Ashen Sun rework Skinny Puppy’s ‘Worlock’ with Lucifer’s Aid

Ashen Sun
Ashen Sun, the Stockholm project led by Johnny Hagel (ex-Tiamat), will release “Worlock” on April 17, 2026. The single reworks Skinny Puppy’s “Worlock”, originally issued from the 1989 album “Rabies”, and features Lucifer’s Aid. It follows Ashen Sun’s six-track EP “Velarium”, which arrived on March 27, 2026.
The new version is a gothic reinterpretation rather than a direct cover. The cover offers a slower and more atmospheric approach built around layered textures, restrained dynamics and a darker cinematic approach. The band says they wanted to reinterpret the song “through our own lens”.
The single is scheduled for major streaming platforms on April 17, but a trailer is already online.
About Ashen Sun
Ashen Sun emerged in 2024 as Johnny Hagel’s own project. Based in Stockholm the project mixes dark gothic rock, cold-wave synths and cinematic electronics.
Hagel is best known from earlier work in Tiamat and Sundown, a band he co-founded Sundown. Besides this he was involved with Sorcerer as well.
The first Ashen Sun release was the standalone single “Whisper to the Skull”, issued on October 20, 2025. “Faith’s Funeral” followed in December 2025 and “Black Thoughts” in February 2026, before the March 2026 release of “Ashes of the World” and the full “Velarium” EP on Desert Plain Records.
More material is expected to lead toward a full-length album later in 2026.
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

