The Swedish metal act, CURSE OF CAIN, are not pulling punches when it comes to crafting a wild band mythology. I chanced to come across their new single “Tik Tok (Darkness)” on some streaming platform and wanted to check out their website for more information about the band and this is what I found, “CURSE OF CAIN is more than a band – it’s an immersive, cinematic universe built around a haunting, futuristic saga. This is […] not just music, but a full-blown sonic and visual experience that pulls you straight into a dystopian world where darkness rules and hope is a rare commodity.” Okay, then. By the looks of it, these metal rogues have adopted a somewhat COHEED AND CAMBRIA-like approach to writing music. From what I could gather, their eponymous debut album from 2023 was a conceptual, post-apocalyptic affair clad in modern metal clothing, laced with all sorts of attributes from nu-metal and metalcore to Gothic and symphonic. The conceptual approach doesn’t stop at the album – these musicians perform live with masks and their real identity is hidden behind a character that seems to be lifted from the debut’s overarching narrative – “antiheroes from this broken future,” as their website puts it. In a true RPG fashion, these characters also have abilities and weaknesses, which seem to have been attributed to them not entirely without humor; vocalist has a big mouth as a weakness, guitarist is highly impatient but controls time, and so forth. I would have assigned the drummer with the time control ability, though. At first, it seemed as if the band had come out of nowhere without a warning, but then I read that this project has been brewing in the shadows for up to two decades already. Listening to the new single, it makes sense. The songcraft and production are just as flawless as you would expect from some high-profile, cinematic metal act. The band has also been signed to Reigning Phoenix Music, which might suggest that some of the band’s mystery members are better known from some bigger, more established bands.
So, about the song, “Tik Tok (Darkness),” then… Released just a week ago, on July 1st, 2025, it truly is a highly cinematic affair. Compared to the band’s debut, which mixed different metal elements quite liberally, this new song has very little to do with metal, actually. This new single comes off more like a piece of trailer music to a film rather than a 3-minute metal banger. It’s all about synth textures, cinematic strings and percussion, and heavily processed vocals. In a way, it’s not even a song but rather an intro, which is why I reckon it will work wonders as the opener for the band’s future shows. I was drawn to the song’s dystopian atmosphere, and it made me curious enough to visit their website, so I guess it did what it was supposed to do. Now, I’m still figuring out their debut, so I cannot yet say anything clever about it, but judging by this one song, this band sure made an intriguing first impression. Their website even goes so far as to claim that the band’s live shows are something unforgettable with custom visuals, powerful storytelling, and crushing performance. I don’t know, I almost feel compelled to take that as a promise.
Written by Jani Lehtinen
