Transformation is the final recorded works released by Mike Peters under The Alarm name in 2026. It was recorded during Autumn 2024 finishing on 15th January 2025 just before Mike underwent the the CAR-T cancer treatment. the album was released posthumously on 29th May 2026. It had originally been scheduled for release on 6th June 2025 but was delayed with Mike’s passing away in April 2025.
Transformation, 12 prescient tracks that Mike gifts us through his passing. The recording sessions for Transformation began spontaneously on October 7, 2024, and after various life-interventions, it was finally completed on the evening of January 15, 2025 – the night before he began his CAR-T therapy. From the opening call to arms “New Life,” The Alarm roars vibrantly to life. Originally intended as an optimistic song to herald the triumph over cancer to be released after he had beaten cancer successfully again, it instead carries a new sort of poignant breath as he sings “I’ll see you in the new life.”
First single “Chimera” was poised as an allegorical rebirth when it was released on January 23, 2025 – the exact day his CAR-T therapy began. Symbolically encapsulating the Greek mythos of a chimera which embodies the characteristics of different animals into one body, Mike envisioned that he himself would become like the fabled creature. “When I have CAR-T therapy I will literally become chimeric,” stated Mike at the time. “There will be two types of blood flowing inside of me. Two individual types of DNA.”
The classic ringing guitar progressions that made The Alarm household names in the ‘80s punctuates “Outlier” with Mike’s vocals showing no signs of wear. The anthemic and earnest “One In A Million” kicks off as a gorgeous hymn with the lyrics “one life, one heart, one soul” before counting down to a fiery chorus. It’s a fist-up outcry, the kind that the band built their initial acclaim with and made fans out of U2, Simple Minds, The Cult, among dozens of other renowned bands. The closing ballad “Love Makes Love” closes the album with a pensive note, the warmth of Mike’s voice acting as a final embrace.
“Transformation is the finest Alarm album of all, written through adversity, with lashings of hope to stay strong, to believe, to keep moving forwards, to stay alive, to never be afraid and to welcome transformation,” – Jules Peters.
“Mike and the spirit of The Alarm will ‘Live Today,’ forever more. I invite you all to blast Transformation out loud. Imagine Mike in the room with you. Transformation is his battle cry, his resilient love of life. Right to the very end, Mike believed that he was going to live, to be totally free. My last memory is driving him open top along the North Wales coast road, playing Transformation at maximum volume. He was so happy. So full of life. Playing his air drums, bass guitar, already imagining himself on his next world tour. So keep that positive spirit moving forwards. Imagine him as you all knew him best, striding out on to that stage, changing lives one concert at a time. This is an album of hope and a passionate celebration of a life well lived. Please do not be sad. Mike wouldn’t want that. He was so proud of this album and had the best time recording it during the last six months of his life. Blast it out loud like Mike did. Play along to the track list and most of all, be happy that we all had Mike in our lives and continue to do so. The music of Mike and The Alarm will always keep us strong” – Jules Peters.
Musicians & Credits
Mike Peters (MK 2) – All guitars and Lead Vocals
George Williams – Bass, Keyboards, EFX
Dave Moriat – Drums, Percussion
Jules Jones Peters – Piano, Backing Vocals
Evan ap Michael Peters – Drums, Backing Vocals
CAR-T – Spoken Word
Scream Theatre School Blackpool Singers – Backing Vocals on Wired
Produced by George Williams
Recorded at Rock Hard and Berlin Studios, Blackpool, England
Artwork conceived by Mike Peters, produced by Gary Overington
Photography by Andy Labrow
Layout by 21st Century
Released on Friday 29th May 2026 around the World on vinyl CD and Digital streaming
Album Track-listing
New Life
Chimera
Outlier
Saviour
Metaverse
Wired
One In A Million
Live Today
Soul Town
In Unity
To Be Alive
Love Makes Love
The album produced three digital singles released prior to the 29th May 2026 release date.
Chimera on 23rd January 2025 the video for this track premiered. This announced to the world that an album had been being recorded whilst Mike was undergoing treatment at the Christie Hospital. This was the first clue that an album of songs had been recorded.
Click on image for video that appears on the official The Alarm Youtube channel
This video for Chimera was filmed and directed in Blackpool January 2025
Outlier video premier was shown on 16th March 2025. The video being filmed during Mike’s CAR-T treatment
This video for Outlier was filmed and directed in The Christie Hospital, Manchester, England, March 2025 
Click on image for video that appears on the official The Alarm Youtube channel
Live Today video premier was shown on 8th April 2026.
