Album Review: Hindsight - 'Disposable Paradise'

19 October 2016 | 8:00 pm | Alex Sievers
Originally Appeared In

To quote AP's Aaron Burgess, this “sounds like a group-therapy session put to tape."

Yes, yes, I'm well aware that 'Disposable Paradise' has been out for at least four months now but with Invasion Fest recently finalizing its lineup and Hindsight now on tour, I figured what better time than now to check out the band's latest EP? Well, you know, back in June would have been far more optimal, but fuck it, here we are now.

So first things first, if you didn't know, Hindsight are arguably one of the better melodic hardcore bands Australia has to its name, standing right up there with the likes of Trophy EyesStepson, and Sierra (god, now there's a band that needs a reunion), among a few select others. This five-track EP from the Adelaide lads follows on from their decent 2015 single, 'Hole', but it makes everything they've done up to now nothing than a distant memory. Because it's damned good; damned, damned good.

Like many others within their genre, the instrumentation and structure behind these songs is solid and dynamic, but it isn't all that complex. But displaying vast musical technicality would have overshadowed the relatable, emotional intensity that Hindsight captures so well in their songs. The shift between the clean guitars - that are layered with a suitable amount of FX - and the distorted riffs is always a given with bands like this, but the H boys do it all competently and the added emphasis on ambiance and atmospherics across their songs also gives them a real leg up. While the tight rhythm section is simple, I'd say it's deceptively so as the drums and bass play to the songs, and their grooves and pacing are just so fitting for these songs. Now we arrive at the vocals and maaaaaaaaaaan, the warm, dulcet cleans here contrast so beautifully with the vehement and intense screams of vocalist Jack Nelligan and the EP and band is all the better for it.

Opener 'The Waiting Room' is proof of all this and it encompasses everything you need to know about the band musically as the lyrics lace themselves up in deep regret and sincere heartache. Following on from this is the brief 'Lifeless Sleep' and despite being one of the shorter songs on the EP, it makes its presence known and then some with its more hardcore focused sound. Likewise, the EP's final offering 'Night Light' is by far one of the most aggressive, cut-throat songs the band has to their name and the riffs here gave me massive Endless Heights vibes (which is more than fine in my books). Now, if you're familiar with the band and this release or if you have already skipped ahead to the end of the review (shame on if you have, you cuck), you'll notice that I left out two of the five songs from the above paragraph - the title track and 'Loveover'. Let's move on to these two songs as they most certainly the musical cream of the sonic crop.

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But to talk about these two, I must bring up another point and that's track flow. The way that these five songs flow in and out of each other is just seamless and it allows the listener to really get entrenched and invested within this release. Instead of feeling like just a collection of tracks (which isn't a bad thing, mind you), 'Disposable Paradise' feels like an emotional, sad story, or at least, a small emotional, sad journey but a deeply connected one; one that is consistent and sails smoothly the whole way through.

Perhaps the best example of this flow is how the melancholic, slow-building title track fades as smooth as butter into what the band’s best work to date – ‘Loveover’ - and once more at the end of this track leading into 'Night Light'. But to take a step back, the eponymous track is perhaps the band at their most...subdued, and I also think there’s a very good reason as to why 'Loveover' was released first as the single. The two-minute track is easily the highlight of 'Disposable Paradise' and it's here that the band's songwriting genius shines through. The way that the soft, melodic beginning gives way to rock solid grooves as vocalist Jack Nelligan takes the vocal reigns to deliver a heartfelt and cripplingly palpable emotion is just surreal. The track's finale is a sonic gut-punch and it's moments like this, where the music, the lyrics, the vocals work in such powerful conjunction, that only lends credence to my earlier statement that Hindsight is indeed one of the better melodic hardcore bands currently going.

See above. I said all I needed to say there. Cheers.

  1. The Waiting Room
  2. Lifeless Sleep
  3. Disposable Paradise
  4. Loveover
  5. Night Light

'Disposable Paradise' is out now and has been for a long while now. Pick it up here. Also, pause the music video for 'Loveover' around 1:44 for a true face of beauty.