Bondslave
Heavy music · scripture first

Bondslave

Heavy, scriptural music for men. Strength with compassion, never bravado.

“Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.”

Romans 1:1
The debut album The RENOWN EP
01 · The band

What Bondslave is

Bondslave takes its name from Paul’s word for himself: a slave of Christ, bought and owned, and glad of it.

Bondslave is a project led by artist and producer Matt Llewellyn. Each song begins with a passage of scripture he chose, and the words go through draft after draft until every line is true to it. The tools are new, AI among them. The work is the old work: listening, cutting and starting again until the song says what the passage says. He turned Living Stone down twice, once for being too dark and once for being too cheesy, before it became the hymn on the album, and Every Knee went through more than fifteen takes and edits before its ending was right.

The songs are written for men, and women are welcome to listen. They are about the struggles God uses to prepare us, doing the right thing when it costs, loving a wife and raising children, and the warriors of scripture who were strong and kind at once. We want you to leave encouraged, closer to Jesus, and wanting to tell someone about Him.

Sound
Early-2000s post-hardcore and alternative metal in the spirit of Blindside: drop-tuned riffs, quiet verses that break open, and a lead guitar in every song.
Voice
A low, dark clean voice that breaks into a raw scream, with a crowd of men answering. No autotune.
Made by
Matt Llewellyn, artist and producer: the scripture, the words and every take. Made with modern tools, AI among them.
Five silhouetted figures with instrument cases standing on a ridge under a storm sky, a gold break of dawn behind them.
A rehearsal in a stone bothy lit by one bulb, the drummer seen from behind, guitarists with hair over their faces.
02 · The debut album

Bondslave

Bondslave album cover: a dark oil painting of a blacksmith's scarred hand holding the band's nail-and-chain mark, glowing orange-hot, on an anvil, with BONDSLAVE in bone-white letters above.
11 tracks Out 5 February 2027

The debut album, out 5 February 2027. Eleven songs, each standing on a passage of scripture. Heavy and upbeat, written to lift men up.

  1. Stand Strong

    God opens a door, and a fight comes through it. Stand firm, act like men, and do it all in love. 1 Corinthians 16:9, 13–14

  2. Twenty-One Days

    A man prays and hears nothing for three weeks. The answer was sent on the first day, and a war was fought to bring it. Daniel 10:12–13

  3. Prodigal

    The son rehearses his apology all the way home. While he is still a long way off, his father runs to him. Luke 15:20

  4. Ebenezer Come Thou Fount

    The old hymn, played heavy. Here I raise my Ebenezer: the stone that says the Lord has helped us this far. 1 Samuel 7:12

  5. The Tishbite

    One prophet against eight hundred and fifty on Mount Carmel. How long will you limp between two opinions? Then the fire falls. 1 Kings 18

  6. Living Stone

    An original hymn. A man runs into the fortress for refuge and comes out of it ready to fight. Psalm 18:2, 34 · 1 Peter 2:4

  7. Red Earth

    Shaped out of dust and living on borrowed breath. The Holy Spirit comes like a rushing wind through an open door. Genesis 2:7 · Acts 2:2

  8. Bold as a Lion

    The wicked run when no one is chasing them, but the righteous are bold as a lion. Proverbs 28:1 · Revelation 5:5

  9. Unseen Instrumental

    A slow build that opens the way into the next song. 2 Kings 6

  10. Unseen

    Surrounded by an army, the servant panics. Elisha prays, “Open his eyes,” and the hills are full of horses and chariots of fire. 2 Kings 6:15–17

  11. Emmaus

    Two men walk home from the crucifixion, and a stranger joins them on the road. Didn’t our hearts burn within us? Luke 24:13–35

Songs

  • Stand Strong single cover: a lone Highland warrior in a kilt, seen from behind, plants his feet in the heather and raises a claymore towards a vast army across a misty glen, as a shaft of gold light breaks through the storm.
    Stand Strong1 Corinthians 16:9, 13–14
  • Woodcut-style cover for Twenty-One Days: a man lies face down in prayer by a river while a radiant, lightning-crowned figure in a robe stands over the water, with a ziggurat behind and a storm of angels in the sky.
    Twenty-One DaysDaniel 10:12–13
  • Linocut-style cover for Prodigal: a starving young man in torn clothes kneels over a wooden pig trough among pigs and husks, and sees in the dark water a small gold-lit house with his father standing at the gate.
    ProdigalLuke 15:20
  • Linocut-style cover for Ebenezer: a heart-shaped stone wrapped in a broken chain, with water pouring from its cleft and red rays of light spreading behind it.
    Ebenezer1 Samuel 7:12
  • Dark oil painting of Mount Carmel: on the left the prophets of Baal raise their blades around their idol's altar, while on the right fire falls on Elijah's water-soaked altar and the people fall on their faces.
    The Tishbite1 Kings 18
  • Mosaic-style cover for Living Stone: a walled fortress city on a rocky headland above blue waves, with a cross on its tower and a single squared cornerstone at the foot of the rock.
    Living StonePsalm 18:2, 34 · 1 Peter 2:4
  • Linocut-style cover for Red Earth: a man made of swirling red dust rises like a whirlwind from cracked red ground, under wind-swept lines, with bare trees on the horizon.
    Red EarthGenesis 2:7 · Acts 2:2
  • Bright hand-inked cover for Bold as a Lion: a fierce but kind lion's face with healed scars on its brow and nose, its mane in magenta, violet and teal, a broken chain at its jaw, on cream paper.
    Bold as a LionProverbs 28:1
  • Painting from a town wall: an old prophet rests his hand on his young servant's shoulder as they look down at an army filling the valley, while the hills above blaze with horses and chariots of fire.
    Unseen2 Kings 6:15–17
  • Engraved-style cover for Emmaus: two travellers walk a winding night road through olive trees towards a walled hill town under a crescent moon, while a stranger beside them holds out a glowing hand.
    EmmausLuke 24:13–35
03 · Concept EP

Renown

One night. One father at his son’s door. Seven witnesses to the oldest war there is, from the fall of the Day Star to the last five minutes before dawn. Every power in the dark wants a name. Only one Name is above them all.

