the roundup: darkness, duality & immersion

Across pop, rock and R&B, a new wave of artists are leaning into the darker corners of selfhood. To understand them rather than sensationalise them. Whether through gothic electro-pop, AI-assisted rock rituals or soul-rooted storytelling, these releases explore what happens when we stop resisting the shadows and instead learn to move with them.

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ÆTHR – ‘Santa Maria’

Madeira-born pop visionary ÆTHR steps fully into his most theatrical era yet with ‘Santa Maria’, a dark electro-pop eruption that pulses with temptation and release. Built on cinematic tension, gothic atmospherics and club-ready adrenaline, the track feels designed for the dancefloor. But upon a deeper listen, haunted by something deeper beneath the surface.

At its core, ‘Santa Maria’ is a meditation on duality. ÆTHR frames the song as a double metaphor: a saintly figure whose purity is only an illusion, and a more personal reckoning with the shadow self: the desires, impulses and chaos we attempt to suppress. “The ‘Santa Maria’ inside of me,” he explains, “is the part I try to control but sometimes surrender to.”

That push-and-pull gives the track its unsettling power. Written instinctively in a flash of inspiration, the song retains an immediacy that mirrors its subject matter: euphoric, impulsive, slightly dangerous. Drawing influence from Lady Gaga, Troye Sivan and The Weeknd, ÆTHR crafts pop as an immersive space: one that invites listeners to dance, confront, and ultimately embrace who they are without apology.

Almost Alive – ‘Eclipse Within’

Almost Alive’s ‘Eclipse Within’ feels ritualistic. It's a slow-burning descent into something heavier, quieter and deeply internal. The New Jersey-based AI-assisted rock project returns with a track that unfolds like a hypnotic ascent, pulling the listener inward rather than outward.

Inspired by the immersive worlds of Tool, A Perfect Circle and Nine Inch Nails, ‘Eclipse Within’ builds patiently through pulsing rhythms, thunderous guitars and enveloping textures. Evan Kanter describes the experience as “the listener turning into a sound wave,” and the track lives up to that idea, dissolving boundaries between body, machine and emotion.

The song acts as a gateway into Hypnotica, an upcoming album designed to be experienced front-to-back. Darker, glitchier and more cinematic than previous work, the project leans fully into the tension between human instinct and AI precision. Rather than feeling cold, ‘Eclipse Within’ is strangely spiritual, proof that even in machine-assisted creation, there’s room for trance, vulnerability and transformation.

Bren.d.o – ‘Electric Love Affair’

Closing the roundup is Bren.d.o, whose brand of neo-soul doesn’t shy away from emotional depth, but approaches it with warmth rather than weight. ‘Electric Love Affair’ captures a different kind of darkness: the intensity of love, ambition and belief colliding for the first time.

Hailing from Southern Illinois, Bren.d.o brings small-town storytelling into a global R&B context, blending soulful hooks with vivid narrative detail. His music carries a sense of heritage and hope, rooted in lived experience rather than spectacle. Bren.d.o grounds his work in human connection: desire, vulnerability, and the electricity of dreams becoming real.

2025 has marked a turning point for the artist, with ‘Electric Love Affair’ charting and opening doors to a wider audience. Yet at its heart, the song remains intimate, a reminder that darkness doesn’t always roar. Sometimes it hums softly, wrapped in melody, waiting to be understood.