ABOUT
A provocative force in the industrial, darkwave underground, CURSE MACKEY is known for his commanding solo work and musical collaborations with genre luminaries including Pigface, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, David J (Bauhaus / Love & Rockets), and Clan of Xymox.
Curse is a published author. His new book, THE SOUND PHILOSOPHY: An Artist's Survival Guide will be released by Subtle Body Press on April 21, 2026.
His artwork and curated exhibits have shown in galleries and museums around the world culminating in the art books DRAW (with Erik Foss) and RIDES OF PASSAGE (with Bruce Bart).
Curse will be on tour throughout 2026.
photo by Bobby Talamine
Curse Mackey's IMAGINARY ENEMIES RANKED #1 ALBUM
REGEN MAGAZINE TOP 50 of 2025!
"A masterwork of modern darkwave from one of the industrial underground’s most evocative voices."
LISTEN
Preview link: Listen to Imaginary Enemies
With IMAGINARY ENEMIES, Austin, TEXAS electronic music artist Curse Mackey unveils his most intense and intimate album to date. A bleak, beautiful meditation on paranoia, grief, and the ghosts we conjure from within. Blending the raw aggression of early 90’s era industrial music with cinematic darkwave atmospheres and hard-earned poetic insight, the album unfolds across gritty city streets and the shadowed corners of the mind, where desire blurs with danger and monsters move in silence.
“IMAGINARY ENEMIES by Curse Mackey is a storm-summoning ritual of shadow and sound. Preordained to become a modern classic within the higher realms of darkwave, industrial, and goth.” – Blackletter Press
A provocative force in the industrial, darkwave underground, Mackey is known for his commanding solo work and collaborations with genre luminaries including Pigface, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, David J (Bauhaus / Love & Rockets), and Clan of Xymox.
Curse channels the ghosts of self-destruction, martyrdom, and revelation across tracks like Doomed for Monday, Time Comes Clean, and The Kindness of Serpents. His voice drips with urgency, steeped in internal collapse and spiritual trespass. From the grief-stricken ache of Blood Like Love to the nocturnal paranoia of lead single Vertigo Ego which asks, “What monsters come after you, when you are alone in the dark?” The album explores the liminal space between identity and illusion. A darkwave exorcism for the fractured self, it will resonate with fans of HEALTH, Skinny Puppy, Gary Numan, Twin Tribes, Cold Cave, Coil and Front 242.
Fueled by modular synths, jackhammer beats, spectral drones, and disembodied spoken word samples, IMAGINARY ENEMIES pulses with post-pandemic urgency and late-night mystery. Mackey’s ritualistic vocal delivery cuts like a psychic transmission, charting an intimate descent through fear, ecstasy, and invisible wars within. This is music for the haunted hours: seductive, volatile, and uncomfortably honest.
The album concludes a trilogy that began with Instant Exorcism (2019) and deepened with Immoral Emporium (2022). Where Exorcism confronted internal chaos and Emporium explored societal decay, Enemies is a haunting culmination, mourning creative and personal losses while reaching for redemption in the wreckage. Blood Like Love, serves as its aching heart: a poetic elegy rendered in grief-soaked melody and lyrical fire.
Produced by Mackey and longtime collaborator Chase Dobson, the album features contributions from Jake Garcia (The Black Angels) and Rona Rougeheart (SINE), adding depth and tension to an already immersive soundscape. The result is intimate yet cinematic, insular yet explosively alive.
This is Mackey’s heaviest, most deliberate work yet. A fully realized vision carved from shadow and memory. IMAGINARY ENEMIES doesn’t just resonate with the pulse of darkwave, it haunts it. A requiem, a ritual, and a rallying cry for those who live and create in the margins, carrying their ghosts with grace.
Release Info
IMAGINARY ENEMIES will be released on July 25 on Negative Gain Productions.
The lead single “Vertigo Ego” arrives on May 23.
The album will be supported by a full U.S. headlining tour and select dates with Clan of Xymox.
Contact
Record Label: info@negativegain.com
Booking: info@cursemackey.com
Sync/Management: cm@coolmolecule.com
General: info@cursemackey.com
Website: www.cursemackey.com
Press Praise for Curse Mackey
• “The #1 Industrial/EBM album of the Year.” – Sounds and Shadows
• “Curse Mackey’s Instant Exorcism combines the twisted, dance elements of industrial and the raw, melancholy emotion of post-punk… perfect for both the dance floor and deep introspection.” – Kerrang!
