{"id":28708,"date":"2026-07-08T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=28708"},"modified":"2026-07-07T20:27:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T19:27:58","slug":"the-virginmarys-beyond-the-house-of-fires-self-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=28708","title":{"rendered":"The Virginmarys \u2013 \u2018Beyond The House Of Fires\u2019 (Self Release)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Macclesfield duo The Virginmarys follow up their 2024 album \u2018The House Beyond The Fires\u2019 with this companion album \u2018Beyond The House Of Fires\u2019, where singer\/songwriter Ally Dickaty and drummer Danny Dolan have stripped back their songs and re-imagined them in a completely new way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea, inspired by the duo\u2019s love of the 90\u2019s MTV Unplugged era, is to showcase a more intimate side of the band using alternative instrumentation. Unlike the \u2018Stripped\u2019 companion to debut album \u2018King Of Conflict\u2019, these new songs are far more involved than stripped-back acoustic re-workings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, with piano to the fore and the guitars taking a backseat ride, we dive in with opener \u2018My Nettle\u2019. The song has been completely transformed with a sweet piano arpeggio and lush strings; it transcends the previous version immediately. Ally\u2019s emotive vocals still have that raw grit and an urgency to them, but a cinematic and almost ethereal vibe is now created. Its no surprise it was chosen to open the album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This theme continues across the album with some impressive results, songs that weren\u2019t my favourites from the original album are now firm favourites. As stated, these are not just stripped back versions, a lot of thought has gone into reworking them from the ground up, with new structures, rewritten lyrics and new sonic soundscapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With its sweeping strings and soaring vocals, \u2018Dance To The City\u2019 becomes a widescreen experience fit for a movie soundtrack. \u2018You\u2019re A Killer\u2019 trades its spikey riffs and urgent beats for a gentle tinkling of the ivories and Danny\u2019s light, military style drums. Just enough to accentuate the melody, it boasts emotive guitar licks that give, dare I say, an almost Pink Floyd feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s the stunning \u2018White Knuckle Riding\u2019 that now becomes the centrepiece of the album. The piano builds over a haunting, choral backing vocal with subtle, yet powerful, regimental beats. The Northern-tinged lyrics that reference the M62 and the Pennines are somehow poetic as you get lost in the building atmospherics. Elsewhere, devoid of its power chords, acerbic single \u2018Ain\u2019t No Future\u2019 loses none of its power. Ally\u2019s diatribe is still delivered with certainty, but the aftertaste is so much sweeter. Whereas \u2018When The Lights Go Down\u2019 follows a similar path to the original, yet is still a worthy listen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The album closes with \u2018Veteran Soldiers\u2019, a song of gratitude and undying friendship that was originally recorded acoustically but has been given the opposite treatment to the rest of the material. Here, it\u2019s been turned into a Tarantino-esque spaghetti western, with effect-drenched guitars and scorched earth vibes all round. It’s an unexpected and thrilling end to an all-immersive listening experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not many bands revisit a recent release, let alone completely re-work it into a fully fledged album of its own. Ally & Danny have realised the dream and created something special with \u2018Beyond The House Of Fires\u2019. While it\u2019s not a new direction for The Virginmarys, it\u2019s an album that shows production and dynamics can change the whole feel of a song, and more importantly, it showcases the songwriting talents of the underrated Ally Dickaty. A surprise hit of the summer that you should add to your collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Ben Hughes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Macclesfield duo The Virginmarys follow up their 2024 album \u2018The House Beyond The Fires\u2019 with this companion album \u2018Beyond The House Of Fires\u2019, where singer\/songwriter Ally Dickaty and drummer Danny Dolan have stripped back their songs and re-imagined them in a completely new way. The idea, inspired by the duo\u2019s love of the 90\u2019s MTV […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28709,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[819],"class_list":["post-28708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-the-virginmarys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28708"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28712,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28708\/revisions\/28712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}