There’s a pull to the unknown that can be as suffocating as it is liberating. Gloomer doesn’t try to answer the unanswerable, but with their new single, “Cold Empty Heaven,” they stare straight into the void.
It’s the title track from their upcoming EP, due March 21st via Head2Wall Records, and the first song they wrote in the aftermath of their 2023 full-length, Embrace the End. That record fixated on death from every conceivable angle; this one steps past it and questions what, if anything, waits on the other side.
“If life on this earth is all we have, don’t miss out on experiences trying to secure your spot in a heaven that may not be there,” the band says. It’s less nihilistic than it sounds—more of a sharp, clear-eyed reckoning with the idea that this life might be it, and that wasting it chasing the next one might be the greatest tragedy of all.
That shift in perspective informs the entire EP. Life doesn’t move in straight lines, and most of it is out of anyone’s control. The best you can do is learn how to ride the current. The cover art by Nathan Clark locks into that image: a lone figure adrift in the open ocean, motionless except for the waves carrying them somewhere unknown. Gloomer sees it as their own cold, empty heaven.
Musically, the band is pushing their sound further into the heavy shoegaze/post-hardcore hybrid they’ve been refining for years. They’re chasing depth rather than volume, finding that place where weight and atmosphere blend into something immersive. And they brought in the right person to help sharpen that focus—Matt Talbott, whose work with Hum shaped entire generations of bands, produced and engineered Cold Empty Heaven at his Earth Analog studios.
Drenched in distortion and post-hardcore grit, carrying that deep rust belt melancholy. There’s a sense of isolation embedded in these songs, but also something raw and relentless, the sound of a band letting go of whatever’s out of their control and sinking into what’s left.
Cold Empty Heaven arrives March 21st on cassette and digital via Head2Wall Records.
