The music that influenced CATHEDRALE’s latest album, Poison
As CATHEDRALE releases their fifth studio album Poison, the Toulouse-based post-punk outfit showcases a sound shaped by diverse influences. Blending sharp, driving guitars with brooding synth textures, the band pushes their sonic identity into a darker, more atmospheric territory. To give deeper insight into the creative process behind the album, CATHEDRALE shares the five songs that played a key role in shaping the album’s raw intensity and thematic depth.
The following songs are the records that influenced Poison.
Second Layer – ‘Courts of Wars’
It’s the first project from the singer of the band The Sounds. What we do know is that the energy is there. This track has been stuck in our heads for a while with its intertwining guitars, creating strange harmonies. It’s very simple, but it works so well! We love experimenting with weird guitar harmonies that create a gloomy and unsettling atmosphere, it makes our songs feel darker.
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Apple Music
Institute – ‘Perpetual Ebb’
We love the voice of singer Moses Brown, deep and detached. It inspired us to work on songs with Jules’ vocal tones, which aren’t necessarily ideal since they’re lower. It was a challenge, but it helped us maintain the dark atmosphere of our album. Also, the drums in this band are incredible – both in how they are recorded and played. It’s a key reference for us.
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Apple Music
Protomartyr – ‘A Private Understanding’
They’ve been a major influence on us, perhaps from the very beginning. A great post-punk band, full of emotion. We love how they build tension, only to shatter it with sudden, powerful moments. Their charged atmosphere, combined with dark lyrics, resonates deeply with us and makes us feel more comfortable expressing this kind of mood in our own work.
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Apple Music
Wire – ‘French Film Blurred’
What we like about Wire, especially on their second LP Chairs Missing, is their unique mix of punk energy and melodic songwriting. It’s all about that hybrid blend, and that’s something we aim for in our own compositions too. We pick elements from everywhere, and maybe that’s why people often struggle to categorize us.
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Apple Music
Kraftwerk – ‘Radioactivity’
Krautrock is a style of music that we all deeply enjoy, but this track, ‘Radioactivity’, directly inspired two of our songs. The Morse code at the beginning of ‘Radioactivity’ was translated in a similar way in an arrangement that delivers a cryptic message in ‘Where the Fire Is’. Additionally, this song explores the theme of the discovery of radioactivity by Pierre and Marie Curie, an environmental topic that we also revisited in ‘Radium / Polonium.’ Whether through its substance or its form, this track had a significant impact on our album Poison.
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Apple Music
When you’re done here lose yourself in our full library of features.