Polyphia Unveil 5th Album

2026-08-28 by John Marinakis CONTRIBUTOR | 39 Comments
Polyphia will release their fifth studio album, Be Not Afraid on October 23 through Rise Records.

Created during sessions in Miami, Los Angeles and Dallas throughout 2024 and 2025, the record follows 2022's Remember That You Will Die. Polyphia worked alongside co-producer RJ Pasin and guitarist Spiro Dussias, adopting a more collaborative approach that saw the entire band develop ideas together in the studio.

Musically, Be Not Afraid combines progressive metal, electronic music and house rhythms while exploring the opposing forces of good and evil. Tim Henson described it as the band's most meaningful record, moving between uplifting passages and moments he finds genuinely frightening.

The announcement is accompanied by Power in the Blood, the album's second single following June's Can You Feel It. Its Caleb Young-directed video was filmed inside the São Francisco da Penitência Church in Rio de Janeiro, placing the band against the building's ornate Baroque interior.




The tracklist is:
1. Let There Be Light
2. With Eyes to See
3. Screwtape
4. Power in the Blood
5. They Know Not What They Do
6. Mark of the Beast
7. Can You Feel It
8. Near Death
9. J-Bomb
10. Deny the Flesh
11. Devil Get Behind Me
12. Fear God

https://www.rocking.gr/news/polyphia-announce-new-album-release-new-single-details/46647

Tagged: Polyphia

Comments:Add a Comment 
Epicenter
August 28th 2026
292 Comments


I'm hoping the production on the rest of the album is better than on this single, cause Jesus Fucking Christ, it sounds absolutely awful with that bass overriding everything. It's damn near impossible to discern anything else going on in the song.

Futures
Staff Reviewer
August 29th 2026
19219 Comments


this is one of the worst things i've ever heard in my life

Kusangii
August 29th 2026
9282 Comments


Wow that was terrible. What the fuck is this drum sound

OwMySnauze
August 29th 2026
2838 Comments


More pretentious unlistenable garbage… they gotta be a music industry plant at this point. That single can make ears bleed literally at high volume.

Kusangii
August 29th 2026
9282 Comments


That's genuinely one of the worst production jobs I have ever heard. What were they thinking?

Josh D.
August 29th 2026
18842 Comments


Good lord what a hot pile of shit.

Josh D.
August 29th 2026
18842 Comments


Not that anything they've ever put out is good, but this is like they listened to what Avenged Sevenfold just put out and said "hold my beer"

MO
August 29th 2026
24367 Comments


this band is the definition of a one trick pony, and its not even a very good trick

JayEnder
August 29th 2026
23611 Comments


Noodly guitars over a generic hip hop beat woah really breaking new ground here guys

The drums don't even sound real lol

Emim
August 29th 2026
40443 Comments


Band has always pissed me off

BAT
August 29th 2026
2447 Comments


i don't mind more electronic-centric production, buuut that mix is sounds like a cheap laptop speaker or likee, when your friends friend wants to show everyone their car stereo and it's just trebly bullshit but you don't want to kill the vibe cause he thinks it's great

Durrzo
August 29th 2026
3754 Comments


Absolutely heinous production, that bass is genuinely some of the most offensive shit I've ever heard. Actually unlistenable.

Doesn't help that they're still doing their some old obnoxious thing. I think Muse is a good album, but everything after is just soulless wank.

CatfishSoup
August 29th 2026
391 Comments


Man, all the musicians are top notch IMO...but this production ain't it. In a world where AI slop is running rampant, this kind of sound feels so artificial. What the hell is with the Call of Duty Montage bass boosting? It's like you're listening to a subwoofer from a car down the road. Awful.

keaton_86
August 29th 2026
1718 Comments


All their songs sound the same to me and they're all kinda forgettable.

DrGonzo1937
Staff Reviewer
August 29th 2026
19244 Comments


the bass sounds like a fart machine. the production on this is something else. song is terrible to boot.

Gfunk839
August 29th 2026
736 Comments


I try steer away from overly critical commentary on this site about music that I don't even care about. But if we are talking about this or Statica - hold my beer. Genuinely awful. I feel like no one should listen to this, ever.

