Surely you know what Heart Attack Man are all about by now. They make emo-punk songs for a disenfranchised Eric Egan to air some rather chronic frustrations, often with himself caught amongst the hail. They also had a phase of propagating a controversial, devil-may-care attitude for themselves that was extremely hard to take seriously on its face. And yet, that’s been a lingering hole in Heart Attack Man ever since, especially on 2023’s Freak Of Nature. That’s an album that’s definitely appreciated since its lukewarm early showing—the title track and Like A Kennedy ended up being unfeasibly resilient earworms—but the point still stands. When adorned with a visual of a two-headed dog in the middle of violent gnash-sesh, it’s not out of the question to think what was inside could’ve reflected that more.
Spoilers for Joyride The Pale Horse, then—this isn’t a return to the ways of the Fake Blood era, either. Though, right now, it doesn’t really need to be, for a couple of reasons. We’re further removed from that way of Heart Attack Man’s presentation, for a start, and the current audience is more acclimatised to the style of that last album. Moreover, Joyride The Pale Horse is just a better, more successful version of what Freak Of Nature did. The distance helps, but on its own merits, there’s a crunch and brawn that builds up these songs that didn’t always rise to the top last time. Here, there’s no such issue; this is the streamlined, super-melodic clattering of emo, punk and pop-punk that finally feels like a plan coming together.
All the while, not a single facet of what Heart Attack Man were is lost. Not a single one is gained either, granted, but that’s less of a blow than if there were a reliance on moves beyond the DIY rubric. Joyride The Pale Horse still has a punk vibe to embody, and therefore gets most from how raw and ragged Heart Attack Man are willing to get. Hell, as far as what Egan gives off, he couldn’t change that if he tried. Nor should he, because songs like End Of The Gun and Call Of The Void nail full-throated immolation, extrapolated and mapped onto the wider world on Spit and I’ll See You There. Even on The Gallows, a song of nominal positivity and uplift, the snark-inflated delivery of “Happy graduation from the gallows” suggests the ol’ Heart Attack Man razzle-dazzle is still waiting in the wings. It’s like a Spanish Love Songs album with the artfulness in its social commentary mercilessly yanked out, and that’s meant as an unreserved compliment.
It also helps that Joyride The Pale Horse is as reckless and roughshod with its pacing as its title might suggest. Considering that Egan evidently has a chip on his shoulder so great that it’s close to rending his arm fully off, that’s not too surprising. It’s what keeps the album’s fire lit, and burning more fiercely than its predecessor’s almost across the board. Even Can’t Slow Down—struck with oft-maligned double-time pop-punk drums that’d make you believe it should be the surly mug of early-2010s Parker Cannon at the helm—works by meeting Heart Attack Man’s craving for a crash-out. The burly punk dashes of End Of The Gun and Lay Down And Die fit just as well, while the grunge of One More Song (Imposter Syndrome) and I’ll See You There land some perfect notes of ennui to spice up the loathe-fest.
It never overstays its welcome for that to become exhausting, or even for what is essentially circling around the same patch of land as always to feel redundant. Here, it’s clearer than ever how much Egan especially has a gift for keeping this fresh. He’s got that very big, American style of abasement to hand, not necessarily performative but carries a lot of the same motions. It’s where the deadpan musings of Laughing Without Smiling fit on, or Joyride’s flippant “I’ve clearly overstayed my welcome, best be going now” and its nonchalant recital of the album’s title that’s built from raw disaffection. The typical (sometimes overly irony-pilled) traits of the US DIY scene get blown up through a much more direct, borderline mainstream punk scope, to where Joyride The Pale Horse is the product of near-perfect ratios now.
That’s all true while still acknowledging that Heart Attack Man aren’t making genre-defining statements that go beyond their intended bounds. It happens when you make iterations on a theme that’s scaled back to represent its swinging fists and little past that. Though to call that a shortcoming of Heart Attack Man when they’re openly improving doesn’t seem like that sensible of a criticism to make. When it’s pleasingly light on filler and rumbles along with barely a hitch to be found, it’s most of the way there already. What’s best about Joyride The Pale Horse, though, is that it breeds a hopefulness and excitement for Heart Attack Man that hasn’t been seen in such a capacity in ages. No longer do they feel like a band reliant on flagrant over-marketing that sets unreasonable expectations down the line; this is a natural place for them to be in without disregarding what got them here. Dare we call it the best Heart Attack Man album? Well, for everything it represents, it could well be.
For fans of: Hot Mulligan, Knuckle Puck, Arm’s Length
‘Joyride The Pale Horse’ by Heart Attack Man is released on 25th April.
Words by Luke Nuttall
