A new visualizer accompanies THE KEENING’s “Devotion III – The King,” the second single from Devotion. Rebecca Vernon, the SubRosa musician behind THE KEENING, describes the song as the album’s heaviest track and points to its chanting as a connection to her earlier work.
“'Devotion III – The King' is the heaviest track on Devotion and it was highly satisfying to create it. The chanting in this song reminds me of the chanting in the old SubRosa song 'Key Of The Eidolon,' which was on the Decibel Flexi series. I do feel like going in more of this heavier sonic direction for the next KEENING record,” Vernon says.
THE KEENING’s second full-length, Devotion, is due October 16 through Relapse Records. Its seven tracks combine post-rock, folk, goth and doom, with Vernon playing drums, guitar, piano, organ and hammered dulcimer. She also supplied most of the vocals on both Devotion and Little Bird, alongside a few guest vocalists.
The album was recorded in April 2022 at Hallowed Halls in Portland. Billy Anderson and Nathan Carson returned in the same roles they held on Little Bird.
The new visualizer follows the previously released video for “A Little Bit Of Blood,” directed, edited and colored by Ken Whiting and written by Andrew Bonazelli. That song moves from quiet acoustic guitar and Vernon’s vocals into a fuller chorus, with the announcement describing its theme as the difficulty of choosing the best path.
Vernon wrote the album in two contrasting settings: a friend’s cabin in a deserted Idaho ski resort and a 55+ senior living community in Spokane, Washington, where she was staying with her father. She dedicated the record to him following his death on May 11, 2025.
“He was one of my greatest champions and supporters of my music. My sister and I see dragonflies as a symbol of him, so I asked our cover artist, Marald van Haasteren, if he could put a dragonfly in the art. The dragonfly is coming out of the stem of a poppy, so again, to me, it depicts that dichotomy or tension between the dark meaning of devotion (addiction) and its lighter meaning (love).”
The announcement also revisits Vernon’s comments about emotional openness in heavy music from a 2024 interview with Decibel Magazine: “Metal is beginning to share more vulnerable things, more confessional things. Metal has almost become a safe place to talk about those things. People are being open with their struggles. Twenty years ago, they wouldn't have.”
The supplied press photograph is credited to Angela H. Brown.
- Devotion I – Golden Thread
- Devotion II – Fitful Sleep
- Devotion III – The King
- Devotion IV – O Mother
- A Little Bit Of Blood
- Time Travel
- The Murder Of Anna Brown
