The Hardkiss return with Grey Hound — their fifth studio album and the band’s heaviest, darkest and most sonically experimental record to date.
Built as a fully conceptual work, Grey Hound consists of 12 tracks plus Intro and Outro, all revolving around one central figure: Time.
Named after the fastest dog breed in the world, the greyhound becomes a metaphor for time itself — relentless, untouchable, but ultimately healing. Across the album, Time is portrayed not as an enemy, but as the only force capable of restoring, revealing and saving.
“Time is the only thing that heals human souls. The only thing that shows who was right and who was wrong. The only thing that can save us,” says Julia Sanina.
The album opens with an Intro where Time directly addresses the listener, setting the tone for the entire record. A recurring visual character — a silent figure in a grey suit carrying a briefcase — appears throughout the album’s visuals and videos as the physical embodiment of Time observing human fate.
Written largely throughout 2025 during a deliberate creative hiatus, Grey Hound marks a significant stylistic shift for the band. While maintaining The Hardkiss’ cinematic melodic identity, the album pushes deeper into darker and heavier textures than ever before.
“We wanted to keep the balance between Hard and Kiss,” Sanina explains. “Musically, this is probably our heaviest album. But we kept the cinematic and dramatic melodicism. Music helps people process and survive the stages we are all going through now.”
Most of the album is performed in English, alongside two Ukrainian-language tracks — “Ursula” and “1000”. Lyrically, the record moves between intimacy and wider social reflection, touching on love, desire, separation and displacement. Tracks such as “Day After Day” and “Stay” speak directly to people scattered across the world and cut off from home and loved ones, a fate shared by millions today around the globe.
All songs were written by Julia Sanina and Val Bebko.
The album also features a collaboration with British rock band The Hara. The partnership began unexpectedly via Instagram after Sanina publicly praised the band’s online videos, leading to a fast-moving creative exchange and one of the album’s most explosive tracks.
For listeners who stay until the very end, Grey Hound hides one final surprise: a secret track hidden in the Outro. Detached from the album’s core sound, the composition ventures into avant-garde territory with live saxophone and experimental arrangements — a final reward for the devoted listeners.
