Rising alternative heavy act PLUME return with their striking new single "My Cortisol Face," the final release before their highly anticipated debut album Saferooms & Healing Frequencies arrives on September 25 via Arising Empire.
Blurring the lines between hyperpop shimmer, emotional metalcore and futuristic electronic production, "My Cortisol Face" captures PLUME at their most vulnerable and volatile. Glittering electronics collide with crushing guitars, ethereal clean vocals and piercing screams, creating a track that feels equally fragile, chaotic and euphoric.
Lyrically, the song dives headfirst into anxiety, distorted self perception and the exhausting battle against your own reflection. Images of glitter caught in the throat, ribs beneath paper thin skin and rehearsed smiles paint an unsettling picture of someone desperately trying to maintain the surface while everything underneath begins to fracture. The recurring question of whether this experience is a nightmare or everything they have been dreaming about sits at the emotional core of the track.
That conflict erupts in the chorus, where pain and style become almost inseparable. "My Cortisol Face" transforms inner turmoil into something strangely beautiful, balancing vulnerability with an undeniable sense of attitude and immediacy. As the song builds towards its desperate final moments, repeated questions of whether the pain will ever end underline the feeling of being trapped in an emotional freefall.
The single follows PLUME’s recent releases "Digital Waterboarding," "Furious Icon," "Angel Engine," and "A Cure For A Knife's Blade," each revealing another side of the band's rapidly evolving sonic identity. Since signing with Arising Empire earlier this year, the German four-piece has continued to establish itself as one of the most intriguing newcomers in modern alternative heavy music, combining pop sensibility with distorted guitars, synthesizers, fractured rhythms and a visual identity inspired by glam rock and contemporary digital culture.
Fronted by Pascal Pashaee alongside guitarist David Riederer, keyboardist Luka Lorch and drummer Richard Kilian, PLUME approach their music as more than a collection of songs. Their immersive live performances and carefully constructed visual world form an extension of a sound that refuses to sit comfortably within a single genre.
With their debut album Saferooms & Healing Frequencies set for release on September 25, PLUME are preparing to bring that vision into full focus. The 13-track record represents the next major step for a band increasingly determined to reshape the boundaries between pop, metalcore and forward thinking alternative music.
As the final glimpse of the album before its arrival, "My Cortisol Face" feels like a fitting statement of intent: intimate, dramatic, unpredictable and unapologetically PLUME.
Catch the band live:
9/19 — Lyon 07 France — La Petit Salon