• “Curse Mackey is everywhere in the electronic-industrial underground… an instant dance-floor classic!” – Revolver Magazine
• “Crouching toward us with stage presence equal parts Peter Murphy and Iggy Pop… primal, raw, and riveting.” – Altvenger Magazine
• “Instant Exorcism… simply a perfect blend of industrial, EBM, and synthwave.” – ReGen Magazine
• “This album has cohesion and message that stands out as a classical work.” – Outburn Magazine
• “This sounds like post-coital breathing mixed with rebellion.” – Sounds and Shadows
1. DOOMED FOR MONDAY (4:05)
2. VERTIGO EGO (4:09)
3. DISCOCCULT (4:13)
4. TIME COMES CLEAN (4:20)
5. BLOOD LIKE LOVE (5:31)
6. STAR WITNESS (4:12)
7. WHO KNOWS WHERE (3:44)
8. IMAGINARY ENEMY (4:36)
9. THE KINDNESS OF SERPENTS (4:13)
10. SIX GHOSTS OF FEAR (4:24)
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FIRST SINGLE: “VERTIGO EGO”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CURSE MACKEY RELEASES “VERTIGO EGO” — FIRST SINGLE + VIDEO FROM FORTHCOMING ALBUM IMAGINARY ENEMIES
Austin-based darkwave provocateur Curse Mackey has unleashed Vertigo Ego, the lead single and video from his upcoming third solo album, Imaginary Enemies (due July 25 on Negative Gain Productions). A brooding and hypnotic track, Vertigo Ego sets the tone for an album steeped in paranoia, grief, and the shadowy terrain of the self.
The video, directed by Austin artist TaSzlin Trébuchet (Jet Cemetery, FuckMoney), was filmed entirely in the city’s iconic Red River Cultural District, a hotbed of underground music where Mackey himself came of age. Featuring nighttime performance footage and vivid street imagery from Austin music venues including Elysium, Mohawk, Cheer Up Charlies, and 13th Floor, the video captures the neon grit and haunted glamour of Austin’s nocturnal pulse. “I pretty much grew up on Red River,” says Mackey. “I’ve been going to shows there since I was a teenager. It felt meaningful to bring that spirit into the first visual for Imaginary Enemies.”
Known for his commanding presence and evocative soundscapes, Curse Mackey has carved out his place as a leading voice in Texas industrial, darkwave, and post-punk. His work spans solo releases and collaborations with genre legends like Pigface and My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, Clan of Xymox and David J of Bauhaus/Love & Rockets. Mackey’s music is confrontational, yet charismatic and poetic.
Imaginary Enemies is Mackey’s most intense and intimate album to date. A cinematic, emotionally charged journey that plays out on the gritty city streets and in the shadowed corners of the mindwhere desire blurs with danger, memories flicker like broken neon, and monsters move in silence.
Watch the video premiere for “Vertigo Ego” https://youtu.be/twnR1Z8pRks
Listen to “Vertigo Ego” https://found.ee/cursemackey_vertigoego
Pre-order Curse Mackey - Imaginary Enemies https://cursemackeyngp.bandcamp.com/album/imaginary-enemies
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CURSE MACKEY – “DOOMED FOR MONDAY”
Second Single from the Album IMAGINARY ENEMIES
Label: Negative Gain Productions | Release Date:06/20/25
Genre: Darkwave / Industrial / Post-Punk / EBM
ABOUT THE TRACK
“Doomed For Monday” is the opening track from Curse Mackey’s highly anticipated third solo album, Imaginary Enemies. A darkwave anthem driven by pounding rhythms, icy synths, intricate vocal samples, industrialized atmos[here and ominous yet catchy vocals, it sets the emotional and sonic tone for the album that follows. Equal parts dread and defiance, this is the sound of a new week breaking beneath the weight of the modern world. Cover art by Curse Mackey. Produced by Curse Mackey and Chase Dobson.
THIRD SINGLE:
Artist: Curse Mackey
Title: Blood Like Love
Release Date: July 18, 2025
Produced by Curse Mackey and Chase Dobson
CURSE MACKEY RELEASES “BLOOD LIKE LOVE” — A DARKWAVE ELEGY FOR THE LOST
New single arrives July 18 ahead of full album release on July 25
Austin-based darkwave provocateur Curse Mackey will release his powerful new single “Blood Like Love” on July 18, just one week ahead of his highly anticipated third solo album, Imaginary Enemies, due July 25 via Negative Gain Productions.
“Blood Like Love” is the emotional and spiritual centerpiece of Imaginary Enemies—an intimate, grief-drenched elegy written in memory of real people. A poetic tribute to those we mourn deeply including Soft Moon’s Luis Vasquez and Silent Servant (Juan Mendez). Each left an irreplaceable mark on the lives, art, and souls of the dark electronic music communities. Their absence is still felt like a wound that hasn’t fully healed.
In Curse’s own words: “This song is for the friends who didn’t make it. And for those of who remain. This was not written in abstraction.”
Carried by cinematic synths, pulsing bass, and Mackey’s signature haunted vocals, “Blood Like Love” reaches into the spiritual aftermath of loss and asks: how do we carry on while honoring those who are no longer with us? With lyrics like “Sweet Silhouette once innocent / has left this forever misunderstood,” Mackey captures the beauty, ache, and emotional fog that lingers in the wake of tragedy.
