Australia under-represents in the emotional hardcore department. Save for a few exceptional artists who survive the curse of an untimely break up (looking at you RCPD & Blind Girls) we often have to settle with flashes of brutal emotional hardcore that burn out bright more often than not.
Newcastle quintet Tired Minds started out around 2014 and dropped a few smaller releases before their full length ‘Loom’ was unleashed on us all in 2017. A devastating titan of riffs, searing vocals, emotions and chaos. The production, the precision, their pissed-off energy was everything. The band made sporadic live appearances around Australia’s heavy scene over the years since its release and I had assumed that was all there was going to be from them.
Thankfully 2023 sees the band releasing new music in the form of an EP titled The Body Is A Burden and it more than picks up where the band left off with Loom. The band actually began work on the The Body Is A Burden back in 2019 and throughout the pandemic, explaining the apparent absence from active duty. This new EP features 5 new tracks which runs only 16 minutes and the usual range of emotions and energy you’d expect from a band of this caliber.
Each track seems to lean into a slightly different vein of the hardcore subgenre and remarkably never feels forced. The band just switches it up without loosing sight of what they do best: start hard then go faster, slow down, get heavier, get melodic, get messy and raw, then end. It leaves me feeling like I’ve taken a journey in just a few minutes. The hoarse vocals never cease their intensity, the guitars are just balanced enough to give you a near-wall-of-sound but still remain tight and the drums come complete with a roomy liveliness and tempered top end so as not to be too bright or thin. They knew what they were doing and have pulled it off superbly.
If you were a fan of other Aussie hardcore acts such as Speed, Blind Girls, Diploid, RCPD then what are you even doing reading beyond this point. Start listening to Tired Minds before they disappear again. If you’re looking for an entry point to the Aussie hardcore scene, jump right on it here. If that’s all foreign to you, read as: Converge, Touche Amore, The Armed and you should be close enough.
This EP is a furious and well executed slab of work that deserves repeat listens and your attention!
