Haraball’s new album “Fear of the Plow” took years to surface, and the band isn’t even sure how many. “We’ve honestly lost track of exactly how long. It’s probably the vocalist’s fault,” they admit.
What started as a continuation of 2019’s “Hypno” turned into something darker, stranger, and far less predictable. Out September 19, 2025 through Fysisk Format, the record feels like Haraball leaning fully into their own world.
On “Hypno,” they had stumbled onto a sound that clicked—louder, sharper, more durable. “The songs worked better live, they were more fun to play, and they had depth and staying power.” Building from there, they brought in scraps of 60s psych, flashes of post punk, and whatever else felt right. Not to soften the blow, but to make it cut differently. “Surprisingly, this didn’t result in prettier music. It became darker, rawer, and even uglier. A fun bonus.”
The record’s nine tracks pull from odd corners of thought and fantasy. A one-year-old loaf of bread. A 900-year-old man. The grind of life after forty—“an extremely old age, almost arrogant.” Even the title track carries a warped origin, spun from Roko’s Basilisk, a notorious internet theory about AI doom. “Luckily, the song is now finished and the theory mostly forgotten, so we can go back to living like old bread (or whatever you feel like being).”
Lyrics didn’t arrive quickly. “Not so much because you have to live to have something to write about, but because you have to sleep a hell of a lot to find inspiration.” That slow process gave space for the songs to stretch. “This time around, however, in certain parts, it almost sounds pretty. Some might even say it sounds mature. And we’ll just have to live with that.”
The sound owes a lot to guitarist Trond Mjøen, who produced, recorded, and mixed the album. The band says he “has outdone himself this time. There’s so much glorious sound and noise to get lost in, you might as well call your boss and say you’ve unfortunately come down with AIDS.” The record was tracked at Please! and mastered by Espen Høydalsvik at Oslo Fuzz.
Line-up changes slipped in during the long stretch. Bassist Vegard Holthe moved to Moss and stepped away, handing duties to William Øberg. Trond doubled up to make the guitars sound like two at once. Vegard still plays on the album, which leaves him in the odd position of watching his own band onstage, beer in hand, while collecting royalties from Tono.
View this post on Instagram
With artwork by Esra Røise and lyrics from Jon Eivind Eriksen, “Fear of the Plow” collects nine songs: “Pink Tiles,” “Fear of the Plow,” “The Squatter,” “Prison Cheese,” “Year Old Bread,” “Clown College,” “Floral Prints,” “Toska,” and “Circling the Drain.”
It’s not a polished record, and that’s the point. The band puts it plainly: “Some might even say it sounds mature. And we’ll just have to live with that.”
