Heart Attack Man - Joyride The Pale Horse
- Samuel Stevens
- Apr 24
- 3 min read
On their fourth studio album, Joyride The Pale Horse, set for release on April 25, 2025, via Many Hats Distribution, Cleveland’s Heart Attack Man delivers their most thematically bold and sonically diverse record to date—a record that’s just as existentially heavy as it is melodically infectious. With a newfound willingness to dive headfirst into the shadowy waters of mortality, impermanence, and identity, the trio of Eric Egan (vocals/guitar), Adam Paduch (drums), and Ty Sickels (guitar) embrace the absurdity of life and death with a smirk, a scream, and a singalong chorus.
From the opening track “One More Song (Imposter Syndrome),” the band sets the tone with buzzing guitar hooks and biting lyrics that confront the creeping dread of self-doubt and creative burnout. It’s an anthemic start that perfectly introduces the album’s key motif: the tug-of-war between dread and drive.
“Spit” is the album’s most venomous and confrontational moment—a snarling takedown of the rising reliance on generative AI, framed as a death knell for authentic creativity. Egan’s barked chorus, “Spit in the face of humanity,” cuts through a wall of distortion, dripping in sarcasm and frustration. It’s a battle cry in defence of human messiness.
Then comes “Laughing Without Smiling,” a standout track which is power chord-fueled and hits like a massive gut punch. The line “it looks a lot like laughing without smiling” is a lyrical gut-check—subtle and devastating, showcasing the band’s knack for darkly poetic introspection.
Elsewhere, “Call Of The Void” embraces more dynamic time signatures and swirling fuzz, channelling a '90s alt-rock flavour that nods to Hum or Failure without ever feeling derivative. Meanwhile, “The Gallows” balances swagger with sentiment, exploring the bleakness of young adulthood while sounding like a deranged graduation speech from the edge of the abyss.
But it’s the title track, “Joyride The Pale Horse,” that truly ties the whole project together. Egan's eerily upbeat vocals over dreamy, reverb-soaked guitars underscore the absurdity of death itself. “I’ve got a secret handshake with Elvis,” he croons, embracing the surreal and unknowable with a wink. It’s theatrical, abstract, and strangely comforting—the perfect closer to a record that never shies away from hard truths.
Throughout the eleven tracks, Heart Attack Man walks a razor-thin line between despair and defiance. Songs like “Lay Down and Die” and “Quit While I’m Still Ahead” flirt with nihilism but never give in completely. Even when the lyrics lean bleak, the music remains alive, propulsive, and completely energized.
Produced by longtime collaborator Brett Romnes, the record thrives on tension—between the brutal and the beautiful, the cerebral and the visceral. The incorporation of '90s fuzz, irregular grooves, and textured guitars elevates the band’s already potent pop-punk foundations into more experimental terrain. And yet, nothing feels out of place—each sonic risk feeds the record’s greater narrative.
Joyride The Pale Horse is the kind of album that sticks with you—not just for its cathartic riffs and scream-along hooks, but for its unflinching look at what it means to be alive, and what it means to know that you won’t be forever. Heart Attack Man’s most ambitious and emotionally resonant release yet. Joyride The Pale Horse is a morbidly life-affirming banger; it's death served with a grin, and life lived loud. Heart Attack Man may be joyriding the pale horse, but they’re doing it with the top down and a full tank of fuel.
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