The poetic
Dublin post-punk band are back with a daring new album that might ‘kill’ their fanbase. They’re trying not to let it get to them
You tend to know what to expect from the blurb that accompanies a band’s new album. There will almost certainly be talk of a “journey” or an “evolution”. An impressively niche musical reference will probably be name-dropped at some point (“We were heavily influenced by 70s Orkney Islands psych rock this time round”). It will quite likely be 500 words longer than it needs to be. And the hype will, without doubt, be hyperventilatingly breathless.
What is less common is for the band in question to sound as if they are simultaneously
BREAKING up with you and asking you outside for a fight. So it’s a novel experience to read the artist biography for A Hero’s Death, the second album from Fontaines DC. In it, the
Irish five-piece warn fans not to expect a repeat of their acclaimed 2019 debut, Dogrel, and readily admit that its follow-up may “kill” the idea of the band for many. What’s more, they don’t seem to be terribly bothered about the fact. “This is us as people,” concludes vocalist Grian Chatten. “If people can’t accept it or don’t like it, then their band is gone.” In other words: it’s not us, it’s you.