This is the third album from UK doomgaze band Sugar Horse.
Following on from 2024’s well-received The Grand Scheme of Things, Not a Sound in Heaven offers up 44 minutes of new music for fans of the band to salivate over. Yep, Sugar Horse are back, and this time they’re even better.
Once more we’re treated to the Sugar Horse hybrid brand of multigenre shenanigans, albeit in an updated way. Bits and pieces of doom, electronics, industrial, post-rock/metal, shoegaze, sludge, and more all co-exist in a charged equilibrium, ready and waiting for the band to pull out of this exotic mix whatever they need to craft their affecting songs.
Sugar Horse’s constantly shifting amalgamation of influences means that Not a Sound in Heaven is far from a repeat of its predecessor. While ostensibly made of similar base ingredients, this new record presents as a different concoction overall. It’s more urgent, with a greater electronic/industrial aspect. It’s heavier and denser, yet still awash with feeling and nuance. Imagine, if you will, the twisted offspring of Godflesh, LLNN, Torche, and Training for Utopia. However, this is only a rough approximation of the Not a Sound in Heaven experience.
These songs are atypical and are probably what you’d tag as experimental, at least in some ways. Within this, Sugar Horse’s songwriting does most of the heavy lifting, as it should, making for songs that combine feel and feeling very well. There is atmosphere and mood mixed in with hooks and melodies, alongside crushing rhythms and industrial beats. From the ethereal to the brutal, from the sugary to the sour, from the beautiful to the caustic, Not A Sound in Heaven is a journey that insists on being taken.
Sugar Horse have constructed a record that finds a sweet spot between genres that is less explored than most. The songs are multifaceted, richly rendered, and layered with emotive qualities. Not a Sound in Heaven is a triumph of creativity and expressive depth. It also has the bonus of being hugely enjoyable. While the previous album was good, this new one is easily the superior entity.
Essential listening.
Wonderbox Metal 