You can walk through the doors at a hardcore show full - of anger, love, hate, longing or a million other things - and leave empty. They inspire an outpouring of energy. That could mean being the first person to leap from the stage, or the last one to stop yelling out a lyric. Touché Amoré’s live sets have long stuck to this script.
But the dynamic can work both ways. Following the release of ‘Is Survived By’, their third album, the band’s frontman, Jeremy Bolm, hit the stage on a number of nights and screamed his heart out while his mother was at home, having been diagnosed with cancer for a second time. She died on Halloween in 2014 while Touché Amoré were under the lights at Fest.
The band’s new album, ‘Stage Four’, is understandably a document of grief and anger. It’s also a record of unique power and home to one of hardcore’s great performances by a vocalist. But it’s also another example of Touché Amoré, as a whole, operating at the head of the pack. It’s the release of a live show, the wild deviations in tone and emotion, pressed to wax.
This is their most ambitious, forceful and melodic work to date and further evidence that their blend of songwriting influences - from Leonard Cohen to the Smiths and Modern Life is War - works incredibly well when run through the filter of heavy dynamics and raw-throated catharsis.
“You died at 69 with a body full of cancer,” Bolm screams on Displacement, a line that is emblematic of the paint-stripping honesty and straightforward language with which he operates throughout. He speaks of his mother’s faith, his scepticism when confronted with it, guilt at having continued touring during her illness and the minutiae of grief - clearing out a home, recounting happy moments among the sad - head on and without pause.
It’s not only tremendously brave but also, you’d wager after one listen, completely necessary. The band - guitarists Clayton Stevens and Nick Steinhardt, bassist Tyler Kirby and drummer Elliot Babin - back him up at every turn. Babin remains one of the most visceral drummers in hardcore and doesn’t miss a single beat here, while Stevens and Steinhardt work wonderfully in tandem, pulling pile-driving momentum and rich hooks into a thrilling whole. Bolm’s singing voice, too, is a welcome addition. On the closer, Skyscraper, his collaboration with Julien Baker is deeply affecting long before his screams tear the song open seconds before its conclusion.
Touché Amoré have been one of hardcore’s most compelling bands since their debut, ‘...To The Beat of a Dead Horse’, was released back in 2009, but ‘Stage Four’ is the work of musicians operating at their peak and will be remembered for a long, long time to come.
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