The Sanctuary Gazette

No. 4 · Tuesday, 13 October 2026

The Sanctuary Gazette

The Mission is preparing its first album in twelve years, expected between February and March 2027. Vioflesh releases Dark Bellow, ten tracks of Chilean darkwave, and ShadowMouth releases Modern Alchemy on October 14, 2026 via Death of the Party Records.

Cover story

Photograph of the band The Mission illustrating the article
OndaRock
gothic rockReadAnnounced on 12 October 2026

The Mission prepares first album in twelve years, due early 2027

The Mission is working on a new album, its first in twelve years. It is due out between February and March 2027, and the record does not have a title yet. Wayne Hussey, singer and guitarist, revealed this in an interview with Dave Ling for Classic Rock/Louder. He says he enjoys being able to keep making music with his friends, and adds that with age, how the public receives the music matters less to him: the band does it for itself.

The interview also looks back at “God’s Own Medicine,” the band’s first album, released in 1986 and turning forty this year. It came out after Hussey and bassist Craig Adams left the Sisters Of Mercy. Driven by the singles “Stay With Me,” “Wasteland” and “Severina,” it earned a gold record in the United Kingdom. Hussey insists the success was not unexpected: the musicians had all played in other bands before. He admits, however, that popularity initially went to his head.

Finally, he discusses the band’s strained relations with the music press, with Trouser Press having described the first album as an improbable cross between Led Zeppelin, Yes and Echo & The Bunnymen. The second album, “Children” (1988), was produced by John Paul Jones, the former Led Zeppelin bassist. Hussey says he was invited to tea at Iggy Pop’s place during that period.

Source : OndaRock, 12 October 2026 ↗

Discovery of the day

Visual illustrating the song Kiss Me Slowly by BetaBlueX
Electrozombies
dark pop, dark waveReadAnnounced on 12 October 2026

BetaBlueX, American duo, slides toward dark pop with Kiss Me Slowly

The American duo BetaBlueX offers “Kiss Me Slowly,” a dark pop track. The two musicians place their own sound between darkwave and synthwave, but the Electrozombies reviewer finds that the song flirts far more with classic pop, which for him puts it in dark pop.

The whole stays restrained and discreet, with clean, polished production. The lyrics revolve around romantic devotion, obsession and a romantic loss of control, carried by a nocturnal soundscape with soft pulsations.

Spotify

Source : Electrozombies, 12 October 2026 ↗

New releases

Cover of The Real Anthem’s single Damage Control
Bandcamp
post-punk, synthpop, new waveReadReleased on 9 October 2026

The Real Anthem releases Damage Control, ninth single from the Arizona post-punk band

The Arizona post-punk band The Real Anthem released “Damage Control” on Friday, October 9, 2026. It is its ninth single since its debut in September 2025 with “Worth.” The track comes with a visualizer.

Like the rest of the repertoire, the lyrics take aim at corporatism and unchecked capitalism, and at the machinery designed to control and subjugate. Shawn Helton, co-founder and singer, compares the song to Depeche Mode from the Ultra era, with moods close to Duran Duran: a dark post-punk atmosphere, danceable new wave and synthpop rhythms, “but played by guys who drink water and eat healthy between takes,” in his words.

Matt King, a multi-instrumentalist, mixed and recorded the track, and plays bass, synths and guitar. Andy Mitchell handles backing vocals and shares the guitars with him.

Helton describes The Real Anthem as a sort of companion band to his previous project, Memory Mask: the same social and political themes, but with a brighter note, a spark of life that refuses to submit.

BandcampYouTube

Source : ReGen Magazine, 12 October 2026 ↗

Cover of the single Urblod by Danheim
Bandcamp
nordic folkReadReleased on 12 October 2026

Danheim releases the single Urblod on Season of Mist

Danheim releases the single Urblod on 12 October 2026 on the label Season of Mist.

Behind the name Danheim is the Danish producer Reidar Schæfer Olsen, based in Copenhagen. His project falls under nordic folk and draws on the Viking Age, with particular attention to its dark side. His music draws on Norse mythology and old Danish folklore.

Spotify

Source : Spotify, 12 October 2026 ↗ · Primary source : Bandcamp ↗ · More sources : Wikipédia (en) (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗

Cover of WHOLE's album THING, designed by Alexander Leonard Donat
Bandcamp
synthpop, industrial, darkwave, EBMReadAnnounced on 12 October 2026

WHOLE releases THING, third album from the Berlin duo

The Berlin duo WHOLE has released THING, its third album, on Blackjack Illuminist Records. The label gives a release date of 9 October 2026, while Bandcamp lists 16 October. The nine tracks lay touches of industrial, darkwave, post-punk and EBM over a synthpop foundation.

