Victims – The Horse And Sparrow Theory LP (Relapse Records)

Victims are a legendary Swedish crustcore band, originally hailing from Nyköping, but they are currently based in Stockholm, SWE. The current line-up consists of Johan Eriksson on lead vocals and bass guitar, Andy Henriksson on drums,  Jon Lindqvist on backing vocals and guitars and Gareth Smith on guitars. Through their career, a band managed to release six studio albums Neverendinglasting, In Blood, Divide And Conquer, Killer, A Dissident and Sirens; two EP releases such as Harder Than It Was Meant To Be and Lies, Lies, Lies; three split releases with some prominent underground bands such as Acursed, From Ashes Rise and Kylesa. The Horse And Sparrow Theory LP is their seventh studio album, embarking the new era for the band by signing with legendary metal label Relapse Records. The album has been produced by  Karl Daniel Lidén who’s famous for working with Katatonia, Bloodbath, Craft, plus many many more. Victims are continuing their journey with their own version of d-beat, hardcore and crust punk music, with a couple more changes in sound, presented with huge amounts of reverb on the entire mix. The band is deconstructing a current socio-political climate, with an overlook at class wars, negative aspects of industrialization, corruption, and greed, so you can expect some intelligent lyrics implemented over a dark, depressive d-beat music. The band is also offering a much more doom metal kinda atmosphere with drop-tuned guitars being treated with a lot of studio reverb, distorted basslines and massive drumming by Andy Henriksson who slowed down on this recording a little bit. The Horse And Sparrow Theory LP delivers, dark, apocalyptic, depressive visions of the world we are currently living in, it’s a good soundtrack for the upcoming world events we will surely won’t miss by any chance. The album is available as a limited vinyl record and standard compact disc throughout Relapse Records.