Photo by Vika Brennik

“hypnagogia” is defined as the transitional period between the sleeping state and full lucidity. In warmachine’s battle between being submerged beneath the unconscious and waking up with eyes wide open, there’s an intentional desire to feel everything deeply at the epicenter of it all with the trio’s experimental noise-gaze sound as their pathway to get there.

See-sawing between these two phases of consciousness, the listen deluges you through waves of heavy white, corrosive feedback, a lightweight temporal, clear bliss, and a violent ripcord pulling you into each end. “My favorite songs are the ones with truth,” vocalist Lex lullabies when the screams aren’t tearing through the inner head. Whether it pushes you deeper into a drowse vortex or throttle you into the terrifying, you could argue that honest can be found in both.

It’s been a rather prolific year for the rising Boston DIY scene stalwarts (add their EP, soulmurder, and the recently blistered live release, pissmas 2025, to your list of catch-ups before the year ends to acquaint yourself with them if you haven’t already…) yet their latest single and an early preview from their forthcoming 2026 album, HellPhone 3D, for cassette label Candlepin Records and the next wave shoegaze hotbed of Julia’s War doubles as formal introduction as to what the caverns of warmachine’s collective creative psyches possess.

warmachine’s “hypnagogia” single is available now.