Produced alongside longtime collaborator Chase Dobson, the track fuses lush darkwave atmospheres with post-industrial tension. It’s a standout moment on an album already hailed as one of the most anticipated industrial albums of the year and Curse’s most personal and fully realized work to date.
Imaginary Enemies concludes the trilogy that began with Instant Exorcism (2019) and deepened with Immoral Emporium (2022). Where the first two albums explored internal chaos and societal collapse, this final chapter focuses on mourning, memory, and redemption. Blood Like Love is its aching heart.
This release comes as Mackey embarks on a national summer tour with dates across the U.S., including select shows with Clan of Xymox and appearances at major dark music events. The single will be available on all major streaming platforms, with special features and behind-the-scenes content debuting exclusively on Bandcamp and Spotify.
Blood Like Love is a ritual of remembrance. A sonic vigil for the ones we lost and a hand extended to those still here. For fans of Twin Tribes, Cold Cave, Nine Inch Nails, The Cure, Clan of Xymox, this is a track not to be missed.
LISTEN / STREAM
Available on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp July 18
ALBUM RELEASE
Imaginary Enemies – Out July 25 on Negative Gain Productions
ABOUT CURSE MACKEY
Curse Mackey is a notable artist in the American industrial and darkwave underground. Based in Austin, TX, Mackey is known for his solo work as well as collaborations with genre legends including Pigface, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, and David J of Bauhaus/Love & Rockets. He has toured with Clan of Xymox, PIG, and remains a leading figure in Texas’ goth/industrial scene. His work fuses industrial tension, poetic intensity, and gothic atmospheres into a sound that resonates across the darker corners of electronic music.
MARKETING DRIVERS
· Doomed For Monday is the opening track on Imaginary Enemies—the third full-length solo album from Curse Mackey.
· Curse recently collaborated with David J of Bauhaus and toured nationally with Clan of Xymox.
· First single Vertigo Ego received support via a locally shot music video in Austin’s Red River Cultural District, home to venues like Elysium and Mohawk.
· Full album drops July 25, 2025 via Negative Gain Productions.
· U.S. summer tour underway with key dates in major goth/darkwave markets.
FOR FANS OF:
Clan of Xymox, Skinny Puppy, Twin Tribes, Cold Cave, HEALTH, Gary Numan, Pigface
LISTEN
Preview link: Listen to Imaginary Enemies
CONTACT
Artist/Press: info@CurseMackey.com
Booking: cm@coolmolecule.com
Website: www.cursemackey.com
Instagram: @cursemackey | X: @CurseMackey
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Electric Exorcism 2025 – Curse Mackey Tour Dates
April 12 - Austin, TX @Elysium
May 30 – Portland,OR @Coffin Club
June 26 – Tampa, FL @New World
June 27 – Orlando, FL @Will’s Pub
June 28 – Jacksonville, FL @Underbelly
June 29 – Gainesville, FL @The WoolyJul 31 – Dallas, TX @ Three Links*
Aug 1 – Tulsa, OK @ The Starlite*
Aug 2 – Lawrence, KS @ The Bottleneck*
Aug 3 – St. Louis, MO @ Crack Fox*
Aug 6 – Richmond, VA @ Fallout*
Aug 7 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery*
Aug 8 – Mechanicsburg, PA @ Lovedrafts*
Aug 9 – Philadelphia, PA @ Nikki Lopez*
Aug 10 – New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge*
Aug 12 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Sidequest on 44th*
Aug 13 – Detroit, MI @ Smalls*
Aug 14 – Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge ^
Aug 15 – Omaha, NE @ The Reverb ^
Aug 16 – Denver, CO @ Reelworks ^
Aug 18 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall ^
Aug 19 – Boise, ID @ Visual Arts Collective ^
Aug 21 – Portland, OR @ Star Theater ^
Aug 22 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret ^
Aug 23 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon ^
Aug 26 – Reno, NV – @ Holland Project
Aug 27 – San Francisco, CA @ DNA Lounge *
Aug 28 – Los Angeles, CA @ Gold Diggers for Damaged Disco
Aug 31 – Albuquerque, NM @ New Mexico Goth Fest (headlining)
Sep 19 – Austin, TX @ Cold Waves Fest w/ Nitzer Ebb, Frontline Assembly and more
Oct 21 – San Diego, CA @Brick by Brick
Oct 22 – Costa Mesa, CA @The Wayfarer
Oct 23 – Riverside, CA @The Hideaway
Oct 24 – Los Angeles, CA @LiveBash
Nov 7 – McAllen, TX @The Flying Walrus
Nov 8 – Laredo, TX @JardinXContreras
*w/ SINE + VOID PALACE
^ w/ CLAN OF XYMOX + SINE
