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THIEF Drops Final Pre-Release Single Violent Bloom, With Sermons from the Pit Due November 27
Los Angeles dark electronic project THIEF has shared Violent Bloom, the final single ahead of Sermons from the Pit, out November 27 on Prophecy Productions, and announced a Los Angeles record release show and a West Coast tour for January.
THIEF releases new single and video “Violent Bloom”
New album Sermons from the Pit out November 27th on Prophecy Productions
Los Angeles Record Release Show & West Coast Tour Dates Announced
On November 27, THIEF, the Los Angeles-based dark electronic project of multi-instrumentalist Dylan Neal, will release the band’s anticipated new album Sermons from the Pit, via Prophecy Productions. The album will be released as a 48-page 2 CD hardcover artbook including bonus tracks, as a limited gatefold splatter bone vinyl LP (250 copies), and as a black vinyl LP.
Today the band is sharing the album’s final pre-release single “Violent Bloom” and its accompanying music video. The song follows the album’s acclaimed singles “Moon and Kill” and “Poison Drum” and is out now on all streaming platforms.
On the song THIEF’s Dylan Neal says: “The first strata of the pit. Its voice is again that of a prophet but its technic is fire. Heed the introduction’s warning: the listener is about to encounter a rabid priest preaching a sermon of acerbity and dogmatic disgust. This is the terminus of trying to find a truth that is older than the gods combined.”
THIEF is announcing a Los Angeles Record Release Show taking place on January 8 at Gold Diggers before heading out on a West Coast tour in support of Sermons From The Pit. The show will also include performances by Iress and Mothica and tickets are on sale now. The tour will kick off on January 14 in Vancouver and includes shows in Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, Santa Cruz and more.
With Sermons from the Pit, Dylan Neal, formerly of San Francisco experimental black metal outfit BOTANIST, delivers the project’s darkest and most emotionally charged work yet, combining trip-hop atmosphere, jungle and drum’n’bass rhythms, industrial textures, glitched choral samples, extreme distortion, and what he calls a “deconstructed black metal undercurrent.”
Following the deeply personal Bleed, Memory (2024), Sermons from the Pit turns inward, confronting anger, grief, disillusionment, violence, spiritual questioning, and ultimately the possibility of empathy and release. Neal’s singular fusion of ambient, industrial, choral music, black metal, and trip-hop has earned THIEF a devoted cult following, with influences ranging from Portishead and Ulver to Tool and Nine Inch Nails.
Since emerging with Thieves Hymn in D Minor in 2016, Neal has continually pushed THIEF into new sonic territory across Map of Lost Keys (2019), The 16 Deaths of My Master (2021), and Bleed, Memory (2024). While THIEF remains a solo studio project, Neal also brings the music to the stage with a full live band, translating its dense, atmospheric production into an immersive physical experience.
At the heart of THIEF’s sound is Neal’s distinctive “cathedral clipping” production approach, built from extreme distortion, clipping, reverb, feedback, and mangled synth and choral sounds to create an atmosphere that feels simultaneously cavernous, sacred, and damaged. Sermons from the Pit pushes that aesthetic further, balancing dense layers and experimental textures with remarkably direct songwriting and an unexpected accessibility.
Neal recorded and mixed the album himself, with three-time Grammy Award winner John Greenham (The Locust, Katy Perry, Death Grips, Billie Eilish) handling mastering.
Thief Tour Dates
January 8 – Los Angeles, CA @ Gold Diggers (Record Release Show)
January 14 – Vancouver, BC @ Astoria
January 15 – Seattle, WA @ Mountain Room
January 16 – Portland, OR @ Azoth
January 17 – Eugene, OR @ John Henry’s
January 20 – Sacramento, CA @ Cafe Colonial
January 22 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Crepe Place
January 23 – Atascadero, CA @ No Quater
Sermons from the Pit Track List
- Violent Bloom
- Moon and Kill
- Axe Swung Ritual
- Mirror Mirror
- Sun Slasher
- Year of the Leech
- Sermons from the Pit
- Comet Sorcery
- Poison Drum
- Anaphora
- Closing Scene
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Darren Jessee has been the drummer behind Ben Folds Five and the songwriter behind Hotel Lights, and his new single sounds like a man deciding not to put the pen down. “Shoulder Season,” recorded by Bonny Light Horseman’s Josh Kaufman, previews a forthcoming solo album due in 2027.
North Carolina-based singer-songwriter Darren Jessee (Ben Folds Five, Hotel Lights) is proud to present “Shoulder Season,” the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist’s brand new single lifted from his forthcoming solo album that will see a 2027 release. Recorded by GRAMMY-winning musician and producer Josh Kaufman of Bonny Light Horseman and mixed by Peter Katis (The National, Kurt Vile), “Shoulder Season” traces the paths people chart in and around our lives over the years. The track also invites close listening, which in turn draws attention to Jessee’s evocative lyrics as well as the nuanced instrumental performances he and Kaufman captured on tape. “‘Shoulder Season’ … I liked the words by themselves,” Jessee says. “They suggest perseverance and resilience during a season of time. The term shoulder season means a transitional time of year.” Watch the music video for “Shoulder Season” on YouTube.
Darren Jessee was in a period of personal upheaval. His mother had recently passed away after a short illness. He was also touring as a drummer for the Americana act Chatham County Line, a gig that he enjoyed but one that kept him from performing much as a solo artist. And then his label rep at Bar/None, home of Jessee’s last seven albums, retired. In the wake of it all, Jessee found himself wondering if it was perhaps time to set aside the burden of managing a songwriting career and simply lean into his work as a drummer. “But then I just kept finding these songs and enjoying them,” he says of his forthcoming solo showcase that symbolizes a new beginning for the veteran musician — an organic, hushed and transcendent sound very much inspired by the blizzard that the album was recorded in.
Stay tuned for more music and information on Darren Jessee’s forthcoming solo album to be announced in the coming weeks. Jessee will be making the following appearances in November:
November 12 — Wake Forest, NC — Wake Forest Listening Room
November 18 — Greensboro, NC — Flat Iron (with Natalie Jane Hill)
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