The Sound of Animals Fighting bring The Maiden to Webster Hall

Far be it to try and explain a band, sound, or show like the Sound of Animals Fighting. Consistently unpredictable and equally exciting, the supergroup have served as an unbridled outlet for a rotating group of artists, spearheaded by Rich Balling, alongside its remaining original members Anthony Green and Matt Embree. Over 21 years, the band’s touring has been sparse, as have their releases — their last full-length, The Ocean and the Sun, arrived in 2008. Not unlike the music itself, the group’s comings and goings are fully on their own terms. Audiences got a much-desired hit of TSOAF in its purest form, with a 2022 EP, APESHIT, which replicated a sweet and peculiar recipe combining Green’s classic spin on post-hardcore, Rx Bandits’ revelatory and airtight instrumentation, and the poetic spiraling of Rich Ballings. However, it was just a hit.

Then this fall, they returned. It would be redundant to say TSOAF have made a “concept album.” Concept is at the core of their craft — this is a band that concealed their identities with monikers like “The Nightingale” and “The Skunk” while donning corresponding costumes. That said, their fourth full-length, The Maiden, is loaded with lore that leans further into fantasy than ever before. Following a tale of devils, kings, and wizards, listeners feel their way through foreign landscapes and new, uncanny textures, from psychedelia and trip-hop to soft, moody electronics, while contemplating mortality, destiny, and, as one track quite literally lays out, the fall of Western civilization.

The Sound of Animals Fighting bring The Maiden to Webster Hall

Dimitry Mak

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Despite the lack of animal masks, the band’s tour in support of The Maiden also showcases some of their best world-building yet. Whether lighting the way, or throwing us off course, Green shrieks while swinging his elusive lightbulb, threatening to whack his harmonizing partner Keith Goodwin, or audience member, in the head. By their side, Ballings crawls across the stage on his hands and knees, beating the floor with one impassioned fist, the other clutching a paperback book. Embree remains the most steadfast onstage, fully immersed in each riff. The sprawling band are both a cohesive unit and entirely unruly, a collective that shuffle their members on and offstage and includes an artist, painting through the entire set beside Chris Tsagakis’ nonstop, thrashing beat. TSOAF, to this day, show us the benefits of starting a supergroup: the best artists, fusing their unique styles, and complete, experimental freedom.