A Doom-laden Goth Rawk opus peppered with elements of Alternative, Nu-Metal, and even Slavic Folk at times, Midnight Minuet from The Yagas is a delectable cornucopia of sounds that might be one of the best debuts of 2025 featuring one person responsible for many a modern visual scare over the past decade or more and another responsible for soundtracking some of those fears years before that.
We’re, of course, talking about The Yagas’ vocalist Vera Farmiga (The Conjuring series, Bates Motel) and synthesist Renn Hawkey (Deadsy!!!) who, along with bassist Mike Davis, drummer Jason Bowman, and guitarist Mark Visconti, have discovered this new soundscape and conjured up a sound that’s the equivalent of a Siouxsie and the Banshees/The Cure supergroup you never knew you needed in your life intertwined with Melissa Auf der Maur’s 2004 solo masterpiece or Black Sabbath-inspired Hand Of Doom project.
If opener “The Crying Room” is your first exposure to The Yagas then we think it’s a mighty fine introduction, amping up the atmosphere immediately with Hawkey’s keys creating a magical blueprint to build off of before the staggered entrances of Visconti, Bowman, and Davis accompany to create this burgeoning aura with elements of those classic Disintegration-era epics followed by Farmiga who is an absolute PRESENCE at the mic culminating with this howl in the ether like a spectre. And that’s just the first song, people.
Speaking of firsts! The first song ever written by The Yagas, “I Am”, is a little more straightforward guitar-driven affair yet still a solid stomp that combines Nu-Metal and Alternative and easily drops hints of what would come to be “The Yagas sound” with single “Life of a Widow” easily encapsulating that notion on a driven, grandiose number propelled by the Bowman/Davis rhythm section and a lush chorus. “Anhedonia” is a gorgeous one formed off an intricate melodic layout and Farmiga’s broad vocal range with “Pendulum” coming in next as a bit of an outlier in the Midnight Minuet framework thus far, letting Farmiga’s haunting vocals run wild before the instrumental elements bring it all together.
“Charade” highlights Hawkey’s symphonic approach to the keys here with Visconti’s subtle strums accenting the Alterna-Baroque feel, “Bridle” is a stunning synth-heavy ditty that hearkens to ’80’s New Wave crossed with modern Hard Rawk, “Pullover” is a propulsive piano/drum pairing, and “She’s Walking Down” is a shreddy (We detect some progressive Thrash on this one), fast-paced track that sees Farmiga getting her gruff Metal voice down backed by a solid wall of heaviness. Then there’s the title track which closes up the record and is apparently a gotDamn Deadsy holdover (From that band’s perennially in-limbo Subterfugue record) per Hawkey in a recent interview (Spoiler alert: We have a Renn Hawkey interview on the way). Who knows what Elijah Blue (Deadsy vocalist/guitarist) would’ve done with it but in the hands of The Yagas, “Midnight Minuet” is glorious and bookends opener “The Crying Room” nicely with Hawkey’s signature synths covering all with an unearthly sheen as Visconti, Bowman, and Davis add to that mood while Framiga takes it away one last time with another vocal delivery that tops what’s come before.
Midnight Minuet arrives on April 25th and you can pre-save the album now across all your favorite DSP’s by heading here. For all your The Yagas merch needs, you can head here and then click here or here to stay up-to-date across their socials.