Billy Nomates - Metalhorse

Metalhorse is the third album from Billy Nomates, and her most expansive to date. Built around the image of a crumbling funfair, it’s a concept record about risk and resilience—where pleasure and peril blur, and light flickers just beyond the chaos. Trading her signature starkness for something more textured and pastoral, Billy leans into blues, folk, and piano-led arrangements, widening her sonic palette without losing bite.

Recorded in a studio for the first time and backed by a full band—including Mandy Clarke on bass and Liam Chapman on drums—the album pulses with fresh energy. There’s even a guest turn from The Stranglers’ Hugh Cornwell on “Dark Horse Friend,” adding to the record’s sense of scope. Themes of grief, instability, and defiance thread through Metalhorse, but so do flashes of warmth and clarity. It’s a record that insists on joy, even when it’s hard-won—an invitation to keep dancing while the lights are still on.