The House Flies are back, and they brought the gloom. The Moline, Illinois four-piece is set to drop their second full-length record, Lions and Ore, on November 6, 2026, through Wilhelm & Sons Entertainment Company. It’s seven tracks of post-punk and goth-infused guitar music that doesn’t just sit there—it crawls under your skin. If you’ve been missing that dark, driving sound that bands like The Cure, Joy Division, Interpol, and Bauhaus built their legacies on, this is exactly what you need.
Let’s talk about the crew. This is the first full-length where Burnie Eckhardt joins the fold on second guitar, locking in with vocalist and guitarist Alex Riggen, bassist Ozzie Woods, and drummer Nick Pompou. The addition of Eckhardt matters. You can hear it in the layers, the way the guitars play off each other instead of just stacking up. Riggen also handled the artwork and design, which fits the mood perfectly. The whole thing was tracked down in Riggen’s basement—a classic DIY move that gives the record its raw, unpolished bite. Ross Mixes handled the mixing, and Michael Briggs did the mastering.
The band hasn’t abandoned the sound that got them here. They released the Glimmer EP in 2023, Mannequin Deposit in 2024, and a single called “Sweet Foxhound” in 2025. But on Lions and Ore, they’re stretching out. The arrangements are longer. There’s more breathing room between the quiet, tense passages and the moments when the heavy guitars come crashing down.
The album doesn’t follow one strict storyline. Instead, it builds a shared setting through recurring images: houses, fields, heat, sleep, and the things we leave behind. It feels like walking through an abandoned neighbourhood at 3 a.m.
They’ve already dropped two singles. “Derelict Crawl” is the heavy hitter. It leans into repetition, drilling the phrase “We don’t belong” into your skull until it becomes a mantra. “Lost Literature” is the melodic anchor. It’s got a night-drive pulse, fragments of memory floating around, and a video featuring handmade marionettes. Both tracks give you a solid idea of the record’s range.
Side A kicks off with “Goodnight, Goodnight, Lover Dear“. It starts with hymnal, domestic imagery before a wall of larger guitars swallows it whole. “Snakes and Toads” slows the tempo down, mixing devotional language with animal imagery and the record’s darker textures.
Then you flip to Side B. “Count Us Down” is the hypnotic centre, built on streetlights and weather, repeating itself until you’re dizzy. “Shelter Me” brings the heat and enclosed spaces, framing one of the most direct late passages on the record. And the closer, “The Glass, The Orchard“, starts quiet and tender—a memory—before building into a massive, dramatic finale.
This is the kind of album that rewards patience. It’s not a quick hit. It’s a mood. The limited run of 100 black 12-inch vinyl copies means you’ll want to grab one fast if you’re a collector. And if you’re in the area, they’re throwing a release show on November 6 at the Raccoon Motel in Davenport, Iowa, with King of the Weirdos, Strange News, and Halfloves.
The House Flies aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel. They’re just making sure it rolls over you with maximum weight and atmosphere. Lions and Ore is dark, catchy, and completely uncompromising. Get on it.