The jokes about Hidden Mothers having more t-shirt designs than songs can now be put to bed, for a while at least! The past five years had spawned a single, a three track EP and a barrage of jokes which were mainly led by the band. However, in that time Hidden Mothers have honed their sounds and skills by covering huge swaths of ground in the UK live scene playing a variety of support, headline and festival slots with a diverse spread of musical acts and this flexibility comes over very clearly in debut album Erosion / Avulsion. The album is rammed full of ideas and genres which showcases a bucket full of ability with a performance strong enough to pull it all together magnificently.
Previously I have been guilty of lazily labelling Hidden Mothers as simply a post-black metal band and Erosion / Avulsion dispels the label from the band in spectacular fashion. With the blast beats now removed, Hidden Mothers actually sound heavier. This is none more evident than the instant pummelling of opener ‘Defanged’ which showcases the raging vocal delivery of bassist Liam Knowles and the band in full post-hardcore mode. ‘The Grey’ feels the most threatening the band has been with a menacing atmosphere of aggression and angular guitar riffs interspersed with spatial guitar build up. Post-black metal can have a sweetness which is totally absent in the darker moments here which adds to the heft.
The main change from that last EP is the departure of band founder and vocalist Steffan Benham but this has been far from a hinderance to the vocal capabilities of the band. Guitarist Luke Scrivens quite rightly received many plaudits for his glorious clean vocals on tracks like ‘Beneath, To The Earth’ and they are given even more light here on various tracks most noticeably ‘Grandfather’. This stripped back solo, almost Americana, is a great example of how much Hidden Mothers can encompass under the album’s sound and atmosphere whilst landing it all. Hell, even the elevator muzak midpoint ‘Caton Green’ doesn’t feel at all out of place here.
My favourite aspect of the album is where the vocals dual up especially in ‘Still Sickness’ where Scrivens leads off the track before Knowles rages in with powerful deprecating lines and the combination in ‘Violet Sun’ is just absolutely glorious. The album also have a sensational closer is ‘Haze’ and I am a sucker for a strong album closer. The release also has a trifecta of things I absolutely love about the UK music scene – the flawless recording of Joe Clayton at No Studio, the colossal artwork of True Spilt Milk Designs and the impressively consistent output of Church Road Records. The album is beautiful, rich and textured, it is varied, heavy, light, dark and bright and all without a flaw.
The press release has called this Hidden Mothers 2.0 and on first impression that seems very true but when you dig back into the past the ingredients of Erosion / Avulsion are all present. Hidden Mothers have brought them to the forefront and allowed them to flourish. It makes for a dynamic and brave album, one that manages to stick everything it tries. This isn’t a band trying to find a sound, it’s a band showing what it is capable of achieving. The only way from here is up.
