Album Review: Perspectives - 'Blind'

For a band only having been founded in 2011, melodic hardcore freshmen Perspectives sure have made a giant splash in Australian heavy music tide pool. With the release of Blind, Perspectives make their lack of experience completely irrelevant by delivering to us an all too brief, but sensational dark and emotionally cathartic EP that is mature beyond their years and, put simply, impressive as hell.

‘A Bird Who Can’t Fly’ sets a dark and emotionally heavy mood for the album, driven by screams that err on the side of clean and urgent, ambient instrumentals. All this draws in towards the lyrics, which exist at the crux of Blind as what lends the record its vitality and passion. As the vocalist declares in screams that are almost hoarse “music’s my eyes…if only everyone was blind like you and me” and in ‘Black Hole’ lyrics like “when you put a lion in a cage, pride turns to rage” listeners become immediately fixated by Blind’s lyrical impact.

In Blind, Perspectives step up their lyrical ability dramatically, creating a record rich with mature and confronting lyricism. ‘Black Hole’ possesses an infectious melody that builds from the start and peaks in the middle, and echo’s the incessantly heavy melodic rhythms of bands like Defeater and Touché Amore. Indeed, at the rate they are going, Perspectives may very well, in years to come, as beloved as those bands who effectively lead the melodic hardcore/post hardcore pack.

In 'Innocence Behind' listeners start to become aware of the continuous theme of being ‘Blind’ throughout the album. As such, Perspectives could very well be considered a concept album with reoccurring themes of blindness woven throughout. It is becoming clear that Perspectives possess an approach to making music that is mature beyond their years, and although their youth may be deceiving, a record like Blind should prove their rising notoriety is deserved.

Blind comes to a close with its title track beginning with a slow, hypnotic guitar progression the crescendos into a clash of fierce cymbals, and the hoarse, almost spoken word of the vocalist. Truly echoing the musical intention of Defeater and Touché Amore, Blind is a track molded by dark desperation and suffocating emotion. Possibly the best track on the album, Blind encompasses everything that Perspectives are, and leads into ‘Closing’ a hypnotic instrumental that brings the record to a melancholy end.

Perspectives aren’t really doing anything dramatically different from other bands in their genre; all the raw materials are the same, but the craftsmanship and dedication of the lads in Perspectives means that the end product becomes something special.

1. A Bird Who Can't Fly 

2. Black Hole 

3. Innocence Behind 

4. Blind 

5. Closing