A Hero’s Death
A dark, hypnotic, and deeply poetic sophomore record. Swirling guitars and repetitive rhythms capture the heavy weight of sudden success and isolation.
A dark, hypnotic, and deeply poetic sophomore record. Swirling guitars and repetitive rhythms capture the heavy weight of sudden success and isolation.
Psychological turn
Cold rain on hot asphalt fills these tracks, where relentless, looping basslines drag you through the exhaustion of a sudden spotlight. Gritty guitars drone like distant highway traffic while the vocals chant, numb and insistent. It is the claustrophobic feeling of being trapped inside a speeding car with the windows rolled up tight.
The record plunges into a heavy, brooding atmosphere where the claustrophobia of sudden fame is mirrored in slow, hypnotic guitar wails that feel like foghorns in the Dublin rain.
Critics warmly received the album as a thoughtful and bold sophomore effort, widely praising the band's transition into a darker, more experimental sonic territory. Reviewers particularly admired the intimate songwriting, which beautifully balances moody, atmospheric textures with melodies that feel both challenging and deeply relatable.
“After turning heads on their debut, Dogrel, last year, the post-punks flirt with psychedelia and echoey guitar while their singer stands his ground”Read review
“Fontaines D.C.’s A Hero’s Death is the follow-up to the acclaimed Dogrel, and it features some of their best work - alongside some of their most generic”Read review
“Heady, funny, and fearless, the Dublin band’s second album is a maudlin and manic triumph, a horror movie shot as comedy, equal parts future-shocked and handcuffed to history”Read review
“A Hero’s Death forges enough distance from the recent past to reveal what could feasibly be a band on the cusp of earning their well-worn braggadocio”Read review
“In aiming to examine the self rather than please others, Fontaines D.C. have exerted a knack for writing anthems that are at once self-excoriating and intimately relatable”Read review
“A Hero’s Death just confirms what we’ve known all along: Fontaines D.C. intend to become one of the greatest rock bands of all time, and they don’t mind doing it the hard way”Read review
“It is missing the stable spine that gave the band’s earlier work such distinctive character, and their repetitious, two-dimensional songs bring the overall package down. Still, when the band is at its best, Fontaines D.C. delivers an irresistible cocktail of post-punk storytelling”Read review
“The Irish band aren’t scared of admitting their own insecurities on this impressive follow-up to their Mercury Prize-shortlisted debut”Read review
“The propulsive spark that lit their debut lingers, keeping the record from drifting off into malaise. There a certainty to their uncertainty. They embrace ambiguity. Fontaines D.C. might be unsure of what they want, but they damn well know what they don’t when they see it”Read review
“Subversive, non-conformist and melodious, this record has the credentials of a classic rock and roll album”Read review
“The Irish band’s quick follow-up album mines maturity from far darker sounds”Read review
“Although A Hero’s Death does suffer from repetition and a lack of literacy, it remains a fun enough; the mistakes it makes won’t deter existing fans of the band, although it doesn’t display anything new or exciting enough to propel Fontaines D.C. to any new heights”Read review
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