William Control

Seattle musician William Francis, who led the emo-goth band Aiden from its 2003 launch until the group disbanded in 2016, operates William Control as his darkwave solo outlet. What began in 2008 as a conceptual side project soon became Francis’s primary focus under the William Control name, allowing him to expand an enigmatic horror punk persona across releases that blended electronic, punk, goth, and industrial elements. The conceptual debut Hate Culture established this direction in 2008, after which Control reinforced the same shadowy aesthetic on the follow-up albums Noir in 2010, Silentium Amoris in 2012, and The Neuromancer in 2014. He broadened his output further with the acoustic collections Skeleton Key and Skeleton Key 2, a remix album, and two live recordings. In 2016 he unveiled the ambitious fifth album Revelations, a conceptual work divided into four EPs titled after the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—The Pale, The Black, The Red, and The White. The first of these, The Pale, appeared in October 2016, with The Black following four months afterward.