In the book A Window on Eternity (2014), American biologist E.O. Wilson referred to what many people call the Anthropocene—the current epoch shaped by human activity—as the Eremocene, or the Age of Loneliness. This loneliness results from the accelerated extinction of species other than humans, pointing toward a future stripped of Earth’s biodiversity—a gift that many humans may hardly notice until it’s gone.
Eremocene is also the title of Lawrence, Kansas band Virga’s 2025 album, an intriguing example of what the band has labeled ‘prairie goth’, among other less regionally specific tags assigned to the LP on its Bandcamp page. Virga’s eponymous debut release was a 2023 cassette ‘recorded live in the middle of a rainstorm during the hottest summer (yet)’ according to its Bandcamp page. After following that with the aforementioned Eremocene, the band released a four-song EP called The Perfect Freedom of Single Necessity in January 2026. Now, in October 2026, a two-song digital EP has appeared at the close of their tour with Oklahoma noise powerhouse Chat Pile and Philadelphia hardcore punkers Soul Glo.
Ostensibly, this is a review of the latest Virga release, but it ranges farther than that by necessity, given how the band’s sound has progressed since their first lo-fi tape. In fact, one of the songs on that tape, ‘Impassable Monolith’, receives a reworking in this new release, now titled ‘Impassable Monolith II’ and with a punchier mix, further enhancing Faith Maddox’s vocals. Maddox’s voice tends to lurk in a lower pitch, robust but often quiet, so that when it’s let loose it is all that more powerful—strong enough even on its own to effect song transitions. The vocal style reminds me at times of Kim Gordon as well as early Emma Ruth Rundle, including in her former band Marriages. It is a singular voice and a focal point of the band, even more so in the songs on this latest release.
Although I’m hesitant to make comparisons, as I think Virga is unique in their amalgam of styles, Marriages is a good touchpoint from which to consider the depth of Virga’s sound. And, actually, Rundle’s first band The Nocturnes may be an even better point of comparison, given its addition of folk and Americana to the mix, which is also an ingredient in Virga’s style, especially on their self-titled release. But imagine that melancholic jangling merged with what Marriages did in terms of fusing various 90s alt-rock subgenres (e.g., shoegaze) with a post-hardcore angular edge. Okay, it’s head-spinning even to write that out. Clearly, I’m spit-balling here (actually, I’m not—I allot way too much headspace to pondering such things) and, besides, I’m also digressing, as I did claim to be hesitant in comparing bands. What can I say, a reviewer’s mind can’t help craving a point of departure.
At this point in the review, in lieu of further blathering about the band’s style, I recommend checking out a video of their Flew the Coop Session (think a Midwestern version of Live on KEXP) at the Lawrence Public Library. This is from 2025 when they were still a four-piece. The live performance shows the meticulous care the band takes with the openings and closings of their songs. We see how the songs are crafted from sudden, unexpected transitions in tempo and style, quiet to loud, slow to fast, as if each song contains several smaller songs within it, woven together like dissonant fragments of a dream. While breathing out lyrics, Maddox finger-picks on electric guitar, as Lane Hornback orchestrates squalls of feedback, and the combination of Deegan Poores on bass and drummer Billy Orr anchors the earthy rhythm with precise control.
Virga has undergone a few lineup changes in its relatively short lifespan. The band started as a project of Maddox and guitarist Lane Hornback but quickly advanced to include other talented friends from the Lawrence music scene. With the original line-up intact, they released their self-titled debut in 2023, followed by the Eremocene LP in 2025. Then their early 2026 third release, The Perfect Freedom of Single Necessity, saw the departure of Hornback, leaving them as a three-piece. On this latest EP, they continue as a trio with Maddox on guitar/vox, original drummer Billy Orr, and newcomer Isaac Castro on bass. Maybe it’s the quality of the mix, but on these two songs the band sounds tighter than ever, with the rhythm section locked in rock solid. It’s exciting to see them at this stage, poised at the cusp of further evolution.
For the purpose of this review, I’m presuming that ‘Perception Management’ is the band’s newest (recorded) finished song. It feels like a progression even from the harder-edged EP released earlier this year. On this track, the lyrics point fully outward as opposed to the introspection that characterizes many of the earlier songs (I’m always grateful when bands include lyrics on their Bandcamp pages). Maddox’s lyrics are always poetic, and many could function alone as poems. This particular one is open-ended, just enough to allow for multiple interpretations but still hold its own as a potent expression of frustrated outrage. When Maddox yells ‘This is freedom, Don’t you want it, Don’t you need it’, it feels like a response to this very moment in history, bubbling up from a deep well of grief and rage. It haunts me.
As mentioned earlier, the second song on the new EP is a new recording of an early song, ‘Impassable Monolith’, that appears on their first release. The lyrics remain the same, as does the basic song structure, but it’s noisier with cleaner, more dynamic transitions and a more formal intro and outro. Some of these differences can be attributed to a standard studio recording versus the live recording of the original version of the song, but a closer listen to the two versions side-by-side also reveals a more settled, confident band.
To return to Wilson’s concept, existential loneliness suffuses Virga’s songs. In Maddox’s lyrics, one can sense a grappling with the cognitive dissonance of trying to live one’s own truth amid the fallout from exterior and interior trauma, whatever its cause: dependency, ecological grief, social exclusion, but also within the beauty of what still remains and the art that inspires it. In a way, Virga embodies the prairie itself—open and sprawling on the surface, while teeming with intricate organisms buried in its dark, fertile soil. We are lucky to witness these life-forms emerge and evolve.
