Horrors - Night Life

by Zena Grieg

published: 17 / 4 / 2025

Label: Fiction Records
Format: CD

Bleak ninth album from English rock band The Horrors which proves to be an intense, immersive experience

Review

Attracting widespread attention in 2006 with their debut single ‘Sheena Is A Parasite’, English rock band The Horrors were a gothic sensation in sound and appearance. Now, in a new incarnation, with the recent addition of keyboard player Amelia Kidd (The Ninth Place), the band have released their sixth studio album, following up on their 2017 ‘V’ album. ‘Night Life’, described by the band as a “3a.m. insomnia walk through the city, retracing our steps and putting the past to bed”, is a moody melange of short and longer songs, a bleak end-of the-world ambience pervading them all. Themes include grief, disconnection, loneliness and impermanence, set against a dystopian landscape. Songs to listen out for in this nine-track collection include: the slow-building opener ‘Ariel’ with its ominous introductory lyrics: “In this world of silent winterscapes/All dreams hang unseen in the air/And every hollow cross we carry through our lives/Drags on our backs beneath the sun”; industrial goth-rock ‘Silent Sister’; lead single, the dramatic techno-rock ‘The Silence That Remains’, with its circling interplay between pain, intimacy and disconnection; ‘Trial By Fire’ with its explosive refrain and overpowering synths; ‘Lotus Eater’ with its haunting, hypnotic lines: ”If the world should end today/I’ve spent too much time/Worrying about yesterday”; the catchy ‘More Than Life’; stripped-back ballad ‘When The Rhythm Breaks’; and the epic closer, the upbeat anthemic ‘LA Runaway’. Dark, desolate with unexpected moments, ‘Night Life’ is an intense, immersive experience, coming out ahead of a UK-wide tour in November.

Track Listing:-

1 Ariel
2 Silent Sister
3 The Silence That Remains
4 Trial By Fire
5 The Feeling Is Gone
6 Lotus Eater
7 More Than Life
8 When The Rhythm Breaks
9 LA Runaway