Alexander Leonard Donat, who also records as Vlimmer and with Fir Cone Children, and Thomas Schernikau wrote, played and produced everything themselves. Schernikau handled the mixing and mastering, Donat the cover art. For this record, Schernikau suggested working “quick and dirty”, a break from the duo's habit of letting each track mature for a long time. The lyrics revolve around a question phrased in the label's press release: what makes a human being a human being, and when a person becomes a function, a profile, a thing.

The album opens with “Air Vent” and closes with “The Reckoning”, which runs close to seven minutes. It is available on CD in a cardboard sleeve with a 12-page booklet, on cassette in transparent red shells limited to 30 copies, and as a digital release on Bandcamp. A signed CD edition is limited to 15 copies.

THING follows BIAS (2018) and HYDRA (2024), both released on Blackjack Illuminist, Donat's label. Schernikau also plays in Forced To Mode, a Depeche Mode tribute, and records with Christian Schottstädt as Forced Movement.

BandcampSpotify

Source : Side-Line, 12 October 2026 ↗ · Primary source : blackjackilluministrecords.bandcamp.com ↗

Videos

Visual illustrating the video The Fever by ...And It Was Night
darkwave, synthpopReadAnnounced on 12 October 2026

...And It Was Night brings The Fever to the screen, with a Faustian pact and no green screen

A little over a year ago, Rani Sharone (The Stolen Babies, Thrillsville) released “The Fever,” the first song from ...And It Was Night, his new darkwave and synthpop project. Two more singles have followed since, but it is “The Fever” that now gets a video.

Sharone proudly points out that no green screen was used to shoot it. The video stages a Faustian pact and nocturnal promises of fortune.

Dominique Lenore Persi, singer of The Stolen Babies, can be heard discreetly in the background.

Spotify

Source : VerdamMnis Magazine, 12 October 2026 ↗

The industrial workshop

Cover of ShadowMouth’s album Modern Alchemy
Side-Line
goth industrialReadDue on 14 October 2026

ShadowMouth releases Modern Alchemy, first album from the Pittsburgh goth industrial project

ShadowMouth, a goth and industrial project from Pittsburgh, releases its first album, “Modern Alchemy,” on October 14, 2026 for streaming on Death of the Party Records. The vinyl and CD editions follow on October 16. Eight tracks, 31 minutes. Five of the songs had already come out as singles between May 2025 and August 2026; three are new: “Trauma Bonds,” “Course Correction (End-to-End Encryption)” and “The Weight of the Algorithm is the Sum of Our Death.”

Rick Polo, who founded the project in 2023, sings, plays guitar, bass, Bass VI and keyboards, and handles programming. Brooks Farris plays and programs the drums, and produced, recorded and mastered the album at Electric Fox Studios. He co-wrote two tracks with Polo, “The Promise of Alchemy” and “Your Words, Not Mine.”

The Cleveland vocal trio The Elder Goths sings on “The Promise of Alchemy” and “The Death of Chemistry.” Sounds Pretty Grim appears on “Trauma Bonds.” The cover art is by Rhiannon V. Williams-Bohac.

ShadowMouth started out in October 2024 with the double single “Poison Nostalgia/Twenty Four Hours,” the latter being a Joy Division cover, followed by the EP “Purification By Fire” in November 2024.

Spotify

Source : Side-Line, 12 October 2026 ↗

Underground

Visual illustrating the article on Vioflesh’s album Dark Bellow
Dark Entries
dark waveReadAnnounced on 12 October 2026

Vioflesh follows up with Dark Bellow, ten tracks of Chilean darkwave

The Chilean duo Vioflesh releases “Dark Bellow,” ten tracks of darkwave and synthwave in an icy coldwave mood. Vio Velenzuela sings, Flesh writes the music. For now the release is digital only, like the band’s many previous singles. It arrives a few months after “Melancholia” (March 2026), which is also available digitally only.

The previous album, “Nostalgia” (2025), came out on cassette, CD and vinyl through Dark Tunes and Young And Cold Records. The Dark Entries reviewer is therefore surprised that “Dark Bellow” has no physical format for now, and expects that to change fairly soon.

He places the duo alongside Ductape, NNHMN, Minuit Machine, Linea Aspera, Ghost Cop, Twin Tribes and Geometric Vision. The cold, melancholic synths, carried by exclusively female vocals, occasionally remind him of The Frozen Autumn. He singles out “Trapped,” which evokes Boy Harsher, the more electro-pop “Ice,” and “Velvet” and “Young Blood,” which lean more toward darkwave. “Intuition” and “Suffocating” each have a video.

