Introducing: Black Rain

In an era where polish often trumps passion, Black Rain arrive like a thunderclap—raw, unfiltered, and defiantly out of step. Hailing from the North East of England, the post-punk outsiders are ready to unleash their long-awaited, self-titled debut album on July 14th: a brutal, beautiful collision of ghostly atmospherics and razor-edged rage.

Equal parts live-wire intensity and industrial haunt, Black Rain isn’t just a record—it’s a reckoning. Five studio cuts and four unrelenting live recordings channel the grit of their homeland and the fury of a world on edge. With a sound forged in isolation, anger, and unrelenting honesty, Black Rain don't want to fit in—they want to burn it all down.

We caught up with the band ahead of their album release to talk outsider anthems, brutal beauty, and why post-punk still hits hardest in the dark.

1. Your sound has been described as “too Goth to be Punk, too Punk to be Goth.” How does that tension shape your identity as a band—and how intentional is that outsider positioning?

The creation of our ’sound’ was very much a happy accident that came from figuring out what we were about as individual musicians and a band in our early rehearsals. As time has gone on and we have developed our songwriting it’s certainly something we consider, as first and foremost it’s a style of music we all enjoy playing. The mantra itself came from a review of one of our early gigs, and we felt it captured what we are about far more concisely than we have ever managed to. We’ve come to really embrace the idea that we don’t fit in to one particular musical pigeon hole and in fact it’s something we wear with pride – an unintended consequence of this is that we get asked to play with lots of different bands from all sorts of dark genres which has been really interesting.

2. The album blends both studio recordings and raw live performances. What was the thinking behind that decision, and how do those two formats reflect different sides of Black Rain?

We initially agreed to put 5 studio recordings out as an EP, and we found it really hard to narrow down which songs we wanted to record as our sound can swing dramatically between ‘gothy’ and ‘punky’ song to song. We had agreed on the tracks we wanted to take into the studio, and the live recordings then came into play thanks to Phil Jackson at The Bunker in Sunderland. As well as producing the album, Phil recorded a gig we played there earlier in the year, and completely nailed the sound on the live recordings. We felt that adding them to the album allows us to showcase our live sound, and a few more songs! We work really hard on our live sound and, if anything, wanted the studio recording to reflect how we sound live, rather than the other way around.

3. There’s a clear connection in your music to the North East’s industrial past. How does your environment influence the themes and textures in your sound?

Our music and lyrics definitely centre on real life experiences and emotions, so it feels that a natural outcome of this is that it is reflective of the environment it’s created in. We’re not into hypothetical or fictional songwriting as it’s very difficult to be passionate about something you don’t know or believe in. There is also an overhanging idea of personal decline/life not going how we intended that also speaks to the industrial past of the north east. There are some really neglected and deprived areas local to us that have never recovered from being abandoned decades ago.

4. Post-punk has seen a resurgence in recent years, often in slick or retro packaging. Your sound feels deliberately raw and emotionally intense—what are you pushing back against in today’s musical landscape?

Honestly, we do what we do with our hearts on our sleeves – what you see is what you get. We’re here because we love playing the music we make, and the fact other people enjoy our sound and are happy to support us isn’t by design at all, although it’s something we’re continuously grateful for. We’ve all been in bands/groups for a lot of years and all agree that it’s most enjoyable when you can be yourself. To that end I wouldn’t say we’re pushing back against anything, more doing it our way because we aren’t interested in doing anything else. If other people want to go another way about it to polish their ego, then power to them, but it’s not for us. 

5. With only a few live dates announced, including the Whitby Goth Festival, how do you approach the live experience? What should someone expect at a Black Rain show who’s never seen you before?

It’s a rare quieter spell for us over the next 6 months or so due to some personal things, but we’ve got some really exciting shows lined up.  Whitby Goth Festival as you’ve mentioned, Carpe Noctum in Leeds and a support slot at the Fire Station in Sunderland in September. As I mentioned before, we work really hard on our live sound, and pour a lot of energy and emotion in to our performances. It’s dark, it’s raw and it’s full on.