Moline, Illinois band The House Flies return with “Derelict Crawl,” the first single from their upcoming second album, Lions and Ore, due November 6, 2026. The track introduces one of the album’s heavier and more repetitive sides, built around a steady post-punk rhythm, dense guitars, and the recurring line, “We don’t belong.”
The song is direct without giving away everything that Lions and Ore has in store. Its arrangement moves with a persistent rhythm while the guitars create a thick, darker backdrop. Quieter drop-down sections break up the weight before the song settles back into its central refrain. The result is a track that carries the tension of post-punk and darker alternative guitar music while keeping its structure relatively immediate.
“Derelict Crawl” also gives an early sense of how Lions and Ore expands on the band’s earlier work. The seven-track album moves through longer arrangements, heavier transitions, quiet repetition, and rural imagery, with songs that can shift between restrained passages and more forceful guitar-driven sections. Images of old houses, fields, heat, weather, sleep, and things slowly coming apart run through the record, giving it a distinctly Midwestern sense of place.
The House Flies began with the Glimmer EP before releasing the full-length Mannequin Deposit and the 2025 single “Sweet Foxhound.” Their music draws from post-punk, goth rock, shoegaze, grunge, and melodic guitar music. Lions and Ore is the first full-length release to feature the current four-piece lineup of Alex Riggen, Burnie Eckhardt, Ozzie Woods, and Nick Pompou.
“Derelict Crawl” will be followed by “Lost Literature” on October 2. Lions and Ore arrives November 6 through Wilhelm & Sons Entertainment Company on Bandcamp, major streaming platforms, and as a limited edition of 100 black vinyl copies.
The House Flies will mark the album’s release with a show at Raccoon Motel in Davenport, Iowa, on November 6, alongside The King of the Weirdos, Company Dimes, and Halfloves.
Listen Now:open.spotify.com/track/4JuFinCnisv2yQ5
Follow The House Flies:@wilhelmsonsco