In Genesis 6:4 the giants are called “the men of renown”. In Hebrew that means “men of the name”, and the Bible does not record a single one of their names. Every rebellion in scripture is a grab for a name. RENOWN follows that grab from before the world to sunrise, and ends on the only Name that lasts.

Seven tracks · EP out Good Friday, 26 March 2027

RENOWN cover: on a dark, fog-covered plain, a father and his small son walk hand in hand into a doorway of light, under a falling star, with a faint cross in the sky and a tall shadow in the mist. The title RENOWN is at the top in bone-white letters.
A dark wooden hallway at night. A boy’s bedroom door stands ajar with warm light at its edge; an oil lamp and an open Bible sit on the floor beside it, next to a man’s boot.
Back cover. The father’s watch, between midnight and sunrise.
From the liner notes

Written at my son’s door

He didn’t scream. He said my name, once, in the voice he uses when he’s lost in a shop. A tall man had been in the doorway, he said. Too tall for it. It bent at the top to look in. It asked him his name.

I’ve brought the lamp and the old Bible from the kitchen, and I’m sitting on the floor with my back to his door. I’m not moving until it’s light. I want to know who goes round asking children their names.

Men of renown means men of the name. And the Bible doesn’t give one of their names. Not one. They wanted to be remembered, and they’re gone.

I put my hand flat on his door and told it: You don’t get his name. It’s already written down.

  1. 1 · Day Star

    A shining one says “I will ascend”, and falls. Isaiah 14:12–15

    Black-and-white wood engraving: an armoured angel with swept-back wings plunges headfirst out of a break in a stormy sky, lightning beside him and stars falling with him toward a dark sea.

  2. 2 · Renown

    Enoch watches the men of renown. Not one of their names remains. Genesis 6:4 · Jude 14

    Single · 5 March 2027
    Ink-wash painting of a hillside of huge cut-down tree stumps with torn roots, where one old man with a staff walks a pale path towards a small tear of gold in the storm cloud.

  3. 3 · The Door

    Noah builds for a hundred and twenty years, and the Lord shuts him in. Genesis 7:16

    A gold-leaf page from an old illustrated Bible: the hand of God reaches from a cloud and shuts the door of the ark, while the last hilltops sink beneath the flood.

  4. 4 · These Are Your Gods

    The golden calf at Sinai, and the old gods who never really left. Exodus 32 · 34:5–7

    Linocut of a small golden calf by a fire with people dancing round it, while its shadow on the cliff behind rises as a huge horned giant; one small true light shines on the far mountain.

  5. 5 · Disclosure

    Lights over the sea and a warm voice that will not say His name. 1 John 4:2–3

    A glowing pearl-white lure hangs on a thin stalk in black deep water, drawing a shoal of small silver fish toward the open, toothed jaws of a dark anglerfish.

  6. 6 · What’s Your Name

    The shadow comes back to the boy’s door, and the father answers for his son. Isaiah 43:1

    Oil painting from inside a boy’s lamplit room: the boy sleeps while his father fills the doorway with his back to him, both hands braced on the frame, facing the dark hall.

  7. 7 · Every Knee

    The last five minutes before dawn. In heaven, on earth and under the earth, every knee bows. Philippians 2:9–11

    Woodcut-style cutaway: a small farmhouse on the horizon before a gold rising sun and a morning star, and beneath the ground a cavern of armoured giants kneeling with their swords and spears laid down.

Genesis 6 has been read three ways: the sons of God as fallen angels, as the line of Seth, or as ancient kings. RENOWN follows the oldest Jewish and early Christian reading, the fallen angels, without claiming every Christian agrees. Details from 1 Enoch are told as story; 1 Enoch is not in the Protestant, Catholic or Orthodox Bible. The night, the father and the boy are fiction.

04 · Watch

Stand Strong

Stand Strong single cover: a lone Highland warrior in a kilt, seen from behind, plants his feet in the heather and raises a claymore towards a vast army across a misty glen, as a shaft of gold light breaks through the storm. The title STAND STRONG is across the sky.

The first single, 20 November 2026

One man against the horde, standing his ground. Stand Strong set the band’s sound: heavy, hopeful, and built on scripture.

“Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” 1 Corinthians 16:13

05 · Listen

Listen

The first single, Stand Strong, arrives on 20 November 2026 on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and more.

What is coming

  1. Stand StrongSingle
  2. Stand StrongMusic video on YouTube
  3. Twenty-One DaysSingle
  4. The TishbiteSingle
  5. BondslaveThe debut album, 11 songs
  6. RenownSingle from the RENOWN EP
  7. RENOWNThe EP, on Good Friday
06 · What we stand on

Faith

  1. Jesus Christ is a real man of history. He fulfilled prophecy written long before He came, died on a cross, and rose from the dead. We stand on that. 1 Corinthians 15:3–4

  2. The Bible is God’s word. Every song starts from a passage of it, and we mark anything outside it as story. 2 Timothy 3:16

  3. Strength and compassion belong together. The strong men of scripture were also humble, honourable and kind. Micah 6:8

  4. Struggle is not wasted. God opens door after door, and every door brings a fight that makes us more like Him. James 1:2–4

  5. Loving a wife, raising children and doing honest work are godly callings. Step up while others step down. Ephesians 5:25 · Colossians 3:23

Act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.

1 Corinthians 16:13–14