WAILIN STORMS Release New Single and Music Video "You Never Answered"!

Recipients of high praise from NPR, The Needle Drop, Brooklyn Vegan, Decibel and Metal Hammer, WAILIN STORMS return with "You Never Answered", the second single from their upcoming fifth album The Arsonist, out July 10, 2026 on Season of Mist.

Howling and haunted, "You Never Answered" opens with frantic guitars before locking into a doomy groove. Before it dissolves into a smoke-fueled daze, the melody proves intoxicating enough that there's no choice but to follow the band into the dark. "Climb right out, out of your head, and into the night / Time to take a bullet that could change your mind".

“This song is about disconnecting from screens and returning to exploration”, Wailin Storms vocalist and guitarist Justin Storms says. “Don’t let your phone lead to your death by taking a selfie on a mountain. Pick up a manual film camera. Take some acid. Pick up a paint brush, cook, listen to a record, walk in nature, be there for the ones you love and find your path in the world without being tethered to technology”.

The Arsonist was recorded by Matt Talbott of Hum in full analog at Earth Analog in May 2025, as a deliberate rejection of sterile digital production. "We recorded everything in analog", Storms says. "We didn't touch a computer until mixing".

Since migrating to North Carolina's inland coast circa 2014, Wailin Storms have caught fire with noisy, bluesy explosions of Southern gothic rock. Debut full-length One Foot in the Flesh Grave laid a solid foundation in 2015. Rattle was named one of the best albums of 2020 by Treble, Angry Metal Guy and Machine Music, and featured by The Needle Drop. The Silver Snake Unfolds followed in 2022 with coverage from Decibel and Metal Hammer, and the arrival of guitarist Ben Melton—who rounded out the current lineup alongside bassist Steve Stanczyk and drummer Mark Oates.

Since migrating to North Carolina’s inland coast circa 2014, WAILIN STORMS have caught fire with noisy, bluesy explosions of Southern gothic rock. Hot on the heels of critical high praise and thunderous applause from crowds on both sides of the Atlantic, the band’s fifth album and first for Season of Mist fans their flames with reckless abandon. While surrounded by darkness from the outside world, The Arsonist burns with all of our heart’s desires.

“I’ve always been fascinated by fire”, Wailin Storms vocalist and guitarist Justin Storms says before alluding to a time when he came dangerously close to accidentally burning his family’s house down. “It speaks to our inherent attraction to danger and annihilation, but also, our hope for transformation”.

Born the son of a church pianist and Baptist preacher, Justin Storms converted to the church of rock ‘n’ roll after listening to the teachings of his older brother. “He was responsible for getting me into outsider music”. After forming Wailin Storms in his home state of Texas and a pass through New York City, Storms hunkered down in Durham, North Carolina, where he was joined in 2014 by the band’s current drummer Mark Oates (Bats & Mice) and bassist Steve Stanczyk.

The Arsonist can be traced back through Wailin Storms’ past.  Recorded by Matt Talbott of Hum in full analog, the album rekindles the band’s roots in raw-to-the-bone blues punk as a heated response to today’s vat of overproduced music and AI slop. By experimenting with swoons of Rhodes organ, “Heart of Mine” recalls the Roadhouse from Twin Peaks. “Some of these songs are more primitive and stripped down, harkening back to the four-track recordings that the band started with”, Storms says. “The recordings contain flaws but remain human in all the right ways. They could be a murder ballad or an old folk song that’s sung around the campfire”. Other early influences soak into the songwriting’s weathered fabric: Flannery O’Conner’s grotesque sensibility, Cormac McCarthy’s unflinching fatalism, Old Regular Baptist hymns. With its sideways gust of riffs and moaning chorus, “The Wind” blows loud enough to wake the entire cemetery.

“Because the heart wants what the body wants and the mind wants what the eyes want”, Storms gravely intones. “Won’t you take me through hell”.

Wailin Storms throw heavy splashes of surrealism into the fires of The Arsonist. “Many of the lyrics draw from the same imagery and emotions conjured by David Lynch, especially his film Wild at Heart”, Storms says. “Dead End” opens the album by taking a harrowing turn of its own when the drum’s rattle leads straight into a waking nightmare. “Calm night / Birds keep plucking out our eyes”.

While shrouded by a doomy and dreamy atmosphere, The Arsonist is inflamed by real life anxieties. Taking inspiration from René Magritte, the album’s cover art, which is heavily shadowed except for a tiny house gone up in flames, was painted by Storms himself. “These songs are steeped in the trials and tribulations of everyday life”, he says. The title track is slowly engulfed by love’s eternal flame. “Like the wind controls the sea”, he croons over the gentle sway of his guitar. “You always had a hold on me”. The thunderous climax surges with such feverish intensity that it threatens to send the night of passion up in smoke.

Amidst the wreckage of The Arsonist, Wailin Storms do find a semblance of peace. “It’s All Dark Now Where Your Eyes Used to Be” ends the album with a ghostly flicker of gothic romance. “I know a place where we can sit and grow old”, Storms offers with grim assurance. A piano tolls like death’s bell as he glimpses up at a church that resembles a skull. “There’s a sliver of hope in coming to terms with death”, he concludes. “Life is temporary and that's where its beauty lies”.

On The Arsonist, Wailin Storms deliver a fiery baptism of Southern gothic rock.

Stream / Buy / Download the album on Bandcamp

Line-up:

Justin Storms – Lead vocals, rhythm guitar

Ben Melton – Lead guitar, backup vocals, Rhodes organ, piano

Steve Stanczyk – Bass

Mark Oates – Drums

Recording Credits:
Recorded at Earth Analog in May 2025.

Production Credits:
Produced and engineered by Matt Talbott.
Mixed by Mike Lust at Phantom Manor ("Dead End", "Heart of Mine", "You Never Answered", "The Arsonist", "Never Rest", "The Wind", It's All Dark Now Where Your Eyes Used to Be".
Mixed by Dave Downham at Gradwell House ("Saved", "Patient Night").
Mastered by Dave Downham at Gradwell House.

All lyrics written by Justin Storms.

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Photo by © Kent Corley