Nick Cave releases enigmatic countdown clock: what's on the horizon?

On his website, Australian musician Nick Cave, frontman for popular bands Birthday Party and the Bad Seeds, has posted a peculiar ticking clock with print reading "WILD GOD." The clock is counting down, but fans do not yet know what will happen when the clock reaches its end.

On social media, followers have speculated that this could be the release of his latest album, Wild God being the title. Last year, Cave said that the first new Bad Seeds album since back in 2019 was on its way.

Nick Cave’s website has a countdown clock and the title ‘Wild God’, plus new profile phone.

New album in a day and a half. @nickcave #nickcave pic.twitter.com/crM4rapxLf

— Tim Hein (@Tim_Hein) March 4, 2024

The countdown will conclude at 17:15 GMT today, March 6th, or 12:15 ET/9:15PT in the United States.

Cave also posted a link to his website on all of his social media accounts.

https://t.co/gdewNTplqV

— Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (@nickcave) March 5, 2024

The initial supposition of this album's release was back in October 2022. At a Q&A, he confirmed that he was getting ready to start the writing process, later stating that he eventually started writing at 9 am on New Year's Day 2023.

Last July, he announced on his website that they were in the process of "finishing" recording the album. It was only in November that he revealed his efforts to start mixing the record.

Cave also put out a cover of Édith Piaf's 'La Vie En Rose' just last week. His rendition of the classic 1947 single was performed for the soundtrack to the AppleTV+ drama The New Look.

A nascent version of what later became Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds was created in the Birthday Party's home in London in September of 1983. Playing a prominent role in the postpunk movement, Cave said that he always drew inspiration from the gospel-inspired '50s rock and R&B of Elvis and Screamin' Jay Hawkins.

In his works, he portrays themes like mortality, despair, and even ludicrousness. This places him in the genre of Gothic. With Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' nine studio albums between their 1984 and 1996 run demonstrate the influence of Gothic themes, especially a Southern Gothic writing style, as in the short stories of Flannery O'Connor.