowballing lyrics with this idea of the „black dog“. It’s not difficult to understand that it is not necessarily a song about a dog – not at all, haha. It’s about inner demons and the constant battle within yourself. In hindsight, I love the different perspectives, which we had controversial debates about: Sometimes it is the dog speaking, but then it is an outside spectator. And WTF is wrong with the dog? loyal, but biting your hand. Such is mental struggle, such is life.
Rise Of The Pigs
Musically, one of the most simple tracks on the album. We wanted to get this dance „boom boom boom“ vibe – with simple, stomping drums and bass. It turned out quite nice and if you’re listening closely, you will notice that we went pretty crazy with additional instruments lurking in the background. We got that stuff on almost every song because it’s so much fun to add subliminal layers, you can hardly hear them but they add so much depth and tension. Lyrically, this is the most straightforward song on the album. Do we need to explain what the song is about? Guess not. Never again is now.
Clean The Slate
This is a song that we almost scrapped because it just didn’t sound like us but at the same time we all loved it. Our little Deftones homage, maybe? Lyrically, we are entering more positive territory here. Believe in yourself, be good to yourself, be ready to start over.
Dreams III
Did we mention, we love interludes? There you go with another one: Imagine being alone out in the desert, blistering heat, no water. Hope you got your cowboy hat on.
Defeated
This song is maybe the most important one on the album, because when we wrote it, it changed our sound forever. We remember when we had this cheesy main riff in the first place we all agreed it sounds like nothing we’ve ever done before, but everybody was laughing their ass off about it. So we stuck to the concept and it turned into this wrecking ball rock’n’roll thing that now is central for TGs music.
This City
Lyrically, we’re in „Taxi Driver“ territory here. Soundwise, it is our attempt at writing a stoner song so we can get sludgy for once on the album.
PMS/PMA
Besides „Rise Of The Pigs“ this is the one other song that does not hide what it’s about: Emotional turbulence and hormonal cycles, and beyond.
The Best
This is our attempt at a fist-bumping posi-core anthem. The dance-and-sing-along part towards the end was recorded with a huge choir of friends singing together in a room. Everything was a little bit out of control, but our recording and mixing wizard Roland Wiegner of die Tonmeisterei did a great job at making the chaos sound perfect! It’s about empowerment and reclaiming identity, committing to the „best“ version of oneself.
Constant Pressure
Did we mention we don’t just love intros and interludes, but also outros? Tension reaching its peak – internal and external pressure, constrained identity, the fight when there seems little room to move.
Tour dates:
View this post on Instagram
Oct 2 – Cologne – Helios37 (w/ RITUAL, GIVER)
Oct 3 – Leipzig – Conne Island (w/ RITUAL, R.O.S.A, RAUCHEN)
Oct 4 – Hamburg – Hafenklang (w/ RITUAL, R.O.S.A)
Nov 7 – Hanover – Lux (w/ RITUAL, R.O.S.A)
Nov 8 – Dresden – Riesa Efeu (w/ R.O.S.A)
Nov 29 – Kiel – Hansa48 (w/ TACKLEBERRY)
