Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

Wailin Storms are catching fire with noisy and bluesy explosions of Southern Gothic Rock. Like moths to a flame, critics are mesmerized by the Durham, North Carolina band’s new album, The Arsonist.

“Wailin Storms is in the midst of a fiery return”, Treble proclaims about The Arsonist. “The culmination of their efforts results in the band’s strongest record to date”.

“There are bands that flirt with darkness, and then there are bands like Wailin Storms, who sound like they were born somewhere in the smoke between the burned-down church, the bad stretch of highway and the house at the end of the street nobody walks past after sunset”, Decibel writes regarding the album.

“Arson may be a crime”, Angry Metal Guy warns, “but missing out on The Arsonist – whether you’re a longtime fan or a newcomer to Wailin Storms – would be the real crime”.  

As the band prepare to burn rubber on their upcoming U.S. East Coast Tour for The Arsonist, today, Wailin Storms are releasing a new video for the album’s chilling closer. Filmed in one take and recorded live with no editing inside an old church, the gothic ballad “It’s All Dark Now Where Your Eyes Used To Be” will haunt you to the grave.

Order the album here: https://orcd.co/wailinstormsthearsonist

”’It’s All Dark Now Where Your Eyes Used To Be” is about coming to terms with the realization that death comes for us all”, Wailin Storms vocalist and guitarist Justin Storms says. “I started writing this song when I was in Belgium, after I saw an old church that looked like a skull. It’s the last song on The Arsonist and is very spare and sad, but there’s also a sliver of hope. Life is temporary and that’s where its beauty lies”.  

The video for “It’s All Dark Now Where Your Eyes Used To Be” was filmed at Eno House in Hillsborough, North Carolina.

Starting next week, Wailin Storms are igniting the stage with a headline tour of the U.S. East Coast. The band will perform songs off The Arsonist for the first time, along with crowd favorites from across their critically-acclaimed discography.

Wailin Storms 2026 The Arsonist U.S. Tour
July 29 – Johnson City, TN @ The Hideaway [TICKETS]
July 30 – Atlanta, GA @ Star Bar [TICKETS]
July 31 – Knoxville, TN @ The Pilot Light [TICKETS]
August 1 – Cincinnati, OH @ Motr [TICKETS]
August 2 – Youngstown, OH @ Westside Bowl [TICKETS]
August 3 – Columbus, OH @ Dirty Dungarees [TICKETS]
August 4 – Pittsburgh, PA @ The Government Center [TICKETS]
August 5 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery [TICKETS]
August 6 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Gutter [TICKETS]
August 7 – New Hope, PA @ John and Peter’s [TICKETS]
August 8 – Richmond, VA @ Cobra Cabana [TICKETS]

In September, Wailin Storms will join Messa in Asheville, North Carolina to kick off the official after party for the Acid Bath, Neurosis, Melvins and Kylesa show at Hellbender.

The Official Acid Bath After Party with Wailin Storms and Messa: Saturday, September 5 – Asheville, North Carolina @ Eulogy [FREE SHOW]

Tracklist
1. Dead End (4:48) [WATCH]
2. Heart of Mine (5:13)
3. You Never Answered (4:53) [WATCH]
4. The Arsonist (4:52) [WATCH]
5. Never Rest (4:59)
6. Saved (4:24)
7. Patient Night (3:22)
8. The Wind (6:01)
9. It’s All Dark Now Where Your Eyes Used To Be (6:30) [WATCH]

Since migrating to North Carolina’s inland coast circa 2014, Wailin Storms have caught fire with noisy, bluesy explosions of Southern gothic rock. Hot on the heels of critical high praise and thunderous applause from crowds on both sides of the Atlantic, the band’s fifth album and first for Season of Mist fans their flames with reckless abandon. While surrounded by darkness from the outside world, The Arsonist burns with all of our heart’s desires.  

“I’ve always been fascinated by fire”, Wailin Storms vocalist and guitarist Justin Storms says before alluding to a time when he came dangerously close to accidentally burning his family’s house down. “It speaks to our inherent attraction to danger and annihilation, but also, our hope for transformation”.

Born the son of a church pianist and Baptist preacher, Justin Storms converted to the church of rock ‘n’ roll after listening to the teachings of his older brother. “He was responsible for getting me into outsider music”. After forming Wailin Storms in his home state of Texas and a pass through New York City, Storms hunkered down in Durham, North Carolina, where he was joined in 2014 by the band’s current drummer Mark Oates (Bats & Mice) and bassist Steve Stanczyk.  

