Composer Bear McCreary has announced an all-star-loaded follow-up to his 2024 The Singularity project, which he’s given the connective title of The Singularity: Ekleipsis. One such monster he’s brought aboard is Gojira’s Joe Duplantier, who delivers guest growls on the record’s new single, “Black Box.”
McCreary — known for his work scoring The Walking Dead and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power — incorporates onyx-heavy guitar chunking and plenty of gravitas to the cut, as do the enchantingly haunted choir vocals provided by the Mystery of Bulgarian Voices. Duplantier rasps and roils over an untold wreckage and ponders a devastating resolve (“Is it true the only cure is bleeding?”).
“I need more cinematic metal in my life!” McCreary said in a statement, adding that he and his brother, vocalist/producer Brendan McCreary, expanded upon the themes of The Singularity, “and this time around it rocks even harder.”
“My brother…and I were once again thrilled to partner with a number of inspiring artists for this record, each of whom brought their unique musical personalities and perspectives to the project,” he continues, adding of the team-up with Duplantier, “It blends my cinematic background with Joe’s distinctive vocals, harmonized beautifully by the legendary women’s choir the Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices. Equally inspired by ’90s alternative bands, Eastern European folk music, symphonic film scores, and progressive metal, ‘Black Box’ encapsulates the epic scope of Ekleipsis while just cracking open the door to the rest of the album.”
The upcoming The Singularity: Ekleipsis also features guest spots from Blue Medusa’s Alissa White-Gluz, Meshuggah’s Jens Kidman, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, Polyphia guitarist Tim Henson, Coheed and Cambria’s Claudio Sanchez, Fall Out Boy guitarist-vocalist Patrick Stump, the Police’s Stewart Copeland and more.
The album arrives July 31 through Sparks & Shadows Records and Mutant. Pre-order and pre-sale info is impending, but that’d be the cover art and tracklisting down below.
McCreary has also announced a West Coast tour, which begins in September. Tickets go on sale May 4th at 10 a.m. PT. You’ll find the dates below and more ticket info here.
The Singularity: Ekleipsis tracklisting:
Overture II
Our Kingdom (feat. Alissa White-Gluz and Brendan McCreary)
The Chandelier (feat. Patrick Stump)
Black Box (Feat. Joe Duplantier and The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices)
Kill Us Anyway (feat. Brendan McCreary)
Sweet Misery (feat. Claudio Sanchez and Tim Henson)
Blueshift (feat. Steve Vai, Tim Henson, and Brendan McCreary)
Alexandria (feat. Raya Yarbrough and Guthrie Govan)
Pray for a Storm (feat. Stewart Copeland and Brendan McCreary)
Supernova (feat. N.T. Bullock)
Cool Kids (feat. Slash, Duff McKagan, Chad Smith, and Brendan McCreary)
Shades of Gray (feat. Brendan McCreary)
The Elephant’s Foot (feat. Jens Kidman)
One Fine Day (feat. Slash and Brendan McCreary)
I Forever (feat. Brendan McCreary)
Bear McCreary tour dates 2026:
9/8 Portland, OR — Roseland Theater
9/9 Seattle, WA — The Crocodile
9/10 Vancouver, BC — The Rickshaw Theatre
9/13 San Francisco, CA — Great American Music Hall
9/15 San Diego, CA — The Magnolia
9/16 Phoenix, AZ — Walter Studios
9/17 Los Angeles, CA — The Belasco
9/18 Las Vegas, NV — House of Blues Las Vegas