When doctors told Shadows in the Dark founder and guitarist, Tim Matthews, that he wouldn’t survive COVID-19 in February 2022, he didn’t flinch. “I told my wife, ‘I’m not going to die. I’m going to fight,’” he recalls. A four-time kidney transplant recipient, Matthews is no stranger to battle—but this time, it was personal. Ventilator-bound and nearly 70 pounds lighter, he emerged from the experience not just alive but inspired. From that crucible came Young Ones, a blistering anthem and lead single from the band’s upcoming EP, Dead. Fighter. Survivor.
Young Ones doesn’t just chronicle survival—it roars it into existence. The track erupts with grinding guitars from Matthews, and a blistering solo by Dawson Armstrong, as well as Bryan Gribbin’s relentless drums. A dual vocal performance hits from both ends of the spectrum: Matthews’ guttural delivery grounded in grit, and Alicia McKinley’s soaring harmonies offering flashes of grace. At the 0:38 mark, a jarring tom-drum break mirrors the flatline of a hospital monitor—only to surge back with renewed life, capturing the sonic tension between death and defiance.
Lyrically, the song is as raw as it gets. “When you’re stricken with disease that’ll see no end / You see the world a little different ‘cause it’s not your friend” lays bare the decades Matthews has spent living with chronic illness. But it’s the song’s bridge—a retelling of a near-death vision where he says he communed with Christ—that lifts it beyond autobiography. “Whether listeners share my faith or not,” he says, “I needed them to know peace exists beyond fear.” It’s not a sermon. It’s a lifeline.
The timing of the single’s release is no accident: it originally arrived exactly three years after Matthews was discharged from the hospital on May 2nd, 2025, and was re-released through a new distributor on September 5th. The lyric video interweaves haunting COVID-era visuals with footage from his rehab journey—walker, wheelchair, treadmill—until the final frame lands like a victory lap. What begins as deeply personal trauma transforms into communal catharsis.
With the next single, Hallucination—a haunting telling of Matthews’ medicinal “trips” during COVID—set to release on October 31st, Shadows in the Dark are leaning all the way into their mission: to weaponize rock music as both survival anthem and soul medicine. Their upcoming EP promises more stories carved from scars, more fire forged in fragility. For Matthews, the message is clear: “This is for the fighters and survivors in all of us.”
So when the world pushes you to the edge—press play. Young Ones isn’t just a song. It’s a heartbeat refusing to fade.
Catch the vibe and stream it HERE!