On the fifteenth day of August, in the year 2025, the cultural tectonic plates of the United Kingdom’s underground music scene shifted perceptibly. And while this treatise may appear somewhat overdue, reaching our ears only recently, the sheer weight of the release demanded immediate attention, refusing to be consigned to the past. It was not a shift marked by the chaotic rupture of punk or the manic velocity of thrash, but rather by a slow, crushing descent into a meticulously constructed abyss.
Amnesiak, the London-based duo, has delivered a defiant reassertion of the album format with their debut full-length, ‘Arkfiend.’ Emerging from the independent circuit, this seven-track, forty-minute work is a monolith of melancholia, representing a profound descent into the darker recesses of the human condition.
Comprehending the gravity of this release requires looking beyond the surface of its distorted guitars and ethereal vocals. We must situate Amnesiak within the long, grey lineage of British industrial malaise, a tradition that stretches from the clanging factories of Birmingham that birthed Black Sabbath to the smoke-filled, post-punk clubs of Leeds that nurtured The Sisters of Mercy.
Amnesiak, formed by the creative partnership of Grace Wilson and Francesco Fonte, represents the latest evolutionary mutation of this lineage—a “complex fusion of eerie vocals, profound emotional intensity, and mysterious lyrics” that seeks to engage the listener in a dialogue with their own ghosts.
The album ‘Arkfiend’ is a product of a period of isolation in the early 2020s, a crucial context for understanding Amnesiak’s thematic focus on solitude, memory, and the self’s delicate nature. To dissect this work is to expose its obsession with “hauntology”—the concept that the present is eternally influenced by the lingering persistence of the past—a theme evident in the album’s sonic design, visual language, and lyrical exploration of psychological drama.
The British Doom Lineage
To genuinely comprehend the “shadowy realm” of Amnesiak, a preliminary examination of its origins is requisite. The United Kingdom has historically served as a fertile environment for both Doom Metal and Gothic Rock—genres considered by academics to represent distinct cultural responses to Britain’s1 post-industrial topography.
Scholarly discourse on heavy metal, particularly in the British context, emphasizes the genre’s deep connection to what historian E.P. Thompson described it as the “chiliasm of despair”—a sense of disorientation and loss accompanying the decline of industrial power and the fragmentation of working-class identity.
Early progenitors like Black Sabbath crystallized this sentiment into a sound characterized by slow tempi, tritone intervals (the “diabolus in musica”), and lyrical obsessions with the occult and mental anguish. This was music born of the factory floor, mimicking the relentless, rhythmic pounding of machinery while simultaneously crying out against the dehumanization of that very environment.
Amnesiak’s self-description as “Alternative Doom Rock” places them directly in this lineage, yet their sound is also inextricably linked to the “Second Wave” of Gothic Rock that flourished in the 1980s. While Black Sabbath provided the weight, bands like Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and The Cure provided the texture—the reverb-drenched atmosphere, the focus on romantic decay, and the elevation of the “femme fatale” or the “mourning figure” as a central icon.
The “Gothic” in music, much like in literature, is concerned with the “supernatural, the occult, insanity,” and fundamentally, “female powerlessness and other-worldly settings.” Amnesiak’s thematic preoccupations—stalkers, ghosts, and misty memories—are textbook examples of this tradition, recontextualized for a modern audience that finds itself increasingly alienated by the digital age.
The Nature of Amnesia
It is necessary to address the nomenclature which frequently causes confusion in the digital archives. The band Amnesiak (stylized with a terminal “k”) operates in a distinct sonic and aesthetic sphere from Radiohead’s seminal 2001 album ‘Amnesiac.’ While Radiohead’s work explored alienation through experimental electronics, jazz fusion, and art rock, Amnesiak’s approach is more visceral, guitar-centric, and rooted in the “doom” vernacular. However, both entities share a fascination with the concept of “amnesia” as a metaphor for cultural trauma.
For Radiohead, ‘Amnesiac’ was about the forgotten sounds, the “speech with a stutter,” and the ghost in the machine. For Amnesiak, the name invokes the fragmentation of the self and the terrifying instability of memory—a recurring trope in Gothic fiction.2
The band’s biography explicitly mentions “misty memories through ghost voices,” suggesting that their project is an attempt to reconstruct a narrative from the fragments of a broken past. This aligns with the “hauntology” of Jacques Derrida, where the spectre of what is lost continues to act upon the living. Amnesiak’s music is the sound of that haunting.
The “Gothic” in the 2020s
By 2025, the gothic tradition had undergone significant scholarly and critical re-evaluation. No longer dismissed merely as teenage melodrama, it was recognized as a sophisticated mode of critiquing “capitalist realism” and the “apocalyptic and dystopian narratives” of the twentieth-first century.
