I decided to take the shorter way
A brighter day is leading me to
Find my people, upon the dawn
Souls astray, the light is gone
Hamburg’s Joy Forever arrives drenched in stormwater, carrying with them the thunder of their new single City of Rain. The track moves like a sudden downpour upon glass and concrete: fast, merciless, gleaming with flashes of danger and possibility. It seethes with guitars that grind against pounding drums, a rhythm section that pushes forward without pause, until the whole edifice collapses into an industrial haze.
City of Rain is the kind of song that feels like a night remembered through fractured glass. The words conjure streets awash in corrosion and futility. A city tries to wash itself clean, yet the stains of humanity’s residue remain embedded in every surface. There is an awareness of ruin, but also of kinship: “souls astray, the light is gone, but I’ll wait.” In those words, faith lingers among alleys and rain-slick corners, searching for silence, for the beauty in stillness. The ruin is deliberate, the finale abrupt, the sensation closer to the city at midnight than a song on tape.
“This song came together quickly, without much overthinking or twisting around, and was nearly instantly accepted among the whole band, which means a lot,” explains vocalist and guitarist Mikolas Rendl. “Inspired by the grim backstreets of our hometown — shady corners that rot, shrouded in darkness yet shine in daylight. It’s a punch in the chest and light at the end of the tunnel. We love it.” His words reveal the tension at the heart of the track: decay that still gleams, corruption that hides glimmers of grace.
The production sharpens that vision. Recorded in Brighton with Theo Verney (English Teacher, Lime Garden), and finished at Metropolis Studios under the hand of Felix Davis, the piece is as precise as it is feral. The Brighton sessions grant it immediacy, a closeness that feels unflinching.
Visually, the band promise more. A performance video shot by Philipp Hartinger below deck on a ship captures the track’s airless weight. A vessel adrift, steel walls enclosing a storm…such a setting amplifies the song’s claustrophobic edge, as though the city itself had set sail with nowhere to go but further into rain.
Watch the video for “City of Rain” below:
Listen to City of Rain below and order the single here.
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