There is a particular chill in the air in early November. It is a feeling we, as children of the velvet dark, welcome. It is the scent of damp earth, of preservation and decay, the feeling of the world finally matching the atmosphere we carry inside us year-round. It is the perfect season for reckoning, and on November 5, 2025, a powerful reckoning arrived.

Canadian artist Lindsay Schoolcraft has returned, not with a whisper, but with a verdict. Her new single, ‘Crucified,’ is a raw, 3-minute and 51-second declaration of war—or rather, the victorious, bruised chronicle of a “silent war” that has been raging underneath the surface for years. This is not just a song; it is an act of profound, personal, and professional reclamation.

For those of us who have followed her trajectory—from her classically trained origins, through her seven-year public tenure as the keyboardist and voice of celestial sorrow in Cradle of Filth, to her blossoming as a Juno-nominated solo artist—this moment feels different. It feels definitive.

‘Crucified’ is the first missive from a new, heavy album planned for 2026. And in the most significant move of all, it has been released on her own label, Cyber Proxy Records. This is not just music. This is autonomy as an aesthetic act. This is an artist moving from a public statement of “mental health” to a public, artistic reckoning , and she is doing it on her own terms, right down to the copyright line.

Lindsay Schoolcraft: From Martyrdom to Reckoning

The full impact of ‘Crucified’ lands when you consider the context of the martyrdom that preceded it. Schoolcraft’s 2019 debut solo album, ‘Martyr,’ was a gorgeous, sprawling work of 2000s-indebted gothic metal, co-written with ex-Evanescence drummer Rocky Gray. It was, as she said then, a thesis on “dying for what you believe in.” It was an album released while she was still within the confines of her former band, and in retrospect, it feels like a diary of a sacrifice in progress.

Her departure from that band in 2020 was the fracture point. It was followed by ‘Worlds Away,’ an ethereal, ambient harp album that served as a necessary balm—a pivot to the “darker version of Enya” she also embodies, influenced by the likes of Björk’s ‘Vespertine.’ It was hauntingly beautiful, but it was the sound of a necessary retreat, a “clean slate.”

We have all been waiting to hear what would come next. We have read her words describing that exit as a “traumatic departure” from an “unethical work environment.” ‘Crucified’ is the answer. It is the sound of the bones setting stronger than they were before. It is the direct lyrical sequel to ‘Martyr.’ “What a pleasure it has been,” she sings, her voice dripping with the coldest irony, “To let you sacrifice me.” This is the sound of the martyr stepping down from the pyre, picking up the torch, and pointing it at her accusers.

‘Crucified’: The Anatomy of a Modern Curse

‘Crucified’ is, as she rightly states, the “heaviest sounding and most lyrically honest track written to date.” But this is not the nostalgic fuzz of the ‘Martyr’ album’s nu-metal leanings. This is the surgical, high-definition rage of modern metal.

The shift is telegraphed by her new creative team. This is her first major work co-produced not with Rocky Gray, but with Justin DeBlieck, known for his engineering and production with standard-bearers of the new aesthetic like Motionless In White. DeBlieck’s involvement (he also handles co-production, engineering, mixing, guitar, and bass) immediately repositions Schoolcraft’s sound, aligning it with her stated love for bands like Spiritbox.

The guitars, co-written by Cody Johnstone, are serrated and precise. The drumming, composed with Dylan Gowan, is a relentless, punctuating gavel.

This is heaviness as armor. It is a controlled, articulate fury, a “raw outpouring of anger, betrayal, and empowerment.” And yet, the Schoolcraft we know from ‘Worlds Away’ is still here, woven into the track’s DNA via the sweeping, cinematic orchestrations of composer Spencer Creaghan. It is the perfect synthesis of her two artistic selves: a classically trained harpist and the metal frontwoman. The result is pure, weaponized gothic drama.

A Sword, A Sand Timer, A Visual Affidavit

The sound is the weapon, but the music video for ‘Crucified’ is the visual affidavit.

