Philly dark post-punk act Haldol debut “Truth of an Arrow”, an old-school song that evokes all the icy glory of positive-punk and early goth, and deathrock.
Capturing the gritty rust coated patine of early Cure, The Birthday Party, Rudimentary Peni, and Japanese rock band Les Rallizes Denudes, Haldol are yet fresh and forwarding thinking, standing toe to toe with contemporaries such as DIÄT, Negative Gears, and Blank Spell, all the while putting a massive dose of punk back in goth.
“Truth of an Arrow” is the first of two singles off the band’s new album Negation, with the other track “Fear And Fascination” also dropping at Cvltnation this morning.
Listen to “Truth of an Arrow” below”
On Negation, an album released in Haldol’s 10th year of existence, Frontman and founder Geoff Smith explains:
“The making of this record was a challenge: self-recording for the first time, writing some songs as we were rolling, and a lineup change, but it’s finally finished. I’d say that this is the most honest record we’ve made. I decided to write lyrics a little differently, letting the pen flow around a word or two, such as “Fear and Fascination” being formed around a two-week obsession with the words “left ventricle”. I wrote more personally, while also reading about excess within the economy, love and eroticism, etc, as well as abjection relating to our subconscious on bodily functions, politics, love, etc. The atmospheric aim was for the record to be lyrically and musically heavy, not heavy in a big amp sense, but more emotionally heavy. Not every song is miserable, one is about being in love, but generally, the theme is about whether or not love needs a signifier, or prejudice is based on fetishization, and libidinal excess (socially and individually).
Haldol’s Negation is out now via Play Alone Records.
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