Southern California post-hardcore mainstays Movements have released new single ‘Live By the Sword’, the latest taste of their fourth album, Happier Now, due September 4 via Fearless Records.
‘Live By the Sword’ works in the tension that has become increasingly central to the band’s sound. Hushed vocal chants sit against restless guitars, while the track maintains a tightly wound, mid-tempo pulse that always feels as though it could break loose. Guitars clang and collide around Patrick Miranda’s vocals, giving the song a nervous physicality without sacrificing melody.
It follows previous singles ‘Dissolve Me’ and ‘Back In My Ways’, two tracks that helped establish the direction of Happier Now. Produced once again by Grammy winner Will Yip, whose credits include Turnstile, Title Fight and Circa Survive, the album finds Movements looking simultaneously backwards and forwards.
Miranda says the band entered the process wanting to reconnect with elements of their earlier material while retaining what they discovered on 2023 album RUCKUS!. Rather than choosing between those versions of Movements, Happier Now attempts to pull them into the same frame.
That approach gives the album a certain full-circle quality. Movements are returning to Warped Tour this summer, but now occupy a very different position within the post-hardcore community that helped shape them. Once among the younger bands pushing their way through the scene, they are gradually becoming one of its established names.
The band will return to headline duties in October for a US tour alongside Balance and Composure, Midrift and NIIS. Before then, Happier Now arrives on September 4, with ‘Live By the Sword’ providing another indication of a band revisiting its foundations without simply retreating into its past.
