The opaque passionate romance, deadly gothic postpunk precipice of "I was ill, you were wrong" by Toronto cold wave duo TRAITRS, and another potent glimpse of the highly anticipated upcoming album "Possessor" (dropping early in 2026), extends the duo's mastery iconic post punk melancholia that is not afraid to fall off deep ends. An artful cross-generational blend of gothic darkwave, proto goth, postpunk, like an amalgam of Christian Death, Joy Division, Depeche Mode, Bauhaus, The Cure (at their most dark spaces) allows you to totally get lost in the huge walls of sound and the vocal desperation filled with existential dread and maybe ennui on high that, somehow, feels more relevant today than in the 90's.
The duo who formed in mid 2015 have steadily built up a dedicated following. Sean-Patrick Nolan handles synthesizers, programming, sequencing while Shawn Tucker offers sonically rich guitar shapes and a killer vocal countenance that fits their darkly romantic spiraling atmospheres perfectly. I love his voice that have hints of Ian Curtis, Robert Smith, Dave Gahan, Rozz Williams, all at once. Their universe building, as serious as a heart attack, not only encapsulates iconic soundscapes but a sense of lost hope that somehow makes you want to raise a fist in defiance.
LINER NOTES (excerpted / bracketed):
[Toronto-based cold wave duo TRAITRS return with Possessor, their most ambitious and emotionally charged album to date, set for release on Friday, March 13th, 2026. The new full length continues the band’s evolution into one of the most vital acts in modern post punk, expanding their signature blend of icy synths, driving bass, and haunting lyrical themes. Drawing from the same shadowy world introduced on their acclaimed previous releases, the new album pushes deeper into personal turmoil and spiritual unease while delivering some of the most melodic and urgent music of the band’s career.]
[Ahead of the album, TRAITRS will release the next single "i was ill, you were wrong" on November 28th, 2025. The song follows the success of their previous single "Burn In Heaven", which earned praise for its stark emotional honesty and powerful production. The track can be pre-saved HERE.]
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://soundcloud.com/traitrs
https://www.youtube.com/@TraitrsOfficial
https://traitrs.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/traitrsofficial/
https://www.tiktok.com/@traitrs
https://www.facebook.com/traitrs/
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/traitrs/1118704716
With their cinematic blend of horror-based imagery, anthemic choruses, motorik drum loops, atmospheric synths and angular guitars, Canadian cold wave duo TRAITRS stare unflinchingly at our dystopian present while paying homage to artists from the post-punk past. In the decade since their debut record to now, the Toronto-based TRAITRS went from bedroom artists selling cassette tapes on a small boutique record label to accumulating millions of streams worldwide and performing hundreds of shows on massive stages across multiple continents. With their much-anticipated new album Possessor, produced by long-time collaborator Josh Korody (The Beaches, The Dirty Nil, Japandroids, Tanya Taqaq, F*cked Up) and mastered by Matt Colton (The Cure, Depeche Mode, Fontaines D.C., Wet Leg, Dua Lipa, Blur etc), TRAITRS continue to develop their melancholic sound and imagery with the emotional follow up to 2021’s critically acclaimed LP Horses in the Abattoir.
TRAITRS, alt rock, post punk, Gothic, darkwave, post rock, Toronto based coldwave duo, highly anticipated album "Possessor", new single "I was ill, you were wrong", new iterations, hybrid rock, nostalgic, homages, cinematic,
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