Debut full-length One Foot in the Flesh Grave laid a solid foundation for Wailin Storms in 2015 with an East Coast and Midwest tour that led to their first appearance at The Fest. 2017 follow-up Sick City infected more ears with coverage spreading from CVLT Nation to NPR. It was their third album, though, that really opened the floodgates. Rattle was featured by The Needle Drop and named one of the best albums of 2020 by Treble, Riff Magazine, Angry Metal Guy and Machine Music. More attention from Decibel and Metal Hammer came two years later around The Silver Snake Unfolds, which was followed by the arrival of guitarist Ben Melton, as well as shows and tour dates with everyone from City of Caterpillar, pageninetynine and This Will Destroy You to Acid Bath, Eyehategod and Young Widows.  

“If Bauhaus, Killing Joke, and Black Sabbath had a child, this would be it”, Metal Injection proclaimed about Wailin Storms.  

Brooklyn Vegan concurred. “It’s just loud, heavy, dark rock music, and it’s awesome”.  

The Arsonist can be traced back through Wailin Storms’ past.  Recorded by Matt Talbott of Hum in full analog, the album rekindles the band’s roots in raw-to-the-bone blues punk as a heated response to today’s vat of overproduced music and AI slop. By experimenting with swoons of Rhodes organ, “Heart of Mine” recalls the Roadhouse from Twin Peaks. “Some of these songs are more primitive and stripped down, harkening back to the four-track recordings that the band started with”, Storms says. “The recordings contain flaws but remain human in all the right ways. They could be a murder ballad or an old folk song that’s sung around the campfire”. Other early influences soak into the songwriting’s weathered fabric: Flannery O’Conner’s grotesque sensibility, Cormac McCarthy’s unflinching fatalism, Old Regular Baptist hymns. With its sideways gust of riffs and moaning chorus, “The Wind” blows loud enough to wake the entire cemetery.  

“Because the heart wants what the body wants and the mind wants what the eyes want”, Storms gravely intones. “Won’t you take me through hell”.    

Wailin Storms throw heavy splashes of surrealism into the fires of The Arsonist. “Many of the lyrics draw from the same imagery and emotions conjured by David Lynch, especially his film Wild at Heart”, Storms says. “Dead End” opens the album by taking a harrowing turn of its own when the drum’s rattle leads straight into a waking nightmare. “Calm night / Birds keep plucking out our eyes”.  

While shrouded by a doomy and dreamy atmosphere, The Arsonist is inflamed by real life anxieties. Taking inspiration from René Magritte, the album’s cover art, which is heavily shadowed except for a tiny house gone up in flames, was painted by Storms himself. “These songs are steeped in the trials and tribulations of everyday life”, he says. The title track is slowly engulfed by love’s eternal flame. “Like the wind controls the sea”, he croons over the gentle sway of his guitar. “You always had a hold on me”. The thunderous climax surges with such feverish intensity that it threatens to send the night of passion up in smoke.  

Amidst the wreckage of The Arsonist, Wailin Storms do find a semblance of peace. “It’s All Dark Now Where Your Eyes Used to Be” ends the album with a ghostly flicker of gothic romance. “I know a place where we can sit and grow old”, Storms offers with grim assurance. A piano tolls like death’s bell as he glimpses up at a church that resembles a skull. “There’s a sliver of hope in coming to terms with death”, he concludes. “Life is temporary and that’s where its beauty lies”.  

On The Arsonist, Wailin Storms deliver a fiery baptism of Southern gothic rock.

Lineup
Justin Storms – Lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Ben Melton – Lead guitar, backup vocals, Rhodes organ, piano
Steve Stanczyk – Bass
Mark Oates – Drums

Recording credits
Recorded at Earth Analog in May 2025

Production Credits
Produced and engineered by Matt Talbott
Mixed by Mike Lust at Phantom Manor (“Dead End”, “Heart of Mine”, “You Never Answered”, “The Arsonist”, “Never Rest”, “The Wind”, It’s All Dark Now Where Your Eyes Used to Be”
Mixed by Dave Downham at Gradwell House (“Saved”, “Patient Night”)
Mastered by Dave Downham at Gradwell House

All lyrics written by Justin Storms

Cover art
Justin Storms

Layout and design
Steve Stanczyk

Follow Wailin Storms
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2e1J5JQpROgSuT7RcsUbZ2
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/wailin-storms/451185826
Bandcamp: https://wailinstorms.bandcamp.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@wailinstorms7
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wailinstorms/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wailinstorms/?hl=en