Jersey City, New Jersey-based outfit Neon Funeral unveils their latest single, “Perpetual Misery,” recorded at Timber Studios in Bayonne, New Jersey, engineered and mastered by Connor Priest and Adam Cichocki.
Neon Funeral explains, “This is the last song written and recorded with our keyboardist before we had to part ways with him for a serious private matter. We’ve had a struggling year 2024 dealing with personal issues but we feel we have started a new chapter in the band. Our sound has refined slightly as well. The lyrics deal with our singer’s search for a spiritual connection in a world of materialism, demonism, isolation, and despair.”
Formed in 2019 by Randy Robertson (vocals) and Kevin Garetz (guitarist), the pair, according to Post-Punk, “set out to write a song showcasing their love for new-wave and post-punk, while at the same time, reflecting being brought up in the same North Jersey hardcore scene back in the mid-2000s.”
Made up of Randy Robertson, Kevin Garetz, and Roberto Miranda, Neon Funeral has been featured in elite media outlets. In 2023, Neon Funeral released their debut EP, Banned From the Goth Club, featuring “Avolition” and “A Void.”
Neon Funeral’s music blends elements of dark wave, Gothic punk, and atmospheric post-punk into a sound vaguely reminiscent of a combination of early The Cure, She Past Away, Deafheaven, and Beastmilk, only more innovative.
“Perpetual Misery” opens on emerging elegiac tones leading to Golden Earring-like vocals over Gothic-flavored, new wave guitars. The pushing rhythm infuses the melody with a propelling motion, at once gliding and absorbing. Ghostly, almost suppressed vocal harmonies, imbue the lyrics with eerie sensations, complementing the urgent, dreamy primary vocal.
Overall, the sonic effect of the song creates dual images: one diaphanous and gossamer-like, akin to living in a world of spirit, the other struggling to disengage from the dark existential shackles of here and now.
Simultaneously personal and atavistically mystical, “Perpetual Misery” feels like a succession of destruction and rebirth. It’s an impressive track.
