After bursting out of Brussels in 2015 My Diligence originally began life as a stoner rock ensemble. The intervening years have found the band revolving and evolving with 2019’s Sun Rose being pivotal in the band’s metamorphosis and saw them introduce progressive elements into their sound and their latest album, the cryptically-titled Death. Horses. Black, finds them continuing their developmental arc to produce an album that is richly textured and genre-hopping, taking in diverse forms such as shoegaze and doom metal for a truly arresting listen.
Opening track ‘Death’ rocks like a band who know they’re onto a good thing. It’s bristles with the confidence of musicians who’ve found their signature sound and are happy in their collective skin. Subsequently, ‘Death’ arrives slowly; this isn’t a caffeine buzz of a song, rather it is a slow release of energy that finds the band patiently building a dark and discombobulating soundscape. ‘Death’ is a hulking, monolithic structure that’s built from huge, chunky riffs and pounding drums. My Diligence are a band working at the coal face of heavy metal and they’ve struck a rich seam that’s delivering a stream of black gold. Aided by an expansive production, Death. Horses. Black creates a feeling of something so vast and immovable it can barely be comprehended. It’s the weight of the ocean bearing down upon a shipwreck or a nowhere ending sky, it positions the listener as an infinitesimal speck in the universe and, as you’d imagine, the effect is quite unnerving. Drawing a direct line from Swans (via Godflesh) My Diligence prove themselves musical alchemists and are the heir’s apparent to the crown of darkness.
There’s something about three-piece bands, that when configured correctly creates a sound that is far bigger than their constituent parts. It’s a trick that Motörhead, Budgie and Rush could all master, and it sounds like My Diligence can, too. The sound they create is dense and lustrous, and is akin to a penny dropped in treacle which means that the epic ‘Allodiplogaster Sudhausi’ is not unlike being drawn deeper and deeper into quicksand with the band’s sound gradually encasing the listener. Such is the all-encompassing nature of Death. Horses. Black that it is not the type of album you can put on as background music, rather it demands you full attention with the tonal shifts that characterise songs such as ‘Lucid Alley’ reverberating and effecting the listener on a primordial level.
The powerful nature of this album means that it will leave a beckoning conclusion as final cut ‘Sacred Anchor’ fades into the ether but don’t worry, you’ll soon be hitting ‘play’ again.
- Death. Horses. Black is released via Listenable Records on 31st May 2024.
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Track List:
1. Death
2. Horses
3. Black
4. Auspicious
5. Interlude (The Bridle and the Bit)
6. Allodiplogaster Sudhausi
7. Lucid Alley
8. Sacred Anchor
