A NEW DAY have signed to DAZE and announced "Held Under An Incandescent Sky", a five-track EP due October 2. The south Texas six-piece marked the announcement with its first single, "This Beautiful Deception", streaming now.
The song opens on a distinctive electronic synth figure before monstrous riffs swallow it whole and drive the track into a fever. Growled vocals sit over metallic guitars and haunting melodies, building toward a devastating breakdown. The shape is familiar enough; the electronic layer running underneath it is what makes the track sound like this band rather than a dozen others.
Vocalist Brenden Riker described the lyrics as a post-mortem on a friendship that did not survive. "This song is about a reflection on a discarded friendship," he said. "I wanted to relay the feelings and paint scenes by describing certain moments that can be seen as lonely, desolate, and painful to process. In the end you'll always find yourself."
The band's stated reference points are specific and a little unfashionable: the emotionally driven heaviness of early-2000s acts like A LONG WINTER, HOPESFALL and BROKEN BY SILENCE. That lineage — the stretch when metalcore still had one foot in post-hardcore and had not yet grown embarrassed about melody — explains a good deal about how "This Beautiful Deception" is put together.
A NEW DAY made their debut in 2025 with the "So Close To Perfection..." EP. "Held Under An Incandescent Sky" was produced, mixed and mastered by Nathan Smith-Lorian in his home studio, and across its five tracks the band say they push their dynamic range into something uniquely crushing. Two of the titles point at where the mood sits: "Dahlia", and "Ulalume", which shares its name with Edgar Allan Poe's 1847 poem about a man walking to a grave he has forgotten is there.
The lineup is Brenden Riker (vocals), David Falcon (guitar), Noah Benavidez (guitar), Steve Colina (bass and vocals), Elijah Vega (drums) and George Gonzales (synth and electronics). Carrying a dedicated electronics player is not a common configuration in this corner of the genre, and it accounts for much of the texture.
"Held Under An Incandescent Sky" tracklist:
- The Carving Of…
- This Beautiful Deception
- Dahlia
- Ulalume
- Love:22
Upcoming shows:
- September 19 — Fort Worth, TX @ Hugs N Chugs Revival Fest
Stream "This Beautiful Deception": https://vyd.co/ThisBeautifulDeception