Hear Fucked Up’s Epic 22-Minute Song ‘Year of the Horse – Act Three’

Fucked Up have released the third act in the Toronto hardcore band’s epic “Year of the Horse” series of songs, with the National’s Matt Berninger among the track’s guest vocalists.

The 22-minute, five-scene “Year of the Horse – Act Three” — penned and performed in the style of a hardcore play — features lyrics by Fucked Up’s Mike Haliechuk and follows the similarly lengthy “Act One” (19 minutes) and “Act Two” (26 minutes); the project will conclude later this year with “Act Four.”

Berninger appears during the fourth scene in Act Three in the role of a narrator of sorts in the story about Percival, an escaped horse, and the people, sheriffs, and wizards it meets along its way. Year of the Horse is dedicated to Iron Age guitarist Wade Allison and Power Trip’s Riley Gale, who both died in 2020.

Year of the Horse is the 10th installment Fucked Up’s semi-annual “Zodiac” series of songs, which began in 2006 with “Year of the Dog”; in the “Year of the Horse – Act Three” liner notes, Fucked Up is already teasing the next part, “Year of the Goat.”