Future Palace Drop Video For “Malphas”

We know demons as legendary creatures — but sometimes, they seem more real to us than we would like them to be.

With their new single “Malphas,“ Berlin-based, post-hardcore shooting stars Future Palace combine mythological symbolism with the very real abysses of an earthly emotional world.

Even the introductory staccato riffing announces with the darkest timbres the most harrowing three minutes the band has recorded by far. While Future Palace have repeatedly written with hitherto unknown heaviness on their second album Run, which was released in 2022, “Malphas” completed this development in a superlative way.

The music and the brute screams of singer Maria Lessing create a trembling sound drama that can hardly be described satisfactorily with the label “post-hardcore”, but is ensnared by clanking synthesizer coldness as well as industrial and darkwave elements.

“I’m really losing my patience / I’m possessed by a Malphas,” says the chorus, which sums up a feeling of loss of control in a few words. The sung and eponymous Malphas is a demon figure from centuries-old tales that appears in the form of a raven and takes its victims bit by bit, like a virus. With this image, Future Palace tell the battles that do not take place in stories, but in the real life. 

“With its power, our new song ‘Malphas’ is intended to represent the recurring struggle and the necessary patience with oneself and one’s inner demons,” comments Lessing, giving the song a note of hope despite all the brute force of the sound. Because even among productions that are increasingly shocking in terms of sound, Future Palace’s music can still be understood as a musical catharsis in which inner abysses can not only be experienced, but also fought.

“Malphas” is the first single Future Palace have released since Run. The band recently accompanied Electric Callboy on their European tour. Their first European headline run with 23 stops in nine countries has been announced for the fall, and first shows are sold out or upgraded.