On February 26, 2025, Rule of Two, a Norwegian duo steeped in darkwave and electronic indie tones, will drop their new single, “Beats of Failure.”
It’s the opening move in a string of releases paving the way to their debut album, slated for fall 2025. After churning out two EPs in their first year as a band, this next step feels like a natural shift—no fanfare, just progression.
The track itself is a slow burn, starting with a tense, shadowed pulse that climbs steadily toward a jagged peak of thumping beats and layered vocal harmonies. Synthpop collides with indie rock edges and techno undercurrents, crafting something that feels like dread given shape, then cracked open just enough to let a sliver of light through.
The song’s core is anxiety laid bare.
Ronny Flissundet, who handles vocals, guitars, and synths, wrote the lyrics, pulling them from an earlier demo called “Mindfuck Universe” that never saw daylight. That version didn’t click, but the words stuck around, finding a home in this new track where the mood finally fit. “Beats of failure / Wearing a foul demeanor / Parading to unease,” he sings, sketching a scene of mistrust and fraying nerves. It’s not a wallow, though—the lyrics wrestle with hopelessness, asking, “When does soon end and now begin / How could this get worse,” before hinting at something salvageable beneath the weight. “Nothing is lost / Nothing is lost yet,” Flissundet insists, though the old lies and “way old chimes of us” still linger, stubborn as rust.
Musically, it’s a tightrope walk.
Kristian Liljan, the other half of Rule of Two, layers beats, loops, bass, and synths into a sound that could sit alongside a male Billie Eilish trading notes with Thom Yorke or Robert Smith—brooding, icy, but restless. Recorded between MIR in Oslo and Crystal Island in Nesodden, and produced and mixed by Liljan, the track has a crisp, deliberate bite. You can feel the Norwegian chill in it, like it was carved out of the same forests that loom beyond the studio windows.
The music video, helmed by Tyge Møller Christiansen, doubles as a first glimpse of Rule of Two’s live band setup, which is gearing up for a debut this fall. Christiansen’s a fresh addition to the lineup, and the video leans into the song’s unease while teasing what’s coming when the band hits stages in Norway. No dates are locked in yet, but Flissundet says announcements are weeks away, alongside a proper rollout of the live crew on social media. For now, the video stitches together the track’s raw nerve with visuals that feel like a prelude, not a full reveal.
“Beats of Failure” is more like staring down the mess of doubt and disquiet—“Noise never felt this quiet / Underneath all of the same old lies,” as the lyrics put it—and choosing to march through it anyway. The duo’s been writing and recording nonstop since day one, and this single kicks off a year that’ll see more singles, more videos, and that album drop in the fall.
They’re already rehearsing the live set, prepping for shows that’ll bring the full band into focus. Flissundet sums up the song’s roots plainly: it’s about “struggling finding light or solutions,” but the music itself doesn’t stay slumped. That climb to the climax, with its big harmonies and insistent pulse, feels like defiance, or at least a refusal to let the dark win outright.
The weight of the themes sits heavy, sure, but Rule of Two isn’t buckling under it. They’re channeling it instead—into something sharp, deliberate, and unapologetically their own. “The fumes shook me off balance / My mindfuck struck again,” Flissundet sings, and you can hear the jolt. It’s not polished platitudes or hollow uplift; it’s a jagged little lifeline, tossed out from the snowy edges of Norway.
