We Speak Rock

Gnarcissists Share Paradise Aquarium EP and “Space Ghost” Video

Published

2 days ago

November 13, 2026

Gnarcissists, the New York six-piece, posed together in a recording studio in a black and white group portrait.

New York six-piece Gnarcissists — with members of Pretty Sick, Malice K, Navy Gangs and Taraneh — release their Paradise Aquarium EP today via Killphonic Distro, led by the surreal new single and video “Space Ghost.”

New York band Gnarcissists today have shared their new EP Paradise Aquarium, out via Killphonic Distro, alongside new single “Space Ghost,” a surreal exploration of alienation, disconnection, and the feeling of becoming a stranger in your own life. The band’s recent single “Hi” earned praise and support from Alternative Press, Austin Town Hall, Get Some Magazine, The Punk Site, and more.

Featuring members of Malice K, Pretty Sick, Navy Gangs, and Taraneh, the six piece’s origins begin in a Brooklyn squat in the late 2010s. Since then, the band has played with the likes of Fcukers, The Voidz, OSEES, Gibby Haynes, Surfbort, Viagra Boys, and more. Their new EP was recorded at Sean Lennon’s home studio and produced by Ben Romans Hopcraft.

The writing of Paradise Aquarium was fraught with misfortune: lead singer Matthew Orr was diagnosed with a connective tissue disorder that had hospitalized him after a near fatal accident. This traumatic event found the band strengthening their relationships to one another, leading to a change in direction around the record. Drugs, death, and a changing city impacted their writing process, with the band crafting songs in more controlled environments, mainly the studio, compared to their previous tendencies to improvise and write on stage.

Paradise Aquarium is about wanting to be loved while feeling increasingly disconnected from the people, places, and body that are supposed to make you feel at home. Written during a period of illness, loss, changing relationships, and a city that seemed increasingly unfamiliar, the songs move between breakup songs, surreal imagery, bodily horror, and moments of almost absurd humor. Rather than telling one linear story, the EP follows the emotional logic of a person trying to understand what it means to be cared for – and what happens when that care disappears.

Across the record, intimacy becomes something both comforting and unsettling: a cup of tea with someone you used to love, being watched from a television screen, being trapped inside a failing body, or becoming an object of someone else’s desire. The mundane and the horrific exist side by side, because sometimes the thing you miss most after everything falls apart isn’t the grand romance or the old life – it’s having someone next to you while nothing happens. Ultimately, the EP is about alienation, loss, and the strange desire to be seen, even when being seen means exposing the ugliest parts of yourself.

“Wanted Space Ghost to feel like finding some fucked up home video of someone’s failing relationship at 3 in the morning that you weren’t supposed to find. We like aliens and tried to bury it beneath some tongue in cheek imagery, but underneath it is really about feeling like an alien in your own life – watching things fail from the outside and trying to figure out where you fit. Hoping that eventually things will become familiar if you sit with them long enough,” the band explains.

Paradise Aquarium and “Space Ghost” is out now.

Paradise Aquarium Track Listing

1. Earl Grey
2. Hi
3. WOW
4. Space Ghost
5. Olive
6. Baby Doll

Gnarcissists Bio

Formed in a Brooklyn squat in the late 2010’s, Gnarcissists was a reaction to the prevalent West Coast “garage revival” wave. What began with Matthew Orr, Matt Tillwick, and Jerome Peel has grown into a volatile six-piece featuring James Hernandez (Malice K), Baby Delgado, and Ben Arauz (Pretty Sick, Taraneh). A band that has become a fixture of New York’s live circuit, they are constantly on the break of something. They have shared stages with Gibby Haynes, Fcukers, The Voidz, Surfbort, OSEES, Viagra Boys and more. In 2025, they put out a compilation LP produced by Gus Oberg (The Strokes), and Johnny T – and are preparing a new EP, Paradise Aquarium, produced by Ben Romans Hopcraft at Sean Lennon’s studio.

Matthew Orr – Vocals
Matt Tillwick – Guitar (Navy Gangs, Malice K)
Jerome Peel – Drums (@citybikeboys)
Baby Delgado – Bass
Ben Arauz – Guitar (Pretty Sick, Taraneh)
James Hernandez – Guitar

EMPATH, Built From Volbeat, Rising And Anti-Ritual Members, Drop Their Self-Titled Debut Album

Published

16 hours ago

November 14, 2026

We Speak Media

EMPATH's four members in a black and white portrait against a dark background

Copenhagen has a new heavy rock band with serious pedigree. EMPATH, formed by members of Volbeat, Rising and Anti-Ritual, have released their self-titled debut album today, November 13th, on Indisciplinarian — a dark and dreamy take on heavy rock built on atmosphere, melody and crushing dynamics.

EMPATH is the sound of a new, dark and dreamy heavy rock band from Copenhagen, Denmark — one that revolves around atmosphere, presence and empathy. The constellation may be new, but the four members carry solid experience from bands such as Volbeat, Rising and Anti-Ritual.

In a digital and efficiency-driven age, where humanity is increasingly giving way to mechanical coldness, EMPATH — as the name suggests — is about presence, empathy and humanity. This ethos runs like a common thread through the band’s self-titled debut album, released today, November 13th, 2026, on LP, CD, cassette and digital formats via Indisciplinarian.

Across nine songs, EMPATH blends elements of progressive metal, doom, sludge and post-rock into a sound that is as dreamy and melodic as it is heavy and riff-driven. The music was recorded live with producer Lasse Ballade (Halshug, Slægt, Eyes) at Ballade Studios in Copenhagen, with vocals tracked at Grapehouse Studios by Morten Grønnegaard. Ballade also handled mix and mastering, while the artwork was created by illustrator Jon Gotlev (Nohr).

The album was first introduced by the single “Waves,” followed by “Vessel,” both pointing toward the band’s balance of melodic clarity and dense, riff-driven weight. EMPATH plays its debut show on December 11th at Hotel Cecil in Copenhagen.

EMPATH Track Listing

1. In Absence
2. Waves
3. Vessel
4. In Formation
5. In Bloom
6. In Thought
7. In Dissent
8. In Memory
9. In Return

Before forming EMPATH, guitarist/vocalist Morten Grønnegaard played with Volbeat on the albums Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies and Seal the Deal & Let’s Boogie. Bassist Christian Qvortrup played in the epic doom metal band Rising, while drummer Jakob Krogholt toured and recorded with Anti-Ritual.