Photos: HOWELLS to Complete FADE INTO BEING Two-Part Project with Pt. 2

Howells, a Calgary heavy alternative band, will release Fade Into Being Pt. 2 on October 30, 2026, completing a two-part project that extends beyond the music into Sylphae, a neo-gothic world the band is building through interconnected videos, characters, photography and physical artifacts.

Fade Into Being Pt. 1, released April 24, has surpassed 70,000 streams, while the band has been nominated for Rock Recording of the Year at both the 2025 and upcoming 2026 YYC Music Awards. Their independent rise has also brought radio support and coverage from CBC Radio, X92.9, CJSW and college stations across Canada, along with sold-out Calgary headline shows and a devoted community of fans known as The Rose Court.

Blending gothic emo, post-hardcore weight, shoegaze atmosphere and massive hooks, Howells call their sound 'Halocore' — dark and hopeful, sacred and dangerous. Part hymn, part breakdown. Fade Into Being captures the band at full scale: emotionally unguarded, visually ambitious and unconstrained by any single corner of alternative music.

Created with producer Devin Taylor, a five-time Nail The Mix winner, the project moves between atmospheric restraint, melodic immediacy and cathartic heaviness. Along the way, Howells invited several artists from the Canadian alternative community into the fold, including Alberta midwest-emo favorites Astrology Girl on 'Overflow,' Edmonton post-hardcore duo Folded Hand on '8 Fold Fence,' and veteran pop-punk band 90's Winona on '94.' Each collaboration pulls Howells toward a different edge of their sound while preserving the emotional core of the project.

That range has already been previewed through recent singles 'Broken Roses' and '94.' 'Broken Roses' turns grief into gothic, cinematic loneliness, while '94' finds Howells at their most immediate — a pop-punk summer anthem about aging, lost time and wishing life could return to a summer that felt endless.

But as Fade Into Being has unfolded, it has become increasingly clear that the songs are only one piece of what Howells is creating.

The band's connected visual narrative takes place in Sylphae, a neo-gothic world gradually being revealed through its music, videos, photography, characters and physical objects. According to frontman Benjamin Howells, the long-term vision reaches well beyond the current record.

'Broken Roses' offered the first substantial glimpse inside Sylphae, with its cinematic sequences filmed at Calgary's Reader Rock Garden. '94' picks up directly where that video ends and introduces James of 90's Winona as the 'Keeper of the Archive of '94.'

Much of the video was filmed in James' basement, already filled with decades of '80s and '90s memorabilia. What had always been an everyday hangout suddenly became the perfect physical representation of the song's fixation on memory, aging and the past, transforming into the Archive of '94. Even some of the smallest period details came directly from James' personal collection.

'James had so much '90s stuff for us to use. Actually even the shoes we wore during the MTV-style section were his vintage Reebok Pumps. We happened to be the same size and that's what inspired my all white outfit and his all black one,' recalls Howells.

The band took the throwback aesthetic even further by creating a custom VHS marked '94' that functions as a relic within the story. For the MTV-inspired performance sequences, the footage was actually played through a CRT television and filmed directly from the screen rather than recreated with a digital filter, giving the sequence an authentic analog texture.

Despite the larger mythology and careful planning surrounding '94,' Howells says the chemistry captured on camera was much less calculated.

'We followed a few scripted ideas of mine but most of the shoot was just the two of us doing what we always do: hanging out in the basement, watching VHS tapes, and making stuff. I think that familiarity is why so many people have told us the video feels real,' says Howells.

Sylphae has also begun expanding beyond the band's videos. Recent photography shot at Reader Rock Garden uses infrared techniques to transform the location's natural green foliage into pastel pinks, reflecting both the album artwork and the otherworldly atmosphere of the world Howells is creating.

The next chapter will arrive with 'Mea Culpa,' whose forthcoming video is being developed to push the story further, revealing more about Sylphae, its setting and the identities of the people who inhabit it.

With Fade Into Being Pt. 2, the pieces finally come together. What began with Pt. 1 has grown into a fully realized creative universe — a body of music, an evolving visual narrative and a world that Howells is only beginning to reveal.

Fade Into Being Pt. 2 arrives October 30, 2026. Digital pre-order is available now via Bandcamp, where fans can also RSVP for the album listening party. Vinyl and CD pre-order is available here.

Fade Into Being Pt. 2 Track Listing

The Pressure

8 Fold Fence feat. Folded Hand

94 feat. 90's Winona

Overflow feat. Astrology Girl

Door Is Open

Mea Culpa

Dissolve

Broken Roses

Guardians of the Ember Veil

The Pressure (Acoustic)

8 Fold Fence (Acoustic)

94 (Acoustic)

Mea Culpa (Acoustic)

Broken Roses (Acoustic Piano)

Photo Credit: Heather Adam / Haruna Studios