Gig Review: The Horrors At Belgrave Music Hall Leeds

The Horrors announce their long-awaited return with a career spanning set that takes in shoegaze, psych and krautrock.

“A lot has changed since we were last here.” The Horror’s singer, Faris Badwan, takes a rare break from his band’s 90 minute set to address the elephant in the room with a wry smile. His band, which is dressed almost all in black, has had a lineup change. Drummer Joe Spurgeon and keyboardist Tom Furse have left and are replaced by Amelia Kidd (keyboards) and Jordan Cook (drums). But such has been the length of time since The Horrors last full length, V, was released in 2017, he could just have easily been referring to any number of disorientating global events, the four Prime Ministers we’ve had in those intervening seven years, or the global pandemic we lived through.

Change has always come naturally to The Horrors, so it is of little surprise that there are few signs of teething problems despite the personnel changes. Cook’s drumming is propulsive and lockstepped with Rhyss Webb’s bass. Joshua Hayward’s guitar takes on all forms and is able to sooth and screech in equal measure. When set centrepiece, the sprawling, kaleidoscopic Sea Within a Sea breaks down into its final act, Kidd’s mesmeric synths reverberate through a room covered in dry ice fog.

Behind the fog Badwan leads with frenetic, jerked movements. In a black flak jacket and combat trousers, with his unkempt hair falling over his eyes, he looks like Edward Scissorhands had he left suburbia to partake in guerilla warfare. Anticipatory cheers and applause greet the five songs played from Primary Colours, which receive the greatest reception. There is space too for the psych bliss of Skying and the industrial shoegaze of V. Three new songs, heavier and sharper than much of the band’s catalog, are presented. Mostly the crowd bob their heads along appreciatively, though the longer bar queues that form when the new ones are played suggest that they need time to bed in.

But when Badwan lurches beyond the fog at the end of the wonderful elastic trance of ‘Something to Remember Me By’ that closes the set to reassure “We’ll be right back”, it feels like 2025 is set up for the return of The Horrors.