Codex Ballads: The New Door213 Album Is Out

Codex Ballads, the new full-length album by Door213, is out now on Enough Records.

The title is the key to the whole record. A codex is a book that must be deciphered — and these are ballads written the same way, songs with a hidden double meaning folded inside them. On the surface, they are love songs. Read again, they are rebellion songs — songs set against a system that is unforgiving, that decides who is beyond saving and closes the book on them. Every track holds both meanings at once, and neither cancels the other.

The album carries an openly Christian tone. Its themes are God, forgiveness, divine presence, and the strength it takes to seek redemption — told through the visual and lyrical language of one specific life: Jeffrey Dahmer, who in his final years repented of his life of crime and violence, delivered his soul to God, was baptised, and did what little a man in his position could to make amends with the past. The album reflects on why that mattered — and extends the same possibility outward, to everyone who has repented of pain they caused and wonders whether the door is still open. The record’s answer is that it is.

The sound is a mix of hip-hop ballad and medieval hints — strong beats underneath, choir-like textures above, deep poetry throughout. The lyrics are God-seeking; to some listeners they may land as prayers. It is music built for the space between the club and the chapel.

Two of the album’s strongest tracks — Don’t Forsake Me (Jeff Version) and Swallow Me Whole (Jeff Version) — were made in collaboration with Jeff Knapp, aka GoH | Mr. Whatever, a German multidisciplinary artist and musician. His voice against Necro’s gives the album’s message its clearest expression, in both sound and visual art. Don’t Forsake Me already has an official video, a prayer crossing time and space:

Alongside the album, the two artists also produced a separate single, Feels Like Coming — a song about love and about arriving where we long to be, with the one we desire to love, no matter the distance, and no matter whether they are living or dead. It belongs to the same universe as Codex Ballads and is best listened to together with it. Its video is also out:

Tracklist:

1. Heaven Complete
2. Don’t Forsake Me (Jeff Version)
3. I’ll Do It All For You
4. Love Is Eternal
5. The Beast Is Hiding Among Your Friends
6. Meat Grinder
7. Reborn
8. Don’t Forsake Me
9. If I Die Before I Wake
10. A God That IS Good
11. Swallow Me Whole (Jeff Version)
12. Swallow Me Whole

Codex Ballads is available now — listen on Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Etc, with wider streaming platforms to follow.

Door213 is the project of Necro (they/them), Portuguese multidisciplinary artist and founder of this memorial. GoH | Mr. Whatever is the project of Jeff Knapp (he/him), German multidisciplinary artist and musician.