Billy Nomates, the project of the Bristol-based songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Tor Maries, today releases the new track, “Override”, ahead of her third album release, Metalhorse, this Friday 16th May 2025 via Invada Records (Presave here).

Metalhorse is a fuller album, exploring blues, folk and piano-driven arrangements that take Billy Nomates’ stark punk sound in a more pastoral direction. Produced by James Trevascus and recorded at Paco Loco in Seville, Spain, Metalhorse is the first Billy Nomates album to be made in a studio and with a full band. Enlisting bass player Mandy Clarke (KT Tunstall, The Go! Team) and drummer Liam Chapman (Rozi Plain, BMX Bandits), who round out Billy Nomates live, the trio were booked into Paco Loco just three months after the passing of Maries’ dad to Parkinson's. “We were so close and our bond was music,” she says of her relationship with her father. “That was my safety and protection in the world. Even in the care home, as things were getting worse, I’d visit him and he’d ask me what I was doing. I'd show him the new demos, or I'd have been on the radio. It sort of saved everything from being shit, because we had this positive thing to talk about.”

Metalhorse is a concept album revolving around the image of a dilapidated funfair, representing the tumultuousness of life – risk and pleasure, danger and exhilaration. “To me, Metalhorse is this crumbling fairground where some rides are nice to get on and some rides aren't,” Maries explains. “That's how life felt for a minute, and it still feels like that a bit now.” To that point, she also recently received an MS diagnosis that will take some adapting to.

Metalhorse is a balancing of extremes. Reckoning with loss, material insecurity, and trying to stay true to yourself against an increasingly unpredictable backdrop of global chaos, the scales could easily have tipped towards darkness, but the more Maries has had to weather, the more precious those smaller moments of happiness have become. Metalhorse begs the listener to find their own funfair. It might not be the loss of someone significant, or trying to find a foothold in an industry in crisis, but there will always be things that feel perilous. At the same time, you have to marvel at the lights while they’re still on. Dancing with those feelings of uncertainty and joy, Metalhorse is awash with both pain and perseverance. “Those Leonard Cohen days might be ahead of me,” she laughs, “but for now there has to be some hope, even if it's not real. You have to tell someone that it's going to be alright.”

Metalhorse is Billy Nomates’ third studio release, following 2023’s critically acclaimed, CACTI, and her self-titled 2020 debut.

The album track “Override”, available to hear today, opts for endurance in a situation that’s urging you to “do yourself a favour and get out”. Tor explains, “They tell you the fair won't survive without them. But you can override.” “Override” follows the two previous singles, “Plans”, an explosively simple rock track which premiered on BBC Radio 6 Music by Nick Grimshaw, and “The Test”, a rebellious and defiant release that was A-Listed at BBC Radio 6 Music.

Listen to the new single “Override” here and below.

Billy Nomates - "Override" [official audio]

Billy Nomates will be celebrating the release of Metalhorse with a run of Instores over the next week. She also embarks on a UK and European tour for September / October, which includes a headline at London's legendary Electric Ballroom on 9 October. The full tour dates, as well as the album release instores, are listed below.

Instores:
18 May: Rough Trade, Nottingham, UK **SOLD OUT**
19 May: Rough Trade East, London, UK **SOLD OUT**
20 May: Resident, Brighton, UK **SOLD OUT**
22 May: Just Dropped In, Coventry, UK **SOLD OUT**

Live:
24 Sep: SWX, Bristol, UK
25 Sep: Phoenix, Exeter, UK
26 Sep: Papillon, Southampton, UK
28 Sep: Chalk, Brighton, UK
29 Sep: Waterfront, Norwich, UK
1 Oct: Project House, Leeds, UK
2 Oct: Academy 2, Manchester, UK
3 Oct: Glasgow SWG3 TV Studio, Glasgow, UK
5 Oct: Glasshouse, Newcastle, UK
6 Oct: Leadmill, Sheffield, UK
7 Oct: Metronome, Nottingham, UK
9 Oct: Electric Ballroom, London, UK

17 Nov: Den Atelier, Luxembourg, LUX
18 Nov: Trabendo, Paris, FRA
19 Nov: Botanique Museum, Brussels, BEL
23 Nov: Pumpehuset, Copenhagen, DEN
24 Nov: Kesselhaus, Berlin, GER
26 Nov: Gebäude9, Cologne, GER
27 Nov: Toekomstmuziek, Amsterdam, NED

Metalhorse Formats:
Ltd Edition Blue Galaxy vinyl (UK Indies exclusive x 1500)
Ltd Edition Silver vinyl (x 2500)
Ltd Edition *SIGNED* Neon Pink vinyl (x 500, Invada Records exclusive)
CD
DIGITAL

Tracklisting:
Metalhorse
Nothin Worth Winnin
The Test
Override
Dark Horse Friend feat. Hugh Cornwell
Life’s Unfair
Plans
Gas
Comedic Timing
Strange Gift
Moon Explodes