Post-rock duo FIRST DRAFT announce a new album and unveil a hard-hitting, committed first single “Paralysis Kingdom”.
Post-rock/post-hardcore project FIRST DRAFT announce the release of their new album “An Instant Before the Promise of Dawn” on October 10, 2025 via Vlad. The duo return with a strong, rebellious opus that is also poetic and touching. New Noise magazine presents the exclusive first single “Paralysis Kingdom”.
FIRST DRAFT are a balancing act, navigating between technique and emotion in a constant quest for sound. The drummer-singer guides the curious soul through the melodic layers of the bass. A multitude of notes and modulations resonate in this temple of catharsis. Melody meets rage, serenity meets determination.
Straddling the line between post-rock and post-hardcore, the band's new album “An Instant Before the Promise of Dawn” gives pride of place to their shared reflections on society. Starting with a damning observation, FIRST DRAFT calls for unity and struggle. Like the first single “Paralysis” Kingdom”, which rages against sexist and sexual violence, the album is indignant against inequality in the broadest sense, violence and fascism.
Commenting on the video “Paralysis Kingdom”, Marine Arnoult (vocals, drums) says: “Sexist and sexual violence is omnipresent but invisible, serious but unpunished, mediatized but trivialized. In writing the lyrics for Paralysis Kingdom, I felt the need to shout out my rage at the number and diversity of male violence that I have experienced, and that most women and gender minorities experience on a daily basis. My rage at seeing ourselves angry at ourselves for having been in a state of shock, my rage at hearing how we should have behaved or how our attacker is basically a good person. I see this track as a rallying cry to fight this violence, to change the guilt-tripping and allow us to finally feel free of our movements and our thoughts.”
FIRST DRAFT's new album “An Instant Before the Promise of Dawn” arrives on vinyl, CD, streaming and download via Vlad Productions on October 10, 2025. It was recorded and mixed by Benoît Roux at Drudenhaus studio in Issé and mastered by Mika Jussila at Finnvox studio in Helsinki, Finland. Artwork by Lohengrin Papadato.
Next dates:
07.06.2025 EVREUX (France) - Festival CSALP
07.21.2025 ARGENTON-SUR-CREUSE (France) - Festival Les Intemporel-les
07.31.2025 NANTES (France) - Le Ferrailleur
Formed in Tours in 2016, bass/drums duo FIRST DRAFT surprise with their deft handling of intensities and textures. From the atmospheric tracks of post-rock to the liberating eruptions of post-hardcore, the Tourangeaux deploy a palette of raw, gripping emotions. The bassist alone creates an imposing edifice of sound, within which harmonies are subtly sculpted and multiplied. The drummer's clear, magnetic voice acts as a clear-sighted guide. Between them, they transform their feelings of stupefaction and powerlessness in the face of the many challenges of the modern world, into the strength needed to unite and fight collectively. Following in the footsteps of artists such as Brutus, Cult of Luna and Emma Ruth Rundle, the band aims to sublimate this profound desire for social change.
After the release of a debut album entitled “Irony & Smiles” in October 2018, FIRST DRAFT is really starting to dig its groove with the EP “Declines Are Long Gone”. Released in February 2022 by LyloProd, it offers a poetic and painful assessment of contemporary times in which paradox and profound humanity are inscribed. The album quickly propelled the duo to the forefront of new opportunities.
FIRST DRAFT takes part in key festivals such as Terres du Son, Bars En Trans and Printemps de Bourges, and tours Europe. Unsurprisingly, it's on stage that the project really comes into its own. The apparent complexity of the technical and technological experience gives way to the authenticity of the stage performance. “A performance as striking as it is memorable”, according to Rolling Stone Magazine.
Each track on FIRST DRAFT's new album delivers a fragment of life suspended before the changeover to a more desirable future, and within which impatience bubbles up.
Credit :
Band photo by Judith Lapara.
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