From Las Vegas, Nevada, SpiritWorld announces the upcoming release of its third studio album: “Helldorado”. The follow-up to 2022’s acclaimed “Deathwestern”, “Helldorado” will be released on March 21st, 2025, via Century Media Records.
SpiritWorld founder/frontman Stu Folsom offers these words: “I am thrilled to share that our new album, ‘Helldorado’, will be available everywhere, March 21st. We took most of last year off from playing shows, to hunker down and make this record with Sam Pura at the infamous Panda Studios”.
“Helldorado” is the third chapter in SpiritWorld’s infernal saga. The iconoclastic Folsom has been building the SpiritWorld universe since 2020, beginning with the band’s debut, “Pagan Rhythms”, and blossoming on second album “Deathwestern”, both released on Century Media. Distinct from any other band in the scene, SpiritWorld thrives in its own aesthetic realm, a place where thrashing hardcore, Wild West stylings, and supernatural horror dwell in macabre harmony. Clad in matching Western suits, Folsom and his boys have traveled the world with the likes of tours with Obituary, Municipal Waste, Kreator, Sepultura, Stick To Your Guns, and Agnostic Front. More than a musician, Folsom is an author too, and SpiritWorld’s music goes hand in hand with Folsom’s writings. The first two albums were soundtracks to his book, “Godlessness”, a series of Lovecraftian horror tales set in a fictional Old West.
Now, with “Helldorado”, Folsom will demonstrate that everything thus far was merely the prelude. SpiritWorld is just getting started. “Helldorado” cements the band’s brand, while making new moves that show the breadth of the potential in store.
A 3-minute hellride, opening track “Abilene Grime” begins as a feisty honky-tonk shuffle then transforms into a Slayer-strength fist-pumper that thrashes straight into the abyss. The official “Abilene Grime” music video brings the song to life with cinematic grandeur, depicting a doomed preacher’s descent into the underworld.
“When I wrote the demo for ‘Abilene Grime’, it felt like the album really found its identity and materialized out of the ether”, says Folsom. “It twangs, it bangs and it has a sick video, directed by our dear friend Todd Hailstone, which we filmed in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. Enjoy, everybody”!
Watch the official music video for “Abilene Grime” below.
Across the album’s ten tracks, SpiritWorld indulges in metallic hardcore blitzes, world-weary country-punk stomps, and even a wistful, finger-picked lament. Folsom explains the diversity of the music: “This record, more so than the last two, I think you hear way more fearlessness and confidence in the choices. Things that were showing up as interludes have manifested into fully fleshed out pieces. At its heart, ‘Helldorado’ is a punishing, unrelenting masterclass in crossover and hardcore thrash. But in a scene where every riff has been played before and every great band has thirty contemporary acolytes mining their catalog and doing worship albums, there is something in the strangeness of ‘Helldorado’ that makes it endearing”.
Guests on the album include Sgah’gahsowáh (Black Braid), Zach Blair (Rise Against), and Frederic Leclercq (Kreator).
Folsom continues: “Maybe it is a risk to incorporate things that will be pretty far out there for the casual punk or metalhead, but having the opportunity to make a record comes with a responsibility to me. I dreamed of making records for so long. Way before I could play guitar or do any of the practical things you need to be able to do. I take it very seriously to follow my gut and let my style hang out on these records. I only want to do things in life that I am all in on. If that makes me an outcast or even more fringe than your average underground music act then that’s okay. The stench of being genuine is beautiful”.
Lyrically, “Helldorado” explores new territory as well. While SpiritWorld’s first two albums were companion pieces to Folsom’s book, “Godlessness”, “Helldorado” moves beyond that book’s pages, to tell the story of what happens next. “‘Godlessness’ leaves off in a cliffhanger where all the surviving characters have managed to arrive at a villa in Mexico near where a rumored gateway to hell is said to exist”, says Folsom. “‘Helldorado’ is the first glimpse that fans will get into some of what is unfolding in the next novel that I am working on, that tells the story of what happens with these characters and the gates of hell”.
Pre-order & pre-save “Helldorado” here.
Tracklist:
1. Abilene Grime
2. No Vacancy in Heaven
3. Western Stars & The Apocalypse
4. Bird Song of Death
5. Prayer Lips
6. Waiting on the Reaper
7. Oblivion
8. Cleansing
9. Stigmata Scars
10. Annihilism
“Helldorado” credits:
• All music and lyrics written by Stu Folsom
• Engineered and mixed by Sam Pura
• Mastered by Alberto de Icaza
• Additional engineering by Stu Folsom and Theresa Brown
• Cover art by James Bousema
• Layout and design by Stu Folsom
• Band photo by Jasmine Garcia
Line-up:
Stu Folsom – Vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, back ups, MIDI drums, sampling, synths, percussion
Preston Harper – Drums
Nick Brundy – Backing vocals
Matt Schrum – Backing vocals
Randy Moore – Lead guitar
RJ Demarco – Saxophone, acoustic guitar
Jerico Horca – Organ, keyboard
Sam Pura – Bass, backing vocals
Theresa Brown – Backing vocals
Sgah’gahsowáh – Vocals on “Oblivion”
Zach Blair – Electric guitar solo on “Oblivion”
Frederic Leclercq – Electric guitar solo on “Stigmata Scars”
Weblinks:
www.spiritworldprophet.com
www.facebook.com/spiritworldprophet