The “female gothic,” a term coined by Ellen Moers in the 1970s to describe works like ‘Frankenstein,’ became a lens through which to view female-fronted heavy bands. Grace Wilson’s role in Amnesiak is not decorative; it is central to the band’s exploration of the “Monstrous-Feminine.” Her vocals do not simply float above the music; they interrogate it, often shifting from ethereal beauty to commanding rage, embodying the duality of the victim and the avenger that is central to tracks like ‘Harm’s Way.’
The Inception of Amnesiak
The formation of Amnesiak, featuring vocalist and lyricist Grace Wilson alongside multi-instrumentalist composer Francesco Fonte, is intrinsically linked to the global upheaval of 2020. Conceived during the forced isolation of that year’s quarantine, this backdrop seems to have profoundly shaped the band’s musical bedrock.
The duo used the lockdown period not to tour, but to craft a sound that was both intimate and expansive. Unlike bands that form in the sweat and noise of live clubs, Amnesiak was born in the sterile, controlled environment of the studio. This “studio-first” genesis is evident in the meticulous layering of soundscapes that characterizes their output. It allowed Fonte to function as an auteur, treating the mixing board as an instrument equal in importance to the guitar.
This period of incubation explains the high production values of their debut work; by the time they emerged, their sonic identity was fully formed, bypassing the lo-fi demo stage common to many doom acts.
Released on May 18, 2023, the self-titled EP served as the prologue to the ‘Arkfiend’ saga. It established the band’s fundamental dichotomy: Wilson’s ethereal, haunting vocals set against Fonte’s crushing, doom-laden instrumentation. The EP was a statement of intent, notable not just for its songwriting but for the caliber of its collaborators, which lent the newborn project an immediate air of legitimacy.
The participation of Matthew Setzer (Skinny Puppy) and Mark Gemini Thwaite (Peter Murphy) cannot be overstated. These are figures who have defined the industrial and gothic rock sounds for decades. Their willingness to contribute to a debut EP by an unknown London duo suggests that the quality of Fonte’s compositions was evident from the outset.
Key tracks from this era serve as potent examples of the band’s thematic ambition. ‘Harm’s Way,’ for instance, presents a harrowing narrative dedicated to a woman sexually abused and killed by a stalker. This track demonstrated the band’s willingness to tackle taboo and horrifying subjects, not for shock value, but as a form of “misty memory” or ghost story, functioning as a memorial that gives voice to the voiceless victim.
Complementing this grim storytelling are tracks like ‘Morbid Bride’ and ‘Elizabeth’s Pleasure,’ titles that reinforce the Gothic fascination with the macabre interplay between eros and thanatos (love and death). Together, they suggest a narrative of doomed romance that would later be expanded upon in ‘Arkfiend,’ laying the groundwork for the duo’s exploration of darker emotional terrain.
‘Arkfiend’ and the Blueprint of Sorrow
Independently released and self-distributed through channels on August 15, 2025, ‘Arkfiend’ runs a concise, impactful course of seven tracks. Produced by Francesco Fonte and mastered by Tim Turan of Turan Audio, the album creates a claustrophobic yet majestic atmosphere that critics have noted for its “perfect balance of light and dark.”
The album employs a specific, deliberately limited sonic palette to achieve its cohesive effect. Fonte’s production favors downtuned, sludge style guitars that occupy the lower midrange frequencies, leaving space for the prominent, driving basslines that often carry the melody.
The drums are mixed with a cavernous reverb, placing the listener in a simulated large space—a cathedral or a cavern—enhancing the doom aesthetic. The vocals are treated with varying degrees of delay and reverb, placing Wilson at a distance, as if she is singing from “the other side” of the veil.
The mastering by Tim Turan is crucial here. Turan Audio is known for preserving the dynamic range in heavy music, avoiding the “loudness war” compression that flattens the emotional impact of doom metal. This allows the quiet, atmospheric passages in tracks like ‘The Last Rattle’ to retain their fragility before the crushing weight of the chorus kicks in.
The album opens with ‘Deamoniacus,’ a brief instrumental that acts as a portal, transitioning the listener from the mundane world into Amnesiak’s constructed reality. This Latinized invocation immediately establishes the album’s preoccupation with the archaic and the supernatural, serving as a gateway to the heavier work that follows.
It bleeds directly into the title track, ‘Archfiend,’ a five-minute monolith that allows the doom elements to breathe. Employing the slow tempi, repetitive and processual forms characteristic of the genre3, the track introduces the primary antagonist with a guitar tone designed to be felt physically, leveraging a deep groove to force the listener into a state of bodily entrainment.
The atmosphere shifts with ‘Flamed in Solitude,’ a track that encapsulates the band’s “Gothic” side by balancing the melodic accessibility of 80s dark wave with the crushing weight of modern doom. Its visual counterpart, produced by Richard Oakes, features high-contrast storytelling that emphasizes the isolation inherent in the title—a paradox suggesting one is “flamed” or consumed by passion within a void.
