The new Limb album Saboteurs of the Sun is coming May 25th
London heavy contingent Limb set the controls for the heart of the sun with their third record on New Heavy Sounds.
Saboteurs of the Sun sees Limb hurl themselves skyward to discover new worlds within the riff–time continuum.
Building on their previous two records, which positioned Limb in the thick of the UK heavy fuzz scene, the band now move beyond their sludge–doom origins to explore a cosmos of bubbling synthesizers, screaming organs, ecstatic choirs and galaxies of wild unidentified sounds.
Vocalist Rob Hoey says, “We’re not a band that wants to get complacent. For our third record, with the wider world around continuing to fall apart, we wanted to address big, grand themes. And to do that, we had to broaden our sonic palette.”
That’s not to say that Saboteurs of the Sun jettisons any of the stomp and swagger that Limb have made their own. The grooves, the power and the chops are all there in spades – helped by a masterful production from Russ Russell (Napalm Death, At the Gates, etc.).
Each of the 10 songs that make up this record is a vignette, telling a story that could have sprung from the mind of sci-fi visionary Philip K Dick – tales of reckoning with a world that is incomprehensible.
Tracks like ‘Wych Elm’, ‘Curse Tablet’, ‘Man on the Outside’ and ‘Truth Be Damned’ explore myth and murder, combining a latent violence with the same sense of melody and listenability you’ll find in bands like Torche.
‘Death in Absentia’ and ‘Survival Knife’ take an industrial turn, smashing against both the sturm und drang of Killing Joke and a krautrock propulsion. The effect is that we find ourselves lost in a ruined world, contemplating humanity’s death-drive and mechanised brutality.
‘The Astronaut’ follows up with a Floydian paean to the fragility of life and the endlessness of space. The album ends with the experimental ‘100 Years’: a cosmic warning wrapped within a plaintive space sea shanty.
“This is a record about the destruction that humanity continues to wreak on Earth,” adds Hoey. “It looks to the stars for an alternative — but the thrills and wonders of space travel ultimately fail to provide a better future, and the dream comes crashing down.”
Saboteurs of the Sun is ambitious and thoughtful, boldly bucking the system and revealing something new with every play. But most of all, it is the sound of a band bursting free from the world that made it, unapologetic and unafraid of what it might find.
After tours across Europe and the UK with acts like Black Moth and Vodun, gracing the stages of Desertfest, Hammerfest and Into the Void, Limb’s live set looks to go into interstellar overdrive with Saboteurs of the Sun.
Saboteurs Of The Sun will land on May 25th, and will be available as a deluxe LP package, with orange and green vinyl, including a free cd of the album and full download, as well as cd and digital formats.