DrGonzo1937
Staff Reviewer
August 29th 2026
19244 Comments


feels like an arms race for who can achieve the shittiest production in 2026



Gfunk839
August 29th 2026
736 Comments


"We are so good at playing our instruments, we have nowhere left to go. That's why we started using the the chirpy sound of bass clipping as a new texture in our mix." - Polyphia, Probably

Epicenter
August 29th 2026
292 Comments


I generally like Polyphia's music and there's certainly a scintilla of quality that is barely detectable here, but they need to get a producer that isn't RJ Pasin. They just do not mesh well and they need to not sign off of an obviously botched production job.

Beardog
August 29th 2026
7038 Comments


yeah this production is horrible

Verdr
August 29th 2026
175 Comments


Yes this sounds really terrible, but at least it's not AI

PickleVai17
August 29th 2026
319 Comments


For being such a talented band, I'm baffled that they sat in the studio listening to this absolute piece of shit song and thought "it's perfect!" I've lost a lot of respect for this band after hearing this garbage.

Hyperion1001
Emeritus
August 29th 2026
30281 Comments


not music

ConorIsNotHere
August 29th 2026
1381 Comments


Statica doesn't seem that bad now

gravityswitch
August 29th 2026
2618 Comments


lmao those drums

zaruyache
August 29th 2026
28898 Comments


on panzerfaust there's a riff where fenriz just chugs one note and then bends it at the end and it's the coolest riff. these guys play with six arms but don't know what a song is.

jrlikestodance
August 29th 2026
9225 Comments


Truly unbearable

gravityswitch
August 29th 2026
2618 Comments


Their drummer is actually very good, and they just choose to murder him with this prod.


OwMySnauze
August 29th 2026
2838 Comments


You know it’s bad when even the reaction channels on YT have to lower the volume on their headphones or taking them off mid listen

CygnusX1
August 30th 2026
814 Comments


Them releasing a song that sounds like this feels like gaslighting. Like they made it god awful on purpose just to pretentiously claim is so bad it's actually really good. But wtf is this shit for real

rockandmetaljunkie
Contributing Reviewer
August 30th 2026
10299 Comments


I had no idea what this band sounded like, so I checked them out to see if you guys were serious, and OMG, you weren't kidding!

Aluktodolo
August 30th 2026
600 Comments


They’re not even doing anything interesting with this production. There’s no conceptual basis here, it’s just dreadful across the board, including the playing.

AlexKzillion
Emeritus
August 31st 2026
19359 Comments


"I generally like Polyphia's music and there's certainly a scintilla of quality that is barely detectable here, but they need to get a producer that isn't RJ Pasin. They just do not mesh well and they need to not sign off of an obviously botched production job." [2]

yeah really loved their last few albums but this is doa if the entire thing is mixed like this. sounds like total shit

c0nf1n3d
August 31st 2026
435 Comments


From the limited information I've seen regarding the album's production and hearing it myself, supposedly the writing and mix was engineered so AI couldn't replicate their sound. Adding to it, there's audio samples with implication of religion in its messaging, and the blattiness of the mix could be attuned to some subliminal messaging there too. From a more notable and bigger artist, this might be impressive. But...Polyphia? There's a limited fanbase here to begin with for their music, and if anything all of this is probably just an echo-chamber if I had to guess.

"Can You Feel It" was good, not really crazy about this song, but I'll check out the album. Really dug their last one and was hoping they'd kind of stick to that same sound this time

vult
August 31st 2026
3498 Comments


I thought their The Most Hated album was a fun foray into the prog/electronic/hiphop mix, but them actually committing to that style has been brutal.

the epitome of performative noodling.

AlexKzillion
Emeritus
August 31st 2026
19359 Comments


"supposedly the writing and mix was engineered so AI couldn't replicate their sound"

good intentions i guess but a) how could you possibly counteract that? and b) even if you could why would you so heavily sacrifice the quality of the music over that?

Josh D.
August 31st 2026
18842 Comments


That would only make sense if they did that with every piece of music they release going forward. Doing it once and then going back to normal, what would be the point. The more likely scenario, because it's very common, is that they are good musicians that make bad music.

pyroflare77
August 31st 2026
861 Comments


To fight against AI plagiarizing us, we shall compose and mix like children! That'll learn em!

vult
August 31st 2026
3498 Comments


yeah let me prevent AI from stealing my music by making it sound like shit

yup that is smart



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