JOIA release «Les Hores Mortes»: a prelude and eleven songs of intensity
Catalan band JOIA release twelve-track album «Les Hores Mortes», with a prelude and eleven songs blending indie, punk and emo.
JOIA are turning vulnerability into volume. The Catalan band’s new record, «Les Hores Mortes», arrived on 23 October 2026 through BCore. Across twelve tracks, including an opening prelude and eleven songs, the group brings together indie, punk and emo influences with a literary sensibility that gives the record a broader emotional landscape.
Earlier tracks «Veig com neva» and «Cap vent no em mou» offered glimpses of the album’s world. Heard within the context of the full release, they become part of a journey filled with recurring images of snow, mountains, paths, memories and uncertain futures. Those details work as emotional signposts rather than decorative storytelling.
A debut built after more than twenty shows
Although «Les Hores Mortes» marks the band’s first full-length release, JOIA arrive with substantial stage experience. The group played more than twenty shows in 2025, then spent the first half of 2026 combining live dates with studio work. That history helps explain the dual character of the music: lyrics that invite close reading are matched to a sound designed to be shared in a crowded room.
JOIA cite Extremoduro, Basement, Nueva Vulcano and Title Fight among their reference points. That mixture suggests a broad span of guitar music, from emotionally charged rock to punk and emo. These are influences to consider rather than proof that any specific track sounds like one of those groups.
Literary references and artwork made inside the band
A text by poet Montserrat Abelló sets the tone at the opening of the album, while writer Maria Rovira’s reflections on the release draw attention to memory, loss and the landscapes through which its narrator moves. Such images help give the songs a narrative coherence beyond the force of their arrangements.
Drummer Joan Manel designed the physical edition, available on twelve-inch vinyl as well as digital platforms. This is a striking detail for a band whose identity is rooted in a do-it-yourself approach: the visual presentation is not outsourced as an afterthought but treated as an extension of the music. The band’s Bandcamp page and Instagram account offer ways to follow the release.
From private feelings to shared release
JOIA’s members — Eloi, Joan Manel, Uri and Nil — first came together around songs that had been waiting to be heard. Their do-it-yourself approach and strong friendships remain central to the group. The tension between the urgency of the music and the fragility of the writing is what gives their work its distinct character.
The band’s accompanying materials draw on the poetry of Montserrat Abelló, while writer Maria Rovira reflects on memory, grief and the way people learn to live with both. Those ideas help frame an album that attempts to give difficult emotions a physical, collective expression.
A record with its own visual identity
«Les Hores Mortes» is available digitally and on 12-inch vinyl. Drummer Joan Manel created the design for the physical edition, ensuring that the packaging follows the same creative spirit as the music itself.
The record is positioned within a fertile part of Catalonia’s independent scene, where the borders between indie rock, punk and emo are increasingly porous. JOIA’s answer is to make songs that can be lived with privately and shouted with other people in a room.