COUNTERPARTS – A EULOGY FOR THOSE STILL HERE
Canadian melodic hardcore band Counterparts return with A Eulogy for Those Still Here, an album that justifies their spot alongside the heavyweights and pioneers of the scene.
When Nothing Left to Love released in 2019, it was an album that carried a heavy emotive weight. It turned heads in a year filled with amazing releases the likes of Knocked Loose’s A Different Shade of Blue, Amygdala’s Our Voices Will Soar Forever and Judiciary’s Surface Noise. The band’s constant work ethic and successful releases throughout their 12-year journey as a group earned them a place among the most well-known voices of the hardcore scene.
In 2022, the sudden, unpredictable, and yet deserved growth and impact hardcore and metal made on the music industry was a breath of fresh air. Festivals like Outbreak, Damnation and many more upgraded to historical capacities, selling out in record time and reaching a more mainstream audience. Following their headline set at Outbreak festival’s 10-year anniversary preshow, they released their 7th studio album A Eulogy for Those Still Here.
This album is special in a multitude of ways. Not only serving as a mashup of everything that worked in their previous releases, it also evolves the band’s sound, emotion and identity to a much higher level. Each song has its purpose and executes it perfectly in the process. There is no filler track, as lead singer Brendan Murphy spills his heart and soul onto this record to create a brutally honest, heart-breaking, and heavy experience for each listener.
Focusing on the themes of grief and death, Eulogy approaches this in a quite unconventional way. It feels as if it’s grieving the living rather than the dead, it asks the question of if there is truly hope for us in a world filled with uncertainty. It’s a record that provides comfort to anyone who is going or will go through difficult times, from people sharing those difficulties. Brendan effortlessly conveys these emotions, quite notably in the standout tracks ‘Whispers of your Death’, ‘Skin Beneath a Scar’ and the title track (however each song could be considered a standout in this case), in which his vocals fully convey not only his demons, but each individual listener’s as well. The manic feeling of needing to scream and shout your way through pain has been excellently and accurately portrayed within this album.
A brilliant addition to the band’s repertoire, A Eulogy for Those Still Here is a very important record not only for the current state of the hardcore scene, but for anyone out there struggling and dealing with their own demons.
Daniel Tsourekas
★★★★★