Horse Lords continue their streak of creating off-kilter microtonal rock on this challenging but rewarding new album.
Release date: June 12, 2026 | RVNG Intl. | Instagram | Facebook | Bandcamp
Mathy microtonal music is back in the mainstream (was it ever there?) in 2026. Canada’s Angine de Poitrine had a big viral moment with the video for their dancey, funky “Fabienk” becoming an internet sensation – plus sold-out tour dates to match. One of my favorites in this peculiar pocket of rock is the late, great Don Caballero, whose 1998 magnum opus What Burns Never Returns remains in my constant rotation (I’m not the only one; Meshuggah‘s drummer also lists it as one of his favorites). These experimental, textured soundscapes go even further back to other artists I revere, like Glenn Branca: his 1981 album The Ascension is a must-hear for fans of alternative tunings and walls of sound. Flying the flag for jagged, bewildering, prog-flecked experimental rock is Baltimore’s Horse Lords who, for the last 15 years, have carved out their own unique take on a sound that consistently defies expectation (and without the gaudy visual gimmicks of the aforementioned Angine de Poitrine).
Horse Lords hit their stride on 2020’s The Common Task, a damnably intriguing stew of krautrock rhythms, winding song structures, and an appreciation for intricate microtonality that dabblers like King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard could only dream of. Several long-players, live albums, and collaborations later, the quartet returns determined to shake things up: many songs add chirping female vocals to the mix, some interludes consisting solely of singing layered in oddly harmonious ways. These add to the MC Escher-styled recursiveness that is Horse Lords‘ bread and butter – Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive!‘s opening intro track, “Eureka 378-B”, begins with the manipulated voices of its guest singers reciting Thomas Kelly‘s 18th-century hymn “Heavenly Home”:
‘We’ve no abiding city here;
Sad truth, were this to be our home;
But let this thought our spirits cheer,
We seek a city yet to come…‘
I wasn’t expecting this, but upon discovering the origins of the song’s lyrics, it only magnified the album’s themes. Dissatisfaction with one’s current life and home will lead to seeking out another, motivating and pushing us to find where we belong. When the following “Brain of the Firm” busts in, the bizarre, swirling sounds that Horse Lords conjure up are both comfortingly familiar and excitingly fresh to behold. It’s willfully obtuse, to be sure, but it’s such a wonder to sit back and let the baroque guitar lines, cycling 5/4 rhythm section, and vocal tweeting take the listener to a different, idealized place where the strange feels normal and the surroundings hold surprises around every turn (the left-field beat switch at the end of this song being a prime example).
Elsewhere, Horse Lords‘ sense of play shines through: “First Galactic Utopia” humorously undercuts its title and futuristic synths with junky industrial clanging, and “Second Galactic Utopia” later in the tracklist employs what sounds like a vocoder effect meant to resemble an alien language. “After the Last Sky” brings acoustic guitar into the fold, buttressing the interlocking electric instrumentation and saxophone in a dense, thoroughly enjoyable fashion. The song’s last leg incorporates a droning, doomy backdrop that is as masterfully executed as it is astonishing to hear: the drums fade out to the apocalyptic horns losing breath and disappearing, as if the world suddenly saw itself covered in dark clouds and humankind vanished, one by one. It reflects the intro track’s interpolation of that old Irish ditty – we’re meant to detach from our current paradigm in search of greener pastures. This makes “A City Yet to Come”, which directly references the words of “Heavenly Home”, all the more effective: boasting some of the wildest sax squealing and shots of keyboard noise, it unflinchingly takes the listener to that foreign area and goes ‘this is your home now‘. It’s uncomfortable, aggressive, and slightly overbearing, but it’s where we’re meant to be.
The eight-and-a-half-minute title track closes out Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive! in the quirky, bouncy way that Horse Lords do so well. The chopped-up vocals and computerized effects combine in mystifying ways on this song, truly unlike anything you’re bound to hear this year or any other. The distorted 3/4 time signature proves to be the perfect groundwork for the loopy sounds conjured above it, and it’s worth mentioning that despite all this audio overload, the mixing allows every element to breathe and stand out. The discordant racket proves transportive, even groundbreaking in its unrelenting determination to be stubbornly forward-thinking. It begins as it ends: no drums, but a discernible rhythm in the digital cacophony nonetheless reminding the listener just how out-there the experience of a new Horse Lords album is. Seven records in, the group is still finding ways to challenge expectations and try new things, and on Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive!, their bravery is both admirable and successful. May these lords continue their mighty reign.
