So cast it out of heaven, but don’t look it in the face
It’s simpler to reduce it to the lie
That you’re holding to your heart, like an article of faith
To teach you not to see with your own eyes.
Some bands write songs so they can brood in a corner with a glass of something brown and buzzy. Hot Hail! write songs that sound like they’ve been staring at the evening news too long and finally decided to turn the nausea into electricity. Article Of Faith, the first strike from their upcoming second LP Hope In Hell, carries the clipped cool of classic synthpop while dragging a very contemporary disgust through the room.
The groove has that lean, metropolitan snap; the kind of rhythm that would’ve fit comfortably on a mixtape wedged between early New Order, Songs of Faith and Devotion-era Depeche Mode, and a brooding Tears For Fears B-side. Keys glide in tight patterns, drum machines keep the whole track marching forward with a kind of stiff-backed discipline, and the arrangement stays restrained enough to let the lyrics sit there like a bruise.
The lyrics aren’t coy about their target. Article Of Faith zeroes in on the peculiar national hobby of dressing prejudice up as principle. The song sketches a population so addicted to ideological certainty that reality itself becomes optional. Evidence bends, compassion shrivels, and cruelty gets dressed up in the respectable clothes of belief. The effect is unsettling in the best possible way. The music moves with the clean precision of classic synthpop, while the words carry a sour anger that seeps through the track. It feels like the band took the polished architecture of ’80s pop and slipped a political hand grenade under the floorboards.
Sigil puts the sentiment bluntly: “These are people who will literally watch us shot in the street and come up with a reason why it is excusable. They will watch much worse happen and do the same. Their ignorance, their absolute inability to be wrong about any of this, is like an article of faith in a nightmare religion. People like Trump are just the oozing white head on the huge sebaceous cyst that these people represent. We will never win their hearts and minds, and they will happily exterminate all of us if given the chance. That’s a reality that we should probably really start thinking about.”
That quote lands like a punchline from hell, and the song around it keeps a cool composure that makes the sentiment hit harder. Hot Hail! used to swim in darker waters on tracks like All The Blood You Wanted, but here they step into sleeker territory without sanding down the anger. If Hope In Hell follows this blueprint, the album could wind up sounding like a dance floor argument with the apocalypse.
Listen to Article of Faith below and order the single here.
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The post “The Lie That You’re Holding to Your Heart” — Hot Hail! Laments the Poison of Hate in “Article of Faith” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.