“Loyalty” set up some of the punishments the people of Polygondwanaland might face for daring to go against their rulers and “Horology” is that vengeance carried out. As people swarm the fort, they are brutally murdered and tortured. One person, presumably our protagonist, makes it out but is now blinded after having their eyes gouged out. Traveling the lands in search of their family kidnapped by the king, they come across a castle where a man greets them and lets them know about a potential cure for their issues: tetrachromacy. The song is the second shortest on the album and is played with a good pace, creating a tense, action packed atmosphere that keeps you on your toes while setting up the next developments in Polygondwanaland’s story. It’s the big closer and has been a tough but glorious track in the band’s live shows.
The demo of “Horology” (found on Demos Vol. 2: Music To Eat Bananas To) is a far cry from its final version as it’s made nearly entirely out of an electronic drum beat, some synths and an acoustic guitar. The demo is short, lasting a total of one minute and thirty five seconds. The studio version of the track was recorded by Casey Hartnett at Flightless HQ and would first appear on Polygondwanaland, released November 17th, 2017 as a free download and the first official bootlegger album.
The earliest known performance was on 2019-06-26 at Howler in Naarm (Melbourne). The show consisted of many debuts but within the fray was the first “Inner Cell” > “Loyalty” > “Horology” in the band’s history. Since then the song has rarely ever left this combination and has made it to some well known places. The “Horology” trilogy as played on 2019-10-06 at the TivoliVredenburg Ronda in Utrecht appears towards the end of the 2020 concert film/soundtrack Chunky Shrapnel. These three songs were mostly played in 2019 before stopping in 2020/2021.
It was reintroduced on 2022-05-21 at KEMBA Live in Columbus. Since then the trilogy has remained in setlists as one of two common options from Polygondwanaland, the other being “Crumbling Castle” > “The Fourth Colour.” “Horology” as well as the entire trilogy holds a unique title as Lucas said it was the hardest thing the band has to play live in a 2020 Reddit AMA. “Blocking some parts / instruments out and only listening to some is really hard. There's parts where I have to kind of ignore/tune cavs out which really goes against everything you learn about playing with people.” Both Cavs and Lucas have named the trilogy as some of the hardest material to play.