One criticism: a bit more variety between the tracks and a stronger personality would help the duo progress.

SpotifyYouTube

Source : Dark Entries, 12 October 2026 ↗

Cabinet of Curiosities

Cover of the novel It Looks Like You in the Dark by Mathilda Zeller
Ginger Nuts of Horror
horreur autochtoneReadReleased on 13 October 2026

Mathilda Zeller expands her short story Kushtuka into a first Indigenous horror novel

Mathilda Zeller publishes “It Looks Like You in the Dark,” her first novel, on October 13, 2026 with Tor Nightfire, available in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audiobook. It extends her short story “Kushtuka,” which opened the Never Whistle at Night anthology in 2023. The kushtuka there is a creature that takes the face of a loved one, then waits to see whether you will follow it into the dark anyway.

In the Inupiat village of Chukchi, Tapeesa, a fish plant worker, searches for her missing sister, Esther, while a rare earth mine transforms the landscape. The short story took place over a single night in one household; the novel follows the creature through factories, mining facilities and an entire village.

Asked about it, the author says she invented little: she grew up with her mother’s and uncle’s memories of the region and visited it. Several generations of her family have dealt with the Arctic mining industry, whose human and environmental dangers she knows well. She chose rare earths because she needed a poisoning faster than lead. She lived with her Inupiaq grandfather, who told her stories of the region, which guided the way the legend is passed down in the book.

Source : Ginger Nuts of Horror, 12 October 2026 ↗

The Dark Room

Promotional image from the horror film Devour, taken from the Rue Morgue article
Rue Morgue
horreurReadReleased on 13 October 2026

Devour, horror film about a heavy metal band, arrives digitally on October 13

Epic Pictures and Dread are releasing Devour on digital platforms on October 13. The film is directed by Scott B. Hansen and written by Desiree Hansen, the team behind Bad Candy. Rue Morgue has premiered a clip in which one of the band members plays terribly.

The story follows an all-female heavy metal band stranded after a disastrous gig. After crossing paths with a woman in danger, the musicians find themselves trapped in an isolated town ruled by a powerful sorcerer. Cannibals, vampires and a murderous werewolf prowl the streets. To last until dawn, the band must tap into dark powers of their own. The source likens the film to Deathgasm.

The cast includes KateLynn E. Newberry, Gus Langley, Alex Lucchesi, Chelsea LeSage, Gaven Wilde and Heidi Shepherd, singer of the heavy metal band Butcher Babies. Creature effects and practical effects are by Wayne Anderson.

Source : Rue Morgue, 12 October 2026 ↗

Release radar

Releases announced for the coming weeks

  • Cover Art Archive
    Read

    Out on 13.11

    trentemøller · trentemøller

    Album · hfn music

    Danish solo artist working in minimal techno, born in Vordingborg and coming from Copenhagen. He began in 1997 with DJ T.O.M. in Trigbag, which they founded as the first live house band in Denmark. His approach sits between indie and electronic, and he performs on stage with a full band.

    BandcampSpotifyYouTube

    Sources of the facts : MusicBrainz, Spotify, Wikipédia (fr) (CC BY-SA 4.0), Last.fm (CC BY-SA 3.0), Bandcamp

  • Cover Art Archive
    Read

    Out on 20.11

    Then Comes Silence · Requiem Ballroom

    Album · Metropolis Records

    Swedish post-punk band formed in Stockholm in 2012, also associated with gothic rock, deathrock and darkwave. Its taste for noise rock, shoegaze and psychedelia shows in very loud guitars heavy with effects. H. Zombie plays guitar in it.

    BandcampSpotify

    Sources of the facts : MusicBrainz, Spotify, Wikipédia (de) (CC BY-SA 4.0), Last.fm (CC BY-SA 3.0)

  • Cover Art Archive
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    Out on 16.10

    Eivør · Tungl

    Album · Nuclear Blast

    Faroese solo artist born in Syðrugøta, whose style draws on medieval and Celtic music. She performs, notably a cappella, old ballads and Faroese psalms. Already known in the Faroe Islands before her debut abroad, she then studied music and singing in Iceland.

    BandcampSpotifyYouTube

    Sources of the facts : MusicBrainz, Spotify, Wikipédia (fr) (CC BY-SA 4.0), Last.fm (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Written automatically by The Sanctuary Gazette from the sources cited.

The Gazette has no commercial aim, it simply wants to spread the word about the scene and the media that cover it. Every article is rewritten and links back to its source, we follow each site's access rules, and any publisher who wishes can ask us to take content down: just get in touch.

Series data: TVmaze (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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