Provoker Mourns an Undying Love in Their Macabre Video for “Mausoleum”

Some songs whisper through the veil. But Mausoleum howls. And within its morbid desolation, Provoker, Los Angeles’s post-punk purveyors of dread and desire, channel the acrid perfume of decayed romance through cassette hiss and candelabra synths. Christian Crow Petty’s voice soars to the heights of restraint, weaving forlorn moonlit croons that gracefully dip into falsetto. Behind the helm is producer Kenny Beats, who conjures a track that overflows with emotion, spilling from every sequenced snare and spectral swell.

Mausoleum, the title track from the trio’s freshly interred LP, feels worn-in yet wired, draped in the fog of failed connection. The mix fuses mechanical melancholy and mortal ache: guitars wail like wind through skeletal trees, drum machines hiss like snakes under the floorboards, thick basslines sulk in their corners, and synths flicker like hallway fluorescents on their last breath. Like the lurching undead, the track manages to romantically skulk, both languid AND threatening.

A woman is haunted by the memory of a man, portrayed by an undead Christian Crow Petty, whose loverlorn lament drifts through a moonlit cemetery, singing to her photograph with mournful devotion. Their connection persists beyond death, channeled through pink walkie-talkies, his voice reaching her across time and silence. She feels him near: by the window, in the mirror, in the aching quiet of her grief. She misses him terribly. An unsettling man lingers nearby, offering comfort she cannot receive.

Directed by Muted Widows (Michael E Linn, Nedda Afsari, Michael Zumaya), the stunning video feels laced with imagery via the filmography of Tim Burton. But it’s far from a rehash of Gothic tropes—it’s a full-body possession. The band and filmmakers don’t simply borrow from the past; they inhabit it, draping their haunted house in decay and flickering light until memory becomes theater. Lipstick messages shimmer on glass. Lust, loss, and guilt loop like corrupted tape, each rewind distorting the truth a little more. A ghost, wrapped in ghastly glamour, scrawls warnings in red across a mirror—his love now written in ruin. Part pop panic, part necrotic noir, the visuals elevate the track’s emotional unraveling into something at once ominous, seductive, and devastating.

Provoker understands the dance between dread and desire, and the macabre music of Mausoleum doesn’t just mourn a love lost; it embalms it, applies blush to its cheeks, and sets it waltzing through its ruins.

Watch the video for Mausoleum below…just don’t look too long into the mirror.

Provoker emerged from the Bay Area in 2015, initially as Jonathon Lopez’s solo endeavor to craft horror film scores. A chance encounter with vocalist Christian Crow Petty at a screening of The Greasy Strangler led to a collaboration that blended Lopez’s synth-driven experimentation with Petty’s soulful vocals, giving birth to Provoker’s unique sound.

Their debut EP, Dark Angel (2018), marked this fusion, and by 2021, they released their first full-length album, Body Jumper, under the Swedish label YEAR0001. The band continued to evolve with albums like Demon Compass (2023) and Mausoleum (2025), the latter produced with Kenny Beats.

Listen to Mausoleum below and stream the album on your choice of provider here.

Provoker is hitting the road this spring and summer, bringing their brooding anthems of Mausoleum to stages across North America. The tour kicks off May 17th in Pasadena at Cruel World Festival, and winds through major cities including Brooklyn, Toronto, and Chicago, before wrapping up June 27th at The Independent in San Francisco.

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Alice Teeple is a photographer, multidisciplinary artist, and writer. She is not in Tin Machine.

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