Riotous alt-rock duo HAVVK today reveal their thunderous fourth album, Time Will Kill via Veta Records.
Self-described as ‘a reckoning’, Time Will Kill is an album that chronicles personal pursuit to reclaim control. A decisive shift in perspective from their third album, To Fall Asleep – a tumultuous rollercoaster ride of anxiety, paranoia, and the longing for reconnection – it emerges as a defiant, ground-shaking successor, sharpening HAVVK’s intensity like a storm gathering strength.
Their most ambitious LP yet, the album follows singles ‘Happening Again’, a rumbling signal of return; ‘On Time’, a fiery two-minute punker; ‘Bad Look’, another effortlessly resonant thump in the chest and the blistering ‘Pick Your Poison’, earning extensive praise across RTÉ 2FM, BBC Radio 6, BBC Radio Ulster, Radio Nova and Hot Press alongside past support from Clash, The Line of Best Fit, DIY and The Guardian.
“We wanted to make something that addressed the feeling we both had that time is always running out”, members Julie Hough and Matt Harris explain. “Whether it is small trivial tasks that you don’t have time to finish, things you are passionate about that you don’t have time to fully explore, or things you see in the world that you want to try to help with but can’t find a way to prioritise to the point you feel like you are making a difference.”
They continue, “There’s so much that feels like it is going backwards in the world at the moment both close to home, with nationalistic movements in Ireland and the UK but also one global geopolitical crisis after the other. We have both felt a sense of guilt putting time into our personal interests while all of this is going on. These tracks are about working through that feeling in different ways; pausing and asking yourself, how are you actually using that time, whose pockets are you lining, and who are you actually looking out for?”
They continue, “There’s so much that feels like it is going backwards in the world at the moment both close to home, with nationalistic movements in Ireland and the UK but also one global geopolitical crisis after the other. We have both felt a sense of guilt putting time into our personal interests while all of this is going on. These tracks are about working through that feeling in different ways; pausing and asking yourself, how are you actually using that time, whose pockets are you lining, and who are you actually looking out for?”
The album’s cover artwork, inspired by a photograph originally shot by Tim Shearwood, captures the feeling of dread and guilt that can linger around the passage of time. Hough says:
“I’ve always found the image of an hourglass pretty sinister – probably perfectly normal 90s trauma from watching Aladdin too many times! We thought the hourglass was a really tactile way to capture that feeling of panic. We loved the photograph but wanted it to feel more fragmented and chaotic – a little like our own deceptive experience of time. So, I reshot the photograph, projected onto a foil party curtain, breaking up the image, and capturing different colours and angles.”
TIME WILL KILL TRACKLISTING
01 Happening Again
02 On Time
03 Bad Look
04 Crush
05 You Always
06 The Last
07 Pick Your Poison
08 Nice to Meet You
09 Idea 21
10 Backwards
11 This Is It
LIVE DATES
May 30 | Ulster Sports Club, Belfast (supporting Silk) | TICKETS HERE
July 2 | The Róisín Dubh, Galway (with Cable Boy) | TICKETS HERE
July 16th | Anseo, Dublin (album launch, with Cable Boy) | TICKETS HERE