Manchester’s The Slow Day built a cult following before stepping away in 2020, with early singles like “The Poet” and the A&R Factory-praised “I Can’t Sleep” establishing a sound described as beautifully raw and anthemically charged. They came back in 2025 with a sold-out comeback show at Gulliver’s in the Northern Quarter, and “Antidote” is their first new music since the hiatus, out February 2nd. Recorded at Dead Basic Studios in Manchester, produced by Lewis Brookes and mastered by Pete Maher, it’s a five-year gap closed with conviction.
The rhythm section is to be praised here – the groove is just relentlessly driving forward like a steam engine train, loud and fast, chewing through the tracks with the hi-hat accents and the guitar and bass fueling the engine with the fiery coal it needs. The driving rhythm is definitely the best part of the song, but the vocals matching the intensity and flying over that speeding train of a rhythm is what really demonstrates why this band is exciting.
Five years is a long time to be away, and a lot of comeback singles play it safe. “Antidote” doesn’t. It comes back at full speed and doesn’t bother easing you in. With Pete Maher’s mastering giving the whole thing the kind of polish that lets the rawness breathe rather than sanding it down, this is a strong statement of return from a band that clearly hadn’t lost a step.
