Is “crushing joy” a thing?

That’s the only way I can describe And So I Watch You From Afar and, especially, their newest album Megafauna. There are few bands as loud as the Belfast boys, but the chords that fall down like an Everest avalanche are all major, the electrifying guitar lines soar and crunch with equal ferocity. Megafauna is getting punched in the face and smiling. But that’s what ASIWYFA have done their entire careers. What this record truly does is balance the difference between their moments of miraculous joy and all out brawls. Two part rager “Mother Belfast” is as seismic as anything they’ve ever done, but comes right before “Years Ago,” a nostalgic ode to every bar the band’s ever played, which sounds like a beer soaked lullaby. That’s the duality of the world’s best rock band. We interviewed Rory from the band here on the Woodhouse.