By A Thread Return with Haunting New Music Video “Tempest”
Vancouver’s post-hardcore veterans By A Thread are proving you can’t keep a good band quiet forever. Fresh off the release of “Void” — their first new music in 14 years — the band have dropped their second single, “Tempest,” from their upcoming album Mirrored Life, out September 12th via Spartan Records.
“Tempest” is five minutes of slow-burning intensity, pulling you into its brooding, reverb-soaked atmosphere before swelling into a cathartic, heavy-hitting finale. John Franco’s vocals sway between sullen and soaring, carrying the weight of grief, loss, and hard-earned perspective. The track’s rhythms build like a storm gathering on the horizon, and when it finally breaks, it leaves you floored.
The accompanying video, filmed and edited by Ryan Dolejsi, strips the song to its raw core with stark black-and-white visuals and gripping performance shots — the perfect visual counterpart to the track’s haunting mood.
By A Thread first made their mark back in 1999 with Last of the Daydreams (Revelation Records), an album that carved out a quiet but lasting place in melodic-hardcore history. Known for their introspective lyrics and explosive energy, the band returned in 2011 with their self-titled sophomore album — a project recorded years earlier but delayed by setbacks. Now, with Mirrored Life, they’re stepping forward again, older, wiser, and still burning with purpose.
“This is essentially an anti-pop record,” says Franco. “It’s meant to feel heavy.” And it does — not just sonically, but in the themes it wrestles with: loss, identity, introspection, the state of the world, and how we treat each other.
Core songwriters Sean Lande and Franco began writing the record during the pandemic alongside drummer Gabe Mantle (Gob), later joined by bassist Carl McBeath. Self-produced, recorded by Stuart McKillop at Raincity Recorders, and mixed by Franco, Mirrored Life trades any lingering radio-ready polish for mood, weight, and emotional honesty.
Lande sums up the band’s headspace:
“As we get older I do see people lose some of their fire and empathy. That hasn’t happened to me yet. I do hope I have better ways to deal with difficult things, and music is one of them. We’ve also experienced the death of people very dear to us. Speaking about these things is cathartic and brings more meaning to our music. We came from punk and hardcore and we still feel passionate about our inner and outer worlds.”
With Tempest, By A Thread aren’t just revisiting their early fire — they’re reshaping it into something even more powerful.
