ENDURE

Slow… Heavy… There is very little posted on social media — we instead value a connection through what we do and how we do it.

Endure — cover art: an ornate gate, a crescent moon, and a mass of skulls beneath the night sky
Slow · Heavy · The first three songs
Zine · Issue #1

Why?

It was hoped the recording would be finished and duplicated in time for these first dates — where the first three songs will be played (two if time was short) — but there would be no sense in a recording that is instantly made redundant by our dissatisfaction with it. So it will be available when it represents the whole as faithfully as possible.

Nothing is permanent.

There are no expectations for us to be our own captors. It has been very deliberate to avoid specific references for how we sound beyond “slow” and “heavy” — which, in themselves, are subjective terms. This is to have some direction but without restriction. The current songs played and recorded share a theme, but this does not dictate where the lyrics go next.

The path will not be direct, and will hopefully be more interesting. There is nothing more disappointing than a gradually worsening re-interpretation of what has been offered. We do not consider ourselves to be unique, but we are aiming for an ongoing honest expression — as a collective and as individual contributors.

There is no need for you to be given anything conclusive — that is for you. There is no prolonged advertisement or promotion; there is perhaps a hint of manifesto with a lower-case “m”. This is not yours, and you can burn this while taking away what you feel has value.
Music

First Three Songs

The music is written first, followed by lyrics. The way these are delivered means there is expression and intent, but less in the way of clarity. That does not make them less important or an afterthought.

I

Of Ash and Gold…

The ouroboros serves as a metaphor for the merciless plundering of the planet in the name of capitalism. Those who hoard beyond comprehension while the masses eke out an existence. Imagery of the fallacy of “trickle down economics” — a dark song. (“Gold rains down on me.”)

A serpent swallows its tail of gold,
A tale retold, never growing old.
The worm devours what we have sown,
Its coil, a kingdom — our hunger, a throne.

The feast is theirs, the famine ours,
Greed ascends on ivory towers.
Gold rains down on me!

Coins cascade from the hoarder's hand,
The parasites feed and starve the land,
Coins cascade from the hoarder's hand.

Roots dry where the serpent coils,
Riches gleaned from our toil.
A cycle endless, a hunger vast —
Our future devoured to preserve their past.
II

The Dead Seethe

Inspired by sermonic delivery — a consideration of the deathly consequences of that hoarding. Alongside the imagery of mass-scale suffering, the potential for the force of numbers, the oceanic overpowering of oppressors. Suffer, survive, and persist — endure.

The tide has come, not of water, but of marrow.
Not a wave, but a surge of skulls,
clicking teeth against each other
like coins in a miser's palm.

We wade through the surf of bones,
and every step drags us deeper.

The ocean remembers every famine,
every boot, every crucified truth.

They build their thrones from spines and skullcaps —
the tide will swallow them,
grind them smooth,
until even their names are as dust
at the bottom of the sea.

The gnashing of teeth beneath the waves.
The orchestra of bones grinding against bones.
A requiem, played on the ribs of the dead.

Listen… can you hear it?
III

Every Promise, a Noose

The outcome of feeling horrified by the images of desperate people drowning in their attempt to reach safety.

We build their thrones / from our broken bones,
Ashes of children / cement the stone.
Banquets everywhere / in this starving land,
Gold drips red / from our broken hands.

On plastic coffins / we desperately drift,
While floating palaces / are the rich man's gift.
They poison seas / as we drown and turn black.

Sharpening truth into fractured blades,
Rewriting the past so the present decays.
When the screens go dark, our truth remains:
we're choking on hunger, drowning in pain.

Every promise is a noose, a chain,
tightened around us again and again.
On The Road

Tour 2026–27

The first dates. These are the ones we are trying to finish the recording before — if time is short, expect two songs instead of three.

Saturday28 November2026
The Albion
Stoke-on-Trent, UK
Support TBA
Tickets
Saturday20 March2027
The Underground
Bradford, UK
Support TBA
Tickets
Saturday5 June2027
Tap n Tumbler
Nottingham, UK
Support TBA
Tickets
Sunday27 June2027
The Vic
Derby, UK
Support TBA
Tickets
Friday27 August2027
The Metal Monocle
Leicester, UK
Support TBA
Tickets
Wed – Sat13 – 16 October2027
German Tour
with Confusion Master · venues TBA
Four nights
Details
The Art

Celebrating Imperfection

Why the fuck are we telling you this? Because it is important to know there is a wish to have a connection to all aspects of what comes from this band. Imperfection carries a sense of honesty in what is shared — it has been done with this intent, even where it pushes the comfort zone of those who made it.

Cover art — gate, crescent moon and mass of skulls
CoverDrawn on a digital tablet over a photograph, with other elements added to build a composition representing the first three songs. There was tracing by hand using a digital device, but also mark-making, improvising, re-interpreting the source — a more direct link between the image, the music it represents, and the band itself.
Hand-written lyric notebook page
LyricsWritten first as notation and rough script on paper. What survives on the page is deliberately left unpolished — the same unhurried, hand-made approach carried through every part of the work.
Endure — hand-drawn calligraphic logo
The LogoHand-drawn on paper with a basic calligraphy pen. Lack of experience was an advantage: the flow was not completely controlled, which added something unpredictable yet natural to the result. This is the same mark used across the site, the zine, and the t-shirts.
Merch

Wear It

The hand-drawn logo, carried across the site, the zine, and the clothes. Ordered via email — slow and deliberate, like everything else here.

Endure — t-shirt with hand-drawn calligraphic logo
T-Shirt£10

Hand-drawn calligraphic logo and catacombs art, screen-printed by Discordant Sun on a heavy black tee.

Endure — embroidered cap with calligraphic logo
Embroidered Cap£12

Earth-aware rated organic cotton cap with a fully embroidered logo, sold at the price they were produced. Limited to 15. Manufactured by Dreadful Thread.

Colophon

We Give Thanks

Confusion Master · Space Witch · 783 Label · Dreadful Thread · Discordant Sun · Tomb Slab · Bile Caster · The Swamp Honey · Warlockhunt · Sensitive Wormrile · Exile on Mainstream · Might · Noisepicker · HATE · Druids Cross · Samurai Cop · Buried in Smoke Promos
Katherine Arnold (photography) · Chiroptera Promotions · Alex Krupskaya · Patric John Ward (spoken word) · Masterdog · Colin, Jim and Sarah

Collaborate · Communicate · Conspire

For the recording, dates, or anything else — write to us.

circusofthemacabre@yahoo.co.uk