It’s been five years since Puscifer last released a studio album, and in that time, the world has only grown stranger. Now, the trio led by Maynard James Keenan, along with Mat Mitchell and Carina Round, are back with Normal Isn’t, arriving February 6, 2026, via Puscifer Entertainment/Alchemy Recordings/BMG. The band’s latest work finds them diving headfirst into darker, more guitar-driven territory, embracing the post-punk and goth influences that shaped their earliest musical obsessions.
“We’re definitely leaning into our early influences,” Keenan explains. “It’s the place where goth meets punk. It’s where I came from.” The first single, Self Evident, captures that raw energy perfectly, pairing a jagged edge with the band’s signature dark humour and electronic pulse. The track’s accompanying video, directed by Mitchell and María Aceves Diego, was filmed at an intimate August performance at Exchange L.A., where the band previewed the album in full.
Written and recorded across Arizona, Los Angeles, and the road during last year’s Sessanta tour, Normal Isn’t marks a looser, more spontaneous era for Puscifer. Mitchell, who co-produced the record, notes that “we got rid of the guard rails and made the music more aggressive.” That shift is also evident in Keenan’s process. For the first time, he built full song ideas in his own studio before bringing them to Mitchell and Round.
Round describes the sessions as both chaotic and inspired. “Instead of saying, ‘I want this to sound like Fleetwood Mac on cocaine if they had a baby with PJ Harvey,’ Maynard was showing us his intention,” she says. “In Puscifer, any idea can totally change without any preciousness, and everybody is on board. We found each other because we’re demented in a symbiotic way.”
The album features contributions from Greg Edwards, Gunnar Olsen, and Sarah Jones, with guest appearances by Tony Levin and Danny Carey. To support the release, the band will embark on a North American tour starting March 20 in Las Vegas, including a Canadian stop at Niagara Falls’ OLG Stage on April 15.
Keenan sums it up simply: “What we see around us does not appear normal. Not by a long shot.”
Photo credit: Travis Shinn
Share this :
