British synthwave greats Gunship have shared new track ‘Tell Me When The World Stops Ending’ as the soundtrack to a blistering trailer for John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando – check it out above.
John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando is an intense first-person zombie shooter that sees teams of four players taking on waves of horrific undead monsters. The video game is set to launch March 12 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC and today (February 24) developers Sabre Interactive have shared a new animated trailer.
The clip, based on an original idea from Gunship, focuses on a zombie outbreak at a dilapidated church that gets tackled by a group of gun-wielding mercenaries. The carnage is soundtracked by Gunship’s ‘Tell Me When The World Stops Ending’, the band’s first new song since 2025’s ‘Mad World’.
“It’s a collision of two worlds we love and have been deeply involved with all our lives,” Gunship’s Alex Gingell told NME. “I started out level designing and modding first person shooters back in the days of Doom 2, Duke Nukem and Quake when I was 13 or 14 years old. John Carpenter’s movies have been an ever-present source of inspiration since that same time period. Doing this is literally in our DNA.”
Gunship previously collaborated with Carpenter on 2015’s ‘Tech Noir’ and 2023 follow-up track ‘Tech Noir 2’, which also featured their former Fightstar bandmate Charlie Simpson. “When the master of horror himself calls… you answer,” Dan Haigh explained. “We’ve been fortunate enough to collaborate with John twice previously so when we were approached, this felt natural and was an instant ‘hell yeah’ from all of us.”
Check out the rest of our interview with Gunship below, where the band talk about their love of video games, working on album four and teaming up with Evanescence for a remix of Devil May Cry anthem ‘Afterlife‘.
Gaming has been part of Gunship’s world from the start – what does it mean to be invited into the world of video games like this?
Alex Westaway: “Games provided me with an escapism when I was a kid, imagination development fuel! This idea for me is inherent in the DNA of Gunship. In my song writing, I try to create worlds, stories, adventure, romance, heartbreak etc. I just hope that it can resonate and be transportative for other people. So to get the opportunity to collaborate on such a cool game feels like full-circle shit.”
Dan Haigh: “Alex G and myself actually first worked together on a bunch of Doom 2, Quake 1, 2 and 3 mods and then went on to work for EA and Gearbox as designers. As with film making, gaming is definitely in all our blood. World building, immersive experience and imagination led escapism are really what we try to do with Gunship’s music. When it came to Toxic Commando – You really do need a skull thumping soundtrack to properly liquidate the undead zombie hordes to. It’s been a real pleasure to work on games again, a place where so many creative disciplines meet, and we’d love to do more.”
What inspirations did you draw from for ‘Tell Me When The World Stops Ending’?
Haigh: “The introduction and atmospheric parts draw inspiration from John Carpenter‘s iconic soundtrack work, particularly his work on Halloween, The Fog, and Prince Of Darkness. John’s approach to weaving together incredibly rich synthesizer-driven atmosphere has always been a cornerstone of Gunship’s writing style. Other inspiration came from the original OMEN soundtrack in particular ‘Ave Satani’ which led to us reaching out to Choir Noir for the haunting choral elements featured in both the intro and middle of the track.”
Westaway: “It’s the end of the world, but you’re slow-dancing in the wreckage with someone you can’t let go of.”
It feels more aggressive than what most people would know you for – where did that energy come from?
Haigh: “When you’re gunning down wave after wave of disgruntled, recently reanimated undead with belt-fed machine guns, you really do have to crank the dial to 11. Deploying the detuned guitars and cooking up some proper zombie-pulping riffage was both cathartic and enormous fun. I grew up listening to metal, and I remember very clearly when I was writing the music for this that there was a very strong temptation to lean over and pick up the 7-string … I gave in!”
Alex Gingell: “Between the three of us, I feel like we have a pretty eclectic musical taste, and we’re pretty comfortable exploring a wide range of styles. If you listen back to songs like ‘Thrasher’, ‘Dark All Day’, ‘Blood God’, there are definitely moments where we let our heavier influences bleed through. Maybe the beast is bending the bars of its cage a little bit more each time it’s poked!”
Your third album ‘Unicorn’ was released back in 2023. Is ‘Tell Me When The World Stops Ending’ a hint at where the band are heading next?
Westaway: “Definitely. It’s really exciting. We are halfway through writing the next record. Expect both sides of the spectrum to be pushed.”
Gingell: “I’d say yes and no. I think the next record is going to be really interesting because the spectrum of the material is shaping up to be quite diverse both sonically and structurally. I feel like we’re pushing stylistic boundaries and exploring new themes and ideas whilst always staying true to the classic Gunship sound, and especially that emotional core which is so important to us. Some tracks definitely break into wholly new stylistic territory, but it’s a natural expansion of Gunship’s range and always done in a very careful and deliberate fashion within the scope of the entire album. It feels fresh and unique but also in keeping and consistent with all previous albums. Ultimately I think a good album should deliver on the elements that made people fans of earlier records, but also provide the right amount of challenge and stretch listeners in new directions to a certain degree. But there’s always that world-building and transportative storytelling element that I love. I’m personally very excited because some of my favourite Gunship tracks of all time are in the new material and I am dreaming of the day we get to release them into the world.”
Haigh: “I’m so happy to be in the writing zone again. I think the 7string guitar riffs in this song were a direct byproduct of zombie slaying enthusiasm, and probably won’t become a super regular fixture… having said that we do enjoy getting the lead out so you never know! The stuff I’m writing at the moment feels exciting to me, it’s like a convergence of the impulses that lead to ‘Gunship’, ‘Dark All Day’ and ‘Unicorn’ but maybe I’ve finally figured out what actually connected with me best in all of that endeavor. Really looking forward to cooking up the music video concepts for these new tracks too.”
What did it mean to team up with Evanescence for the ‘Afterlife’ remix – and is there any chance of future collaborations?
Haigh: “Finding out that Evanescence are big fans was a very cool moment for sure. Amy Lee was amazing to work with – it’s extremely rewarding to collaborate with someone who also cares about every tiny detail, from momentary notes in synth arpeggiations to specifics in the artwork we cooked up, all of which added up to make it a meaningful and fun creative exchange. Her vocals are such a natural fit with dark and atmospheric synth stuff – you’ll have to watch this space on a future collab.”