The indie pop duo Cults are back with a new album announcement for Host, which is set to be released on September 11 via Sinderlyn. Cults have also debuted a new single and music video titled “Trials,” directed by Jeff Striker, who has worked with Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros and done visuals for the late Richard Swift in the past.

“Trials” is a trippy visual experience, focusing on the band’s lead singer Madeline Follin as she sings on a stage, greeted by numerous triangle objects floating in the sky and several copies of herself. The song has a catchy bassline, while Follin gives a mystifying vocal performance, greeted by a somewhat playful, yet murky tone. According to the group, the song’s lyrics highlight harmful behaviors such as addiction and gaslighting and compared the chorus to “walk(ing) a tightrope.”

“Trials’ focuses on the power that addictions and harmful ideologies have to transform,” the band stated in a press release. “The chorus walks a tightrope between a metaphor for gaslighting and a despairing worry about the person you still hold out hope for.”

This latest single follow’s the band’s music video for “Spit It Out,” which was inspired by mukbang videos. This video featured Follin eating excessive amounts of food in front of the camera, nearly identical to the types of content branded as mukbang videos on YouTube.

Cults began back in 2010, and released their self-titled debut the following year in 2011. These releases were followed by Static in 2013, Offering in 2017 and The Motels the following year.

Host track list

1.Trials
2. 8th Avenue
3. Spit You Out
4. A Low
5. No Risk
6.Working It Over
7. A Purgatory
8. Like I Do
9. Masquerading
10. Honest Love
11. Shoulders To My Feet
12. Monolithic