Counterparts – “Tragedy Will Find Us” [Album Review]

You could say that, after four albums, Canadian melodic hardcore outfit Counterparts know what they’re about and, as Tragedy Will Find Us demonstrates, they certainly know how to play to their strengths.

Clearly not in the mood to mess about or pad their latest offering with filler tracks, Counterparts knock out thirty-five minutes of pacy melodic hardcore with the eleven tracks leaving you just enough time to allow you to catch your breath before the throttle is opened and the band are off again. You could level the criticism at the band that it all gets a little samey after a while but, for thirty-odd minutes, it’s highly likely that fans of the band are going to be lost in the highly-personal lyrics of tracks like album closer “Solace,” where frontman Brendan Murphy screams “I’d rather die than live without you.” In fact, it’s Murphy’s brutally emotional performance which turns this album from being an okay one, into one that fans of genuinely emotional hardcore are going to take to their broken hearts.

The subject matter on Tragedy Will Find Us may be generic hardcore fodder but, when done well, there aren’t many other genres of music which come close to sounding as genuine and from the heart as the melodic hardcore genre does. Tragedy Will Find Us may not be the most groundbreaking album, but Counterparts make up for that by wearing their emotions proudly on their sleeves.

Track Listing:

01. Stillborn
02. Thread
03. Resonate
04. Stranger
05. Burn
06. Tragedy
07. Withdrawal
08. Choke
09. Collapse
10. Drown
11. Solace

Run Time: 34:07
Release Date: July 24, 2015

Check out the album ‘Tragedy Will Find Us’ here.