Blacklist - Afterworld

Afterworld is the sophomore studio album by the Brooklyn-based dark rock band Blacklist, released on 28 October 2022 through Profound Lore Records. Marking a major return after a 13-year hiatus following their 2009 debut, Midnight of the Century, the record was produced by frontman Joshua Strachan and mixed by Sanford Parker. Sonically, the album features a dense, heavy blend of coldwave, post-punk, and heavy metal. Critics widely praised it for its grand scope, drawing strong stylistic comparisons to foundational artists like Killing Joke, The Comsat Angels, and Sisters of Mercy.

Thematically, the album functions as an atmospheric exploration of love and human connection surviving against a backdrop of environmental collapse and political decay. Shifting from the loud, aggressive energy of their 2020 standalone single "Disorder," Afterworld leans into a cold, melancholic, and post-cathartic mood. Its tracklist flows from the eerie, crackling opener "Fires Of Black November" into anthemic, emotionally charged standout tracks like "Pathfinder" and "The Final Resistance". The latter serves as the album's core thesis, framing love itself as the ultimate act of defiance in a dying world.

Blacklist - Disorder (Single)

"Disorder" is the 2020 comeback single by the New York-based coldwave band Blacklist, marking their return after an eleven-year hiatus. Released in July 2020, the track channels the band’s signature blend of post-punk urgency and atmospheric shoegaze, serving as an immediate creative response to the civil unrest and racial justice protests gripping the United States at the time. Frontman Joshua Strachan wrote the anthem to capture the friction between state power and social revolt, coupling driving basslines and dense guitar layers with lyrics exploring systemic collapse. The digital release includes the companion B-side "No Secret Islands" and laid the stylistic groundwork for the band's subsequent 2022 full-length album, Afterworld.

Blacklist - Midnight Of The Century

It’s become more apparent that today's young “New Wave” bands are more firmly rooted in the more streamlined post-punk side of the genre, almost as if they're reluctant to take the dark sound into the kind of over-the-top territory that the genre begs for. Which is why the debut album by Brooklyn's Blacklist is so damned refreshing. As if completely unafraid of the inevitable jeers from the condescending, ironic indie scenester crowd, they get it. Boasting production as huge as its many hooks, Midnight Of The Century might seem aimed at morose teens hidden away in their bedrooms, but its sights are set much higher, the arrangements brazenly going for a Killers style of stadium rock. You needn't look further than the first single, "Flight of the Demoiselles", either, a pulsating anthem that brilliantly channels the post-U2 wave of mid-'80s British bands (Simple Minds, the Alarm). While a bleak undercurrent lurks throughout the track, vocalist/guitarist Josh Strawn evokes the chilly, almost detached tones of Peter Murphy and Andrew Eldritch in his singing.

"Shock in the Hotel Falcon" might sound insistent, but it subtly builds up to a stirring climax over the course of nearly five minutes. The acoustic-tinged dream pop of "Odessa" immediately brings to mind the great, underrated American band For Against, while "Frontiers" audaciously dips its hands in mainstream pop. And even for all their pretensions, Blacklist show they're capable of more understated moments, nicely exemplified by the graceful "The Believer", which closes the album. Will they end up playing the kind of stadiums and arenas their music is suited for? Sadly, probably not. Though their opening shot might be patently uncool, there's absolutely nothing wrong with an indie band swinging for the fences. And indeed, these guys have knocked one out of the park on their first try.