Tired Minds Drop Emotionally Gripping Debut LP, 'Loom'

18 June 2017 | 7:50 pm | Alex Sievers
Originally Appeared In

You wouldn't know it by simply looking, but behind those five smiling faces, some very dark and bleak music lies in wait...

You wouldn't know it by simply looking, but behind those five smiling faces, some very dark and bleak music lies in wait...


Last year, I labelled the solid new record from Newcastle's Safe Hands, 'Tie Your Soul To Mine', as "the most depressing punk rock album of 2016" in my review. I'm now quite happy to report that I've recently found a heavier and perhaps greater candidate for such a title in 2017 - Tired Minds debut full-length, 'Loom'.

In a nutshell, Newcastle's Tired Minds are one-quarter Dillinger Escape Plan, one-quarter Touché Amoré, one-quarter La Dispute, and one-quarter Pianos Become The Teeth; all parts awesome! For this five-piece are so much more than just the sum of their quite obvious musical influences (which they all honour very well too).

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Following their debut EP, 2014's 'Goodlife' - best summed up by an audible "meh" - and their decent 2015 split with Adelaide's prime sadbois, Raccoon City Police Department, this record displays terrific growth across Tired Minds musicianship, delivery and songwriting since those two previous releases. Not only that, but 'Loom' is an album that's just so genuinely emotional and raw throughout that you almost feel like you're drowning in its near-omnipresent sense of loss. Few records can create such an immersive effect, but 'Loom' wears such a defining feature with mere ease.

Now, while Tired Minds don't hold a unique melodic/post/whatever-hardcore sound by any stretch of the human mind, the band's dissonant attacks of abrasive hardcore and skramz are both equally well-written and well-executed. Moreover, the vast emotion that their music evokes is inescapably palpable and it's backed-up flowing and layered instrumentals, driven along by coarse and near voice-breaking vocals. Which then both reinforce the mourning, poetic lyrics that litter these ten dense, depressive songs like recorded therapy sessions a la Pianos Become The Teeth's Kyle Durfey or Touché Amoré's Jeremy Bolm.

The ten track journey you'll embark upon with 'Loom' is indeed one of deep catharsis and if you're not careful, this record will pull you into a wondrous, transient state of melancholia.

[caption id="attachment_1093314" align="alignnone" width="760"]'Loom'. Artwork by Kerri Ann Wright & layout by Tired Mind's own Ben Bullivant. 'Loom'. And yes, it also took me a little while to notice that those are pigs. Cover artwork by Kerri Ann Wright & layout by Tired Minds' own Ben Bullivant.[/caption]

With writing first commencing back in 2013, recorded by Mitta Norath at Tommirock Studios, mixed by Aidan Cunningham at The Forbidden Zone Studio, and then mastered by Brad Boatright over at Audio Siege, 'Loom' has more or less been a long time coming for these novacastrians. But it's one that will pay off for them I feel, as it's a very bleak listen, but a solid, engaging and consistent listen at that.

Opener 'Low' could care less for loving pleasantries and races ahead at a monstrous full sprint before a quieter, minor-driven passage builds into a massive, discordant breakdown that helps close out the song - along with another rhythmically racing section - and it's truly something else to behold. No, I'm not joking or exaggerating either. The way that Tired Minds abuse their guitars to create such dissonant riffs and how they then shape them around the tone of the bass's skull carving, droning low-end and the nauseating levels of unrelenting drumming is so effective but so fitting for their beautifully gloomy music.

The short, venomous cut of 'War On Film' is essentially Converge in all but name and it rivals much of what the band's label peers in No Haven often conjure up. The rock drumming, soft backing vocals and melodic guitars that creep in on the pumping 'Midnight Men' are a small break from the flurry of distorted chords and thrashing drums that make up the majority of this track's runtime. Likewise, the turned-off snare rudiments and the calmer, moodier guitars heard early on in the rockier 'Roots' are akin to that of a La Dispute song circa 'Wildlife'. On the flipside, the heated and almost messy guitar work and marathon-like drumming on 'Worm of the Earth' and 'Endless Throne' evoke Dillinger's brand of chaos, but in just the right kind of way. Later on, once the slow-burning dirge of 'Good By You' wraps up halfway through, the band punches the proverbial detonator and explodes the song with a vicious dual-guitar attack, catapulting the song's final moments into even more crushing instrumental breakdowns.

Again, "drowning" feels like the most fitting description for my experience with this record, but I mean that in the best way possible.

Tired Minds

Yet amidst all of these outright chaotic moments of hardcore, Tired Minds do find the time to display a finer sense of restraint with quieter, less frantic sections that ease off the blast beats and immense guitars, allowing the songs (and the listener) to take a breath of sweet, sweet air. The lulls in this record's overall dynamic flow expand the band's sound further and wider, rather than deriding its impact or interrupting its brutal pace. (A pitfall that lesser bands would have fallen into). The titular track's outro of a brooding feedback-drum groove combo is a great example of this dynamic, as are those screeching, unsettling guitars and generally ominous timbre found in the other-worldly closer, 'Dead In The Living Room' - a song that would make The Chariot green with envy.

However, the most exemplary case of this comes with the mid-album gem, 'Mona'.

The first half of this brilliantly haunting song sees an omnipresent repeating riff set the scene, as a subtle piano melody and building 6/8 drums enter; both becoming the sound bed for a truly touching monologue from an elderly lady - the titular Mona, grandmother of Tired Minds member, Ben Bullivant. Her monologue, which breaks up the actual vocals, details the long life that she's lived, her childhood, growing up in England, her regrets, the loss of friends and family over the years, and the pains of growing older. This incredibly intimate recording divides the song up between the moments where Tired Minds re-take the reigns and dive back into their deep hardcore sound with anguished, repeating screams of "I miss/I miss/I miss" and the hallowed cries of "Return you to the earth you're born too".

Simply put, 'Mona' is an unforgettable track and it's one that's drenched in real life remorse, suitably represented by an emotionally crippling hardcore soundscape. And it's a sonic masterstroke like 'Mona', as well as the nine other solid songs present, that all act in tandem to make 'Loom' a great fucking record!

'Loom' is available now via Art As Catharsis, and you can (read: should) stream it below.

This is not background music; you cannot ignore this.