HEART ATTACK MAN - JOYRIDE THE PALE HORSE
Photo credit: Sam Skapin
Cleveland’s own Heart Attack Man keeps their energy strong with their fourth album, Joyride The Pale Horse. The band debuted one of the tracks off this album at their annual “Hammy New Year” event this past December ahead of the album announcement. The trio, consisting of singer, Eric Egan, drummer, Adam Paduch and guitarist, Tyler Sickels, have been advocators of going the DIY route in terms of music and even printing their own merch all while holding and showing their support for many issues in the ongoing world and teamed up again with New Jersey producer, Brett Rommes to give us an album full of it.
Impostor Syndrome - we’ve all heard of it. In the first track of this album, Eric Egan shares his own struggles with the aforementioned as well as creative burnout. The track touches on feeling tired and feeling like everything’s been laid out with nothing left to give, a solid feeling in the music industry. Egan’s writing mixed with the explosive instrumentals in the chorus help to further push the feeling before eventually melting into the second track keeping on with the fast feeling.
‘Spit’ starts out strong and Egan is said to have used this song as a lash out of sorts to the current rise in generative artificial intelligence in the art world. More and more people are using things such at ChatGPT to fuel creative aspects and in turn, taking opportunities from real artists. The track is perfect in showing that and in showing the way people who use these generative forms “spit” in the faces of those that truly spend their lives working on these art forms and make their living out of such.
Having debuted at the band’s yearly end of the year show, Hammy New Year, the album’s title track has gone through a few changes since then. Egan goes on to say in an interview with RockSound that the song was originally meant for the last record (Freak of Nature, 2023), however it wasn’t ready yet and therefore did not make it to the album. He also explains that that’s where the album’s theme came from; his “acute awareness of death.”
A callback to the earlier track ‘End of the Gun’, the album’s ninth track, ‘I’ll See You There’ explores life after death. A slightly slower feel and the tone of the guitars compared to the others make the point of this track stick that much more. “The greatest story ever told and everybody listened. But it was fiction” shows more of a sense of (and going back to the album’s first track) the discovery of really who a person was and who they’ve become. Egan cites the track to be a lesson in humility as well as pressing on life after death in Heaven or Hell.
In all, Joyride The Pale Horse is absolutely everything fans of Heart Attack Man have grown to love. The upbeat tracks as well as the slower, calmer vibes. The trio’s take on life, death and everything in between is something listeners have grown to love within the past few years. Their lack of fear when it comes to pinpointing topics and issues others may not touch on give an interesting look on the way the world works and perhaps even provide words and structure to thoughts some may not even have fully realized. From start to finish, this album leaves everything on the table and starting the 8th of May, the band will begin touring for their newest release in Australia beginning in North Perth.
Niki Davidson
★★★★☆