The music video for Live Today was filmed just days before Mike his began CAR-T treatment
Click on image for video that appears on the official The Alarm Youtube channel
Album Interview
Goldmine Magazine by Waren Kurtz
Transformation kicks off with “New Life,” propelled by drums and a guitar sound recalling the glam rock Top 10 hit “Rock and Roll Part 2.” Jules Peters told Goldmine, “Mike was a massive glam rock fan and had an alter ego in a band called Children of the Revolution where they would play glam rock songs. The drums are played by our youngest son Evan, with Mike in the recording studio, getting Evan to smash it out. We kept some of Evan’s drums from the initial studio sessions, and then they were embellished by Dave Morait who was the most recent drummer for The Alarm and Mike’s sound engineer. The song was originally titled ‘In the Next Life,’ but Mike changed the lyrics last minute and re-sang the song in the last couple of days before we took him to the Christie hospital in Manchester for treatment. He wanted a more positive outlook knowing it was going to be the opening track. I want The Alarm fans to visage Mike absorbed in this ‘70s sound, full of optimism and excitement for the next life that he felt he was going to be transformed into from 66 onwards and be cancer free.”
Peters continued, “Mike’s leukemia transformed into a high-grade lymphoma called Richter’s Syndrome. When we were four days away from going to America for a two-month tour, we spoke to our doctors about a lump that Mike had discovered and Mike said, ‘Let us just go and play music.’ They explained to us that Richter’s Syndrome was so aggressive that left untreated it will kill after eight weeks. That is why we couldn’t come to America, and he was plunged straight into the treatment. He was so incredibly positive. In his final year, he played fifty shows with the band Big Country and recorded the new album Transformation, with the title intended to be about Mike transforming into a cancer-free world. He died April 2025 and in the previous October he started playing around with ideas in the recording studio with Evan, putting the album together between medical treatments. I am a breast cancer survivor, so Mike and I are both used to chemo, but this was on a whole other level. I loved him so much for showing strength. He never wallowed. He firmly believed he was going to get through. The album cover is his PET scan from the last year of his life, and you’ll see the black lymph on his neck on the x-ray. They were getting Mike prepared for a stem cell transplant. Our charity that we set up, Love Hope Strength, named after The Alarm song ‘Strength,’ is all about saving lives, hooking people up to get transplants so they can carry on living amazing lives. Mike found a donor from Poland for a transplant, but the moment they stopped the treatment, the Richter’s Syndrome came back so he didn’t qualify to have a transplant of a whole new blood system to get rid of the lymphoma cells. They went on to a pioneering treatment called CAR-T, which Mike was excited about. They removed 100 milliliters of his blood, transported it to the United States, re-engineered it, and brought it back to Mike to reabsorb in the body over 25 days in the hospital. The hope was that the re-engineered blood would fight off all the cancer. The day he finished the album, which is shown in the video for ‘Live Today,’ with the sunset, is the day before we took him to the Christie hospital in Manchester one hour away from where we live, which he believed would be the entrance to his new life. You must have another PET scan the day before you have CAR-T, which he did. I have never felt so shocked as when we were in the doctor’s office and they pulled up the x-ray and his whole body was black. They gave him a one percent chance of recovery which was hard on me and the kids, and for the first time in my life, I had to fake the enthusiasm, supporting Mike, who believed until two days before he died that he would get through it, until they sat him down in the hospital and said, ‘Mike, there is nothing more we can do for you.’ He was so shocked and almost collapsed, which wasn’t like Mike.”
“Outlier” has an anthemic sound. Peters shared, “‘Outlier’ came from CAR-T therapy. Mike felt like he was going to be two people, the person before with his old blood, and a new person with new blood. The guitar riff was a nod to his all-time guitar hero Billy Duffy from The Cult. Billy and Mike had a side project band called COLOURSØUND that they created in the ‘90s. If Billy had been born in Wales like Mike, they would have been the perfect match on the playground as kids. Billy has been a great support, especially in the past couple of years with Mike in Christie hospital, because Billy was originally from Manchester and being in that city was natural for Billy.”
Jules Peters’ piano comes through on “To Be Alive.” Peters explained, “Mike and I had been together for 39 years. I guess I was his muse, because we lived and worked together. He made me join the band, which I was dead against doing but he wanted me to play keyboards. Mike was always his own man. I was here to support but never to influence. I have played classical piano at home since I was a little girl and became the reluctant keyboardist for the band, remembering Linda McCartney being the band leader’s wife. I thought The Alarm fans would kill me. He laid down the challenge and in 1992 I played my first gig and guess what, The Alarm fans were brilliant with me on board, and it has been a mutual love affair ever since. George Williams, our producer for the past thirty years, set me up with a black grand piano in the studio.”
