Stabbing Westward date ‘Wither ReWired’ for 10 September on 180-gram vinyl and digipak CD
Stabbing Westward release “Wither ReWired” on 10 September 2026 via COP International, a full re-recording of “Wither Blister Burn + Peel” on vinyl and CD.
Artwork: David Seidman
Stabbing Westward release “Wither ReWired” on 10 September 2026 through COP International. The industrial rock band have re-recorded their 1996 album “Wither Blister Burn + Peel” in full, thirty years on, and the record comes out on heavyweight 180-gram black vinyl in a limited pressing and as a four-panel digipak CD with a twelve-page booklet and a disc-only bonus track.
That bonus is “Akegata (Dawn)”. The rest of the running order follows the original album: “I Don’t Believe”, “What Do I Have to Do?”, “Falls Apart”, “Crushing Me” and “Why” on side A, “Slipping Away”, “Shame”, “Inside You”, “So Wrong” and “Sleep” on side B.
Who played on ‘Wither ReWired’
Christopher Hall handled vocals, synth and programming, with Walter Flakus on programming, guitar and bass. Carlton Bost played guitar and bass and Bobby Amaro played drums. Production was split between the two founders: Hall produced and mixed “Crushing Me”, “Inside You”, “Why”, “What Do I Have to Do?”, “So Wrong”, “Falls Apart” and “Akegata (Dawn)”, while Flakus produced and mixed “Sleep”, “Slipping Away”, “I Don’t Believe” and “Shame”. Tom Baker mastered the album and David Seidman supplied the artwork.
The songwriting credits stay with the 1996 line-up. All songs are credited to Stabbing Westward, with the “Wither Blister Burn + Peel” era credits reading Walter Flakus, Christopher Hall, Andy Kubiszewski and Jim Sellers.
COP International is clear about what this is not, describing the album as “not a remaster […] not a remix” but a rebuild, with Hall and Flakus bringing three decades of playing and production back to the songs that made the band’s name.
The release follows the band’s 2026 tour marking thirty years of the original album, announced in Stabbing Westward announce Wither ReWired Tour and re-recording of “Wither Blister Burn + Peel”.
About Stabbing Westward
Stabbing Westward formed in Macomb, Illinois in 1985 around vocalist Christopher Hall and keyboardist Walter Flakus, schoolmates and radio station colleagues at Western Illinois University. The band moved to Chicago and signed to Columbia Records. John Fryer produced the debut album “Ungod” in 1994 and “Wither Blister Burn + Peel” in 1996, which carried “What Do I Have to Do?” and “Shame”. “Darkest Days” followed in 1998 and the self-titled “Stabbing Westward” in 2001, after which the band stopped.
They returned in 2019, releasing the “Dead and Gone” EP in 2020 and the fifth album “Chasing Ghosts”, again with Fryer producing, on COP International on 18 March 2022. Hall has kept up a steady run of guest work alongside the band, including Metamorph’s “Dance of a 1000 Miracles” in May 2025 and Sorrow Stories’ “So Sick” in August 2026. Bassist and guitarist Carlton Bost has also played with Deadsy and Orgy.
“Wither ReWired” is the band’s second album for COP International and the first time they have taken an entire Columbia-era record back into the studio, this time producing it themselves rather than working with Fryer.
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