Illinois-based band The House Flies have been developing a sound that simmers in the space between darkness and melody. Drawing on shoegaze, goth rock, post punk and grunge, the group combines dense atmospheres with songwriting that remains engaging and memorable, creating music where brooding textures and infectious hooks work together. Since landing with their debut EP, Glimmer, in early 2023, they’ve continued to stretch their musical horizons while exploring new side of their sonic output.
The band began as a trio featuring vocalist and guitarist Alex Riggen, drummer Nick Pompou and bassist Ozzie Woods. Their early material forged a sound built around immersive arrangements, heavy guitar textures and melodies that puncture the noise. By not viewing their influences as a set of rules to follow, The House Flies used them as starting points, finding their own identity within the tension between accessible songwriting and more shadowy sonic experimentation.
Their first full-length album, Mannequin Deposit, arrived in 2024, opening up new musical areas while preserving the atmosphere that had shaped their earlier work. Now, with guitarist Burnie Eckhardt joining the lineup and a second full-length album, Lions and Ore, on the way, The House Flies are entering a new chapter that takes their atmospheric sound into increasingly expansive spheres.
The addition of Burnie on guitar now brings the group into its next phase as a four-piece, with Lions and Ore, arriving on the 6th of November, marking the first full-length release from the current lineup. Across seven tracks, the record explores longer arrangements, heavier transitions, quieter repetition and rural imagery, expanding the band’s musical language while retaining the impact that has always been present in its songwriting.
Post punk rhythms provide forward momentum, atmospheric passages create room for reflection and heavier guitar sections arrive with a force, allowing their arrangements to develop gradually, finding intensity in repetition and using changes in texture to shape the emotional direction of each song. Kicking off the release, âGoodnight, Goodnight, Lover Dearâ opens with a sudden entrance, bringing together crashing drums and crunching guitars while hymnal and domestic imagery are delivered via hushed vocals before moving from stillness towards a fuller guitar sound.
Previously released single âLost Literatureâ offers a different sort of momentum around punchy drums, a prominent, danceable bassline and stacks of guitar, bringing band’s darker post punk and goth influences towards a more pop-inflected sound. Its repeated vocal refrain gives the song a centre, while its moody atmosphere preserves the tension that runs through the band’s work. The song’s lyrics create a scattered landscape of highway nights, rental cars, radio static, porch lights and clover, with fragments of memory becoming part of a wider exploration of identity. Questions about who someone was, who they have become and what remains when recollections begin to slip out of order hover beneath the track’s lively rhythm.
âDerelict Crawlâ takes a more gradual route towards its impact; beginning with jittery percussion and muted guitar notes, the track allows Alex Riggen’s smooth vocals to settle into its atmospheric framework before gritty chords and splashing drums transform the arrangement. The song repeatedly moves between delicacy and force, building towards belted melodic lines before returning to its quieter setting. That ebb and flow gives the track a dramatic quality, highlighting the band’s flair for making intensity feel like a natural extension of the music.
The album continues to explore different shades of its sonic identity, with âSnakes and Toadsâ pairing devotional language with animal imagery against darker textures, wrapped up in an intricate scene of shuffling drums, smokey guitar notes and expressive vocal performance combing to deliver an atmospheric and more delicate soundscape tinged with drifting string textures. âCount Us Downâ uses streetlights, weather and repetition to create a hypnotic centre, propelled by the laid back march of tapped percussion, soft vocals and pulsing bass notes, building towards a fuzz-drenched, shoegaze style finale.
âShelter Meâ turns towards heat, old wire and enclosed spaces, offering a more direct passage late in the record, captured in a driving arrangement of rustling drums, hurried guitar layers and commanding vocal leads. Closing track âThe Glass, The Orchardâ begins in a quieter space shaped by memory and tenderness before building into a dramatic crescendo, ending with a wish to remain in view. It is an epic conclusion for a band increasingly comfortable with the distance between restraint and release, finishing the album with a gripping surge of guitars, rattling drums and impassioned vocals.
With Lions and Ore, The House Flies continue to build on the origins mapped out by their earlier work while embracing the new potential of their expanded lineup. Dark, melodic and able to let its ideas play out in enthralling fashion, the album finds the Illinois band exploring new musical areas while keeping sight of the atmosphere and all-consuming sound that first defined them. With their sophomore full-length record set to land next month, the band are set to celebrate its launch with a show at Raccoon Motel in Davenport, Iowa, with King of the Weirdos, Strange News and Halfloves.
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