ninehertz

It’s getting tough to find new things to write about Shit the Cow. Injuries is their sixteenth release and we’ve been big fans since the second of those made us get up and want to dance way back in 2013. Over the last few years their release plan has been the same – an EP delivered in October or November as an early Christmas present.

So here we are again, blessed. I still am struggling to find descriptions that we have not already exhausted a hundred times, for there is – with no surprise – no drop off in quality. There are eight tracks, longer than usual, but in terms of music to keep us warm heading into the cold seasons, we’re right back in with them where they always are.

They reside somewhere between stoner rock and post-hardcore, with occasional garage rock party tunes. Injuries is one of their more straight-up stoner records, not in a retro fuzzy manner that looks to the past but with an ease and freshness for the modern day. There are stylistic nods to Rated R era Queens of the Stone Age at times, as well as other bands of the same clique – Masters of Reality, Melissa Auf Der Maur’s solo albums, even Lanegan’s storytelling on Lost Ark.

Horse maybe my highlight, a recall to the glory days of European stoner rock, their fellow Swedes Dozer and Greenleaf in particular. There’s more to them than simple comparisons though, they are their own band – understated, totally comfortable with where their song writing takes them, a gorgeous flow to the music and an ever-present coolness that’ll have you smiling.

Listen to My Last Life as evidence, an upbeat summer punk holiday number that helps make the weight of the modern world a little lighter. Injuries is classic Shit the Cow, as good as they’ve even been. Not better – but only because they never dip in form, simply existing at this wonderful level at all times.