I had been listening to the new Cairiss album Wilderness for a long time before I found the impetus to write the review. Not writer’s block, but simply trying to absorb what has become one of the best releases I have heard in 2026.
Cairiss – Wilderness
Release Date: 31 July 2026
Words: Paul Hutchings
Although they have been together for 13 years, my understanding is that this is the debut album by the Hampshire outfit. Combining dual female vocals that bring both ethereal melancholy and raw Black Metal screams, the six tracks span a journey through suffering and pain.
This is something evident from the beginning and opening track Nervosa. It soars and sweeps through a myriad of emotions, riding the highs and lows with an intensity rarely discovered these days.
Complex passages switch from thunderous tremolo riffing through to almost folk, with all stops in between included. Written during a period of uncertainty due to an eating disorder, it describes the broken fragments of self, caught in a never-ending cycle of pain and torment on a frozen landscape.
You can feel the pain throughout the songs. They are drenched in personal suffering and experience. The Guide is a song of immense stature. Heavy nods to the progressive elements of Opeth dominate without suffocating.
Moments of crushing intensity stand comfortably next to delicate passages of Shoegaze. It really is gargantuan in its performance and delivery.
Integrate describes a toxic relationship and the co-dependency that comes with it. A short piece in comparison to the rest of the songs here, it features multiple vocals that are woven perfectly through the song. It leads into the fever of existential dread and fear in the song Disassociate.
Explosive aggressive passages once again combine in harmony with beautifully composed segments to create a crescendo of tumultuous emotion. There are moments of highs, despite the lyrical content that threads throughout the album’s six tracks.
At times, it is almost too much. The passion and energy that surges through the finale on Disassociate, for example, is amongst the best passages of music I have heard for ages.
It simply takes your breath away as the combination of the two vocal styles battle above complex crafted movements. It is something you need time to absorb, but the payback for sticking with it is great.
As you explore the meaning behind the penultimate song, Retrace, which focuses on intensive trauma healing, the band’s combination of Shoegaze, Post-Metal and Black Metal rushes over you. It is this track where, for me, everything knits together in a crescendo of magnificent power.
It is impossible not to be almost overwhelmed by the soundscape that unfurls as the song sprawls over nearly nine minutes.
Deeply personal, deeply emotional and deeply intense, the conclusion comes with hope in the title track. Pulling together the threads that run through the record, it’s almost a cleansing track that, if it were a film, would be the part where the sun breaks through the clouds. Hope delivered in a triumphant six-minute passage that follows the style of that which has gone before it.
One can understand why this has taken a decade to create. It is truly magnificent on many levels, and touches on a rawness that no doubt needed time to heal before being cultivated into these songs.
It has taken time to explore, to consider and yes, to enjoy. Wilderness is certainly, an album that will remain on rotation for some time to come.
Cairiss release Wilderness on 31 July 2026. For more details, visit linktr.ee/cairiss.
