HIMALAYAS announce new album, Bad Star

Fresh from their UK tour with Kids In Glass Houses at the end of last year, Welsh rockers HIMALAYAS have kicked off 2025 with the announcement of their second album Bad Star, due on April 25.

The announcement comes with the release of brand new track, the brooding Afterlife. It deals, they say, with the idea of living in the now and not getting lost in endlessly wishing for what might be round the corner.

“Everyone prays for something better, or thinks there’s something better coming once you get past the right now," says frontman Joe Williams. "I wanted to explore the idea that maybe there won't be something better than what we have currently and embracing that.”

These sorts of topics are a thread throughout the album, produced by Pete Hutchings (Royal Blood, Nothing But Thieves, Skindred). At the same time, it finds the band expanding their sound into something even bigger and more widescreen.

“The themes are based upon the disaster of men and the fact that we create our own problems a lot of the time,” says Joe. “Disaster happens, and that comes through in every facet of the album, whether that's a positive thing or negative thing.”

“We didn't go into writing it thinking we’d say this, but it turned out, everything's fucked,” adds guitarist Mike Griffiths. “That's how all the songs ended up going: Everything's fucked.”

The band wanted this reflected in the artwork, too.

"We wanted to create a sense of disaster and beauty and detail with every new viewing," says Joe. "We wanted to show a contrast of beauty and stillness to disaster and destruction. We spoke with Jen at jsl7.studio for a while about influences and inspirations like the Terra Cotta army, the casts of Pompeii and both Italian and Greek statues. I really wanted to portray the power and might of disaster and the contrast of stillness against that, which is something that I believe Jen has delivered in abundance.”

Bad Star tracklisting

1. Beneath The Barrel
2. Hung Up
3. Cave Paintings
4. What If…?
5. Heavy Weather
6. Surrender
7. Nothing Higher
8. Afterlife
9. Twisted Reflections
10. A Brand New God

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