HOST Release Pulsing Electronic Single ‘My Only Escape’

Host band

Greg Mackintosh and Nick Holmes have revealed the latest single from their brand new dark wave project HOST, a pulsing electronic single titled “My Only Escape.”

The third single from their debut album IX, which will be released on 24th February through Nuclear Blast Records, ‘My Only Escape‘ is yet another display of lush nuance that showcases the band’s vast range of influences.

Vocalist Nick Holmes commented: “Musically, this track has an intentional repetitive element that builds throughout the song, this is also mirrored in the lyric idea, as in the repetition of an everyday life held in such poor regard. The feeling of actually being physically scared, acts as an acceptable relief from day to day drudgery.”

About HOST

The origins of HOST do not trace back to the 1999 PARADISE LOST album bearing the same name but instead to the West Yorkshire music clubs of the mid-to-late 1980s. While Holmes and Mackintosh were already certified heavy metal fanatics (“metal thrashing mad” as Holmes equates), they were equally drawn to the New Wave and Goth music scenes. The pounding rhythms, sublime melodies and undercurrent of darkness drew them in, creating immediate earworms and a desire to delve further.

Mackintosh finally put plans into motion during the pandemic for a venture that would merge his penchant for sound design with the moods and atmosphere of 1980s dance-pop and Goth. The project was originally a solo pursuit until he asked Holmes, his longtime PARADISE LOST songwriting partner, to join. HOST was selected as the name as a tip of the hat to the aforementioned album that found PARADISE LOST in an unprecedented period of experimentation that eschewed their metal roots and also challenged their fanbase in ways like never before.

“We always stood by Host as an album,” says Mackintosh. “This project is not totally connected to that album, but some of the ideas are extrapolated. We’re taking the basic premise and trying it out now. And, really, it was something fun and interesting for us to do. We’ve been doing PARADISE LOST for a long time and got an itch to try something different from where PL is now. I could take PL down this route again. Who knows? It may happen if we live long enough, but I thought, ‘Why not now?’ I had the time to do it.”