Exclusive Album Premiere: Horseburner, Dead Seeds, Barren Soil
Have you ever stumbled into a show and been so blown away at the talent on stage that you make excuses for how they got so intimidatingly good? Excuses like “Well, they probably have rich parents to buy them fancy equipment,” and “I doubt they have jobs; they’re probably just sitting around all day doing nothing but playing while I’m out here working too much.”
I totally did that with Horseburner. Outside of having one of the best names you’ve never heard, they also happen to be one of the most engaging and delightful live bands in the stoner metal genre today, and now they’re finally putting out a full-length album so more than just the lucky few on the east coast club circuit can get an earful.
Formed in the summer of 2008 from the ashes of Parkersburg, WV band To Kill or Cure, Horseburner certainly have taken their sweet time perfecting the material required to fill up a full-length. If their two EPs Dirt City and Strange Giant weren’t enough indication of quality, their perfectionism should be: they had a whole new record finished, scrapped the ENTIRE thing when they weren’t completely thrilled with the final product, re-wrote and re-recorded, and enlisted the help of the insanely talented David McKie for the stunning cover art. If signed bands were willing to put this much effort into an album, imagine how much bad music would simply disappear.
The hard work and dedication to detail paid off: Dead Seeds, Barren Soil is a great fucking time. Tracks like “David” and “Replenishment” draw in the listener with the beer-swilling optimism and boisterous attitude that make bands such as Red Fang and Melvins legendary. This is no endless stoned magic carpet ride, though; they dive deeper into the doom side of things more than ever before landing firmly in Wino territory with “A Newfound Purity,” a track that I would have believed was found in some lost Obsessed recordings from the mid ’90s were it not for singer Jack Thomas’ inimitable caveman vocal approach.
The stasis reached mid-album is the stuff that makes these guys so great. An almost math-like approach to changing time signatures and glorious riffs pounded deep into the expert groove of heavy hitter extraordinaire, Adam Nohe, blend perfectly into the come-down on the breathlessly pretty “The Soil’s Prayer,” a nod to stoner metal potentates Baroness. Leaden closer “Eleleth” drags the album to a brutishly slow yet somehow soaring and triumphant end. Horseburner’s Appalachian roots are most visible here: this sound can only come from people who truly grasp what it is to be endowed with fatalism by birthright but have a spirit that’s impossible to crush.
Dead Seeds, Barren Soil is streaming exclusively here at MetalSucks until its official release next Friday, July 8th. Horseburner head out on tour in mid-July — find dates near you below.
July 15 – Baltimore, MD @ The Sidebar
July 16 – Brooklyn, NY @ Lucky 13
July 17 – Allentown, PA @ Alternative Gallery
July 18 – Utica, NY @ Gordon’s Taproom
July 19 – Boston, MA @ O’ Brien’s
July 20 – Atlantic City, NJ @ The Boneyard
July 21 – Washington, DC @ The Pinch
July 22 – Richmond, VA @ Wonderland
July 23 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Fire
July 24 – Harrisonburg, VA @ the Golden Pony
July 27 – Asheville, NC @ The Odditorium
July 28 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
July 29 – Johnson City, TN @ The Hideaway
July 30 – Nashville, TN @ The Springwater
July 31 – New Orleans, LA @ (tba)
August 1 – Houston, TX @ The Clinic
August 2 – Ft. Worth, TX @ 1919 Hemphill
August 3 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Your Mom’s Place
August 4 – Springfield, MO @ The Outland
August 5 – Chicago, IL @ Burlington Bar
August 6 – Indianapolis, IN @ 5th Quarter Lounge
August 7 – Columbus, OH @ (tba)