Minor notes add emotion on the anthemic U2-like finale “Love Makes Love.” Peters stated, “Mike was always famous for his big ballads. This is an example of a song where he was amazing as a songwriter and delivered a stunning vocal performance, right after going through the most strenuous chemo. Fortunately, here in the U.K., with the NHS, the National Health Service, every time a drug stopped working, they were able to find a new drug for him and Mike responded very well to all the drugs during his 31 years of cancer. I was 29 and he was 35 when he was diagnosed with cancer, which rocked our world. The way we always dealt with it as a couple was to not feel sorry for ourselves but make the best of it and start our charity the year after his diagnosis. Two weeks before Mike died, I was driving an open top Mustang, from all those years of going to America, and he was so happy, air drumming to the album. He said, ‘When I get through this, we will head back to America and tour.’”
Peters concluded, “We had about 4000 people at Mike’s funeral for an amazing send-off last year in our little village in Wales. We have converted a chapel into little apartments for vacationing Alarm fans. Next store we have a pub called The Red for music, and the last two years of Mike’s life, he would DJ there. These are difficult times, but we are determined to be positive. We have a lot to be grateful for. Our boys are dealing with it so well. They had such a great relationship with their dad, Dylan, who is 21, and Evan who is 19. Evan said, ‘I want to sing at the funeral.’ He sang ‘Wonderwall’ by Oasis, which is a song Mike taught Evan to play. It became Mike’s anthem in 1995, when he was originally diagnosed with leukemia when ‘Wonderwall’ was popular on the airwaves. When Evan sang the song at the church, a dipper bird flew in and landed on Mike’s guitar and sat there for thirty minutes, which is apparently unheard of. We like to think of it as a sign. Mike’s optimism is all in the album. When he was on his death bed, Evan was strumming an Alarm medley on Mike’s guitar and Mike was peaceful. We will have live performances of this album because before Mike died, he requested, ‘Keep going with The Alarm and get Evan to sing.’”
Reviews
Goldmine Magazine by Tone Scott
The Alarm, from the time of its original line-up through the subsequent decades, may very well be one of, if not the most, under-appreciated major influences in the earliest reaches of the ’80s British post-punk movement. The sound they embraced early on was a far cry from sounds that were driving the heavy gothic or proto-goth sector via band’s such as Joy Division, Bauhaus, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees; the heavier synth-pop identities of band’s such as New Order, Erasure, and Depeche Mode; and the burgeoning shoegaze movement implemented by Love and Rockets, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Cocteau Twins, and the like. Instead, and in the spirit of some say, bands such as Generation X, The Alarm embraced an ‘oversized’ approach to their sound, often referred to as ‘arena worthy,’ embracing an arena rock sonic identity yet with an underlying socio-conscious punk mentality. While the band’s most prominent years were allocated to the ’80s decade and bleeding into the early ’90s, The Alarm (either as ‘The Alarm’ or its post-’90s-hiatus moniker ‘The Alarm MM++’) continued respectably well into the new millennium, with perpetual live albums and new studio efforts with various line-ups, always with founder Mike Peters at the helm.
Even with a decades-long worldwide following and a band discography that most could only hope for, Peters still couldn’t escape an unfortunate and aggressive terminal illness. On April 29, 2025, just a little over a year ago to date, Peters would succumb to an overtly long and courageous battle with lymphoma-based cancer, a battle that lasted an unbelievable 30 years. In that time, he continued providing the music world with an insane amount of Alarm music, as well as founding the Love Hope Strength Foundation, an organization raising millions for bone marrow cancer-related disease. In his constant quest for music, up until his last days, the artist continued creating, and in 2026, a collection of his final works of art was brought into the limelight.
Just a couple of short weeks ago, on May 29th, the world received what might possibly be the last bona fide studio album by The Alarm when Transformation was released. As already alluded to, the album contains 12 recently composed Alarm tracks conceived and written by Peters before his untimely passing. It hosts selections that reflect the spirit of the band since its 1981 inception, yet deal with modern-day contexts and subject matter, addressing some socio-economic but mostly deeply personal issues manifested by over four decades of insight, awareness and experiences, heavily influenced by his battle with illness. This is a deeply, deeply personal album and brings you into the brilliant musical mind and soul of Peters like never before. Regardless of the subject matter, this is not some melancholy, somber reverberation of the Peters’ personal struggle; instead, it is a large and explosive resounding of his journey, with a heavy and expansive sound that is absolutely in line with the traditional sonic Alarm character. Without sounding like we are saying this out of sympathy, there is literally not one half-ass song on this album; the entire thing sounds bigger than life, with massive productions in great part and thanks to album producer George Williams, who has been working with Peters on The Alarm albums since 2006’s Under Attack.
