The ethereal slow jam that is deathcrash’s new single ‘Horses’ is the perfect remedy for whatever state you’re in – its echoing chords are warming and calming yet positively heartbreaking.
The layered production of this startlingly beautiful track ensures that every individual instrument ebbs and flows – picking up the subterranean bass lines that lie beneath the celestial lead guitar, the deep resonance of this song plunges you into your most romantic daydreams.
The pensive lyrics of lead singer Tiernan Bank’s, are slow and simple, but that only makes them more painfully effective. The ‘pain that’s in [his] heart’ weighs down your heartstrings, which are then dragged out by the heavy tread of the drums, finally left to dissipate into the ether constructed of cosmic synths.
Such cerebral hums aren’t unfamiliar to this 4-piece – their most recent EP ‘People thought my windows were stars’ is populated with the same solemn lyrics that pierce through the lethargic melodies and trudging guitar arrangements that perfectly captured last year’s lockdown mood. One could easily label deathcrash post-rock, but that would ignore the many individual elements that this band have crafted throughout their career, most notably with their array of audio samples that make the music so perfectly modern (if not actually hailing a new phase of ‘post-rock’). Deathcrash’s last EP may have sold out to the band’s surprise, but after listening to this new single, it seems like a given.
After similarly titled songs from The Rolling Stones & Patti Smith, we can’t help but make a connection between songs with ‘horses’ in the title and songs that withstand the decades. As we wait to find out if we’re right, perhaps draw the blinds and surround yourself in darkness for this one.
Header photo by Kaye Song
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