Matchbook Romance have announced a digital deluxe reissue of their seminal 2006 album VOICES, marking its 20th anniversary with the release scheduled for February 13 via Epitaph. The reissue, titled VOICES | VISIONS, expands the original record with two previously unreleased tracks that were first recorded during the album’s initial sessions but left unfinished for nearly two decades.
The band has released the first of these recovered songs today, “Something Worse Than the Night,” the first new Matchbook Romance music in 20 years. The track arrives as a sharp reminder of the band’s ability to fuse post-hardcore intensity with melodic precision, a sound that positioned them as one of the defining acts of the mid-2000s emo and alternative rock surge.
Matchbook Romance formed in 1997 in Poughkeepsie, New York, initially under the name Fizzlewink, before changing to The Getaway and finally adopting the Matchbook Romance moniker after signing with Epitaph Records. The band’s early output, including the West For Wishing EP in 2003 and debut album Stories And Alibis later that year, established their place within the post-hardcore and emo scenes, with a blend of urgent guitar work and emotive vocals that became a hallmark of the era.
Their sophomore album VOICES arrived in 2006, a record that expanded the band’s sound into darker, more complex territory. The album’s lead single “Monsters” achieved wide exposure through heavy rotation on radio and MTV, and through placement in video games such as Madden NFL 07 and Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock. The album itself was praised for its technical ambition and the way it balanced beauty and tension, with Andrew Jordan’s vocal range soaring across the record while Ryan DePaulo’s guitar work, Aaron Stern’s drums and Ryan Kienle’s bass provided a dense, intricate backdrop.
As the band reflect on the milestone, they say the anniversary presented an opportunity not just to revisit VOICES, but to complete the unfinished material from the original recording sessions. In a collective statement, Matchbook Romance explained that two songs were recorded during the Long View Farm sessions but were never completed. “Nearly two decades later, in the summer of 2025, we completed those two tracks alongside John Goodmanson at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle, WA,” the band said.
The first of these tracks, “Something Worse Than the Night,” is now out across all streaming platforms, and the band thanked fans for keeping the music alive. “Thank you for singing along, for keeping the music alive, and for celebrating VOICES with us… 20 years later,” they said.
The VOICES | VISIONS reissue will offer a new perspective on an album that has long been cited as a defining moment for the band. It follows a history of intermittent reunions and short-lived returns, including a 2009 East Coast tour, reunion shows in 2012, and performances on the 2015 Vans Warped Tour. The band also celebrated the 10th anniversary of VOICES with select shows in early 2016.
Now, in 2026, Matchbook Romance appear to be re-emerging with renewed purpose. In late 2025, the band began teasing new activity online, culminating in a reveal in January that the long-awaited new song “Something Worse Than the Night” would arrive on January 16. With the VOICES | VISIONS deluxe reissue on the horizon, Matchbook Romance are returning to the spotlight not as a nostalgic footnote, but as a band revisiting the creative peak that once defined them, and expanding on it with new material that remains faithful to their original intensity.
VOICES | VISIONS
Out Feb 13
Via Epitaph
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