Live Concert Photography: The Horrors with Weeping Icon at Rough Trade 9/19/17

V, The Horrors’ aptly titled fifth studio album was released earlier this year through Wolftone Records/Caroline Records and while being the band’s first batch of material in three years, the Paul Epworth-produced album finds the band experimenting and expanding with the sound that’s won them national and international attention over the past two albums. And as you may recall, the album’s first official single “Machine” found the British band incorporating elements of Manchester sound, Nine Inch Nails and Earthling-era David Bowie while retaining the band’s rousing and anthemic hooks; but by far, the song may be among the most swaggering and assertive songs of their growing catalog.  “Something to Remember Me By,” V’s second single found the band at their most dance floor friendly, as it featured a sinuous bass line paired with gently arpeggiated synths, four-on-the-floor drumming and a soaring hook that has the band seemingly nodding at New Order. “Weighed Down,” V’s third and latest single found the band nodding at dub and dubstep as it featured a undulating, tweeter and woofer rocking beat, squalling and squelching feedback, soaring keys, cosmic ray bursts, hazily lysergic bridge and a ethereal coda that to me seems like a synthesis of Skying and Luminous while also nodding at Interpol‘s Antics.