Dublin punks Fontaines D.C. have announced their return with second album A Hero’s Death, set to arrive in July. The album will follow Dogrel, their 2019 debut that saw them earn a slew of accolades.
To coincide with the announcement, the band have shared the title track, along with a video starring Aidan Gillen, who you may recognise as Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish from Game of Thrones.
The title track is a little more restrained than the band’s previous material – it gives itself a little more room to breathe, a discordant wave of post-punk guitars that serves as the perfect backdrop for singer Grian Chatten’s refrain of “Life ain’t always empty.”
“The song is a list of rules for the self, they’re principles for self-prescribed happiness that can often hang by a thread. It’s ostensibly a positive message, but with repetition comes different meanings, that’s what happens to mantras when you test them over and over,” explains Chatten.
“I wrote the lyrics during a time where I felt consumed by the need to write something else to alleviate the fear that I would never be able follow up Dogrel. But more broadly it’s about the battle between happiness and depression, and the trust issues that can form tied to both of those feelings.”
Fontaines D.C. linked back up with Dogrel producer Dan Carey to record A Hero’s Death in his London studio. According to a press release, the new album leans away from the swaggering punk of the band’s previous full-length, taking influence from Suicide and The Beach Boys to Beach House and Broadcast.
The band were scheduled to hit Australia for a headline tour last month, but due to coronavirus those shows have been rescheduled to December.
Watch the video for ‘A Hero’s Death’ below. The album of the same name is out Friday, 31st July through Partisan/Liberator.
