Durham, North Carolina outfit WAILIN STORMS have premiered a suspenseful new music video for "Dead End," the third and final advance single from their upcoming fifth album, "The Arsonist" — their first release for Season Of Mist. The video debuted last week via Treble, with the ghost of David Lynch seemingly riding shotgun as the song takes a harrowing post-punk turn.
"'Dead End' is about seeing yourself after you die," WAILIN STORMS vocalist and guitarist Justin Storms says. "It's the first song on The Arsonist and one of the first that was written for the album. It flowed out of me while I was messing around with my Strymon El Capistan guitar pedal. It sets the tone by jolting you straight into a fever dream that's filled with cryptic messages from beyond."
Since relocating to North Carolina in 2014, WAILIN STORMS have steadily built a reputation well beyond their adopted hometown, drawing praise from outlets including NPR, The Needle Drop, Brooklyn Vegan, Decibel and Metal Hammer. "The Arsonist" marks the band's fifth full-length and their debut for Season Of Mist, described as a fiery baptism of Southern gothic rock that leans further into darkness and tension than the band's earlier work.
"Dead End" continues a run of advance singles that have signaled a bleaker, more unsettling direction for the band, with Storms' pedal-driven guitar work anchoring the song's disorienting atmosphere. The track's placement as album opener suggests it sets the emotional and sonic tone for the record as a whole — an immediate plunge into unease rather than a slow build.
"The Arsonist" is out July 10, 2026 via Season Of Mist.
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