Black Eyes - Hostile Design (2025) Hi-Res

More than 20 years after recording their last record, Cough, Black Eyes returns with Hostile Design. The album is comprised of six all-new songs, written directly in the wake of the band’s April 2023 reunion shows.

Hostile Design was recorded at Tonal Park studios over three days, with Ian MacKaye resuming his role as producer and Don Godwin engineering. The instrumentation returns to Cough’s two drums, bass, guitar and sax lineup, but adds some fresh elements. Live multichannel dubbing, now a standard of their shows, has been integrated into the performances, as have electronic drum triggers and samples as well as the occasional bass clarinet passage. In the years since their initial dissolution, each member has pursued their own creative paths, including drone rock, avant techno, ambient, sonic collage, visual art, video work and more. In coming back together, the breadth of their collective practices are all integrated into the music.

Black Eyes, the percussive DC skronk-punk greats. Back in the day, I went to a ton of Black Eyes shows, and they were just unbelievably exciting. Now, the band is back together, and the title of their newest song is just my name, twice. That rules.

Black Eyes' new song "Tomtom" is not named after me. I know that. This is a band with two drummers, so "Tomtom" is named after a drum. It's the closing track from Black Eyes' upcoming reunion LP Hostile Design, their first in 21 years. Ian MacKaye produced Hostile Design, and lead single "Pestilence" was our favorite new song of the week that it came out.

"Tomtom" is the new LP's seven-minute closer. It unfolds patiently, locking into a chant-heavy groove that reminds me of mid-period Talking Heads and bringing the same righteous indignation that MacKaye brought to Fugazi's "Suggestion." Like "Suggestion," "Tomtom" is about the threatening cloud that surrounds women at all times.