Until They Burn Me is back, and their new album, “A Carnival of Reveries”, is a nine-track sucker punch of rock ‘n’ roll chaos.
This is the work of Cody Carlyle and Travis Jordan, two musical brothers-in-arms who have been shredding together for over three decades. That’s right, thirty years. This isn’t some fresh-faced, flavour-of-the-month band. This is a partnership forged in fire, and it shows in every single note. They officially launched this project in 2021, but the history runs deep, all the way back to their former band, The Dry Season. That lifetime of shared intuition means they’re locked in, a tight, vicious unit that operates on a psychic wavelength most bands only dream of. Hell, Carlyle lives on the East Coast and flies West to record, but that distance has only sharpened their focus into a razor’s edge.
“A Carnival of Reveries” is a ride. It’s a gritty, dirty, vintage-sounding beast that marries the swagger of garage rock with the dark, storytelling heart of Americana and the unhinged energy of punk. Forget neat little boxes; this album spits on them. It’s a cinematic, streetwise soul record that sounds like it was recorded in a haunted speakeasy at the crossroads of New Orleans voodoo and a punk rock dive bar.
The chemistry is tangible. You can feel the decades of exploration in the way these two play off each other. And they even dragged their old buddy Travis Martin from The Dry Season into the fray to co-write and sing on two tracks, “Josef K” and “Licorice & Lollipops”—songs that are literally thirty years old, given new life with the weight of experience.
This is the soundtrack for when you’re sipping smoky bourbon while the world burns, the perfect score for a Tarantino film that hasn’t been made yet. Take “Dig Them Graves,” which channels the ghost of Johnny Cash scoring a murderous spaghetti western. Then there’s “White Devil,” a track so downright nasty, so drenched in a groove of sex and sin, it feels lawless. “The Golden Motel Room” practically smells of burning candles and regret. It’s a vibe, a mood, a descent into a world of horror and adventure.
“A Carnival of Reveries” is set to drop on Halloween 2025, which is just perfect. It’s a record that embraces the shadows. The lead single, “Dark and Deep,” is coming with a video on release day, the first of five planned singles. You can stream it everywhere, but real rock fans know the score: hit up their Bandcamp page to support them directly. Then, in December, they’re unleashing this monster on vinyl for the audiophiles who like their music loud and physical.
“A Carnival of Reveries” is an experience. It’s life, death, and everything in between, played with the skill of minstrels who have spent decades on their craft. So get lost in it. Let Until They Burn Me take you on their wild, rock ‘n’ roll journey. You might not come back the same.