“Encompassed by cruel compassion he Embarks [sic] on his holy Hawaiiian mission…” reads one section of the press release for Drain Gang figurehead Bladee’s eighth solo album Sulfur Surfer. I took an intake of breath. You see, Bladee’s maximalist releases have always been steeped in rich internet lore, but this album seemed like a whole different beast. I was going to have my work cut out for me.
Released as the follow-up to fan-favourite 2024 album Cold Visions, yet eschewing the catchiness of previous tracks like “I Don’t Like People feat. Yung Lean” in favour of dense, lore-laden verses, Sulfur Surfer’s sonic direction seems as obscure as its narrative. Entirely produced by fellow Drain Gang member Whitearmor, the project leans into the EDM side of Bladee’s EDM-rap spectrum, with kaleidoscopic synths, apocalyptic bass pumps, and, occasionally, stuttering trap kicks forming much of the soundscaping.
Instead, world-building seems to be the main focus of this project, with Silver Surfer only featuring one guest appearance over its 46-minute runtime: English doom folk band Current93, perhaps the only group in the world that can rival the esoteric mysticism of Drain Gang. Suffice to say, this album is dense, with Bladee pastiching disparate references to Lord of the Rings, Dragon Ball Z, Mary Poppins, Christian mysticism and more into the postmodern artwork that is his singular musical universe; a world in which good and evil, nihilism and hope, and, ultimately, fantasy and reality intertwine.
Below, we signpost five of the most esoteric references on Bladee’s latest album, Sulfur Surfer.
Perhaps the biggest reference on the new project is the legend of Saint George and the Dragon. This was first referenced by Bladee in a 2025 Pitchfork cover story in which he hinted at an upcoming collaboration with producer Whitearmour, stating: “I don’t want to jinx it, but it’s something with Saint George – I’m trying to use Saint George to make some music […] he’s the one killing the dragon.” Soon after, Bladee released an EP titled STE The Beautiful Martyr 1st Attempt, but references to the Christian saint also abound throughout Sulfur Surfer – from Bladee literally branding himself Saint George in “Highland Tyrant”, to frequent allusions to slaying a “black dragon”.
On some level, this battle seems to represent the struggles with mental health and substance abuse, which formed a key focus on Bladee’s previous album, Cold Visions: lyrics on “Versailles Flow” bemoan the dragon’s “venom” poisoning his mind and affirm “Ste the martyr, always happy in the night”. Indeed, even in the original George and the Dragon mythology, the dragon has been interpreted as an allegory for sin. But there also seems to be an external dimension here…
Bladee’s relationship with Christianity is one of the many enduring mysteries of his career. In a 2024 Substack post titled “Is Bladee Christian music?”, writer Alex Mazey argues that the increasing allusions to the Christian faith in Bladee’s music don’t represent dogmatic belief so much as “align with a broader cultural movement towards spirituality and eschatological thinking.” In basic terms, people are feeling shit about the state of things right now, and are resorting to religion for answers or, at the very least, validation.
Through this line of thought, Bladee’s invocation of George and the Dragon represents a wider search for righteousness in a world that feels increasingly corrupted – from stinking sulfur lakes to “The Dark Mirror”, which, on some level, seems to represent society’s obsession with social media and materialism. As Bladee announces in the album’s title track opener: “Watch as I transcend torment again / after the ultimate trail of the night rides back towards the one that’s in light / Mirrors shattered, illusions illuminated / Ste in the name of David, amen.” It’s a Christian mysticism divorced from its religious connotations, wielded much like his invocation of pop culture and high fantasy imagery.
Bladee has never been a stranger to high fantasy influences, having previously sampled Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on cult-favourite album 333, but Sulfur Surfer takes this a step further. The album’s ninth track, “Durins Bane” is named after the Balrog of Morgoth from Lord of the Rings, which notably clashes with Gandalf in the Mines of Moria in Fellowship of the Ring. This battle is referenced in the track’s lyrics, with Bladee rapping, “Fucked up the touch down, Balrog whip, I’m pulling up with sick / Balrog whips, I’ll take you to the abyss”, weaving light wordplay between Durin’s Bane’s signature whip, and slang for a car.
Though it was a collaboration no one saw coming, Sulfur Surfer’s sole guest appearance from English neofolk band Current93’s frontman, David Tibet, feels like a match made in heaven. Much like Drain Gang themselves, Current93 are steeped in esoteric lore – from their roots in experimental 1980s British art collective Psychic TV, to Tibet’s own studies in occultism, linguistics and magic.
Suffice to say, few are qualified to fully decode Tibet’s wide range of references here, but what does seem clear is that his presence helps contextualise Sulfur Surfer’s underlying theme of alchemy (appearing on the track “Fox & Birch” and frequently referring back to the image of sulfur), as well as its espousal of a mysticism that moves beyond moral binaries. On standout track “Black Fire”, Tibet narrates: “Surfing on the yellow lake of black fire, neither good nor evil”, while elsewhere both Tibet and Bladee deploy a number of moral oxymorons in their writing – “dreammare”, “cruel compassion”, “violent kindness” and so on. Which brings us to our final point…
In a 2025 interview with the Swedish Herald, Bladee is asked whether he considers his music nihilistic. “No, I do not agree with that. I think it’s quite hopeful. I do not feel nihilistic,” comes Bladee’s response. This answer provides important context on the overarching message of Sulfur Surfer, which is markedly more positive (for Bladee, at least) than Cold Visions’ wallowing despair.
This complicated relationship between nihilism and hope takes particular prominence on Sulfur Surfer’s lead and only single “Blondie”, in which Bladee declares: “There is no before, there is no after / There’s only one king, only one master: King Nothing” – the latter of which is a title he frequently uses to refer to himself. While on the surface this might seem to contradict Bladee’s disavowal of nihilism, this denial of objective meaning could also be understood as a starting point for a more freeing philosophy in which individuals create their own meaning. “I am the only one who has anything interesting to say,” comes Bladee’s next line on the track.
This line of thought helps to contextualise the endless esoteric references that populate much of Bladee’s discography – as the name of his self-founded label suggests, it’s an island of trash from all corners of subjective experience, images repurposed in the act of continuous self-creation. Beneath all the emotional trauma that he has shared with his listeners over the years, Bladee seems to find hope in a belief that life is what he makes of it. And, considering their reputation as uniting misfits the world over, you truly can’t get any more Drain Gang than that.
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