The Heavy have released their brand new single ‘I Feel The Love’, taken from the forthcoming album AMEN, available to pre-order here.
‘I Feel The Love’ jumps with the Pentecostal pop fever full of Mississippi heat and the video finds the trans-Atlantic four-piece delivering their thought-provoking sermon of upbeat gospel rock to a rapturous congregation.
Regarding the single frontman Kelvin Swaby says, “The world feels as if it’s burning down at times and that it’s being torn apart by divisive agendas and evil personality traits. This is a solid reminder that as challenging as that is and may feel from day to day, we feel and will always believe, in Love. Always and forever.”
‘I Feel The Love’ follows the release of AMEN lead single ‘Hurricane Coming’. The track tore through like a buzz funk tornado, kicking the door down on the new album with an exhilarating maelstrom of ‘60s R&B riffs, horns and gospel harmonies. It has received critical praise from the likes of The Independent, Louder, Afropunk, American Songwriter, 1883 Magazine among many others, as well as radio support from Craig Charles and Don Letts at BBC 6Music.
The Heavy’s sixth album AMEN was recorded at Rockfield Studios, produced with Tchad Blake (The Black Keys, U2) and engineered with Real World Studios’ Joe Jones. Elsewhere on the album there’s the grimy swamp glam of ‘Bad Muthafucker’ and gnarled roadhouse rocker ‘Stone Cold Killer’, while ‘Whole Lot Of Me’, ‘Feels Like Rain’ and ‘Without A Woman’ evoke the string-drenched classic soul of Sam Cooke and Curtis Mayfield with a sly modern crackle.
Their corrupted R&B power is unstoppable and, revived to full blast from the pandemic lull, they’re hurtling into 2023, whipping and writhing with seditious blues drama, soul and gospel passion, the crunch of prime hip-hop and garage punk’s visceral electricity pulsating through AMEN.
The response to The Heavy’s return has been ecstatic. The band put UK headline shows on sale for March 2023 which sold out in minutes, prompting additional dates to be added for their September headline tour, including London’s KOKO (15th) and Bristol SWX (21st). Tickets are on sale now via www.theheavy.co.uk and full UK tour dates listed below:
THE HEAVY 2023 UK TOUR DATES
March
- 21st – London, Oslo **SOLD OUT**
- 22nd – Bristol, The Fleece **SOLD OUT**
September
- 15th – London, KOKO
- 16th – Manchester, Academy 2
- 18th – Glasgow, St. Luke’s
- 19th – Birmingham, Academy 2
- 21st – Bristol, SWX
AMEN TRACK LISITING
- Hurricane Coming
- Ain’t A Love
- Bad Muthafucker
- I Feel The Love
- Messin’ With My Mind
- Just Like Summer
- Stone Cold Killer
- Whole Lot Of Me
- Feels Like Rain
Without A Woman
FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE HEAVY
The Heavy’s osmosis rise was swift. At the height of the blues rock revival in 2007 frontman Kelvin Swaby and guitarist Daniel Taylor, having formed a strong bond over vintage soul and Jim Jarmusch, recruited bassist Spencer Page and drummer Chris Ellul, two student friends they knew from Bath’s insular classic pop circuit, to help them construct the sample-heavy “bedroom” debut album Great Vengeance And Furious Fire, released on Ninja Tune’s rock imprint Counter Records.
Within a year they began making waves Stateside then a live performance of ‘How You Like Me Now?’ - the lead single from 2009’s second album The House That Dirt Built - on The Late Show With David Letterman punted them straight into the American psyche.
The US decided it liked ‘How You Like Me Now?’ very much indeed. The track was selected to soundtrack a 2010 Super Bowl commercial, and feature heavily in Mark Wahlberg’s sports drama The Fighter. Before long the song was all over US culture. On TV, The Vampire Diaries, Entourage, Community, Rookie Blue and White Collar all featured the track. In gaming, it appeared in Driver: San Francisco and MLB 10. On the big screen, Horrible Bosses, Limitless, The Expendables 3, The Change-Up, This Means War and GI Joe: Retaliation all played on the drama exuding from its corrupted soul, an attribute that makes The Heavy’s music naturally cinematic. The song became so ubiquitous in the States that it was ‘How You Like Me Know?’ which played over the speakers at Barack Obama’s HQ in Chicago to declare his victory in the 2012 Presidential election.
The Heavy’s infiltration of the global subconscious was only beginning. ‘Short Change Hero’, also from The House That Dirt Built, became a TV sync mainstay, reached new generations as the theme to Batman: Arkham City and several Borderlands video games and even made it into real-life battle zones. “We knew a Special Forces guy in America,” Dan says, “and he told me they’d listen to ‘Short Change Hero’ in a tank when they were out on operations in Iraq.”
By the time 2012’s third album The Glorious Dead catapulted tracks including ‘Same ‘Ol’ and gritty gospel funk blast ‘What Makes A Good Man?’ onto adverts, TV shows, games and the trailer for Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, The Heavy were pioneering a very modern method of rock’n’roll survival and prosperity; they were arguably the 21st Century’s first major sync sensation. The band expanded the scope and ambition of their sound over 2016’s Hurt & The Merciless and 2019’s Sons, and grew increasingly tight as a unit, despite Kelvin moving to the US with his American wife in 2016.
Now 2023 is upon us, The Heavy return with the dials set to soul force 10. Their blistering new record is primed to get the airwaves and venues pumping this year once again. Returning after a three-year pandemic related break with their sixth album AMEN, a self-released record allowing the close-knit band even more personal control to deliver the most fresh and revitalised record in their canon yet.
‘I FEEL THE LOVE’ BRAND NEW SINGLE RELEASED WATCH THE VIDEO HERE
AMEN NEW ALBUM OUT APRIL 21ST AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER HERE