Hunter As a Horse 'Leviathan' : new single by South African artist out 19th June 2026 (Metropolis Records) | from long-awaited debut album out 24th July

Hunter As a Horse (HAAH) is the South African musician and vocalist Mia van Wyk. Based in the Western Cape, she has spent the last decade self-releasing a diverse series of singles and EPs that combine electronically-focused songs with intense, thoughtful lyrics that are given a darkly cinematic production.

HAAH signed to Metropolis Records in early 2026 and have released a fifth single on the label today entitled ‘Leviathan’ STREAM. “This song is about the moment you realise the person who tried to own, break, or define you no longer has power over you,” explains van Wyk. "It’s not revenge, it’s transformation. It’s becoming so vast and so certain of yourself, that their shadow can’t reach you anymore. And in that moment, you become the dangerous one.”

‘Leviathan’ and its four predecessors - ‘Lighthouse’ STREAM, ‘Here’s To All The Ones’ STREAM, ‘Paradise Lost’ STREAM and ‘Obey’ STREAM - are all included on a long-awaited debut album by HAAH, ‘Paradise Lost’, which is scheduled for release on 24th July.

Consisting of 12 songs of electronic dark-pop that alternate between rhythmically pulsating and downtempo, atmospheric and haunting, she states that “this album deals with my shadow, my transformation and my inner architecture, and I have tried to show what is deep inside myself. I discovered that the things I was taught to bury were never my enemies, but are actually my power.”

The majority of previous HAAH releases were songs that tended to be independent of each other, all with their own theme, but van Wyk's mindset started to shift with her 2025 EP ‘Anathema', which intentionally had a common thread running through it. “It was the first time I really started thinking in terms of a connected body of work, so it felt natural to take that further with ‘Paradise Lost’. It is designed to be heard as one piece, even though the songs are quite different individually.”

Elaborating further, she adds: "A lot changed for me during that time personally and I went through a kind of integration process where I started confronting things more. Writing the album felt like a natural expression of that. In the past, I often struggled to bring songs together because they felt too different, but this time everything came from a similar emotional place and period in my life.”

With her inspiration often stemming from unusual sources, van Wyk reveals that "I have always been drawn to the villains in stories, the ones who were feared and misunderstood, and I have often found beauty in places other people are afraid to look - the strange, the haunted, the macabre. Some people see monsters. I see stories. I see what survived. I see how it transformed. This album is resurrection, obsession, desire, revenge, surrender, love and my shadow. I don’t believe darkness is always something to be destroyed. Sometimes it’s the only part of you strong enough to save you. This album isn’t about conventional ‘healing'. It’s about walking out of the ruins wearing the crown.”

PARADISE LOST TRACKLIST

1 Here’s To All The Ones

2 Kiss Of Death

3 Object

4 Obey

5 Masochist

6 The Fortress

7 Paradise Lost

8 Go To Bed Now

9 Leviathan

10 Lighthouse

11 Dark Sky

12 Dead Things

Seamlessly genre-hopping between alternative, indie, electronic and dream-pop, with diversions into alternative dance and even nu-goth, the songs of HAAH have been described as mysterious, apocalyptic soundtracks for the strange happenings of our time, with the UK newspaper The Guardian commenting: “Brings to mind the mesmerising atmospherics of Lamb and Zero 7. Dark and very lovely indeed.”

The subject matter of Mia van Wyk’s lyrics are a mystical ride through her strange and synchronicitous life. Deeply authentic, they are inspired by death, addiction, astral visions, CPTSD, melancholia, nostalgia and magical thinking.