In perhaps the most telling move of this entire new era, the video is “Directed and Produced by Lindsay Schoolcraft.” After years of contributing her image to another’s vision, she is, for the first time in this context, in complete control of her own visual narrative. And that narrative is one of justice.

The aesthetic is pure, gothic romanticism, inspired, she says, by the forthcoming album’s cover art. But it is the “potent symbolism” that does the talking. The video is built around two central icons: a sword, which she explains embodies “truth and reckoning,” and a sand timer, representing the “inevitable countdown to justice.”

Let us be clear. This is an artist who has stated publicly that telling her “full story” of her departure from her previous band would require “legal representation” and “gathering all the receipts.” She has spoken of the “abuse of power” and of being “wronged… by people I once loved and trusted.”

This video is her presenting that case artistically. The sword is her “truth,” her “receipts.” The sand timer is the “ticking deadline” she promises for those who hide behind lies. It is a visual, symbolic fulfillment of the lyric, “Your truth will undo everything.” By directing it herself, she has transformed her trauma into a powerful, controlled piece of art, ensuring her story is told with her hand, and hers alone, on the lens.

The Canon of the Self

This is where the music leaves the headphones and enters the bloodstream. Lindsay Schoolcraft is not just an artist we observe; she is an artist who, in many ways, is us.

She is a multi-hyphenate that defines the modern goth. She is the “Nu Goth Princess” who served as the band’s makeup guru. She is the designer who creates her own elaborate, First Nations-inspired headdresses. She is the classically-trained musician who loves Björk and VAST. She is the metalhead who draws stage aesthetic inspiration from the 90s vampire art of Cradle of Filth’s own ‘Midian.’ She contains, as we all do, multitudes.

We can trace her entire artistic lineage through her influences. She cites Björk’s ‘Vespertine‘ as the album that inspired her to play the harp—that is the ethereal, “clean slate” of ‘Worlds Away.’ But she cites Evanescence’s ‘The Open Door’ as the album that made her “take my musical education seriously,” admiring how Amy Lee “boldly took us to different keys” on “their darkest album to date.”

‘Crucified’ is her ‘The Open Door’ moment. It is the sound of her boldly embracing the dark, the heavy, and the dramatic. When she says, in what might be the most relatable, human-goth-girl statement of the year, “I was mad. Betrayed. Still,” she is not just chronicling her own pain. She is giving a voice to the silent war so many of us have fought in “unethical work environments,” in toxic relationships, in spaces where we were told to be quiet. She is handing this song to her listeners, saying, “If you have been hurt… this song is for you.”

The Unseen Album and the Road Ahead

This single is the cornerstone for a new cathedral of sound. ‘Crucified’ is the first taste of a new, heavy album slated for a 2026 release, a record that she confirms will be her “first rock record created with the complete artistic and financial autonomy she has pursued.”

The creative team is clearly established: Schoolcraft and Justin DeBlieck producing, with Johnstone, Gowan, and Creaghan as her core composers and arrangers. While no full tracklist or title for the 2026 album has been announced, the “undertow of religious themes” and the narrative of justice are set. This is a project being built from the ground up, funded and controlled by Schoolcraft herself via her label, Cyber Proxy Records.

No touring plans have been solidified, though she has expressed a desire to get “back on the road.” For now, fans can support this new independent era directly through her Bandcamp and her official shop, which features new merchandise for ‘Crucified.’

The “religious undertones” of ‘Crucified’ are not accidental. This is, at its heart, a story of resurrection. Schoolcraft has reframed the narrative. The symbolic ‘Martyr’ of 2019 has been ‘Crucified’ in 2025, and in 2026, we will all get to witness the resurrection.

This is the sound of an artist who has been through the fire and chosen to build a forge. She is not just a survivor; she is a builder. ‘Crucified’ is the sound of the cornerstone being laid.

‘Crucified’ is a raw anthem for surviving betrayal. What song in the gothic canon has been your personal armor, the track you turn to when you need to reclaim your own power?