Perturbator – the Paris-based composer, producer & multi-instrumentalist James Kent – today announced his new studio album “Age of Aquarius”, his debut for renowned metal label Nuclear Blast Records, will be released on October 10th, 2025.
The album’s new single “Apocalypse Now”, a visceral, dance-ready anthem featuring lead vocals by Norwegian metal titan Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver), is out now alongside a fittingly epic video directed by David Fitt. Punitive kick drums and blasting synths live up to the song title, as Rygg’s chant feels applicable to being alive at any given moment (“Apocalypse now! / There is blood on the ground / We’ve got bullets for everyone”). “‘Apocalypse Now’ is a song about the systematic destruction we cause to our own kind. It is our inability to get along with–and often vilify–‘the others’. Thus accelerating the end of our ways of life through simple hubris and self validation”, Kent explains.
Director Fitt says of the video: “The lyrics of ‘Apocalypse Now’ have made me wonder: what would the last war look like? A coup? A war of all against all? A nuclear war? Maybe. Could be. But I realized that what I would love to do, to watch, to happen, is a war of world leaders against themselves. The war they all dream of, but are too cowardly to fight themselves. This would be the ultimate war, in my opinion. And that’s what I aimed to show. And then we’re left wondering: what would be next? What if women took charge? Would power consume them too, eventually? Are we doomed as a species? That’s what I wonder and want people to wonder with me”.
“Apocalypse Now” follows the album’s powerful recent single “The Art of War”. Later this year, Perturbator will embark on a headlining tour of the UK and Europe – which sees him playing his biggest venues to date – including London, UK’s 02 Kentish Town Forum and two nights at Paris’ La Bataclan; a full itinerary is listed below and tickets are on-sale now here.
Watch the official video for “Apocalypse Now” below.
On “Age of Aquarius”, Perturbator offers up a more propulsive spin on his moody early work, showcasing his most confident, plainly beautiful, and thematically refined music to date. Where his previous album, 2021’s “Lustful Sacraments”, was about bad habits and addiction, his sixth LP – also featuring Alcest, Author & Punisher and Greta Link – explores how individualism, conflict, and war are interrelated and dominant societal forces. Both brutal and sublime, “Age of Aquarius” feels like the musical equivalent of a scream into the existential void!
“The first half of ‘Age of Aquarius’ is all about conflict. The misanthropy and violence that lays in all of us”, explains Kent. “The second part of the album then talks about individualism. The understanding that group-thinking leads to nowhere and having your own free will is the single most essential thing we have in life”.
Perturbator’s ballistic, militaristic sound dovetails with his thematic focus on human aggression, which manifests itself throughout “Age of Aquarius”. “We have this climate nowadays of people getting divided over everything”, Kent says. “Every debate is two-sided, very extreme, very warlike, and people are very into group thinking: ‘There’s this side of the conflict, and there’s this side of the conflict, and if you’re not on my side, you’re wrong’”. Bleak and blunt, yes, but expectedly so from an album that starts with “Apocalypse Now”, introducing “Age of Aquarius” themes in just the right way: When have we, as a species, not been defined by conflict, violent and otherwise, arising from individualism?
Kent intentionally chooses very evocative song titles since most of his tracks lack lyrics and primarily convey mood through instrumentals. “I like to think of every album as a movie”, he says. “The tracks are all scenes from that one big movie”. The most brutal scene, then, is “The Art of War”, which ranks among Kent’s hardest-hitting songs; its vivid, forceful production attests to the two and a half years he spent tirelessly mastering and elevating his signature style (he wrote, recorded, performed, produced, and mixed the record himself, minus the guest vocals and lyrics). The track embodies the very sound of going into battle, and it could well be the album’s thesis. “It’s more of war as an idea than a concrete event”, Kent says about the LP’s subject matter. It’s no surprise his distinct style of electronic body music (EBM)–built on a DNA of post-punk, goth, and techno influences–has widely appealed to fans of new wave, industrial, and metal alike (his recent collaborators and tourmates Health are an apt comparison).
We might always be in conflict as a species – with others and ourselves – but with “Age of Aquarius”, Kent provides its fantastic score.
Pre-order & pre-save “Age of Aquarius” here.
Tracklist:
01. Apocalypse Now (feat. Ulver)
02. Lunacy
03. Venus (feat. Author & Punisher)
04. The Glass Staircase
05. Hangover Square
06. The Art of War
07. 12th House
08. Lady Moon (feat. Greta Link)
09. The Swimming Pool
10. Mors Ultima Ratio
12. Age of Aquarius (feat. Alcest)
European & UK Tour Dates 2025:
05.11 – FR, Nantes – Sterelux
06.11 – FR, Lille – Aeronef
07.11 – UK, London – O2 Forum Kentish Town
08.11 – UK, Manchester – Damnation Festival
11.11 – AT, Vienna – Arena
12.11 – HU, Budapest – Dürer Kert
13.11 – CZ, Prague – SaSaZu
14.11 – DE, Berlin – Huxleys
17.11 – LT, Vilnius – Loftas
19.11 – FI, Helsinki – Kulttuuritalo
21.11 – SE, Stockholm – Fallan
22.11 – DK, Copenhagen – The Grey Hall
23.11 – NO, Oslo – Rockefeller
25.11 – DE, Hamburg – Gruenspan
26.11 – NL, Nijmegen – Doornroosje
27.11 – BE, Brussels – Ancienne Belgique
28.11 – DE, Cologne – Live Music Hall
29.11 – FR, Meisenthal – La Boite Noire
01.12 – DE, Munich – Muffathalle
02.12 – SO, Ljubljana – Kino Šiška
03.12 – IT, Milan – Live Club
04.12 – CH, Lausanne – Les Docks
05.12 – FR, Paris – Le Bataclan
06.12 – FR, Paris – Le Bataclan
Tickets for all dates are on sale now here.
Weblinks:
perturbator.com
www.facebook.com/Perturbator
