Santa Barbara dark rockers Rival Cults release new single and music video »Victoria«; »Our Gods Need Blood« LP out May 22nd on Seeing Red Records!
Santa Barbara, California based dark rockers Rival Cults have released new single and music video »Victoria« taken from their upcoming album, »Our Gods Need Blood«, due out on May 22nd, 2026 via Seeing Red Records.
Filmed and edited by Simona Del Occulto.
Tracklist:
01. Under Flesh
02. Dripping With Divinity
03. Victoria
04. Our Gods Need Blood
05. Specimen
06. Lust
07. Bleed With Me
08. Bleeding Out
09. Last Sunset
10. Roadside Cross
Courtesy of Seeing Red Records:
Santa Barbara dark-rockers Rival Cults return with »Our Gods Need Blood«, a towering new chapter that deepens the band’s signature collision of gothic romanticism, ritual intensity, and riff-driven rock & roll.
Since emerging in 2020, Rival Cults have carved out a distinct space within modern gothic rock, pairing commanding baritone vocals and dual-guitar power with themes of transformation, devotion, and spiritual reckoning. Their 2023 debut Indoctrination established the blueprint – earning praise for blending classic goth atmosphere with muscular rock energy and emotional urgency, while embracing the band’s mission of putting “more rock in our goth.”
Now, »Our Gods Need Blood« pushes that vision further into something darker, grander, and more ceremonial.
Photo by Simona Del Occulto / Mountains Afire
The album’s first single, »Dripping With Divinity«, signaled this evolution with a shadow-soaked hymn that fused looming gothic atmosphere with triumphant, electrifying force. Critics noted the track’s ritualistic intensity and its exploration of surrender, transcendence, and sacred imagery – positioning it as both ecstatic and unsettling, a ceremonial invocation of the band’s next phase.
Where earlier material chronicled personal rebirth, »Our Gods Need Blood« expands outward, confronting the collective rituals we build around love, faith, desire, and mortality. The record channels the electricity of the band’s live performances into a sound that is tighter, heavier, and more immersive – gothic rock not as nostalgia, but as living, breathing ceremony.
With »Our Gods Need Blood«, Rival Cults don’t simply return – they consecrate a new era, inviting listeners to step beyond devotion and into transformation.
Pre-order »Our Gods Need Blood« here:
Bandcamp | EU Shop | US Shop
All music written by Casey Shropshire and Rival Cults.
All lyrics written by Cole Barrington.
Drums were recorded in September 2024 at the Captains Quarters in Ventura, CA.
Vocals and strings recorded by Adi Tejada, winter 2024.
Engineered by Adi Tejada.
Mastered at Audio Siege in Portland, OR.
Art and layout by Cole Barrington & Blue Eyed Horse.
Rival Cults are:
Cole Tyler Barrington – Vocals
Casey Shropshire – Lead Guitar
Adi Tejada – Rhythm Guitar
Cabe Fletcher – Bass
Richard Rhiger – Drums
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well