Dark times call for darker music, and Final Gasp thrust our battered souls into 2026’s instant madness with a pummeling new song that’s “a story of reality being much more horrifying than fiction,” according to vocalist Jake Murphy. Feels about right.
The two-time nominee for Metal Artist of the Year at the Boston Music Awards (’24, ’25) harness a melodic cauldron stirred with strains of death rock, hardcore, and post-punk, all summoned under a metallic and melodic shadow through new single “The Apparition.” The nocturnal track is out this week on Relapse Records, and serves as the first sonic offering from February’s sophomore record New Day Symptoms.
“It’s about a captain and his crew on a small boat,” Murphy elaborates. “A storm came and capsized it and he and his two crew members were forced to swim to some sort of safety. Ultimately only he survived, having to watch his two friends be taken away by something that could have been avoided. He knew a storm was coming but thought they could make it. It’s all about bad timing and facing the consequences.”
We’re all in that storm.
“The Apparition” and its hypnotic spirit arrives through a haunting video directed by Caleb Gowett and Bill Politis, and sets up a North American winter tour around the New Day Symptoms release that kicks off here at home with a February 26 romp at Sonia in Cambridge. Get all the dates after the jump.
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