John Carpenter and longtime band mates Cody Carpenter (synths) and Daniel Davies (guitar) will share on June 30 a second track from Cathedral paired with an accompanying visualizer – both from the forthcoming project that marks Carpenter’s highly anticipated return to the realm of audio/visual narrative storytelling. Cathedral spans a new album set for release August 7 on Sacred Bones Records alongside his first ever graphic novel, set for release August 4 via Storm King Comics.
Cathedral functions as both soundtrack and narrative engine: each track aligns with a chapter of the graphic novel, with liner notes guiding listeners through the story. As a result the story unfurls like a film and is the closest approximation to a new movie from Carpenter since 2010. “It was so cinematic and vivid,” Carpenter says of the dream that inspired the story. “I thought, ‘I have to score this.’ It’s kind of our first heavy metal album.”
In a story rich with River Styx iconography, “The Ferryman” scores a scene in which we encounter the subterranean character of the same name. “I like that one because it really seems to feature all three of us in a special way,” Daniel Davies says. “It has interesting harmonies that Cody put together and John’s signature pad-style string parts. It’s more of an electronic metal track in a way, but we just wanted to make it as heavy and driving as possible.”
Following “Lord of The Underground,” they will share the dramatic track “The Ferryman” June 30 alongside a visualizer rendered from previously unreleased imagery from the graphic novel.
PRE-SAVE “THE FERRYMAN”
https://johncarpenter.lnk.to/TheFerryman
WATCH “THE FERRYMAN” VISUALIZER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irLqUpIfHmA
PRE-ORDER / PRE-SAVE CATHEDRAL SOUNDTRACK
https://johncarpenter.lnk.to/Cathedral
PRE-ORDER CATHEDRAL GRAPHIC NOVEL
https://johncarpenterscathedral.com/
STREAM / WATCH VISUAL FOR “LORD OF THE UNDERGROUND”
https://johncarpenter.lnk.to/LordoftheUnderground
Inspired by a vividly cinematic dream he had in 2024, the Cathedral storyline centers on an abandoned church in downtown Los Angeles that becomes the site of a waking nightmare. After the killing of a police officer draws attention to the long-ignored cathedral, Lieutenant Christine Marks and detectives Paul Hernandez and Steve Mayfield are pulled into an investigation that leads them deep into its catacombs and toward a centuries-old evil imprisoned within. “The story informed everything,” says longtime musical collaborator Daniel Davies of the album. “John would describe a scene and say, ‘We need a heavy riff here.’ We didn’t set out to make a metal record, but it evolved that way.”
Whereas the Lost Themes albums were written as scores to movies of the mind, Cathedral scores the first original graphic novel written by Carpenter, in collaboration with his wife and long-time creative partner, producer and editor Sandy King, and writer Sean Sobczak, fleshed out by illustrators Federico De Luca and Luis Guaragna, colored by Sian Mandrake, and lettered by Marshall Dillon. Fans can get a first peek of its look via the visualizer for “Lord Of The Underground” out today and its first chapter as featured in John Carpenter’s anthology Tales For A HalloweeNight Vol 11.
While the Cathedral album was crafted to be listened to as one reads the graphic novel, it was important to Carpenter that the music stand on its own. “That’s first and foremost,” the director says. “It’s all about making the music work. This is somewhat different sounding stuff that we’ve done, but it’s done with the same desire in mind,” he adds. “In other words, put this thing on and imagine you’re watching a movie. That’s what we want you to do.”
With Cathedral, Carpenter extends his world-building into a tightly wound, cross-medium experience; part score, part story, and unmistakably his own.
