SPOOK THE HORSES
Empty Body
PELAGIC
New Zealand shape-shifters shift course for the post-metal highway
Spook The Horses do away with the usual band format and musical evolutionary path by switching direction from 2017’s People Used To Live Here and allowing each bandmember to contribute on several different instruments. This rotation allows a greater depth of sound and ideas to flow through Empty Body and gives their sound a gritty, dark edge. Where their last record was steeped in bittersweet quietude, Empty Body goes down a far more aggressive path. Hardcore, sludge and post-metal combine to build a whirlwind of fury with vocals laced with agonising spite. Counting Days On Bone allows a semblance of groove into the mix and it’s surrounded by discordant guitar progressions that send it into unsettling territory before segueing into the doomier textures of Apology Rot and the claustrophobic tension of The Maw.