The songwriting and arrangements are over the top. The lyricism goes deep into specifics with selections such as “New Life,” “Chimera” and “To Be Alive,” alluding to many of the intricacies of Peters’ illness. The track “Chimera” uniquely caught our attention as Peters combines the Greek mythology meaning of Chimera (a creature that was combined of the genetic make-up of three different real-life animals) with the modern-day medical/biological definition; that which has to do with being an organism combined of two distinct sets of cells, blatantly referring to his need for donor blood transfusions. On an entirely different plane, “Wired” addresses the fact that we as humans are existing in a time where we are constantly wired into a system where we are observed constantly by the ‘all-seeing eye,’ our lives on constant exposé for the powers of the world to examine at will, out of our control. There is an eeriness to the album when taking a first listen; thinking that the voice we are familiar with, the one we are hearing on all of this new material is no longer tangibly accessible to any of us, nevertheless there is a comfort knowing that the artist, in some strange way, prepared this for us as a swansong, a sort of ‘goodbye’ and ‘remember me this way’ kind of approach. It is a brilliant record, and one that we are happy to have been privy to and share our thoughts about. Available on a huge-sounding vinyl LP and a sharp and distinct-sounding compact disc album.
bigtakeover.com by David Browne
Even as Mike’s health waned, his focus and musical output waxed. He was especially prolific since 2017, releasing eight albums over seven years. His final record, “Transformation”, was his ninth in 9 years. It crackles with urgency built into it by design, especially when compared to his last Alarm all-originals record, “Forwards” (2023, Twenty First Century). Where “Forwards” accentuates Mike’s more melodic anthemic style, “Transformation” lays bare Mike’s final days delivered with no-BS immediacy. Kicking off, “New Life” is a Gary Glitter –esque stomper set to an adrenaline-laced heartbeat. In some ways it sounds like a deconstructed re-write of early Alarm favorite, “Strength” that’s been scraped across barbed wire. Mike sings “I’ll see you in the new life”, which alludes to his experimental CAR-T cancer therapy and its “100 milliliters of new life blood”. The drums pound with the tribal flare, evoking the intensity of Killing Joke’s Paul Ferguson.
Track two, “Chimera”, chugs along the tracks next with more 60s-inspired riffs. Here, Mike’s not just mythologically minded. He’s autobiographical, pouring his soul out on a bleeding-edge. Ever intentional, he released the song as a single on January 23, 2025, the day his “science fiction” CAR-T therapy began. With two types of blood (and two types of DNA) now in his body, he said “I will literally become chimeric.” Musically, fuzzed out Hammond and bass are balanced with crisp guitar chords to potent effect.The album’s other standout single, “Live Today”, was released April 8. Musically evoking “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding”, Mike filmed the video (his last) just days before starting CAR-T therapy. His wife, Jules recalls, “As the sun rose, watching Mike perform this song with so much optimism and hope will live with me forever. It was a bittersweet day for me as we filmed this incredibly joyous film on the beach in the north of England.” The lyrics speak to living right now and wasting not a single breath. “Let’s talk about tomorrow when we’ve lived through today. I beg, steal, or borrow, I do whatever it takes.” The chorus arrives; “I don’t want to live forever. I want to live right now.” The heaviest emotional moment comes when he declares “My church is the morning, my faith is the light. When I see the sunrise, I thank God I’m alive.”
Perhaps more than many of his contemporaries, lyrics matter a great deal to Mike. Throughout this album, he chooses to emphasize words through repetition. Interestingly, the lyric sheet has several words and phrases in ALL CAPS, clues into what Mike wanted most to emphasize on “Transformation”; CHIMERA, OUTLIER, NEW LIFE, SAVIOUR, ONE IN A MILLION, TO BE ALIVE. The album is rich with moments where Mike reminds us he’s glad to be alive. On “Outlier” he giddily sings “I’m an outlier, I’m a finisher, I’m still here. Woo woo”. But he also reflects on other meaningful topics for him. On “Metaverse”, Mike is clearly disturbed by the technology that is killing humanity. He sings, “In the metaverse, don’t come close, read the warning signs.” “Wired” follows in a similar vein, asking “Why” we’re so connected and even willingly recorded. With vocal cords stretched and tired, Mike sings at full lung power like a Baptist minister begging his flock to wake up as he pleads his case.
