Cold Cave released a new song called “Prayer From Nowhere” along with an accompanying music video. It’s set to be the opener for their upcoming album Fate in Seven Lessons, which is due June 11 on Heartworm. 

“Prayer From Nowhere” is what happens when dark synth-pop meets a catchy gothic guitar riff. As typical for the band, it draws inspiration from the general ‘80s pop/punk sound pioneered by bands like New Order and The Cure among many others, but it also adds enough modern flavor with its guitar tone and production quality. Frontman Wesley Eisold seems to be singing about looking for a sign of hope to sustain him through a rough patch. He officially states that it’s “about redemption and surrender from the lowest and loneliest you can find yourself.”

In the black & white video directed by Travis Shinn and Jeremy Danger, Eisold drives an old Mustang along a scenic mountain road. Most of the filming is focused on his face in the rearview and side mirrors as he sings the song. It begins and ends with Eisold walking down the road while wearing an all-black outfit with matching sunglasses. There’s no clear destination, as is likely the intention due to the opening lyrics, “I’m broken down/On the side of the road/With no way to reach you/And nowhere to go.”

Fate in Seven Lessons will be Cold Cave’s first full-length LP since 2011’s Cherish the Light Years and fourth in total since he and his partner Amy Lee formed the group in 2005. However, they have shared several other releases in recent years, including a four-song EP called You & Me & Infinity, as well as the singles “Promised Land” and “Waving Hands.”

“Night Light,” the only other single shared from the new album at this time, is another ‘80s throwback with a synth riff in the lead and guitar chords crashing underneath. It’s a more optimistic track about “clinging to love the way people cling to religion and escaping the trappings of time. It’s an ode to the light in the dark, and end of the night anthem for everything you wish you said.”

Eisold is also the frontman for hardcore band American Nightmare and the previous vocalist for noisecore band Some Girls. While American Nightmare broke up in 2003 and Some Girls disbanded in 2007, American Nightmare reunited in 2017 with a new self-titled album.

Photo credit: Raymond Flotat