Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for HORSE the Band - Desperate Living (2009)
One exciting thing about this band is its challenging inaccessibility, which is practically unknown and now seems underrated. You would have to be as good as you can for people to remember your band and their name. HORSE the Band is never taken down by that problem, with Desperate Living being memorable enough to hit the mainstream. The music really rules! It sounds like a decent mix of Enter Shikari and Machinae Supremacy.
The album starts with peace and fury switching back and forth in "Cloudwalker", featuring SNES synth-pads and aggressive screams. The title track is a greater display of HORSE's 8-bit metalcore power. They have more of their potential in "The Failure Of All Things", sounding like a Game Boy battle soundtrack. The rhythm at the end grabs your throat while the guitar punches your face that's already melting from those intense 8-bit synths. "HORSE the Song" crashes in with maniacal vocals and drums, before accelerating into thunder-crashing guitars and spiraling 8-bit melodies beyond control.
"Science Police" is full of Spandau Ballet-infused metalcore. That's an interesting example of HORSE taking a turn around the broader music spectrum. "Shapeshift" is indeed a shape-shifting song, not just in the instrumentation, but also the usual harsh vocals switching to the softer ones by Jamie Stewart from Xiu Xiu. "Between the Trees" shows a more psychotic side of intrinsic ambiance, keyboards, riffs, and versatile vocals. Then the instrumentation becomes surreal in "Golden Mummy Golden Bird".
"Lord Gold Wand of Unyielding" has a short yet big deck of power chords and melodic vocals sung by two of the other band members. "Big Business" makes me think of that Bette Midler film from the 80s my mom likes to watch. Speaking of the 80s, that song's bluesy section is more furious and twisted than any song you would ever hear from Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster. The astonishing but dubiously titled "Rape Escape" is an expansive 7-minute epic ranging from mathcore to keyboard breakdowns to Mike Patton-esque emotional vocals. After all that madness, it ends with haunting reflective piano by professional pianist Valentina Lisitsa, playing the complex Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2. However, the album doesn't end there. We still got "Arrive", a pounding anthem with life-force coursing into your body.
Desperate Living is better than that Enter Shikari album and electronic metalcore album, having more technical imagination with exciting timbres and complex structures to keep your attention running. With this, HORSE has been given enough distinction to be a special HORSE in the horse field. It's something not easy to achieve for a band that adds fury into good conventional music. Still I think this album would have a more complete effect if it had some use in its excessive weight. Desperate Living is a refined album with barely any spoken-word clichés or flat moments. It's satisfyingly powerful, thanks to my synth-metalcore interests at full spark!
Favorites: "Desperate Living", "The Failure of All Things", "HORSE the Song", "Shapeshift", "Golden Mummy Golden Bird", "Rape Escape"