The band only enhances that experience with a stream of hardcore rumbles that skate the line between youthful abandon and pure eeriness. His devastation and self-pity are so tangible that they leave a bitter aftertaste. In his pained efforts, we’re once again left to deal with the profound fallout.īolm reaches his stride, fittingly, with “Benediction”. Like some hardcore Raymond Carver, he explores the minutiae of life, focusing on little memories and tiny imperfections as a way to seek significance in life. His minimalist approach continues with “Water Damage”. On “Eight Seconds”, he concludes abruptly: “She passed away an hour ago while you were on stage living the dream,” ripping open this massive wound and leaving you to squirm in his endless guilt and sense of confusion. A solid writer with tendencies towards overt mopiness and emotional simplicity (see lyrics from 2013’s Is Survived By), Bolm emerges as a truly devastating writer and performer. Bolm is a man contending with just enough time for introspection and emotional wounds that still seem all too fresh. Ultimately, though, the musical expansion only goes so far, and much of what makes Touché Amoré a success remains intact: the band jamming away behind Bolm, supporting and expanding his “slam poetry.” But, oh what wonderful poetry it has become, as Bolm dives into the depths of his cortex as he comes to terms with the death of his mother in 2014. The result is an album of searching, as Bolm sorts through the mound of childhood memories and feelings that have piled heavily since her passing. It’s a great wrinkle to the album’s themes of letting go and breathing out dark emotions, a crevice of beauty in life’s mostly bleak and disappointing exterior. Try as he might to bring on the nihilism with his wailing, frontman Jeremy Bolm’s vocals are buried under the song’s upward spiral toward a bright and shiny ether, an utterly beguiling struggle for listeners. The true masterpiece of the band’s musicality, though, is “Skyscraper”, on which Julien Baker acts as a great counter of serenity and optimism against a backdrop of snarling pain. In “Palm Dreams”, the repetition of “On my own” marries beautifully with the rumble of guitars and drums, perfectly establishing the angst and isolation. There is a certain kinetic energy to the chords billowing within “New Halloween”, an energy that’s reminiscent of an early AFI with its mix of raw intensity and unabashed earworm grooves. But as a friend once aptly described, Touché Amoré could sometimes sound like “slam poetry set to hardcore.” With this 12-track LP, take a new step as a unit, though it’s only a small one.

The band’s always had a reputation for pushing what’s possible with the intensity and cacophony inherent within hardcore. Now we get our answer with the band’s first album since that interview, Stage Four.įor the members of Touché Amoré, opening up has a few different connotations. But it also raised the question of what it meant in terms of sonics for the LA-based quintet. In addition to discussing burritos and the art of milking, host Andrew Seward (formerly of Against Me!) commented that the band’s career was really starting to open up, as they had left behind some of the hardcore shitholes of the early years in favor of more expansive venues. That level of growth was inevitable, given the band’s passionate fanbase and hectic tour schedule. A couple years back, Noisey series Sound Off! interviewed the members of Touché Amoré.

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