If you’ve ever cried in a church even though you don’t believe in anything, Speedial have written your soundtrack. Their new single ‘An Altar’ feels like opening a confessional booth in the dark and finding it empty – echoing, eerie, and weirdly comforting. It’s the second taste of their debut EP Light Of The Late Night, out 23 May, and it’s gorgeous in the way a thunderstorm is gorgeous – beautiful, unsettling, and maybe a bit divine.
Vocalist Serena sings directly to God like they’re texting an ex. It’s desperate and tender and painfully human – a spiritual reckoning via twanging guitars, haunted harmonies and sax that sounds like a ghost wailing through a jazz club. There’s no smug atheist distance here, just a raw, cracked-open plea for faith, connection, anything.
“‘An Altar’ picks apart my relationship with religion. I wasn’t raised religiously but I’ve always held an agnostic view about religion. When writing An Altar I was playing a lot of Gospel outside of the band and got close with some religious musicians I’d met. I was almost envious of how much hope and insight it felt like they had. The perspective of the song is kind of me addressing God directly through music… The lyrics talk about yearning to be held and protected by something bigger than yourself, and asking for that faith to come to you but realising it can’t be forced. I was listening to a lot of Sunny Day Real Estate at the time and researching Jeremy Enigk’s personal journey with faith and hearing how that affected their music was really interesting to me. The song takes a lot of inspiration from them musically as well.”
Musically, it’s a melting clock: part shoegaze fog, part math-rock puzzle, part film-score drama. Think if Ride took a detour into a cathedral and accidentally summoned a demon. There’s something baroque about it all – not in a posh way, in a “this might collapse at any second” way. And that’s a compliment.
Speedial are a band who clearly know each other inside out – you can hear it in the tension and release, in the way they carve space for weird sounds (dulcimer! cello! actual ghost saxophone!) without sounding like they’re showing off. Every chaotic shift feels earned. It’s clever music that doesn’t patronise you. Emotional music that doesn’t beg. That sweet spot.
Speedial’s debut EP Light Of The Late Night is out 23rd May. ‘An Altar’ is out now. Go forth and feel uncomfortably seen.
LIVE DATES
5th May – London, Windmill Brixton – Cinco de Mayo Party
26th May – London, Windmill Brixton (EP Launch Headline)
6th June – Brighton, The Hope & Ruin (w/ Pozi, For Breakfast)
28th June – London, The George Tavern
21st July – Portsmouth, Wedgewood Rooms (w/ Auden)
27th July – London, High Tide Festival
12th Sep – London, Windmill Brixton (w/ wing!)
Follow, Speedial
Instagram: @speedialband
TikTok: @speedialband
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