Jake W.
I've loved them for ages and they've really, really outdone themselves. Great song titles, unparalleled dynamics, and it may be vying for my top AAC release of all time.
Favorite track: Phil Spector In Hell.
G.C.
a delicious, amorphous entity with tendrils reaching somewhere between post punk, sludgy hardcore, and shoegaze. one of my favourite releases from this year!
Tolujin
Makes total sense that this English band should be on this Australian label. They sound like a quintessential Art as Catharsis band - often crushing, sometimes psychedelic, full of ideas, heavy as fuck but always listenable. I'll be playing this a lot.
Favorite track: Phil Spector In Hell.
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Self-described 'decidedly average' Bristol rockers Sugar Horse have announced their long-awaited debut LP, The Live Long After, to be released 27th August via Small Pond Records and Art As Catharsis.
Lyrically based around the fear of the unknown, The Live Long After is a caustic, visceral, and highly engaging listen. From the uneasy opening notes of the introduction 'I Am Not Now' (an anti-hymn based on an ancient Byzantine chant), to 'Live Long' (a doom track about the endless void) and 'Death Cult', (which discusses Aleph, the Japanese doomsday movement), the record is an indication of a band bursting with things to say.
It's not for nothing that Sugar Horse have become known as a nonconformist band. Their previous EPs Druj and Drugs were acclaimed amalgams of doom, hardcore, stoner and punk, and The Live Long After continues this curious trend.
Indications of My Bloody Valentine, Cult of Luna, Deafheaven and Oceansize can be heard throughout the record, but still only touch upon the wide variety of sounds and influences Sugar Horse explore. A band who were due to tour with Black Peaks before the inevitable Covid disruption, and who have toured with Vennart and played ArcTanGent, Sugar Horse have received early praise from Upset Magazine, Metal Hammer, and Kerrang!.
Forming in 2015 as a trio in a flat in Bristol, Sugar Horse fully came into being in 2019 with the addition of Jake Healy on baritone guitar and keyboards. Seeking to break away from emerging trends in their scene, the band's emphasis on simplicity and down-tempo heft belies an impressive sense of self-awareness and maturity. In their own words: "I think the best art is formed when it's creators enforce rigid rules on themselves. Mondrian had geometry, Mark E Smith had his hatred for cigarette taxation and we have a complete disregard for urgency."
Despite what they say about themselves, Sugar Horse are anything but "average."
credits
released August 27, 2021
Recorded at The Nave, Leeds and various small rooms around Bristol
Co-Produced by Andy Hawkins & Sugar Horse
Assistant Engineer - Tom Orrell
Mixed by Ashley Tubb
Mastered by Dave Draper
Drums - Martin Savage
Bass - Chris Howarth
Baritone Guitar, Keyboards, Synths, Gruff Shouting - Jake Healy
Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals - Ashley Tubb
Strings (Dadcore World Cup) - Mari & Craig Campbell
Fart Library - Andy Hawkins
Lyrics - Ashley Tubb
supported by 97 fans who also own “The Live Long After”
What a twisty stew of different moods and sounds! As the promo says, this is a "love letter" to heavy music by people who want to emulate the spirit of their favorite music while still adding their own sauce to the mix (no stale copycatting). That is the source of all good music: people who love a sound/mood and want to make the kind of music they love, the kind of music they want to hear, without just aping styles. This record was truly unexpected, and is thus good music. pinkytheent
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supported by 96 fans who also own “The Live Long After”
Boy-girl harmonies, deep fuzz stoner baselines, and cosmic anthems—Turtle Skull nails everything Black Mountain used to do before BM got that divorced dad sound. Josh Steichmann