Los Angeles cult-favorite electro-industrial duo Patriarchy channel the tension between chaos and release in their latest club-ready anthem, Pain Is Power. The track marks the fourth installment in their Summer of Singles series, produced by Twin Shadow and rolling out monthly from May through September, leading up to the release of their forthcoming full length, Manual for Dying, arriving September 19th, 2025.
On the surface, Pain Is Power pulses with rave dynamism, fusing torment with euphoria. But it resists easy interpretations, as it’s not about BDSM nor religious ritual. Instead, its true subject is something more elemental and transformative; the act of giving birth.
"’Pain Is Power’" came out of the experience of giving birth, one of the most intense, surreal pains I’ve ever been through. I wanted to use the feeling of my body being pushed past its limits 'hour after hour', while [lyrics] ‘welcome to the party / destroy your body’ invokes a double meaning: it’s about labor, but it’s also about losing yourself on the dance floor,” says Patriarchy’s Actually Huizenga.
“The song builds the way contractions do — pulsing, tightening, breaking you open,” she adds. “I wanted it to feel physical, like something you go through more than something you just hear. There are also a lot of small things included in the sound design that I love, including a sample of Winter, our son, screaming in joy.
“It’s not just about surviving pain. It’s about how pain transforms you, how it makes you more powerful,” Huizenga says. “It's not a new concept, but it became real to me.”
Patriarchy splice together the shadowy pull of darkwave, the immediacy of synthpop, and the bodily intensity of EBM, warping the mix into something seductive, unhinged, and strangely intimate. With the fresh single, they continue to prove that their forthcoming record is poised to be one of the year’s essential releases.
Photo courtesy of Persephone PR
ZR