“Is this what love is?”
Hailing from Australia’s Gold Coast, screamo troop Blind Girls have hit the ground running this summer, dropping both “Dissonance” and “Loveless” in June ahead of this week’s release of their third record An Exit Exists. The devastating heaviness of the two singles left strong impressions despite the expedited rollout time, while also laying the groundwork for the record’s conceptual themes about abuse as its first two tracks.
“Dissonance” lives up to its name, diving right into the heart of the matter amidst a flurry of harsh guitars, frenzied drumming, and eviscerating vocals. From there, “Loveless’” cacophonous, discordant breakdown is enough to make you sick with its steady build and dizzying onslaught of noise. The one-two punch of singles make for a blistering open to the record, and yet the intensity only ramps up from there.
An Exit Exists is heavy in every sense of the word, but it’s the emotional weight the record carries that proves to be its heaviest element. Most of the lyricism across the record is downright depressing, with lines like “a romance dressed in violence, is this what love is?” (“Loveless”) and “I can’t stand my skin and the feeling you left on it” (“Blemished Memory”) cutting straight to the core. Sharni Brouwer’s vocals are all at once anguished, mournful, and furious to match as she grapples with the ugliness of abuse and the emotional turmoil that comes with it.
The instrumentals are equally as impactful, chaotic and rough around the edges, but with a technical precision highlighted by well-balanced mixing. While the steady undercurrent of Mark Grant’s bass brings further depth to the soundscapes at play on An Exit Exists, and drummer Ben Smith is a force of nature in his own right, it’s the tandem of Julian Currie and Luke Sweeney who benefit most from the record’s production. The interplay between the two guitarists is a real driving force, whether they’re firing off competing frantic riffs into each one of your ears, or they’re taking things down a notch to shape the record’s surprisingly more melodic moments.
While An Exit Exits sees Blind Girls putting forth some of their most crushingly heavy material to date, the exploration of their more melodic side is a new direction for the quintet. More than a few tracks make use of open sections with cleaned up guitar tones to temper the record’s volatile nature, facilitating smooth transitions between tracks and creating space for some well-deserved breathing room. Two instrumental interludes (“Pallid Mask” and “Death of an Unsung Thought”) are the most striking examples of this, with the latter leading into the closing stretch of the album.
Despite the overwhelming harshness of An Exit Exists, its title is a cautious light at the end of a dark tunnel. That bit of hopefulness pays off and is reflected in the record’s lyrical progression, going from feeling trapped, hopeless, and guilty, to resigned acceptance and finally finding a safe way out. Brouwer’s final shouts of “endless light” echoing across a sea of guitar feedback on closing track “Home Will Find Its Way” feel like a battle cry, a triumphant ending befitting the tumultuous journey it took to get there.
9/10
An Exit Exists is set to release this Friday July 5th in collaboration between Persistent Vision, Secret Voice, and Life Lair Regret. Pre-orders for the record can be found here.