There’s a certain beauty in not immediately knowing what a song is trying to say. And it seems like The House Flies understands that better than most with their latest single, Derelict Crawl.
Somewhere between goth rock, shoegaze, and grunge lies the strange little world The House Flies have been building for themselves. The post-punk and dark alternative band from Moline, Illinois are gearing up to release their second album, Lions and Ore, and Derelict Crawl offers a first glimpse at where they’re headed.
The first few seconds of the track don’t hit you all at once; it creeps in until it takes over your attention just like the title suggests. The drums keep a stubborn pulse underneath the guitars, before leading you on to a melody that gets higher and heavier. And soon enough, you’re already somewhere they want you to be: where nothing quite belongs.
There’s something uniquely Midwestern about making emptiness feel this physical. Not just in its arrangement, but in their words, where boiled leather, dial tones, and bones feel less written than unearthed. And it’s easy to think that the repetition of “we don’t belong,” exists for a hook but once you lean in, there’s nothing but a refrain that’s only there to wear you down. No explanation on what it actually means, but leaves enough weight to linger under your skin.
A single can be a handshake, a sales pitch, or a warning for next albums, but Derelict Crawl is nowhere in between. It’s an uncompromising statement from The House Flies that dares to step closer to everything that will follow.
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