Fiddlehead - Death Is Nothing To Us (Album Review)
Monday, 21 August 2023
Written by Jack McGill
On their aptly titled third record ‘Death Is Nothing To Us’, Fiddlehead’s Pat Flynn puts forward the idea that we should not let loss define the rest of our lives. The band’s material has always dealt with his personal experiences of grief, and it feels like now is the right time for the final revelatory instalment.
In beginning their wrestling match with the duality of life and death, The Deathlife already feels like the last straw for Fiddlehead. It’s ambitious, setting high expectations for what’s to follow, and at several points the band manage to meet them.
True Hardcore pays tribute to a subculture and the refuge that it has always offered, with its simplicity helping its grateful message to ring out.
The manner in which they communicate is remarkable here, presenting an idea in a crystal clear fashion that plenty of other harcore acts would struggle to pull off.
There is an emotional heaviness to the album, though, that is hard to shake. Welcome To The Situation is poignant but a drag, employing slower-paced dynamics to drive its point home, while Give It Time breathes struggle into a sunken ballad, its emo stylings sitting in the pit of your stomach while the other tracks hammer away.
Fiddlehead sit back to begin with, before the rage and frustration of the quintet hits a breakthrough, the sort you usually only find at your lowest. Hopefully this latest foray into grief-induced post-hardcore provides some closure, more for Fiddlehead’s sake than anyone else’s. Their pain does make for brilliant music, but its fuse burns rapidly.
Fiddlehead Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Sat February 17 2024 - GLASGOW Room 2
Sun February 18 2024 - NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE Cluny
Mon February 19 2024 - MANCHESTER Canvas Manchester
Tue February 20 2024 - NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms
Wed February 21 2024 - BRISTOL Thekla
Thu February 22 2024 - SOUTHAMPTON Loft
Fri February 23 2024 - LONDON Garage
Sat February 24 2024 - LONDON Garage
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