Release Date: 29th December 2023. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: DD
Apologia - Tracklisting
To Let Go...Absolutely
Absolutely Haunted
Haunt
God Is A Ghost
Ketacidosis
Stale Skies
Justification To Build A Monument
Members
Kevn Vanderhoof - Guitar/Vocals/Synths
Gabbi Vanderhoof - Bass
Eric Hochwald - Drums/Cello
Review
We Are Space Horses are a Psych/Doom/Stoner Rock band with moments of majestic Prog Rock sounds. The band describe their music as "If Pink Floyd was influenced by TOOL and not the other way round". That's a very cool description of their debut album Apologia which also sees the band play a similar style of Psychedelic Stoner Rock grooves to bands such as ELDER, King Buffalo, Mars Red Sky and All Them Witches. The Prog Rock element of their music is perhaps the true building blocks of how the band play their interplanetary style of Sci-fi themes with lead vocalist Kevin Vanderhoof performing soulful and melodic vocals.
Apologia is told across seven tracks totalling nearly forty minutes in length. There's a wonderful Shoegaze or Doomgaze style of music being played on the more subdued and heaviest moments of the album. The lyrics are quite surreal which can be quite outlandish which gives We Are Space Horses a subtle Space Rock attitude to their music which you can hear upon the albums opening tracks of To Let Go...Absolutely and Haunt. With a free-flowing Indie Rock or Alt Rock drive appearing within the album, We Are Space Horses can be very hard to classify and play outside the genre conventions of Stoner Rock.
Apologia can be quite aggressive with its thumping rhythm section with bassist Gabbi Vanderhoof and drummer Eric Hochwald providing the creative muscle for We Are Space Horses to play their mind-expanding grooves. Kevin also performs guitar duties and there's a Post-Rock/Post-Metal swagger to his guitar playing which can be quite trippy in places especially within the standout tracks of God Is A Ghost, Ketoacidosis and Justification To Build A Monument. Shades of bands such as Godspeed You Black Emperor and HUM can easily be distinguished within the Prog Rock surroundings of the whole album.
We Are Space Horses can be quite Ambient aware with their music when Apologia takes the listener on a more sonic based journey on the later stages of the album. The band covers a lot of creative ground across multiple and different areas of music which has a classic 1990's atmosphere merged with the modern day Psychedelic vision which is becoming more and more popular within today's Stoner Rock/Metal scene.
Apologia is an unflinching and deeply emotional record that will surprise you with the creative direction that We Are Space Horses take with the whole album. The record has quite a fearless attitude which is even more captivating by the first-rate instrumental melodies and ambient themes that leave you wanting to hear more.
I'm hoping We Are Space Horses builds up a solid fan base within the Psych Stoner Rock Underground scene with Apologia. As this is a sublime release which has a haunting Art-Rock sound from start to finish which still offers endless amounts of superbly played Heavy Stoner Rock grooves.
Excellent and Highly Recommended.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to We Are Space Horses for the promo.
Apologia will be available to buy digitally from December 29th 2023.
Links
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