words @killer.solo.music
Toschie talks Achilles, Iron Maiden, Espen stealing his fucking job, and why some bands still give a shit about making an actual album.
There are bands who make records.
Then there are bands who make records.
Audrey Horne belong firmly in the second fucking camp.
When I caught up with vocalist Toschie to talk about the band’s eighth studio album, Achilles, the conversation very quickly wandered away from the usual promotional bullshit and into something far more interesting: why the hell are we still making albums in 2026?
The answer, as it turns out, is because Audrey Horne still believe in them.
And so do I.
For Toschie, an album isn’t eleven songs thrown into a digital bucket and launched into the algorithm. It’s a fucking book.
“Each song is sort of a chapter, so they have to fit together in a way.”
That philosophy runs right through Achilles, which arrives September 4 via Napalm Records. The record moves between heavy rock, melody and progressive territory, with the title track digging into the increasingly fucked-up polarisation of the world around us.
And then there’s “Insanity.”
The first song written for Achilles was actually left over from the Devil’s Bell sessions. Toschie explains that the band picked it straight back up when work began on the new record. Lyrically, it takes a detour into Iron Maiden territory, imagining what might have happened before the story told in “Hallowed Be Thy Name.”
But perhaps the biggest curveball comes from Espen Lien, who decided apparently that being the bass player wasn’t enough and he’d quite like Toschie’s fucking job too.
“God Damn Beautiful” puts Lien behind the microphone, and Toschie admits the band initially expected him to sing it. Then they heard Espen’s vocal.
“Me and Arve… just looked at each other and were like, dude, you should sing it.”
So Toschie got relegated to background vocals, tambourine duty and — according to the accompanying video — apparently cleaning up after the rest of the band.
His assessment?
“The other guys are a fucking mess. I’m always behind them cleaning up.”
Honestly, that’s probably the most believable piece of rock’n’roll mythology I’ve heard all week.
But underneath the piss-taking is something much more important.
Audrey Horne have been doing this since 2002. They’ve survived changing musical fashions, streaming, social media and the increasingly desperate demand that everything be consumed before someone’s attention span expires.
Toschie isn’t particularly interested in that game.
“We’re too old for that TikTok, everything is supposed to be digested within three seconds. We’re too old for that.”
Good.
Because Achilles isn’t trying to fit inside three seconds.
It’s an album.
A proper one.
And in 2026, that almost feels like an act of fucking rebellion.
Audrey Horne return September 4 with Achilles — album number eight, eleven tracks of swagger, muscle, melody and enough old-school rock’n’roll DNA to make the algorithm choke on its fucking breakfast. Released through Napalm Records, Achilles isn’t here to politely knock on the door. It’s here to kick it the fuck in.
This is the gospel.
I bite crowd surfers.
Killer.
