HORSE the band - A Million Exploding Suns

This band has been a favorite of mine

for MANY years, probably the middle of high school. HORSE the band was a crazy group; called "Nintendo-core" by people at the time, they were a hardcore band, but their main feature was the use of a synth player, and specifically super 80s, retro-game sort of sounds. Additionally, the guitar and bass stuff was a lot more melodic than other hardcore bands, which adds to the general video-game feel of the band. The vocals are also much more unique than other contemporaries of theirs, much more wild and insane, with particularly strange lyrics.

Listen to A MILLION EXPLODING SUNS here

This song is from their 2nd album,

released in 2005, called "The Mechanical Hand". I really love this album, and have listened to it consistently since it came out. Every track is super crazy and unique, they use a lot of odd-meters, and wild blast beats, but tie it all together in a super cool, unique way. They use humor and tongue-in-cheek musical jokes to poke fun at other bands and the clichés of hardcore at the time. They were really a clever group, and had a major impact on my guitar playing, but also my songwriting more generally.