The Band
For three decades, The Wildhearts have remained at the forefront of the UK rock scene; through incendiary, festival-topping live shows and fast-lane frolics, they have cemented their reputation as one of the finest, most prolific, most notorious outfit’s their homeland has produced – and now they’re back with a brand new studio album, their first for Snakefarm!
Titled ‘Satanic Rites of The Wildhearts’ and produced / mixed by Jim Pinder and Carl Bown (Sleep Token / Bullet For My Valentine / While She Sleeps), the record is conceived – musically, visually and in terms of spirit and intent – as a belated 10-track follow-up to their classic debut, ‘Earth vs The Wildhearts’ (1993).
As always, the song-writing of main-man Ginger is signature, ambitious and not specific to genre; what he serves up here are numbers of defiance and hope, of ragged glory, of true heart-on-sleeve emotion – numbers that sound like no-one else on this planet (or the explored parts of space).
Lead single / video, ‘Failure Is The Mother Of Success’, kicked things off late last year with a spectacular eight minute lap taking in all manner of twists an’ turns, and the message of the song is plain, forged through sharp-end experience i.e. it’s never too late to make a change and take a different fork in the road…
Ginger: “‘Failure…’ is about getting back on your feet after things have gone wrong. There’s an old saying, ‘fall down three times, get up four’. It’s about feeling like you’re worth getting back up for, and that making mistakes is just an essential part of life, everyone does it.
“It’s also a really good taster for the album as a whole, and has everything any Wildhearts fan could want!”
The follow-up, ‘Troubadour Moon’, packs a more concise melodic punch, and comes complete with a video wall-to-wall with references to the early history of the band – some easy to spot, some highly obscure and some relating to Ginger’s well-documented love of underground horror, especially the works of Giallo director, Lucio Fulci.
The song is inspired by the dying art of the ‘troubadour’, someone driven to pursue a dream by the sheer love of music, and it’s already getting a strong reaction from fans and UK radio alike…
Ginger: “I was reading an interview with a well-known musician recently, and he was talking about this, how there aren’t any ‘troubadour’s anymore; I thought it was an interesting observation, so I’ve addressed it here, along with the idea of being yourself and not being swayed by trend or fashion, by the latest thing. If you allow that to happen, there’s the danger that you’ll always be one step behind or in someone else’s shadow…”
On the new album as a whole, Ginger comments…
“The songs on ‘Satanic Rites…’ were written during a period of transition, from extremely negative to positive. I realised how much control I have over my mental health, and the songs came from that understanding. There’s everything here – catchy choruses, proper fuck-off riffs, anger, frustration, acceptance and revelation, with plenty of insane detours. The album starts pessimistic then ends up like ‘Ah, so I CAN turn my life around?’ It’s a hard rock album for people who love hard rock!”
‘Satanic Rites…’ – a title inspired by Ginger’s love of ’70’s Hammer movie, ‘The Satanic Rites of Dracula’ – is the band’s 11th studio album to date, and was released worldwide on March 7th 2025, preceded by a third / single video, ‘I’ll Be Your Monster’ – a glam rock stomper featuring Shining / Emperor member Jørgen Munkeby on guest saxophone.
“It’s about being the villain for a narcissist,” explains Ginger. “Like, ‘yeah, whatever, I’ll be your bogeyman, no problem’. And Jørgen’s playing on the track is sensational – reminds me of Roy Wood!”