“One in a Million” has an anthemic chorus many fans will “know” from Mike’s songwriting. The rousing melody encapsulates the end of his life when he still wrote songs cut from the same cloth as the early classic, “Blaze of Glory”. “In Unity” lyrically continues the thread from “One in a Million”. “One” sounds singular but Mike is embracing the collective “one”, and it’s a love song to Jules. “To Be Alive” is seemingly written to/for anyone needing a reminder of how good it is to be alive. It’s a sing-a-long in the spirit of “All You Need Is Love”. The closer, “Love Makes Love” furthers this theme. It’s a dreamy piece that cuts deep, a reminder of how giving Mike was as a person. He once sang “Love Don’t Come Easy” but now as the final song fades, it’s this supreme emotion and guiding light that he gave and received in multitudes that’s a timeless beacon.
Classic Pop Magazine by Jon O’Brien
Completed just a few months before Mike Peters’ passing in April 2025, the Alarm’s posthumous swansong is inevitably a bittersweet affair. However, thanks to their singer’s glass half full mentality, Transformation still sounds every bot as anthemic, vibrant and life-affirming as any of the near-two dozen albums the band recorded since their 1984 debut. As you’d expect, Peter’s lengthy battle with cancer informs most of the 12 tracks. The galloping glam op opener New Life was written as a celebration for once he’d received the all-clear. Chimera finds Peters drawing parallels with the mythological Greek hybrid and the revolutionary genetic treatment that he was about to undergo. (He later recorded the video for Outlier in his hospital ward). And, on the typically rousing Live Today, Peters declares “I don’t want to live forever / I want to live right now”. Peters sounds in remarkably fine form, delivering everything from the spelling bee antics of Savior to the countdown calls in One In A Million with an impressive gusto. And even when the constant communal singalongs start to wear a little thin – only closing ballad Love Makes Love changes gear – it’s hard not to be swept up by it’s heart-on-the-sleeve optimism. A fitting epitaph for one of Welsh rock’s unsung heroes
Viva Le Rock Magazine by Guy Shankland
The tireless cancer campaigner, optimist, and sheer force of nature, Mike Peters, sadly passed away on April 29th 2025, after a three-decade-long battle with lymphoma. Up until the very end of his life, Mike Peters was writing, recording, and creating, culminating in his final Alarm studio release, the impassioned Transformation. The album bullies off with the 100mph glam rock stomp of the upbeat opener New Life. The late songsmith still has an unnerving way of reaching out of the speakers and grabbing your attention with a deep-burning earnestness, honesty, and that wonderful knack for writing top new wave/pop/rock tunes: all of which were designed to be hollered back with arms aloft to the man standing front and centre.
The lead single Chimera gets its name from a mythical hybrid animal living under one skin, and Mike calls himself this after receiving CAR-T therapy and the song itself joyfully bumps along with genres flying in from all corners of the man’s musical planet to add the extra fizz. Outlier has some retro electronic drum beats and a bonus track/remixed texture, while Saviour is The Alarm at their heel-kicking finest. The cuts rattle away with the hearty mid-album cuts Metaverse, Wired, and the simply stupendous One In A Million (which jabs and pokes like a worthy 68 Guns part 2). The video for the second single Live Today was recorded the day before Mike re-entered the hospital for the last time. The song opens with the line “let’s talk about tomorrow, when we’ve lived through today”, and the track, like all the ones presented here, is an absolute emotional left hook of a release.
A funk/acoustic/musical working-class cocktail Soul Town, is followed by the stirring love song In Unity. To Be Alive encounters a lyrical lull, which is easily dispersed and eclipsed by those unmistakable throat-straining, raspy vocals. The final song of the twelve is the life-affirming Love Makes Love and, as all before, it’s presented as a tale of pure positivity. Throughout the emotionally charged Transformation, there is not one hint of a victim mentality or woe-is-me, pity-seeking: no, essentially, this is an album bathed on love, hope and strength, intuitive gifts Mike Peters had in spades. Persona;, punchy and downright vital, this final bow is like having the man himself singing on your shoulder, and further testifies to what a priceless treasure his final studio album truly is.
