THIEF to Release SERMONS FROM THE PIT on Prophecy Productions
Dylan Neal, formerly of BOTANIST, blends trip hop, industrial, and metal into what he calls Dungeon Pop.
THIEF, the Los Angeles-based dark electronic project of multi-instrumentalist Dylan Neal, formerly of San Francisco experimental black metal outfit BOTANIST, has announced its new album Sermons from the Pit, out November 27 via Prophecy Productions. THIEF has also shared the album's lead single 'Moon and Kill,' accompanied by a new music video. The track debuted today at Decibel and is available on all streaming platforms.
On the song, THIEF's Dylan Neal says:
Sermons from the Pit moves through stages of frenetic energy which are tempered by sullen, meditative moments of respite. 'Moon and Kill' is a microcosm of that, encapsulating the album's broader thematic movement from rage to despair and acceptance. The ending is one of my favorite moments on the album, where the vocals are just kind of cooing over a time-stretched organ and choral sample. The track's voice oscillates between executioner and victim. At the risk of stealing the listener's meaning away, I'll speak of the track by saying that when love and trust collapse, the same anger and disbelief experienced by murderers and saints alike are experienced. Which implement do you choose? Weapon or forgiveness?
Described as 'what happens when Portishead and Nine Inch Nails have sex in a haunted church,' THIEF fuses trip hop, industrial, jungle, metal, and experimental electronics with manipulated sacred chants and choral samples, creating an immersive sound Neal calls 'Dungeon Pop.' Drawing inspiration from Portishead and Ulver, and earning comparisons to Nine Inch Nails, Tool, and Tears for Fears, THIEF has carved out a singular space between dark electronic and heavy music. The project has been featured by Decibel and NOISEY.
Before founding THIEF, Neal established himself as the hammered dulcimer player for BOTANIST, later contributing dulcimer and bass arrangements to the band's acclaimed The Shape of He to Come. Their creative relationship continued with the 2021 split release Cicatrix/Diamond Brush. As THIEF, Neal has released Thieves Hymn in D Minor (2016), Map of Lost Keys (2019), The 16 Deaths of My Master (2021), and Bleed, Memory (2024). Sermons from the Pit marks the project's fifth full-length and its most ambitious and uncompromising work to date.
Equal parts beautiful and brutal, Sermons from the Pit descends into darker, more chaotic territory, exploring fractured love, spiritual collapse, existential dread, and cosmic indifference. Neal describes the album as 'transmissions from an unspeakable place'—a descent beneath the surface of consciousness into the murky strata where belief takes shape.
Musically, Sermons from the Pit pairs THIEF's manipulated liturgical choirs with Neal's self-developed 'Cathedral Clipping' production technique, in which reverberant sounds are repeatedly overdriven through successive gain stages to produce dense harmonic distortion, feedback artifacts, and cavernous textures. The result is THIEF at its most visceral: ethereal choirs, pulverizing rhythms, and towering walls of sound converging into something both deeply intimate and profoundly unsettling.
THIEF Tour Dates
09.03 - Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar
09.04 - Albuquerque, NM @ New Mexico Goth Fest
10.28 - Seattle, WA @ Neumos (Mothica's Halloween Extravaganza)
Sermons from the Pit Track List
1. Violent Bloom
2. Moon and Kill
3. Axe Swung Ritual
4. Mirror Mirror
5. Sun Slasher
6. Year of the Leech
7. Sermons from the Pit
8. Comet Sorcery
9. Poison Drum
10. Anaphora
11. Closing Scene
Photo Credit: Milana Burdette
Photo Credit: Milana Burdette
