Leila Abdul-Rauf (Cardinal Wyrm, Vastum, ex-Hammers Of Misfortune) released sixth solo album »Andros Insidium«; out now via 20 Buck Spin!
Oakland, California based multi-instrumentalist Leila Abdul-Rauf (Cardinal Wyrm, Vastum, ex-Hammers Of Misfortune) presents her sixth solo album, »Andros Insidium«, which was released on April 17th, 2026 via 20 Buck Spin.
Tracklist:
01. Descent Into Kur
02. Stripped Before The Eye Of Death
03. Eros Anima
04. Senex Rule
05. Fractured Body
06. Andros Insidium
07. A Requiem For Ishtar
08. Return To Anu
Courtesy of Earsplit PR:
“…this is an angry album. It’s teeming with a rage that has been building in me over decades. There is also vulnerability, grief, awe, and the perpetual back-and-forth between hope and hopelessness…” – Leila Abdul-Rauf
Oakland, California-based multi-instrumentalist Leila Abdul-Rauf presents her intense sixth solo LP, »Andros Insidium«, now streaming in its gripping entirety, on the verge of its release on 20 Buck Spin.
Through her work across five Vastum albums, Leila Abdul-Rauf has been a sonorous contributor to 20 Buck Spin’s discography for more than 15 years now. Concurrent to that she’s also amassed an impressive body of solo work whereby she could showcase the full range of her multi-instrumental artistic and vocal talents. We now bring that part of Leila’s output to 20 Buck Spin showcasing her darkest and most confrontational material to date with new album »Andros Insidium«.
Photos by Samuel Foster
On »Andros Insidium« Leila draws us into a ceremonial descent, through the architecture of shadow itself. Unfolding like a ritual text etched in obsidian, each movement traces the violent and sacred geometry of transformation. The presence and wisdom of the feminine divine looms throughout, as an ancient and uncompromising force, in conflict with everything buried, exiled and made monstrous by the machinery of societal pressures and unrealistic expectations. The album delves deep into the dark vastness of the psyche of woman: wild, ugly, vulnerable and powerful.
Sonically »Andros Insidium« is a mutation of the cinematic dark-ambient, industrial and ritual folk expressed in prior releases, now sharpened into something far darker, more narrative and intimate. Leila’s vocal work becomes a new focus with a wider variety of styles and characters, exorcising the demons of patriarchal fragmentation and revenge fantasy as lived myth. In its most potent moments, »Andros Insidium« suggests that wholeness is not purity or light, but the terrifying act of reclaiming everything that was discarded, and learning to speak with its voice.
Composed, recorded, and performed by Leila Abdul-Rauf, »Andros Insidium« features guest contributions from Samuel Foster (ex-Saros, ex-Weakling), Kienan Hamilton (Cartilage, False Figure), Gregory C. Hagan (ex-Common Eider, King Eider, ex-Thomas Carnacki), and Drew Zercoe (Field Of Fear), adding to the album’s intense sound. »Andros Insidium« was mixed and mastered by Greg Wilkinson at Earhammer Studios (High On Fire, Autopsy, Vastum), with cover art by Justyna Koziczak, layout by Chimere Noire, photography by Samuel Foster, and calligraphy by Gregory C. Hagan.
The first preview of »Andros Insidium« arrived in the form of a captivating and haunting video for its title track, a Tritonia Films production, directed and produced by Marcelle Marais.
Abdul-Rauf reveals, “Conceptually, the title track is a revenge fantasy of a survivor against their abuser through castration and sodomy, which in this particular story, is enacted by a vengeful goddess. It speaks to the rage-filled fantasy the individual has against an attacker as well as the collective rage caused by systemic abuse through sexual, political, relational, emotional control. The goddess’s acts of revenge symbolize a reckoning against patriarchal harm and an imagined dawning of a new age where feminine power and wisdom are restored – violent and unapologetic. Marcelle Marais and Co. of Tritonia Films created the video and did an incredible job, truly capturing the raw emotions of the song with scenes that are cinematically gorgeous and disturbing.”
About the second single, »Eros Anima«, she says, “Much of the album conceptually is inspired by the Sumerian myth of Inanna and Ereshkegal. The lyrics for this song describe the incestuous dance of the two goddesses in the underworld, free to roam in the darkness and explore their innermost desires away from the gaze of male dominance. Kienan Hamilton’s lute performances and Sam Foster’s percussion and bell contributions took the song to another level. It’s the most cinematically epic track on the album and one of my personal faves.”
Abdul-Rauf on the new album, “»Andros Insidium« delves into the deep, dark vastness of the psyche of woman: wild, ugly, vulnerable and powerful. Conceptually, the album is an invocation of the feminine divine and wisdom, metaphorically expressed through the Sumerian myth of the goddess Inanna-Ishtar, and her journey to and from the underworld, where she confronts and is murdered by the goddess Ereshkegal, and then resurrected. Largely inspired by Jungian psychoanalyst Silvia Perera’s book »Descent To The Goddess«; It’s a calling long overdue for the restoration of feminine power and wholeness, fragmented and decimated by patriarchal systems. From a personal standpoint, this is the album I’ve always wanted to make, but for the longest time was afraid to – afraid of further marginalization and ostracization from communities that never understood or accepted the full range of my creative expression or the emotions behind it, but those fears are long gone. In lots of ways, this is an angry album. It’s teeming with a rage that has been building in me over decades. There is also vulnerability, grief, awe, and the perpetual back-and-forth between hope and hopelessness…”
»Andros Insidium« is released on LP, CD, and digital formats on April 17th. Orders have been posted at the 20 Buck Spin webshop HERE and Bandcamp HERE.
Fans of Dead Can Dance, Diamanda Galas, Arcana, Amber Asylum, Jarboe/Swans, and Chelsea Wolfe, make Leila Abdul-Rauf’s »Andros Insidium« a priority album to hear.
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well