reviews / 2025

HAUNTED HORSES - Dweller

Name: HAUNTED HORSES – Dweller
Item: Dweller
Rating: 7.5
Author: Paolo Ciro

2025 (Three one g)

goth, industrial, punk

by Paolo Ciro

7.5

In a 2022 interview for New Noise, Colin Dawson (founder of Haunted Horses alongside drummer Myke Pelly) spelled out the sheer weight of the motivations that had driven the band through the creative process of their previous album, "The Worst Has Finally Happened": "We keep watching billionaires and corporations destroy the world around us with no consequences whatsoever, we live with the frustration of being at the mercy of leaders and institutions who wield power purely for capitalist profit, and we witness daily atrocities that leave us feeling ever more isolated and powerless." The title in particular seemed to have been born out of personally experiencing the fallout of a series of ill-judged decisions made by certain corporate executives, but complaint alone wasn't the whole story in Colin's statements. "We're relentless experimenters, which is why we've always kept control of our setup, our recordings, our releases and our tours. We like having control over the trajectory of our projects, and we find it hard to trust entities that see everything purely as a product."

It's from these thoroughly DIY premises, then, that "Dweller" is also born, the fourth full-length from the Seattle trio, the second since bassist Brian McClelland joined the lineup. Haunted Horses have built a reputation as a band that gives no quarter when it comes to turning the social rage and disillusionment that define our era into a shockwave, yet it's still striking to hear such vehemence coming from a bass, drums and keyboards lineup — one that, incidentally, turns out to be surprisingly perfect for the project's gothnoise and industrial coordinates.

Just immerse yourself in the claustrophobic atmosphere guitar of opener "Dweller On The Threshold" and hear it explode into a wall of anguish à-la Swans (of the early days) to get an idea of where things are headed over the following half hour. Center stage is held by an obscure, implacable, chaotic dread, over which stretches the hoarse howling – in full Birthday Party style – from Dawson and a rhythm section that lingers naturally in the hammering obsessiveness of Godflesh ("Grey Eminence", "Dweller In The Abyss") and of Killing Joke (“The Spell”, “Destroy Each Other”).

The trio seems to remind us that it's no coincidence Seattle has long been associated with the most convincing forms of generational unease, as already made clear from the title of a track like "Fucking Hell" (a sort of child child of "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter" by the Nirvana) and they're careful to underline it by sticking to a rigid DIY ethic rooted in punk traceable too in the average length of the tracks, rarely over three and a half minutes.

Aside from the one moment that offers a bit of breathing room (the single "Temple Of Bone", propped up by a tribal percussive drive that echoes "The Hanging Garden" by the Cure) , "Dweller" is not an album of half measures. Within its abrasive whirlwind there's room for details that can prove tough on a first listen, but the overall design is that of a work that renders, without compromise, the fear and anxiety tied to the annihilation of the self or of identity, and the uncertainty surrounding the consequences of that dissolution.

Recommended listening also for fans of Soft Moon, Lingua Ignota, A Place To Bury Strangers and of the Einstürzende from their "Haus Der Lüge" period.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

11/02/2025

Share on

This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Paolo Ciro, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition