Cold in Berlin share new single ’The Stranger’

Cold in Berlin share new single ’The Stranger’

Fifth album Wounds – their most eclectic and ambitious work to date – released 7th November (New Heavy Sounds)

Wounds is Cold in Berlin’s long-awaited and recently announced fifth album – their first in six years. As heavy as it is haunting, the record masterfully blends doom, post-punk, and driving krautrock in a dynamic, hypnotic maelstrom – pushing London’s most exciting cult band into intoxicating new territory.

“Wounds is a series of songs about the different ways people live with and process ‘the wounds’ of their lives,” explains vocalist Maya. “A strange celebration of that formative pain we have all experienced in some way. The loss and joy of survival – the celebration of finding others like us, the gift of knowing life comes after fire.”

New single ‘The Stranger’ is a song that is meant to allow for multiple interpretations. Vocalist Maya adds:

“Perhaps it is a song about addiction- the wound that doesn’t heal. The way the focus of an addiction sings to you, searching you out, twisting and flowing through the body- whispering beneath the skin until you answer the call and find home once more.

Perhaps it is a song about finding your place in the world- groups of people watching and experiencing something meaningful together- a way to heal and close old wounds. How live music can stay with you even as you are separated from it. How finding the strange songs, sang in dark places can actually bring you home to yourself.

Or perhaps it is a song about that sharp kind of love at first sight that can overwhelm, offering freedom and constraint all at once. When you are drawn to that person that you know can destroy you, but you cease to matter because they are somehow instantly your home and only resting place.

‘The Stranger’ can be all these things- a healer, a cage, an addiction, but it is most definitely a call into the darkness, reaching out to the listener to join us in the howl of life, to wake up the bones and the skin. Be with us in the noise and know that whatever it is that led you to us, we are grateful you are home.”

Watch the video for ‘The Stranger’ – https://youtu.be/XGjr_OFNZZU

Listen to ‘The Stranger’ – https://lnk.to/iedLN1

Wounds was recorded by Mike Bew, on location at Foel Studio. The band could be found working deep into the witching hours, experimenting with new sounds and filling the valleys with cantankerous wails of sound, bursting from amps borrowed from My Bloody Valentine.

“The Welsh countryside has a mystical quality to it,” says guitarist Adam. “We recorded in a deep, dark valley; misty days and shooting stars at night. You could wander through nearby woods and stone circles during breaks. Foel Studios is woven into this setting with a transcendence of its own – its storied history includes sessions by Electric Wizard, Hawkwind and The Fall.”

Synths on the album are arranged by Berlin-based Bow Church, an influential figure in the dark electronic scene and a long time collaborator of the band. His work weaves icy and atmospheric textures into the songs, layering complexity that demands repeat listens. The horns on 12 Crosses were recorded by a high profile jazz musician who appears anonymously due to label ties.

While meticulously crafted, Wounds captures the visceral energy of Cold In Berlin’s renowned live shows. The album’s arrangements and raucous sound remain true to the unrelenting intensity and atmosphere of their stage performances – every track retains the sweat, urgency, and immediacy of a band performing in the moment.

Wounds is the band’s first studio album since 2019’s Rituals Of Surrender, which Narc Magazine praised for its “crushing doom-laden riffs that assaulted the speakers with a steady pulse of noise”. It follows the 2024 EP The Body is The Wound, described by Metal Epidemic as featuring “hooky melodic songs” with a “swelling heavy intensity”.

Featuring free-jazz brass sections, off-beat structures, techno rhythms, and soaring synths, Wounds is the band’s most ambitious release yet.

About the band

Born in East London in 2010, Cold in Berlin quickly graduated from the local scene’s fleeting gothic revival into one of the UK underground’s most revered live acts. Fronted by the commanding and fierce vocal performances of Maya, the band forges dark post-punk, doom, and krautrock into a singular sonic force — equal parts raw power and bleak beauty, as heavy as it is haunting.

Their debut album, Give Me Walls (2010), was named an Album of the Year by Artrocker magazine, announcing Cold in Berlin as a vital new voice in alternative music. Signing with Candlelight Records (Universal), the band released And Yet (2012) and The Comfort of Loss and Dust (2015), pushing their earlier post-punk sound into darker, heavier territory, with major UK airplay (BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music) and acclaim from Metal Hammer, Mojo, and Q.

By the time of 2019’s Rituals of Surrender (New Heavy Sounds), their transformation from punky noiseniks to post-metal powerhouse was complete. Nearly a decade on from their formation, the band was immortalised in the British Library’s Sound Archive, following their inclusion in its major exhibition Terror and Wonder: The Gothic Imagination.

After a period in the shadows during the global pause, Cold in Berlin re-emerged in 2024 with The Body is the Wound EP. Incorporating mechanical, factory-floor rhythms and icy string machines into their wall of noise, it was cited by critics as the band’s best work to date, establishing a new blueprint for their evolving sound.

With their fifth album, Wounds, Cold in Berlin deliver on the promise of all that came before. Their most ambitious work to date features powerful synths from long-time collaborator Bow Church, free-jazz brass sections, and off-beat structures and time signatures.

Wounds is released on 7th November (New Heavy Sounds)

Pre-order the album now:

Bandcamp – https://coldinberlin.bandcamp.com/album/wounds

Cargo – https://cargorecordsdirect.co.uk/products/cold-in-berlin

Digital – https://lnk.to/YjvSIa

Written and performed by Cold In Berlin

Maya Berlin – Vocals & lyrics

Adam Richardson – Guitar

Lawrence Wakefield – Bass

Alex Howson – Drums

Recorded and produced by Mike Bew at Foel Studio

Synths by Bow Church