THE KEENING, the project led by former SUBROSA frontwoman Rebecca Vernon, have shared "Devotion III – The King", the second single from their sophomore album Devotion. The record is out October 16 via Relapse Records, and the new track arrives with an official visualizer.
Vernon calls it the heaviest song on the album and says it was deeply satisfying to make. Its chanting, she notes, recalls the old SUBROSA track "Key of the Eidolon" from the Decibel Flexi series, and she adds that she would like to push the next KEENING record further in this heavier direction.
"Devotion III – The King" follows the earlier single "A Little Bit of Blood", which came with a video directed, edited and colored by Ken Whiting from a script by Andrew Bonazelli. That song moves from quiet acoustic strumming and Vernon's haunting voice into a full-band chorus.
Devotion blends slow-burning post-rock, folk, goth and doom. Vernon wrote it in two very different places: a friend's cabin at a deserted ski resort in Idaho, and a senior living community in Spokane, Washington, where she was staying with her father. The album is dedicated to him; he died in May 2025. "He was one of my greatest champions and supporters of my music," Vernon says. Because she and her sister see dragonflies as a symbol of him, cover artist Marald van Haasteren painted one rising out of a poppy stem, an image Vernon reads as the tension between the dark meaning of devotion (addiction) and its lighter one (love).
The album was recorded in April 2022 at Hallowed Halls in Portland, with Billy Anderson and Nathan Carson returning in the same roles they held on the debut Little Bird. Vernon again plays most of the instruments herself (drums, guitar, piano, organ and hammered dulcimer) and sings most of the vocals, with a few guests.
Tracklist of Devotion:
- Devotion I – Golden Thread
- Devotion II – Fitful Sleep
- Devotion III – The King
- Devotion IV – O Mother
- A Little Bit of Blood
- Time Travel
- The Murder of Anna Brown
Pre-order "Devotion": Relapse Records
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