Post-hardcore band Sleeping With Sirens released their new single “Forever/Always” on April 24. The group dropped “Forever/Always” just after the release of their single “An Ending In Itself” on March 19. Both tracks are off of the band’s upcoming album also titled “An Ending In Itself,” which is set to release on June 11.
Within the album’s cover art are clear parallels to Sleeping With Sirens’ debut studio album “With Ears To See And Eyes to Hear” released in 2010. “An Ending In Itself” reimagines the former album’s geometric art style, color palette and distinctive color blocking. However, there are some key differences that make the upcoming album distinct.
“An Ending In Itself” has an inverted color scheme in comparison with “With Ears to See And Eyes to Hear.” The cover art shows a dark atmosphere of a burnt down forest — the remains of a tree ablaze in red and orange in the center and a heavy amount of black in the artwork.
Meanwhile, Sleeping With Sirens’ debut album contains much brighter artwork, featuring a largely white background and outlines of a mountain range. Slightly to the right of the album artwork’s center is a black mountain and a white tree with bright orange leaves drifting away from it. Beneath the mountain is a white river outlined by the red shadow of the mountain.
Though the focus of each album’s artwork is on a singular tree, whether standing or deteriorating, it is clear that they are linearly connected.. The first depiction of the tree in “With Ears to See And Eyes to Hear” stands tall while the tree depicted in the new album has been burnt and reduced to the size of a sapling. The band illustrates and hints that while they are making a nostalgic return to their previous work, they may be taking apart their old sound in a way to incorporate their current progress as a band. The burning of the tree could also indicate that the band intends to provide an ending for the era of “With Ears to See And Eyes to Hear.”
The tree imagery on both album covers is re-visited in the music videos for both singles supporting “An Ending In Itself.” In the“An Ending In Itself” music video, the band is shown in a white-walled building filled with bare, black trees. At 36 seconds, vocalist Kellin Quinn discovers an orange door. Behind the door lies a singular black tree with orange leaves, resembling the tree depicted in the artwork of “With Ears To See And Eyes to Hear.” At two minutes, 33 seconds, the orange-leaved tree is set ablaze by Quinn, similar to the tree that is ablaze in the album art of “An Ending In Itself.” By the end of the video, the tree is completely bare, with only smoke escaping it.
Through the “An Ending In Itself” music video, the band further confirms that their debut album and upcoming album are visually connected. The burning of the tree by Quinn clearly represents a potential destruction of the band’s past work, marking its end.
The “Forever/Always” music video contains the same orange door from the music video of “An Ending In Itself.” Instead of mimicking the visuals of “With Ears to See and Eyes to Hear” album artwork, the setting draws from the scenery of their new album art by placing the band in a forest with gloomy, cloudy weather.
This time, the other four members encounter the orange door before Quinn, as he instead finds a small orange book before meeting up with the rest of the band at the door. Once the door opens in front of the band at three minutes, 18 seconds, Quinn walks over to it, and a black room is revealed to be behind it. The reveal of a pitch-black room, rather than the white room with the orange-leaved tree discovered in the first music video, indicates that a shift has occurred since the destruction of the tree. The empty, dark room implies that there is nothing left since the tree has burned.
The visual parallels of “With Ears To See And Eyes to Hear” and “An Ending In Itself” are not the only indicators that the band appears to be making a return to its roots. Sleeping With Sirens’ sound in their new singles is strikingly similar to that of their older work as well.
“With Ears To See And Eyes to Hear” is not the only previous album that Sleeping With Sirens is drawing inspiration from. It is likely that fans can expect an upcoming album filled with visual callbacks to the band’s debut album, yet one that is also a culmination of the band’s previous work in terms of sound.
Sleeping With Sirens is scheduled to begin touring on May 8 and will continue to be on tour until Nov. 14. Readers based in Southern California can see them at Warped Tour in Long Beach on July 25.
Juliana Maldonado is an Arts and Entertainment Intern for the spring 2026 quarter. She can be reached at jrmaldo1@uci.edu.
Edited by Charleen Pan