theindyreview.com by David M Rangel
In their 80’s heyday, The Alarm were often touted as rivals of U2 with their brand of anthemic rock songs which included “Rain in the Summertime”, “Sixty Eight Guns” and “Spirit of 76” to name a few. Lead singer Mike Peters had the vocal passion to rival U2’s Bono, and then some sans the self-importance. Bono himself once declared The Alarm “the second greatest rock and roll band in the world.” Sadly, the songs on Transformation will be heard in a different way as it is being posthumously released on May 29, a little over a year after Peters’ passing from a form of cancer called Richter’s Syndrome. When you consider that Peters was well into his sickness when Transformation was recorded (having been dealing with cancer for the previous 30+ years) it’s a mind-blowing listen. The cinematic choruses and hooks are as present and properly delivered as their old hits, if not more so. It’s said that Peters lived his life to the end with the passion and optimism in the face of adversity that few could ever muster. One listen to the hopeful messages and lyrics in this recording will quickly validate that fact. This record more reflects the passion and hunger of a young singer excited about what’s to come, as opposed to an older performer who is trying to hang on.
“One In A Million” will (arguably) likely be the preferred track among many great ones on this album, to many listeners. It has all the best components of stadium rock songs both past and present. From the initial booming drums grabbing your attention to the breakthrough of one of the most hooky choruses produced by anyone in years. It’s sure to ignite the kind of “fist in the air” exhilaration not seen in awhile.
During the making of this recording, Peters had it firmly in his mind that he would beat his cancer and it’s stated clearly in many of the tracks. “Live Today” states “I don’t want to live forever/ I want to live right now.” The video for the song (put out as a pre-release to the record) was Peters’ final performance as he went immediately to the hospital after filming to start the treatment that was supposed to save his life. In “New Life” he sings of “100 milliliters of brand new life/ killing the past/ generating the future.” The track is a catchy, hopeful rocker in which the “new life” must now be unfortunately thought of from an afterlife point of view. The conviction and urgency in Peter’s delivery in all of these songs are as much of a rally cry as The Alarm had in their prime. And the vocals sound like a man whose voice does not age, even in the face of possibly losing his life.
Aside from his personal reflections on the value of life, Peters also delves into current situations that have been on all of our minds. “Metaverse” is a distorted, rock ‘n’ roll warning about humans being over immersed in the internet, and the dangers of it. While “Wired” is a more soulful observation of a dystopian world where all is seen and heard by computers and electronic gadgets. While the subject matter in these songs is perhaps a bit less personal to Peters, his vocals still reach the passionate heights that most rockers never will.
Transformation would’ve been as strong a record as a debut as it is a final musical outing from a band that ranked among the most soulful and passionate in the world. The fire and ardor with which the tracks are delivered may be Mike Peters’ crowning achievement and legacy from a career that inspired a zealous following that will undoubtedly be reignited by this proper last recording.
Spill Magazine
This is a rather difficult review, not because there is any question about the quality of the music in the package, but because this is Mike Peters’ farewell. I bought The Alarm’s single “Marching On” in 1983 and stayed with the band for over 40 years. And through Spill Magazine, I had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Peters, who was everything one would hope for: funny, a great storyteller, friendly, and very warm. So, this album, Transformation, fills me with intense sadness. That being said, it is a brilliant album. Peters never lost his ability to write or perform over the years and remained not only true to himself but also to his music. Transformation opens with a call to battle, much like Sixty-Eight Guns 40 years before. The album ends with a pensive, beautiful farewell. It is an amazing album, and one of Peter’s strongest albums in his career.
In many ways, Transformation harkens back to the early days of The Alarm. It is full of strong melodies that not only seep into the listener’s consciousness but, like a great meal, make you want more. He writes strong melodies and delivers the songs with a rocking force. This is not punk, but straight-ahead rock ‘n’ roll. Throughout the album, Peters remains defiant and challenging. He is not going down without a fight and a stance. “Wired,” “Chimera,” and the powerful “Love Today.” The last track, “Love Makes Love,” is poignant without veering into maudlin. Peters sings his heart and soul out on this and the rest of the album.
In 2024, The Alarm released an album, Music Television (Stepping Back Into The Future), in which Peters and company interpreted songs that were important to him over the years. With Transformation, he has used these influences to create his own songs and a distinct album. From the opening glam-style drumming of “New Life” through to the synth opening of “To Be Alive,” Peters dips his musical toes into styles and genres throughout his life, and it all works.
