Warning

Warning at The Castle & Falcon, Birmingham

As Warning prepare to release their first new music in twenty years, Patrick Walker is self-effacing about what led to this moment. Over the last two decades he has continued to write and release music; his attention was diverted to 40 Watt Sun, satisfied that he had achieved what he had set out to do with Warning. But in those intervening years, interest in Warning has swelled, organically gathering an ardent fanbase. In particular, the 2006 album, Watching from a Distance, has gained a cult following. After a successful string of shows playing the album in 2017, Patrick knew he had a solid live band on hand but did not feel the call to write new Warning material.

In response to a transformative period in his life, Patrick turned towards writing new songs, and it soon became apparent that these belonged to Warning. In early January 2025, he started with a completely blank canvas, and piece by piece, day by day he started to fill it with ideas that evolved to become the songs that make up Rituals of Shame.

Recording took place at The Arch Studio, a 140-year-old former church in Southport, UK with recording and mixing handled by Chris Fullard (Idles, Sunn O))), Ulver). Having already worked with Chris on two 40 Watt Sun records, Patrick had developed an appreciation for his way of working: providing a light touch of structure to the process, allowing the songs to unfold as Patrick intended.

Rituals of Shame echoes the enduring themes and fixations that have marked most of his work: guilt, shame, personal failure, obsession, longing, and separation, but, most of all, he says, love.