[Cover photo credit to Peter Leukhardt]
Modern Metalcore collective HumanKind have released new single “Runaway”, taken from their upcoming studio album, Perfect World, due out on December 4, 2026 via ROAR, A Division Of Reigning Phoenix Music.
“Runaway” explores “the overwhelming desire to escape when emotional pain becomes unbearable” and looks at “the isolating effects of depression and the gradual loss of connection to oneself and the world.”
HumanKind comment on “Runaway”:
Runaway explores avoidance as a survival mechanism. Sometimes emotional pain becomes so overwhelming that escaping reality feels easier than confronting it. The lyrics describe someone slowly withdrawing from life, convinced they no longer belong anywhere. Frozen imagery, disappearing light and endless snow create an atmosphere of emotional numbness, illustrating how depression often manifests not through sadness but through complete emotional disconnection. Placed near the end of the album, Runaway represents one final temptation to surrender before reaching the album’s conclusion.
With Perfect World, HumanKind take a decisive step forward, since whereas their previous record, An End, Once and for All, focused primarily on “surviving inner darkness”, Perfect World asks a much bigger question: “What does it mean to remain human in a world that seems to lose its humanity every day?”
While remaining firmly rooted in modern Metal, the band combines Metalcore with cinematic atmospheres, melodic choruses and emotionally-driven songwriting. The new album “encourages listeners not only to confront difficult emotions, but also to realise that they are never truly alone in facing them.”
Darkness and hope exist side by side throughout the record, reflecting HumanKind’s “core message that even at our lowest points, we don’t have to face our battles alone.”
The band comments:
Throughout the album we explore depression, anxiety, trauma, loneliness, social isolation, digital exhaustion, environmental collapse and the growing disconnect between people. Despite addressing these heavy topics, Perfect World is not an album about hopelessness. It is about resilience. It is about choosing compassion over indifference and finding purpose even when the world around us appears to be falling apart.
For this album, once again the band joined forces with Christoph Wieczorek (Annisokay, Sawdust Recordings), who handled production, mixing and mastering.
