The Mountain Goats are releasing their 23rd full-length album, “Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan”, on 7th November 2025, via Cadmean Dawn Records. Produced by the Mountain Goats’ multi-instrumentalist Matt Douglas and recorded at Dreamland Recording Studios in Hudson, New York, “Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan” is a full-on musical described as “the most conceptually detailed and musically elaborate project in the band’s ever-expanding catalogue”. As well as the core band of Douglas, John Darnielle, and Jon Wurster, it features appearances from The Replacements’ Tommy Stinson, harpist Mikaela Davis, musical theatre’s Lin-Manuel Miranda, and the band’s new bassist Cameron Ralston.
The record tells the story of a small crew shipwrecked on a desert island, where three surviving members—an unnamed narrator, Captain Peter Balkan, and Adam—are plagued by diminishing resources and apocalyptic visions. ”Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan” came from a dream. In May 2023, Darnielle took to his phone in the middle of the night to document a title from somewhere in his subconscious. Darnielle not only decided to complete this mysterious project but also to deliver it as a full-on musical that stands as the most conceptually detailed and musically elaborate project in the band’s ever-expanding catalogue.
“I loved musicals when I was a kid,” Darnielle explains, “but I hadn’t really indulged in them that much until the last 7 years or so. And then we did “Jenny From Thebes”, which I called a ‘fake musical’ a lot… But this one actually is going for it.”
You can pre-order “Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan” here. The Mountain Goats will be touring the UK in the autumn of 2026, but haven’t announced any dates yet.
The first single, ‘Armies of the Lord’, which has a slow build and may well feature as a live highlight. Darnielle sets the scene: “The band recorded the song in January 2025 at Dreamland Studios. Matt Douglas produced it; Ben Loughran, who you know from tour, did the synth with Matt as co-conspirator; that’s Mikaela Davis on the harp; the voice on the harmonies in the bridge that sounds like Lin-Manuel Miranda is Lin-Manuel Miranda, who followed Peter Balkan’s story from its early gleanings through its realisation.”
