San Antonio crushers The Grasshopper Lies Heavy have released "Lyrics are Hard," the second single from their upcoming new album, HEAVY.
Sludgy and fiery, the song rocks like Neurosis and Mastodon at their hardest and heaviest. The unnerving, Gummo-esque video was directed by Will Mecca, who has also made videos for Chat Pile and Full of Hell. In his unmistakable, VHS style, Mecca follows a day in the life of a portly, snot-eating, young man, strutting around town and stealing ice cream.
Stream the video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDy8U8Wtw8Y
Pre-order the new album (out November 14th on Learning Curve Records), here: https://thegrasshopperliesheavy.bandcamp.com/album/heavy-2
"TGLH has always been a band with two sides; one side, this super heavy thing and the other side, more cinematic or post-rock," states guitarist/vocalist James Woodard, TGLH's sole constant member, who began making work under the TGLH banner in 2009 and has since enlisted an extensive cast of musicians to help him execute his visions – including a slew of music released and shows played with the likes of Chat Pile, Metz, and Yob.
Entirely instrumental albums such as 2014's All Sadness, Grinning Into Flow and 2017's Cavern – the soundtrack to a short film, created with the help of Bob Catlin (Pigface, Psychic TV) – saw Woodard exploring meditative, ambient realms. ("Movies, and their soundtracks, are a huge inspiration for me," says Woodard. "I collect them and have easily over 1,000 movies. It’s a sickness.") Simultaneously, a crushing, metallic sound was being honed and Woodard eventually introduced his vocals into the mix, a direction exemplified by 2021's A Cult That Worships a God of Death.
Now, with HEAVY, Woodard – backed by the ace musicianship of guitarist James Cameron Taylor, bassist Oscar Moreno, and drummers Steven Barrera and Luke Zachary Mitchell – has chosen to commit fully to his metallic tendencies. With power and finesse, Woodard and his cronies rock relentlessly and keep the adrenaline in the red. Woodard refers to the new album as "a love letter to my inspirations," including Sepultura and Napalm Death.
Cheekily referencing the band's bygone instrumental days, "Lyrics are Hard" consists of anti-lyrical placeholders such as "This is where the first line goes / Make the second line longer for contrast." The song is an oasis of levity in an otherwise pitch-black account of existential horror. "A recurring theme throughout our stuff is the decline of America," says Woodard. "The cruelty of the system and the apathy that it breeds." Fittingly, the band's name comes from the pages of the Philip K. Dick classic, The Man in the High Castle, a work of alternative history wherein the Axis Powers win the Second World War.
Photo by Oscar Moreno
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