Mike Peters was diagnosed with lymphoma in 1995 and later with chronic lymphatic leukemia. Peters refused to let his illness silence him. Instead, he turned his fight into a mission to help others. Beyond that, he kept creating music and marching on, usually to the beat of his own drum. He never tried to jump trends and did not seem interested in topping the charts. For Mike Peters and The Alarm, it was about truth in art, and Transformation is full of truth, strength, and love. I cannot encourage people enough to dig into this album and maybe begin their own personal (and maybe spiritual) transformation. In conclusion, all I can say is thank you, Mike Peters. Thank you.
Substack – WriteHearPopculture by Amy McGrath
Mike Peters can’t make it to the celebratory release that is Transformation. The Alarm frontman died on April 29, 2025, from a rare form of cancer that he battled with on and off for 30 years. It may have claimed his soul, but through perseverance, he left a collection that showcases the battle cry we’re familiar with, when it began with the rallying, yet uplifting opening from the band’s 1983 single, “Sixty Eight Guns.” Peters’ vocals are full of spittle and grit as he gives the metaphorical middle finger to the enemy that is ravaging his body. This no-holds-barred sentiment is evident from the tribal rhythmic beat that launches the album’s first track, “New Life,” and bleeds into “Chimera,” released in 2025.
Peters’ vocal harkens back to his ‘80s cascading declarations for community freedom in “Outlier,” but as we know, the personal clashes are coming from within. As with nearly every note on this album, the subject matter points to the vicious events that turn ‘us’ against ‘them.’ In this case, the screaming victory bleeds into desperation, even as one runs an endless marathon for freedom, physically or metaphorically.
One of the few personas that may not be expected is “Saviour,” which, as the title implies, Peters defines in a litany of multiple roles: death-defyer, faith healer, and rock and roller. It wouldn’t be too soon to mention that a majority of the songs on Transformation are straight-to-the-point, as “Saviour” drives home with a repetitive rhythm, mixed with unremitting guitar riffs, and to ask rhetorically, why not? Peters has literally no time to waste.
Peters does not shy away from addressing frustration with the outside world, as he admonishes the listener to “read the warning signs” in “Metaverse,” understanding full well he may not be given enough of a running start to get to the finish line with a complete message to convey. “Wired” takes head-on the paranoid Big Brother-esque feeling that has pervaded every second of life: awake, asleep, inside, outside. It doesn’t matter in this semi-synthesized plea for respite, singed on the edges of humanity and hell.
“One In A Million” has that anthemic intonation that The Alarm were so well known for delivering, a blueprint that cast the band into the same unifying outcry of strength alongside U2, Simple Minds, and The Cult. Peters was not a musical personality that was content to sit on the sidelines; both back then and right up to his death, he frames the lyrics as a countdown, corraling similar viewpoints that sadly, fit in with where the global population is at this moment.
“Live Today” looks today squarely in the eye, eschewing immortality. “Soul Town” with its skipping beat and hooky, interlude riffs reminiscent of The Jam’s “Town Called Malice,” sounds like an homage to that soul cousin tune from 1982, playing off a Motown-inspired beat and melody. The segueway into “In Unity” furthers the throughline of the omnipresent insider/outside theme that permeates the album.
The reassurances from the lyrics in “To Be Alive” may sound oversimplistic (“It’s OK not to be OK”); however, it’s a mantra that Peters drives home when, let’s face it, a situation becomes overwhelming. The album’s closing track, “Love Makes Love,” is the final statement from Peters that we’ll hear in the iteration of The Alarm. Its repetitive coda has sparks of spirituality, and for some, that may come off rather high-handed. But if you’ve reached the end, still full of passion that there’s some miracle around the corner, then you’ve received a pretty full story that you can call your own.
Glide Magazine by John Moore
Just over a year after The Alarm’s Mike Peters lost his three-decade-long battle with cancer, his final album was released, and judging from the dozen songs on Transformation, he didn’t go quietly.
Far from being a somber affair, the songs off this last effort are loud, defiant, and anything but a man quietly settling into his fate. They started recording the album in the fall of 2024, pausing briefly for several treatments for his aggressive form of lymphoma. It was completed on January 15, 2025, the night before he began a new form of cell therapy that was meant to save his life.
You can hear both uncertainty and his determination to survive woven throughout the record. The optimism is obvious from the opening track, “New Life,” where he sings “100 ml of pure life blood, designed for new life… I’m crossing the line between the dead and the alive,” over a rolling bass line and drums. The early single “Live Today” is a driving, stadium-worthy anthem that would have slotted nicely onto any of their classic mid-’80s albums, with Peters defiantly singing, “I don’t want to live forever; I want to live right now.” You can hear the emotion in his vocals as they crack in the chorus. Similarly, “One In a Million” is another song that seems like it was left over from the Declaration or Strength session.
