Some artists move between genres as tourists, collecting a new set of surfaces with every release. Kontravoid moves differently. Across skeletal coldwave, heavy EBM, freestyle-informed electro, industrial club music, and dark pop, Cameron Findlay has maintained a character that can be recognized within seconds: disciplined drums, bass that seems to alter the air pressure, synthesizers suspended between metallic seduction and industrial alarm, and an abrasive baritone that sounds transmitted from a sealed room. That consistency amid constant movement has made Kontravoid one of the most important acts in the international darkwave and EBM scene.
The Canadian-born, Los Angeles-based musician, drummer, and producer has announced a new full-length album, Sound of the Void, due October 2, 2026, through Toronto’s Artoffact Records. It will be his second album for Artoffact, coming more than two years after his previous release, Detachment, which came out on March 1, 2024. The announcement includes the new single “Without,” joining January’s “Mortal” as the second track available ahead of the album.
The space between albums has hardly been empty. Findlay carried Detachment through Europe and North America, appearing at Wave-Gotik-Treffen and playing dates alongside Buzz Kull and Cold Cave. In December 2024, Losing Game Remixes returned to his collaboration with Nuovo Testamento vocalist Chelsey Crowley, while Crowley’s band Nuovo Testamento, Normal Bias, Auragraph, and Tassel each pulled the song into a different corner of the club.
Findlay also continued his parallel life as a remixer, recasting Ekko the Strange’s “Reanimate,” Modern English’s “Not My Leader,” Mareux’s “The Perfect Girl,” Buzz Kull’s “In the Cut,” and Raudiver’s “No Sun Rising.” The list stretches from foundational British post-punk to contemporary dark pop, but each rework retains his familiar low-end physicality and severe rhythmic control.
That versatility reaches back beyond the mask. Before launching Kontravoid in 2012, Findlay co-founded the Toronto synthpop group Parallels and played drums with Crystal Castles and TR/ST. Kontravoid gave those experiences a single, durable identity, allowing him to change tempo, density, and genre without losing the tension at the center of his music.
Findlay’s forthcoming album, Sound of the Void, promises to seamlessly blend coldwave textures with thunderous EBM basslines and pulsating electro rhythms, elevating the body-focused electronic style that has characterized Kontravoid’s recent releases. Yet, “Without” hints that the album will transcend mere repetition of Detachment.
The new single “Without” opens on a throbbing bass synthesizer, an alarm-like synthwave figure, and drums pressing forward in precise, heavy strokes. Findlay delivers clipped poetic lines through a harsh vocal treatment as warped synthesizers bend around him. When the verse breaks apart, his voice gives way to a flood of effects surrounding a series of shouts. Dark pads, driving electro rhythms, and lush basslines gather into a cold, nearly solid wall of sound, pulling the track toward something disembodied and otherworldly.
The song sits outside any single darkwave, EBM, or coldwave designation, though every pressure point bears Kontravoid’s signature. It is a different kind of Kontravoid track, and a clear example of Findlay operating at the top of his game: widening the project’s vocabulary while keeping its identity intact.
Listen to “Without” below and pre-order Sound of the Void here.
Sound of the Void was produced by Findlay and mixed and mastered by Ewan A. Kay. Dylan Frankland contributed live drums to “Without” and closing track “Phantom,” with Daryl Dee handling the live-drum engineering. Jean Lorenzo designed the cover, while Los Angeles photographer Corinne Schiavone, also known as Perpetual Mobile, supplied the original insert photograph.
The ten-track album will be available digitally, on CD, and on clear vinyl. A limited black-vinyl test pressing with white labels is also available. The digital edition and CD arrive October 2, while the first vinyl pressing is expected to ship around November 20. Digital preorders include immediate downloads of “Without” and “Mortal.” The album received funding support from FACTOR, the Government of Canada, and Canadian private radio broadcasters.
The album announcement precedes Kontravoid’s 27-date North American co-headlining tour with Australian electronic artist Buzz Kull. The run begins September 10 at Elysium in Austin and concludes October 24 at the SUBSTANCE festival in Los Angeles. The October 2 album release falls on the tour’s Kansas City stop.
Spike Hellis and Normal Bias will join the bill in Spokane, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, and Sacramento. Tickets and further information are available through Kontravoid’s official website.
*With Spike Hellis and Normal Bias.
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