The Mission share ‘Kindness Is A Weapon’, announce album ‘Songs for Kith and Kin’
The Mission released the single “Kindness Is A Weapon” and announced the album “Songs for Kith and Kin”, out 2 April 2027 via Cooking Vinyl.
British gothic rock band The Mission released the single “Kindness Is A Weapon” alongside a lyric video, announcing the album “Songs for Kith and Kin”, due 2 April 2027 via Cooking Vinyl. The 15-track album is the band’s first since “Another Fall from Grace” in 2016, and will be available on CD, cassette and double vinyl, with preorders open through the band’s official store.
“Kindness Is A Weapon” had already appeared in the band’s live sets before a hiatus around Wayne Hussey‘s open-heart surgery, with Hussey continuing to revise its lyrics until the song was recorded in June 2026. The surgery and recovery also delayed the wider album, originally planned for 2025. Hussey described the song’s premise plainly: “You can use kindness as a weapon for good, and you have to let things go at some point.”
Hussey, guitarist Simon Hinkler and bassist Craig Adams are joined on the album by drummer Alex Baum, who joined the band in 2022 and co-wrote the track “Roll With the Punches”. Hussey produced “Songs for Kith and Kin”, with César Lamschtein recording at Faro House Studios in José Ignacio, Uruguay, and additional orchestral sessions in Montevideo; the arrangements add keyboards, sitar and tamboura around Hussey and Hinkler’s guitars.
Hussey has said the album moves from concerns about his health and the wider world toward family, friendship and home, a progression reflected in its title. “Kindness Is A Weapon” is available to stream now; “Songs for Kith and Kin” is available to preorder on CD, cassette and double vinyl, in two colored-vinyl pressings, through the band’s official store.
The Mission’s first album since ‘Another Fall from Grace’
“Songs for Kith and Kin” follows “Another Fall from Grace”, released in September 2016 and produced by Tim Palmer, which marked ten years in the band’s catalogue this past September. That album featured guest vocal contributions from Julianne Regan, Ville Valo of HIM, Gary Numan and Martin Gore of Depeche Mode. “Songs for Kith and Kin” is credited to the same core lineup of Hussey, Hinkler and Adams, with Baum now established as the band’s drummer.
About The Mission
The Mission is an English gothic rock band formed in Leeds in 1986 by Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams after the pair left The Sisters of Mercy. They recruited guitarist Simon Hinkler and drummer Mick Brown, performing first as the Sisterhood before settling on The Mission and signing to Mercury/Phonogram’s Chapter 22 imprint. The band’s debut album, “God’s Own Medicine”, followed in 1986, reaching the UK top ten, with the single “Wasteland” reaching number 11 on the UK singles chart in January 1987 and “Tower of Strength” reaching number 12 in February 1988.
The band’s second album, “Children” (1988), reached number two on the UK album chart. Further studio albums followed through the 1990s and 2000s, including “Carved in Sand” (1990), “Masque” (1992), “Neverland” (1995), “Blue” (1996), “Aura” (2001, released on Playground) and “God Is a Bullet” (2007). Hinkler left the band in 1990 and rejoined in 2011, the year a wider band reunion was announced; Adams has also had two periods away from the lineup, returning in 2011. “The Brightest Light” followed in 2013, and “Another Fall from Grace” in 2016, released through Eyes Wide Shut Recordings and reaching number 38 on the UK album chart.
Alex Baum joined as drummer in 2022. “Songs for Kith and Kin”, due 2 April 2027 via Cooking Vinyl, is the band’s first studio album in over a decade, introduced by the single “Kindness Is A Weapon”.
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!