“Metaverse,” with its mix of heavy distorted guitars and driving drums, delivers a warning about the future, while “Wired” is another peek into a dystopian tech-based world, giving a peek into some of the other fears that were occupying Peters’ final years (and ones that seem to be fairly prescient given our current path of AI at any cost).
The album hits its emotional peak on the final song, “Love Makes Love,” a slow burn that builds to a triumphant declaration about the power of love and its ability to live on in memories. Whether it was recorded as an admission that Peters was unsure of just how effective the latest cancer treatment would be, or as a look at his legacy years into the future, it’s jarring in its frankness and an emotional end to both the album and the band.
Transformation feels less like a farewell than a final act of resistance. Peters never allows the album to become consumed by illness or self-pity; instead, he filled it with urgency, conviction, and the same rallying spirit that defined The Alarm at their peak. Even facing the end, he was still looking forward with warnings, still fighting, and still believing in the redemptive power of love and human connection. Transformation is more than just a poignant final statement; it’s one of the most inspiring records of The Alarm’s career.
Discography
CD edition released by The Twenty First Century Recording Company 29th May 2026. Catalogue number 21CART001CD
Standard Black vinyl released by The Twenty First Century Recording Company 29th May 2026. Catalogue number 21CART001LP
Standard Green Vinyl released by The Twenty First Century Recording Company 29th May 2026. Catalogue number 21CART001LPG 
Limited Edition of 350 Silver Vinyl released by The Twenty First Century Recording Company 29th May 2026. Catalogue number 21CART001LP
Limited Edition of 350 Gold Vinyl released by The Twenty First Century Recording Company 29th May 2026. Catalogue number 21CART001LP
Track-listing for Silver and Gold editions
Side 1
New Life
Chimera
Outlier
Saviour
Metaverse
Wired
Side 2
One In A Million
Live Today
Soul Town
In Unity
To Be Alive
Love Makes Love
Limited Edition of 250 Super Deluxe Book / Double 180 GM Audiophile Black LP’s released by The Twenty First Century Recording Company 29th May 2026. Catalogue number
24 x page book created by Mike Peters documenting the recording process via real time messaging between the protagonists
2 x Audiophile double 180gm classic black LP cut discs includes all 12 x tracks cut across 4 sides of heavy weight vinyl.
Exclusive 12” style George Williams mix of Wired (Extended Version).
Printed inner LP sleeves.
Exclusive transformable album sleeve artwork
Complete lyrics and credit booklet.
All housed in a hard bound slip case
Numbered and signed (for the first time in his new life), by Mike Peters (MK2).
Side 1
New Life
Chimera
Outlier
Saviour
Side 2
Metaverse
Wired Extended
Side 3
One In A Million
Live Today
Soul Town
Side 4
In Unity
To Be Alive
Love Makes Love
Limited Edition of 250 Super Deluxe Book / Double 180GM Audiophile Clear LP edition released by The Twenty First Century Recording Company 29th May 2026. Catalogue number
2 x Audiophile double 180gm clear LP cut discs includes all 12 x tracks cut across 4 sides of heavy weight vinyl, including exclusive extended mix of ‘Wired’.
1 x Bonus 12″ Single containing 3 additional, unreleased tracks All Or Nothing At All, Moving Forwards and an extended version of Totally Free.
24 x page book created by Mike Peters documenting the recording process via real time messaging between the protagonists.Printed inner LP sleeves.
Complete lyrics and credit booklet.
All housed in a hard bound slip case.
Numbered and signed by Mike Peters.
Limited Edition of 250 Super Deluxe Book / Double 180GM Audiophile White LP edition released by The Twenty First Century Recording Company 29th May 2026. Catalogue number
2 x Audiophile double 180gm white LP cut discs includes all 12 x tracks cut across 4 sides of heavy weight vinyl, including exclusive extended mix of ‘Wired’.
1 x Bonus 12″ Single containing 3 additional, unreleased tracks All Or Nothing At All, Moving Forwards and an extended version of Totally Free.
24 x page book created by Mike Peters documenting the recording process via real time messaging between the protagonists.Printed inner LP sleeves.
Complete lyrics and credit booklet.
All housed in a hard bound slip case.
Numbered and signed by Mike Peters.
The digital / Dolby Atmos editions have also been mixed and mastered by George Williams to meet the audio quality demands of all the digital music platforms, Audio Streaming, Lossless Playback and Dolby Atmos.
(Page updated 25/06/2026)