Experimental ritual dark ambient band Kathodos releases a new video for the song “Hanging Tree” from their debut album
The video features a surreal, dream-like atmosphere with imagery from a 1903 French silent film
The CD version of the album “Parasomnia: Pavor Nocturnus” is set for release on 28 October 2025 via Rune Serpent Europa
Following the announcement of their debut album’s CD release, the experimental ritual dark ambient band Kathodos has unveiled a new music video for their track “Hanging Tree”. The song is featured on their album “Parasomnia: Pavor Nocturnus”, which is set to be released on CD on 28 October 2025 via Rune Serpent Europa. The limited-edition CD will include a 4-page booklet and will have a pressing of 500 copies.
According to Kathodos, “Hanging Tree” is the catchiest song on Parasomnia: Pavor Nocturnus. The track features a hidden lyrical concept meant to be discovered by only the most astute listeners. The idea was to create a surreal, dream-like atmosphere that brings the listener back to ancient times. The music video features the explosive second half of ‘Hanging Tree’. Some of the imagery in the video is taken from ‘La Vie et la Passion de Jesus Christ’, a French silent film from 1903. The film’s colors and religious nature fit the song perfectly. I am featured in the video to portray the lyrical orator while Lavinia enhanced it with her sultry dancing.”
Kathodos previously released a music video for the track “A Memory Dwindles…” (Spotify), which is a song about a person haunted by a horrifying memory of seeing a child falling off a rooftop and features footage from the 1920 silent film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
“Parasomnia: Pavor Nocturnus” is meant to be experienced as a sequence of strange dreams. It comprises a listening journey of confusing, dark, beautiful, scary, comical, twisted, psychotic, and bizarre dreams. The album takes the listener on a dark and sometimes terrifying journey of strange voices, bizarre sounds, beautiful moments, maddening architecture, and intricate instrumentation. It is highly unique, making use of hypnotising drones, occult rituals, odd lyrics, and hidden meanings. Listeners will hear something new each time they play the album.
Kathodos, the man behind the project, conceptualised the band in 2019 as an “experiment in darkness”. Having previously performed as a rock musician, he sought to create something darker. The album’s atmosphere was conjured from the best fragments of his dreams and the worst fragments of his nightmares. The entire album was composed in the spring of 2021 after lying dormant for nearly two years. Following another period of latency, most of the instrumentation and vocals were recorded in the spring of 2022. A difficult period in late 2022 delayed the project until 2023, when the rest of the album was finally recorded. Lavinia was recruited in late 2023 to provide soprano, spoken word vocals, and guitar on a few tracks. Kathodos also produced, mixed, and mastered the album in late 2023 and early 2024. After gaining a strong following from the few people who happened upon the initial release, Kathodos signed with Rune Serpent Europa in 2025 to reach a wider audience.
Kathodos is a studio-only project and does not perform live. A second album is currently in the works. The band has also appeared on two official compilations released by Rune Serpent Europa: Laibach Tribut – Schlecht Und Ironisch, for which Kathodos covered the Laibach song “White Law” and Saturno Butto tribute “The Five Senses”, contributing the track “Death & Rebirth”.
Pre-order the CD version of “Parasomnia: Pavor Nocturnus” via The Circle Music (worldwide distributor for this release): https://thecirclemusic.gr/product-category/distributed-stuff/?filter_artist-name=kathodos