Warning release 'Night Comes Down' single

Photo Credit: Gobinder Jhitta

Warning, who recently announced their first new album in 20 years, Rituals of Shame, due 19th June via Relapse Records, release a second track from the eagerly-awaited album with today’s unveiling of 'Night Comes Down'.

Listen: https://youtu.be/_2ott7sFRZ8

Patrick Walker comments: "Whenever I’m asked to say something about a song, I immediately find myself faced with a kind of writer’s paralysis. I tend to be rather reticent when it comes to my songs’ meanings, and what else can I say about something that I’ve spent such a long time writing in an effort to articulate some thought or feeling as succinctly and as truthfully as I can?

"I also tend to recoil at the general perception that precedes my music, but yet looking back over the lyric now, it’s without doubt one of the most irredeemably dark things I’ve written. The first verse and chorus tumbled out in a single stream of consciousness. I decided to keep it exactly as written, and phrased it to fit the music. There are maybe only two or three other instances where I’ve done this.

"Interestingly, when we were mixing the album demos last June, we realised that this song contains the only four seconds of hi-hat on the album. It certainly wasn’t a conscious thing, but must be reflective of my particular distaste for what Steve Albini once called “a truly satanic instrument.

"The title of this song is not a nod to Judas Priest, as one journalist asked me last week. It hadn’t even occurred to me."

Pre-order Rituals of Shame here: https://orcd.co/warning-ritualsofshame

Warning’s 2006 album, Watching from a Distance, has become one of the most revered releases in doom metal, with Pitchfork noting it “stands among the high water marks of the genre,” and Stereogum declaring it the “greatest doom record of all time.”

Walker, who also leads 40 Watt Sun, began work on Rituals of Shame in January 2025, writing seven days a week over three months as he turned his full focus back to Warning. The album was recorded at The Arch Studio, a 140-year-old former church in Southport, U.K., with recording and mixing handled by Chris Fullard (Idles, Sunn O))), Ulver). 

The decision to make a new Warning album emerged from a transformative period in Walker’s life. Reluctant to explain his lyrics, he acknowledges only that the work reflects a deeply personal present moment, with the collection echoing the themes that have long defined his writing: longing, separation, and most of all, love. 

Rituals of Shame also reflects a range of Walker’s longstanding influences, from the expansive melodic structures of Marillion to the restraint and clarity of June Tabor. He also cites John Brenner of Revelation as a formative influence, particularly in shaping his approach to articulating emotion through heavy music.

The collection is available now for pre-order on various vinyl variants and other physical formats, as well as digital pre-saves.

Warning tour dates:

July 10 to 12  Pleszew, PL  Red Smoke Festival
July 29 to August 1  Bergen, NO  Beyond The Gates
August 13 to 15  Francavilla Al Mare, IT  Frantic Festival
August 13 to 16  Carhaix-plouger, FR  Motocultor Festival
September 4    Helsinki, FI  KULT
September 12 to 13  Leon, MX  Candelabrum Metal Festival
November 7  Nuremberg, DE  Sonus Obscura Festival
November 13  Athens, GR  An Club

Warning hail from Essex, U.K., emerging from the British doom scene in 1994. The band released two albums in their initial run, The Strength to Dream (1999) and Watching from a Distance (2006). The band reunited in 2017 for a limited number of live performances including an appearance at Roadburn Festival. Warning are Patrick Walker (vocals/guitar), Wayne Taylor (guitar), Marcus Hatfield (bass), and Andrew Prestidge (drums). 

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