If you\u2019ve been sleeping on TRAITRS, consider this your wake-up call \u2014 delivered in reverb-soaked guitars and haunting 808s at 3am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Toronto-based coldwave duo just dropped \u2019Possessor,\u2019 their most ambitious record to date, and it\u2019s the kind of album that grabs you by the collar and doesn\u2019t let go. Ten tracks of gothic atmosphere, existential dread, and anthemic release \u2014 this is post-punk for people who feel everything a little too deeply. You know who you are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From Bedroom Cassettes to 40 Million Streams<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n TRAITRS didn\u2019t happen overnight. Over the last decade, the duo quietly built one of the most devoted followings in the underground \u2014 going from DIY cassette releases on a boutique label to racking up 40 million streams and 300,000 Spotify followers. They\u2019ve played massive stages across multiple continents, and the momentum hasn\u2019t slowed one bit. If anything, \u2018Possessor\u2019 feels like the moment everything clicks into full focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The album was produced by Josh Korody \u2014 a guy who\u2019s worked with The Beaches, Japandroids, and F*cked Up \u2014 and mastered by Matt Colton, whose r\u00e9sum\u00e9 casually includes The Cure, Depeche Mode, Fontaines D.C., and Dua Lipa. Yeah. That Matt Colton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What Does It Sound Like?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Think The Cure\u2019s brooding romanticism colliding with Joy Division\u2019s cold urgency, with a little Bauhaus theatrics and Depeche Mode synth-craft thrown in for good measure. Critics have already been generous \u2014 American Pancake called it \u201can amalgam of Christian Death, Joy Division, Depeche Mode, and Bauhaus,<\/em>\u201d while Atwood Magazine praised lead single Dream Drowning<\/em> as \u201ctheatrical, feverish, almost operatic in scope.<\/em>\u201d That\u2019s not hype \u2014 that\u2019s just accurate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Standout moments on \u2018Possessor\u2019 include the anthemic Burn in Heaven<\/em>, which signals a bold new chapter in the band\u2019s sonic evolution, and the devastatingly intimate i was ill, you were wrong <\/em>\u2014 a track that The Wild Is Calling described as \u201ca sure thing for fans of The Cure and modern projects like Korine.<\/em>\u201d Then there\u2019s Dream Drowning<\/em>, a fever-dream of a song that loops the horrors of everyday life until it feels like something sacred and deeply unsettling all at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n