Album Review: Hidden Mothers - Erosion / Avulsion
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Formed in Sheffield in 2019 and quickly releasing their first single, The Longest Journey Yet, the same year, Hidden Mothers looked to be on a fast track, especially with their self-titled three-track EP arriving barely a year later. Then, for some reason, everything stopped, and the band seem to have taken their time when issuing this debut album.
Erosion / Avulsion has been four-years in the making and finally sees the light of day this week, through the always-forward-thinking folks at Church Road Records. And forward-thinking would be the best way to describe this record. Eight tracks of post-hardcore, screamo/ emo, post-rock, post-black metal. Heck, it’s so post, I was expecting postman Pat to make an appearance.
Defanged kicks things off with a massive blast. No chance to ease yourself in, the band hit hard from the outset. Rock solid drums and grinding guitars set a marker for the rest of the record, while still allowing the song to head off in a more progressive direction.
Six out of the eight songs on Erosion / Avulsion breach the five-minute mark and each is a lush banquet of fat riffs and powerful percussion, mixed with haunting melodies and mournful passages.
You can look at the album as split into two distinctive parts; the first half, practises the heavier aspects of Hidden Mothers’ sound. Following Defanged comes the large swelling guitars, edgy breakdowns and raw-throated vocals of Death Curl, itself bookended by an opening section that owes much to the Deftones, and a conclusion that revels in the isolation of ethereal melodies and string-drag, lending to the lonely finale.
Still Sickness may begin with jangling, echoing guitars, but they drop to a fierce rampage before giving way to a widescreen, shoegaze vista; while The Grey alternates between the post-rock and the post-hardcore, the guitars competing against each other to give the weightiest of riffs or the lightest of jingling strings. A picked-notes interlude throws a curveball into the mix but, by this point, we should be ready to expect the unexpected.
Separating these songs is the brief interlude of Caton Green, all ambient instrumentation and an oasis of calm amid what has gone before. Grandfather is the other sub-five-minute tune on Erosion / Avulsion, and though it is based around a slow, warm guitar line and clean vocal, it hides a dark haunting tale, told in a sparse but sufficient manner.
The concluding duo of Violent Sun and Haze best encapsulate what Hidden Mothers are about. Alternative stylings mixing with hefty riffs and continual tempo shifts might suggest an unsettling listen, but the band never stray too far from the organic and natural in the development of their songs. Haze particularly lives up to its title, clouding the opening section in ambience and atmosphere before the introduction of a huge, sustained chord and a slow and wretched unfurling of sadness and despair. Any upbeat thoughts and feelings, or expectations of reprieve are swept away in the closing sections of Haze’s achingly mournful guitars.
A bleak ending – maybe – but art isn’t meant to sugar-coat things, it’s meant to show the world as it is, and Erosion / Avulsion manages that in spades.
Having appeared at genre-relevant festivals such as Portals, Doomlines and ArcTanGent – where they shared a stage this year with LLNN, Bossk and …And So I Watch You From Afar - the release of this record should hopefully find Hidden Mothers getting themselves into a concert hall near you soon.
