Immortality sounds glamorous until someone mentions the upkeep. Centuries pass, the plaster gives way, and the ancestral home becomes a structural hazard with an unusually possessive occupant. Gothic fiction has often treated houses as extensions of their inhabitants, allowing the walls to display the damage their owners conceal. In the case of Lady Rust, that relationship has become uncomfortably literal: the manor is falling apart, its resident is deteriorating alongside it, and visitors would be wise to make alternative plans.
London gothic rock quartet Mouth Ulcers conjure a theme song for this vampiric hostess with “Lady Rust,” out October 15. Featuring Rosie Garland of The March Violets, the track heralds the band’s debut album, You’re Not In Heaven, arriving April 23, 2027, via LAB Records.
The song opens with eerie tones, howling sounds, and guitar distortion that brings Bauhaus’ Dark Entries to mind, establishing a sense of danger before the rhythm takes hold. A supple bass groove and firmly struck drums draw everything into motion, while a dark guitar figure acquires a more threatening counterpart as the arrangement develops. There is an appealing physicality to the interplay, with the bass carrying the tune forward as the guitars make the surroundings increasingly inhospitable. Zak Watson delivers his vocal with a sly, dryly spoken detachment, maintaining an almost conversational composure amid the disturbance. His cold delivery gives the song’s supernatural subject an unnervingly casual presence.
Watson explains:
“Lady Rust tells the story about an ancient vampire that guards the land of a former Manor House. The house is slowly deteriorating, walls are falling apart and collapsing like the skin on her bones. Lady Rust continues to live on as a legend of the land with many trying to visit the house but few managing to escape.”
Directed and shot by Watson, the song’s video casts the band amid peeling walls and shattered windows, blue light slicing through the haze that envelops their performance. In an oval mirror, Garland’s close-ups lend the horror a vivid, expressive face: bared teeth, violet lips, hands poised beside her cheeks. Her reflection becomes a miniature theatre of menace. Severe clothing and blood-red Gothic lettering complete the mood of a macabre film unearthed on an old videotape. Garland’s presence also makes the lineage of British goth tangible: a familiar face from The March Violets stepping into a world imagined by its newcomers.
Watch our premiere of Lady Rust below:
Formed in 2025, Mouth Ulcers bring together Zak Watson on vocals and guitar, Josephine Rose on guitar and vocals, Jamie-Lee Culver on bass, and David Zbirka on drums. Their debut EP, Silent Pictures, introduced a group working with the melodic basslines and emotional reserve of post-punk, alongside the theatrical possibilities of gothic rock. The initial 1,000-copy vinyl run has sold out, while support from BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 1, and KEXP has helped carry their music beyond the capital.
Listen to Lady Rust below, and pre-order You’re Not In Heaven on limited edition vinyl and CD here.
Mouth Ulcers have a run of UK and European appearances ahead, including festival sets in Cardiff, Manchester, Paris, Amsterdam, and Porto. They also join The Mission at London’s Kentish Town Forum on November 6, before further club dates and an appearance at Rockaway Beach Festival in January.
Upcoming Live Dates
- October 16 — Cardiff, UK — SWN Festival
- October 17 — Manchester, UK — Neighbourhood Festival
- October 23 — Brighton, UK — Mutations Festival
- October 24 — London, UK — Dark Scene @ Rae’s
- October 29 — Paris, France — They’re Gonna Be Big Festival
- October 30 — Venlo, Netherlands — Grenswerk
- October 31 — Amsterdam, Netherlands — London Calling Festival
- November 6 — London, UK — Kentish Town Forum, with The Mission
- November 7 — Leeds, UK — The Warehouse
- November 18 — Brighton, UK — The Hope And Ruin
- November 28 — Porto, Portugal — Post Punk Strikes Back Festival
- January 8–11, 2027 — Bognor Regis, UK — Rockaway Beach Festival
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Lady Rust — artwork credit: Dayan Visser
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