New Music: Mourning Candle – Harbinger

Nashville-based darkwave duo Mourning Candle open the new year with Harbinger, a track they describe as an “unapologetic “F**k ICE” anthem.”

The band also asks if politics have a place in goth music, and on the evidence of Harbinger, the answer is a resounding yes. There’s no doubting the suspense and fire in the arrangement of Harbinger, as electro-gothic synths and industrial rock guitars are combined within the dimensions of darkwave.

It has a very cinematic feel to it, the intro especially drenched in a cyber-horror ambience, a warning of what the track, and possibly the future, holds. The means that the lyrics may be uncomfortable for some, drawing comparisons between modern America and 1930s Germany.

Leslie I. Benson’s vocal delivery possesses sybil-like tones, much in the vein of Siouxsie Sioux, as she breathes life into the mix of commentary and warning that comes through in the track’s recounting of injustice, authoritarianism, and historical trauma.

States Benson, “This is our poetic retaliation against ICE and the current administration, whose actions sickeningly remind me of the beginning of the Holocaust that my grandparents lived through in Germany.”

Harbinger is out now to stream and download on Bandcamp. You can hear more of the duo’s music on Spotify and YouTube. For band news and further listening options for the music of Mourning Candle, head to Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok.

Header photo by Ray Lee Rose