A Natural Death
California's Horse the Band debuted in 2003 with R. Borlax, a noisy but undoubtedly leading light in the burgeoning post-hardcore subgenre of Nintendocore. They returned in 2005 with Mechanical Hand, which was produced by Matt Bayles (Isis, Norma Jean) and released through Combat Records. The band proved much tighter a unit, incorporating skewed melodies and real dynamics into their freaky sonic stew. Besides the nods to recognizable structure, Horse the Band were still mostly enamored of screamo breaks, unpredictable rhythms, locust-like philosophy on the microphone, and blasts of squelch that were unrecognizable but badass. A Natural Death is a new frontier for HTB. Produced by Bob Ezrin's in-house engineer Brian Virtue, the album is already getting heaps of praise in the press as the band gets ready to hit the road.