Goth legends Rosetta Stone’s latest album Executing Nostalgia drops on September 25, 10 new recordings that confirm the band’s long-standing status among the greatest goth groups of all time.
Ahead of that, however, their latest single turns back the years to revisit the first wave of goth, back in the 1980s, and a startling cover of X-Mal Deutschland’s “Incubus Succubus” - described by guest vocalist Thunder Bae as “like stepping into a pagan sabbat for a few minutes, embracing temptation, darkness and the parts of yourself you’re usually taught to keep under control.”
She continues, “At first I was intimidated by how unapologetically goth the song is, but the deeper I got into it, the more freedom I found in performing it. I had just finished my debut album A WOMAN, which deals so much with desire, temptation and womanhood. So there was this unexpected connection that made me feel very drawn to the song and excited to become part of its world. Plus i feel such a punk goth energy that i felt very inspired by the song and the process itself.”
SINGLE: https://orcd.co/rosettastonethunderbae_incubussuccubus
“Incubus Succubus” is one of five covers included on Executing Nostalgia, as Stone mailman Porl King explains. “The idea of the album was to revisit the proto-goth sounds through a number of cover versions of the time - the hope being that they would influence the tracks I recorded of my own. I tried to keep a mindset - based on what those early tracks mean to me - but not just those . [There were] many other tracks from that time that I had been listening to prior to recording.”
Interestingly, King admits that the covers - “Incubus Succubus” is joined by “Pagan Love Song” (the Virgin Prunes), “Talk About The Weather” (Red Lorry Yellow Lorry), “Alone” (Colin Newman) and “Moya” (Southern Death Cult) - were “not necessarily ones I’d have chosen.” Rather, all were suggested by Cleopatra Records, after King outlined his plans for the album.
Thunder Bae, too, was recommended to him by the label, after King raised concerns about doing voicing “Incubus Succubus” himself. And while she, too, admits “When I first heard the track, I genuinely thought, ‘How am I going to sing this?’” King declares,“I was really impressed with her energy and tone - I think she made the track come to life. Far far better than anything I could have done.”
“It’s such a full-on goth anthem and pretty far outside the universe of my own music,” says Bae. “But that ended up being exactly what made it so much fun.”
Executing Nostalgia is Rosetta Stone’s fourth album in little over two years, a poised and perfect successor to Under The Weather (2024), the covers collection Nothing Is Sacred (2025) and the same year’s Dose Makes The Poison. “I seem to go through surges,” says King. “I’ve gone years writing very little - then other times really finding my momentum, I also have a real sense of what interests me musically - something which has eluded me in the past.”
As for the album’s foreboding title, King explains, “‘Execute’ means to implement, but its meaning [has] broadened in the usage ‘executioner,’ which we tend to relate to killing. I found this an interesting wordplay.”
It's an appropriate one as well. Executing Nostalgia not only delves deep into your consciousness, but it also reawakens it, a vibrant minor key clarion call to cut through the endless discordant saxophone solo that so much of modern life now resembles.
“Usually my songs are quite lyrically intense,” says King. “This time around, I decided to simplify the process and just concentrate mainly on creating repetitive vocal sections. I also wanted ‘one word/phrase’ choruses, something that again relates to early post-punk.”
In other words… nostalgia has been well and truly executed!
CD/VINYL/CASS: https://cleorecs.com/search?q=rosetta+stone+executing+nostalgia
DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/rosettastone_executingnostalgia
Track listing
1. Shadowban
2. Someone
3. Regression
4. Negative
5. Rejection
6. Incubus Succubus
7. Pagan Love Song
8. Alone
9. Moya
10. Talk About The Weather
