After celebrating two decades of boundary-pushing industrial doom in 2024, Author & Punisher mastermind Tristan Shone is preparing to unveil the project’s most ambitious and collaborative release to date. The new double-album, Nocturnal Birding, arrives October 3, 2025 via Relapse Records, and today, Shone has shared the deeply moving single “Thrush” alongside its official video.
The track, which Shone describes as “the epitome of this album”, was directly inspired by the song of the wood thrush bird. Following the exact chord progressions of the bird’s call, Shone builds a track that channels both nature and existential weight.
“When I heard the wood thrush song, it immediately made me think of Neurosis or Jesu — the melodic, heart-wrenching tracks like ‘The Last You’ll Know,'” Shone said. “I just followed the chord progression of the bird exactly.”
The accompanying video, co-directed by Lucile Lejoly and Arnaud Fournier, expands on that inspiration with gothic and medieval imagery reminiscent of Elden Ring. Lejoly also designed the album’s artwork, marking the start of a visual and sonic collaboration that lasted nearly a year.
Nocturnal Birding is dedicated to “those who have lost their lives traveling across the border from Mexico to the USA through a cruel policy of prevention by deterrence.” Shone has spent the past two years volunteering with Border Angels, an organization that drops water along dangerous desert crossings. That experience, alongside the ever-present soundtrack of birds in the wilderness, deeply shaped the album’s tone and direction.
“It was very humbling… For me it was an awakening: my eyes and ears were open to nature and this cruel and unnecessary humanitarian crisis at the border.”
This record marries literal birdsong transposed onto guitar with Author & Punisher‘s crushing machine-driven heaviness, forging one of Shone’s most emotional and human works to date.
While Shone has long welcomed guests into his singular vision, Nocturnal Birding marks the first time Author & Punisher feels like a true band. Guitarist Doug Sabolick (Ecstatic Vision, Plaque Marks, ex–A Life Once Lost) contributes melodic and crushing guitar work that elevates Shone‘s signature mechanized arsenal.
Additional collaborations include:
- Fange (France)
- Kuntari (Indonesia), featured on the recent single “Titanis”
- Megan Oztrosits (Couch Slut, NYC)
Production duties were handled by Will Putney (Knocked Loose, Heriot, Body Count, Machine Head), ensuring the album’s hybrid of mechanical intensity and natural atmosphere hits with maximum force.
Shone calls Nocturnal Birding the most emotionally charged work of his career, a culmination of two decades of experimentation and a recent reawakening in both nature and activism. Songs like “Thrush” bridge the gap between beauty and despair, while continuing to push industrial doom into new, uncharted territory.
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