Counterparts
Tragedy Will Find Us

THE REVIEW

Finally, I did it. Several months had to pass since the release of 'Tragedy Will Find Us', months of reflection, and healing. I had to wait for such a deep wound to at least heal a bit before I could write something with the minimal lucidity required to ensure that I could, at least, publish something coherent. They were months of reflection, months in which I often tried to figure out how I could write about a work that tore me so much, marked me, helped me, and that has had and will always have such a deep meaning within my existence.

As of today, perhaps, I still haven't found a sufficiently good answer, but I really feel that the right moment has come to jot down something and deliver my review to the internet, so let’s not delay any further: "Tragedy Will Find Us".

TWFU is the fourth full-length from the Canadian quintet, which will have the burden of surpassing in quality, sentiment, and emotional charge that other masterpiece that was 'The Difference Between Hell And Home', the band's third work published in 2013. Without beating around the bush, I can already assert with certainty that TWFU at least matches its predecessor, whether it will surpass it I believe can only be said in the long run; certainly, a few months after its release, this new work has already forcibly entered the hearts of the band's fans, and that alone would suffice in itself.

Stylistically, this work reproduces the formula of its predecessor in a more mature and refined form; in other words, all the now-consolidated characteristics of Counterparts' sound are there: melodies with an incredible emotional load, hardcore rhythms masterfully handled by drums and bass, and explosions of feeling and passion. Completing all this, in the opinion of the writer, is the true added value of the group, namely the vocalist Brendan Murphy. Because if it is true that even instrumentally alone, thanks to the impeccable technical abilities of the four musicians, Counterparts would still overshadow all other bands in the melodic hardcore scene (to whose typical characteristics they add a distinct proto-metalcore flavor in the style of Shai Hulud and Misery Signals), it is also true that without Brendan's anguished and heartbreaking screams and his lyrics capable of incredibly moving you and at the same time finding you strongly involved, their music wouldn't be so incredibly true and moving, in short, it wouldn't be the same thing at all.

Counterparts know how to create music that viscerally shakes you, that becomes a part of you. The sense of abandonment ("Thread", "Stranger"), the sense of personal decay and ruin ("Stillborn", "Burn"), the suffering and remorse for a love that, although in potential could have saved us, proved to be our executioner ("Choke", "Collapse"), the pain born from our inadequacy both in being worthy people of our own love and in being inadequate also towards those we love. All these and many others are the dominant themes of this 'Tragedy Will Find Us'. These and many others are the reasons why Counterparts are all that I have said above and even more. Because even in the midst of this boundless ocean of suffering and pain, they still offer us hope, and where it is not possible to offer it, they leave us at least with compassion, and trust me, that's no small thing. Even at the end of such a painful and dark work, they are the light that illuminates us and makes us truly aware of who we are and what our position is in this world. This is 'Solace', the closing track of Tragedy Will Find Us. Good night.

"I think I’ve finally identified the Difference.
I think I live in both my hell and my home.
I will forever be a slave to your distance, don’t let me in, don’t let me go.
Carry me back to your bed, my conscience is my coffin and I swear sometimes I’d