Panic! At The Disco announce comeback single ‘Viva Las Vengeance’

The project will also release “so much more” alongside the single later this week

After teasing it for the past fortnight, Panic! At The Disco have officially announced that their first single in four years, ‘Viva Las Vengeance’, will be released later this week.

The now-solo project of Brendon Urie made its return to the spotlight on May 15, when a cryptic website imploring fans to “shut up and go to bed” began to make the rounds. The website hinted that something of substance would be released this Wednesday (June 1), with that something now revealed to be ‘Viva Las Vengeance’.

According to a new teaser shared on social media, though, the song itself won’t be the only thing Panic! fans have to look forward to. “So much more” will be revealed alongside it, the post says, telling followers to return at 3pm BST (10am ET) on Wednesday.

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A six-second video also offers a preview of ‘Viva Las Vengeance’, sporting jangly, rockabilly-esque guitars evocative of The Strokes’ early material, subtle shakes of a tambourine and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it soundbite of Urie yelling, “Hey!”

Have a look at the teaser below:

‘Viva Las Vengeance’ will be the first new release from Panic! At The Disco since June 2018, when they dropped their sixth studio album (and the second since Panic! became Urie’s solo project), ‘Pray For The Wicked’. That record earned a four-star review from NME, with writer Dannii Leivers opining that Urie “injected these tracks with unprecedented levels of sass and drama”.

Until the launch of their mysterious website earlier this month, Panic! (and by extension, Urie) had been largely silent online over the past few years, only returning occasionally to spruik new accolades and legacy releases by their label, Fueled By Ramen. Urie last performed with the project in October 2019, when they played the Rock In Rio festival.

Upon entering the new website, a sleep calculator will ask for your age, desired bedtime and email address. When you hit calculate, an orange box appears with the words, “Don’t be a diva, it’s time to be free”. Regardless of what bedtime you put in, it tells you that you “need to wake up at 6!01”. The flashing clock face that shows the numbers will occasionally switch to show letters instead, reading “V!LV”.

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“Don’t forget to set your alarm, so you know when to wake up,” the site also reads above a yellow button that says: “Set an alarm.” When clicked, visitors are treated a clip of string-laden music that features Urie singing the line, “Shut up and go to bed.”

Last year, Urie was the focus of a bizarre viral trend that saw the frontman blamed for many of the world’s “problems”, including One Direction splitting up, the coronavirus pandemic, the fall of the Roman Empire, and the closure of Toys R Us.

Meanwhile, in 2020, the musician told former president Donald Trump to stop using his music at rallies. Trump had been playing Panic! At The Disco’s ‘High Hopes’ at a rally for his 2020 re-election campaign, which Urie took issue with.

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