A Tear In The Fabric Of Life is the latest release from Knocked Loose, a hardcore band from northern Kentucky. What started as an attempt to create something less personal and more artistic ended up a vehicle to work through feelings of grief and self-doubt. A fictional narrative is woven through the six tracks of the EP, not just through the lyrics but also through the musical choices the band makes.
The first track, “Where Light Divides The Holler,” begins the story of a car accident, one that kills the narrator’s partner, leaving them soaking on the side of the ride, alone. The song begins with a car starting, a radio, then, a collision of guitars, drums, and screaming breaks through. As the narrator crawls from the river, so does the music - the rhythm slows to a half-time breakdown, again mimicking the narrative moment.
In a genre not known for subtlety, Knocked Loose uses the brutality of their sound to a really fantastic effect. As the narrator is “crushed by the weight of terror,” the listener is subjected to equally crushing, drop tuned guitars, palm-muted and grinding away. In the later songs, as the narrative becomes more about the grief, confusion, and pain of the narrator, these feelings are really effectively conveyed within the conventions of the genre. For the melodies in “Forced To Stay,” the band uses a guitar tone that wouldn’t be out of place for a band like The Deftones; this tone really helps bring the grief of a burial to the forefront. “Contorted in the Faille” utilizes a common-in-the-genre sort of circular riff to mimic confusion and a self-destructive inebriation. I can’t think of another hardcore album that is constructed in this way, and I think it speaks to the more art-focused approach to the release.
Setting aside the artistic choices Knocked Loose made to communicate the narrative of the EP, A Tear in The Fabric Of Life is, for lack of a better phrase, fully sick. The pacing of the tracks is excellent - the band knows when to pick up the speed and when to drop into brutal half- and quarter-time breakdowns. Front to back, the tone of the guitars is fantastic; whether it’s drop tuned, palm muted grinding riffs, or dissonant harmonic picking, everything feels balanced to create as brutal and clear a sound as possible. Nothing gets lost in the ordered chaos of the riffs. I can’t listen to the EP without getting out of my chair and picking up some nickels, wearing a face like I just smelled the most foul scent of my life.
A Tear In The Fabric Of Life is out now, available from Pure Noise or through Bandcamp.