This exploration of solitude continues in ‘Pillory of Victory,’ where the medieval device of public shaming creates an oxymoron suggesting a pyrrhic victory. Here, the band employs a modern rock sheen and industrial edge, employing driving, militaristic drum patterns to reflect the punitive nature of the subject matter.
The album’s centerpiece is a masterstroke of contextual re-appropriation: a cover of Jefferson Airplane’s ‘White Rabbit.’ In Amnesiak’s hands, the psychedelic classic is no longer a journey to Wonderland but a descent into a doom-laden underworld. Grace Wilson’s vocals are crucial here, replacing Grace Slick’s strident command with a ghostly, detached delivery that turns the song into a fever dream.
This leads into the album’s most aggressive statement, ‘Bootlicker.’ Described as “truly monumental,” the track is an anthem of resistance featuring “dirty guitar grind” and explicit social commentary on political polarization and the “herd mentality” of the digital age.
The journey concludes with ‘The Last Rattle,’ a somber eulogy that provides a “perfect balance of light and dark.” Serving as the final, physical evidence of life leaving the body, it reinforces the genre’s focus on the moment of experience away from resolution, leaving the listener in the heavy silence of the aftermath.
Visual Semiotics
Amnesiak’s visual identity is as carefully curated as their sound. The “shadowy realm” they cultivate is constructed through a consistent aesthetic that merges the natural with the ritualistic.
Far from abstract, the ‘Arkfiend’ cover art presents a striking and visceral tableau of ritualistic suspension. It depicts a pale, long-haired figure—presumably Wilson—standing with her back to the viewer, arms raised and bound to towering trees in a pose evocative of martyrdom or shamanic rite.
The setting is a desolate, misty lakeside landscape, framed by snow-capped mountains that reinforce the album’s themes of isolation and cold. Beneath the figure, a white, rune-like sigil is etched into the earth, grounding the image in the occult. The color palette is dominated by the desaturated greens and greys of the natural world, violently disrupted by the band’s name and album title in blood-red, runic typography. This contrast does not merely signify a “draining of life,” but rather the intrusion of pain and primal energy into a silent, indifferent world.
The collaboration with Richard Oakes is central to the band’s aesthetic. Oakes is not merely a videographer; he is a world-builder. His work on ‘Flamed in Solitude’ and ‘Bootlicker’ employs practical effects, elaborate makeup (credited to Hayley Lovelock), and cinematic lighting to create a sense of the uncanny.
The videos feature the band members as characters—Wilson often appears as a spectral figure or a “morbid bride,” while Fonte occupies the role of the shadowy orchestrator. This theatricality is reminiscent of the “Corpse Bride chic” and “marionette choreography” noted in live reviews of similar gothic acts like Eldermother.
Oakes’ production company name, Dark Fable Media, is instructive regarding the nature of this visual storytelling. Amnesiak’s videos are not documentaries of a performance; they are fables—moral stories featuring supernatural elements—that warn of the dangers of “bootlicking” or the pain of “solitude.”
The reception of ‘Arkfiend’ highlights the polarizing nature of niche genres like Doom Rock, revealing the tension between genre purism and innovation.
The Echo in the Void
‘Arkfiend’ is a work of disciplined darkness. Amnesiak has succeeded in creating a debut album that feels both ancient and immediate, channeling the ghosts of British Gothic history through the anxieties of the mid-2020s. By fusing the slow, crushing weight of doom with the ethereal, haunting melodies of Gothic Rock, Grace Wilson and Francesco Fonte have carved out a distinct niche in the underground.
While the album may not convert those seeking the rapid-fire variety of mainstream music, for the listener willing to submit to its “shadowy realm,” ‘Arkfiend’ offers a profound exploration of the dark corners of the human psyche. It is a record that demands patience, rewarding the listener with a glimpse of the sublime. In the words of the band, it is a project of “misty memories through ghosts voices,” and on ‘Arkfiend,’ those ghosts speak with a clarity and power that is impossible to ignore.
As the needle lifts from the final groove of ‘The Last Rattle,’ the silence that follows is heavy. It is the silence of a room after a ghost has left—a space charged with the energy of what was just witnessed. Amnesiak has not just made an album; they have opened a door. And for those brave enough to walk through it, the ‘Archfiend’ awaits.
As Amnesiak invites us to confront the “hauntological” nature of our existence—where the past persistently bleeds into the present—how does the album’s synthesis of crushing doom and ethereal gothic atmosphere alter your perception of musical catharsis, and which specific track on ‘Arkfiend’ most effectively summons your own personal specters?
References:
- Bayer, Gerd. ‘Heavy Metal Music in Britain.’ OpenEdition Journals. Accessed December 6, 2025. ↩︎
- Spooner, Catherine. ‘Introduction: A History of Gothic Studies in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries.’ Cambridge Core. Accessed December 6, 2025. ↩︎
- Piper, Jonathan. ‘Locating experiential richness in doom metal.’ eScholarship. Accessed December 6, 2025. ↩︎
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