MUCK signs a deal with Prosthetic Records: Your Joyous Future is the title of the forthcoming album

IT'S WAY MORE PUNK ROCK - Ási (drums)

Shortly after you read this, news will have surfaced on other outlets about Iceland's Muck (interviewed) joining Prosthetic Records' ever-growing roster of interesting and eclectic bands, who's work the label releases with care. The care bit being something Prosthetic has become know for in the past few years. Muck will now man the same ship as Skeletonwitch, Trap Them, Wayfarer, Shining...) do.

Now, it's no secret that Muck has a special place here at Halifax Collect. Just punch in the name in the blog's search bar and you'll have a day's worth of reading material on your hands, dedicated to this exciting band alone.

Your Joyous Future was recorded in just one weekend. This clearly shows the unity and creative harmony within the band, honed tried, tested and in the process of expanding since 2007. The group has never hesitated nor looked back during its lifetime. Muck has become something akin to a gang rather than a rock band. One being with four heads. Hell, they have each other figured out.
They wrote an album in a jiffy and recorded it in two days without over-thinking anything. Seemingly without any effort at all. Yet the end result had an esteemed record label jump out of its seat upon initial contact with the four amigos and offer them a deal only two hours after hearing Your Joyous Future's music for the first time. Mind you, this was the first time Prosthetic heard anything Muck at all!

An entity rather than an act, this quartet gobbles things up rather than avoiding them. It's hard to explain, but this, what I am trying to convey here, is easier to understand if you follow the band's development and its happenings up to this point.
Not beholden to conventional settings, the band has - amongst other things - found itself naked, covered in mud thrashing out in the middle of art instillation. Muck was becoming more than just a band. Muck is lifestyle, a mindset, shared by its members. But don't let that skew what should be, and will be, the top priority here, what really matters... The music, and music alone. For the last couple of years the band has been wholly un-fuck-withable. Just listen to their 2012 watershed release, Slaves, (listen) of which I wrote: "They take established styles and sounds, run with it and make them their own with raging nuances and excitement that threatens to spill over. And it's said threat that is the Slaves' slam-dunk quality. Example: lately the band has been developing their love for twangy guitar sound. Here it's twangy to the point were most bands and engineers would have said "dudes, that's too much." But not Muck. Full review HERE. Slaves was and still is irresistible.

Your Joyous Future will feature 10 songs recorded in two days during a succession of practice room live sessions played over and over again, captured by engineer Frikki, who so famously captured Muck's dynamics on Slaves. Apparently, the man hates compressors! My hat is off to him! The album will include the following smash hits:
"Here Comes The Man"
"Provoke Me"
"Waiting" (formerly known as "Nirvana")
"My City" (formerly known as "Groove")

Of the forthcoming Prosthetic release drummer Ási said it will be more focused and simpler than the critically acclaimed Slaves. And that the band has honed in on its strengths and is going in for a more direct approach than before.

Expect Your Joyous Future to hit the tarmac come February on both vinyl and CD. You read it here first. Now tell your friends.
- Birkir Fjalar

For more information get on Muck's facebook, tumblr, twitter, soundcloud, bandcamp

Photo credit:
Band photo by Frosti Gnarr
Live photo by Þorsteinn
Third photo by god knows who