If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to get shoved into a steel locker while someone blasts old-school Ministry at unsafe volumes and laughs as they mean it, Spike Hellis has a pretty good answer with By God, the first single from the band’s forthcoming second full-length, Successor. This track hammers the same bruising groove until you either dance or file a complaint with whatever higher power is currently on duty.
The duo of Cortland Gibson and Elaine “Lainey” Chang have been circling this kind of blunt-force body music since they clawed their way out of a Downtown Los Angeles apartment during lockdown, and you can hear that cabin-fever claustrophobia still baked into the track. It’s all pressure and propulsion, the kind of beat that lands like a boot on concrete, over and over, with the discipline of Front Line Assembly at their most militarized but with just enough mischief to keep it from turning into a lecture.
By God, leans hard into that old Wax Trax! playbook: grease-stained drum machines, synth lines that sound like they’ve been dragged across asphalt, and vocals delivered like a series of warnings you’d be wise to take seriously. There’s a little Cabaret Voltaire lurking in the corners; a ghost in the machinery, a reminder that this strain of electronic music is about friction, not finesse. The rhythm hammers forward with the kind of single-minded intent that clears a dance floor of anyone looking to sip a drink and talk about their week. You move, or you move out of the way. The bass hits like it’s trying to rearrange your spine into a more obedient shape, and the synth stabs come in sharp enough to make you blink.
There’s humour buried in the abrasion as well, a kind of crooked grin behind the barked vocals, as if the band knows exactly how ridiculous and necessary this all is: two people, a handful of machines, and a beat that could probably power a small city if you hooked it up right. You don’t analyze a track like this so much as survive it, and maybe, if you’re lucky, come out the other side a little rattled and a lot more awake.
Successor is out on August 7th, 2026, via Over-Pop. Listen to the album’s first single, “By God,” below, and order the track here.
Spike Hellis’ Gibson and Chang have spent the last few years road-testing this approach in rooms that smell like fog fluid and bad decisions, sharing stages with Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb, and you can tell. By God feels like it was built for that environment: compact, confrontational, and just a little bit unhinged, like it might keep going even after the power’s cut.
The band is about to hit the road with a few friends: MVTANT, Auragraph, Belly Hatcher, Nuxx, and Normal Bias. Catch them live:
Tour Dates:
- July 31 — Santa Ana, CA — La Santa — w/ MVTANT
- August 1 — San Diego, CA — Casbah
- August 2 — Pomona, CA — Lopez Urban Farm — w/ MVTANT
- August 6 — Las Vegas, NV — Backstage — w/ MVTANT
- August 7 — Phoenix, AZ — Club Contact — w/ MVTANT
- August 8 — Tucson, AZ — The Rialto Theater — w/ MVTANT
- August 10 — Albuquerque, NM — Longhair Records — w/ MVTANT
- August 14 — San Antonio, TX — Paper Tiger — w/ Auragraph
- August 15 — Denton, TX — Rubber Gloves — w/ Auragraph
- August 19 — Birmingham, AL — Saturn — w/ Auragraph
- August 20 — Atlanta, GA — The Drunken Unicorn — w/ Auragraph
- August 21 — Knoxville, TN — Pilot Light — w/ Auragraph
- August 22 — Nashville, TN — The Cobra — w/ Auragraph
- August 23 — Indianapolis, IN — The 808 — w/ Auragraph
- August 27 — Detroit, MI — UFO — w/ Auragraph
- August 28 — Toronto, ON — BSMT 254 — w/ Belly Hatcher
- August 29 — Montreal, QC — L’Escogriffe — w/ Belly Hatcher
- August 30 — Syracuse, NY — The Song and Dance — w/ Nuxx
- August 31 — Saratoga Springs, NY — Desperate Annie’s — w/ Nuxx
- September 3 — Baltimore, MD — Metro — w/ Nuxx
- September 4 — New York, NY — TV Eye — w/ Nuxx
- September 5 — Philadelphia, PA — Ruba — w/ Nuxx
- September 6 — Richmond, VA — Club Fallout — w/ Nuxx
- September 7 — Durham, NC — The Pinhook — w/ Nuxx
- September 8 — Savannah, GA — Wormhole — w/ Nuxx
- September 10 — Gainesville, FL — The Atlantic — w/ Nuxx
- September 11 — Orlando, FL — Iron Cow — w/ Nuxx
- September 12 — Miami, FL — Las Rosas — w/ Nuxx
- September 13 — Tampa, FL — New World — w/ Nuxx
- September 16 — New Orleans, LA — The Crypt — w/ Nuxx
- September 17 — Houston, TX — Black Magic — w/ Nuxx
- September 18 — Austin, TX — Mohawk — w/ Nuxx
- September 19 — Dallas, TX — Double Wide — w/ Nuxx
- September 20 — Oklahoma City, OK — Resonant Head — w/ Nuxx
- September 22 — Wichita, KS — Kirby’s — w/ Nuxx
- September 23 — Lawrence, KS — Replay Lounge — w/ Nuxx
- September 24 — Kansas City, MO — Union Library — w/ Nuxx
- September 25 — St. Louis, MO — The Golden Record — w/ Nuxx
- September 27 — Chicago, IL — Metro
- October 2 — Salt Lake City, UT — The International — w/ Normal Bias
- October 3 — Boise, ID — Realms — w/ Normal Bias
- October 4 — Spokane, WA — The Chameleon — w/ Normal Bias
- October 8 — Vancouver, BC — The Astoria
- October 9 — Seattle, WA — Mountain Room — w/ Normal Bias
- October 10 — Portland, OR — Star Theater — w/ Normal Bias
- October 11 — Eugene, OR — John Henry’s — w/ Normal Bias
- October 14 — Arcata, CA — Miniplex — w/ Normal Bias
- October 16 — Oakland, CA — Stork Club — w/ Normal Bias
- October 17 — Oxnard, CA — Mystery Shop — w/ Normal Bias
- October 24 — Los Angeles, CA — TBA
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