The Last Dinner Party - From The Pyre Tracklist
1. Agnus Dei  2. Count The Ways  3. Second Best  4. This Is The Killer Speaking  
5. Rifle 6. Woman Is A Tree  7. I Hold Your Anger  8. Sail Away   
9. The Scythe  10. Inferno 

In quick succession to their debut album Prelude To Ecstasy, released in February 2024, The Last Dinner Party continue their ambitious rise with their follow-up LP, From the Pyre.

Framed by the band as a darker, rawer, more elemental record, its opener Agnus Dei immediately sets the mood with fragmented vocals and elongated guitar solos. Where Prelude to Ecstasy leaned in to lush theatricality and baroque ambition, this sophomore effort seems determined to weather the storms of that excess and explore what remains when the spectacle is stripped back and the emotional stakes are heightened. Produced by Markus Dravs (known for his work with Wolf Alice and Florence + The Machine), the album trades ornate opulence for something sharper, more urgent, and emotionally volatile. If their debut was a feast of candlelight, velvet and grandeur, From the Pyre is its smouldering aftermath, the fire that follows the banquet.

The singles released ahead of the album trace that transformation. This Is The Killer Speaking, the lead track, plays like a gothic western with its slide guitars, shadowy melodies and cinematic menace. Abigail Morris, ever the commanding presence, moves effortlessly between cynical wit and wounded confession. The Scythe serves as the elegy that follows. Written nearly a decade ago, Morris has described it as a prophecy of grief - a song about how the end of love can feel like a death. It’s quieter and more haunted, built on tremors rather than crescendos, with trembling piano chords that leave space for vulnerability.

Then comes Rifle, the record’s eruption point, as emotional tension finally combusts through battle cries and serrated guitars. It’s easy to imagine this one tearing through their live shows, as soft instrumental swells give way to towering walls of sound.

The middle stretch dives deeper into the emotional wreckage. Woman Is a Tree stands out as one of the album’s more haunting pieces - a meditation on resilience and captivity, with roots tangled in love. Hold Your Anger follows with an aching reflection on what it means to absorb someone else’s anger until it becomes your own. Its restrained arrangement with brushed percussion and muted strings make it all the more devastating. After so much intensity, Sail Away provides a welcome moment of serenity. Its lilting piano melody and open arrangement offer calm and space, a rare moment of stillness amidst the surrounding fierceness.

The album closes with Inferno, From the Pyre’s most expansive and sonically daring track. Built around a taut, nervy rhythm section, it marks a distinct shift from the baroque textures of their debut. The arrangement builds patiently, layer by layer as guitars, strings and piano gradually collide before ending in an abrupt, cinematic finale as the curtain falls down upon their stage. 

From the Pyre is a bold step. It’s not a reinvention so much as a deepening - a move from the flamboyant, theatrical exterior of Prelude to Ecstasy into something far grittier. The Last Dinner Party asks more of us here: to inhabit their mythos and to feel the weight of their world. 

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