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Los Angeles'
Horse The Band
played demented, screamed videogame-inspired metalcore, decorated with lo-fi keyboards and impregnated with progressive-rock ambitions, on R. Borlax (2003) and The Mechanical Hand (2005).
If the former is still under-produced (despite early peaks of pathos like
Cutsman and Bunnies, despite the
manic hysteria of Purple and
bombastic melodrama of The Immense Defecation of the Buntaluffigus),
it was on the latter that the band perfected its style.
Erik Engstrom's electronic keyboards alternately lend melody, ambience or noise to the epileptic fits of the band, and well complement the varied vocal theatrics of Nathan Winneke.
Each song is a micro-suite, changing dramatically from beginning to end.
The chaotic and syncopated Birdo
The Black Hole (opener and closer)
and the manifestos, but the
breathless cowpunk charge of A Million Exploding Suns
and A Rusty Glove
is no less unstable, and songs like
The House Of Boo and
Taken By Vultures
reveal a theatrical quality.
The anthemic refrain of Manateen gets minced by various degrees of anger.
Sand is an insane hybrid of Deep Purple and Sex Pistols.
A Natural Death (2007) even flirted with dance-music and musique concrete.
It contains New York City and Murder.
They disbanded after Desperate Living (2009), containing
Shapeshift and The Failure of All Things.
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