Coming to the Bay: The Horrors

There is a sort of judgmental satisfaction when a band’s name matches their looks. I’m guilty of practicing this. The Horrors are an indie rock band from the UK that weaves synth-laden melodies with ease. The five-piece band’s look is broody, wide-eyed, pale, unblinking guys in all shapes and sizes, donning black from head-to-toe or some kind of sharp red and blue contrast.

While they look like art goths (that’s a thing, right?), their sound is far from what art goths or regular goths probably really get into. In fact, The Horrors are known for evolving their sound with each of their albums. Released in May of this year, Luminous is the band’s fourth studio album and it’s a pulsing, and, uh, illuminating album.

Luminous is a very close sister to the band’s last album, Skying –it’s the same electronic breathless moving beats and the same haunting-voice melodies of lead singer Faris Badwan. The songs on Luminous are deep and entrench the listener into nearly 8-minute songs like “I See You.” Rather than being a sleepy track, the song gains and climbs and captures the essence of a band like The Horrors. After hitting some bumps in the road with touring, The Horrors will be playing The Fillmore this Thursday. Watch the video for “So Now You Know” below.