Album review by Lucas Bell
After a five and a half year wait, Liverpool four piece Loathe are back with their latest record, A Stranger To You. Since the release of 2021’s The Things They Believe, the boys have been to Australia three times without new music, even recently being here in May, where they teased some of the new songs. But now, it’s July. And we finally get to see what the lads have been working on.
The opening track, ‘Entrance’, caught me a little off guard. With nothing but a piano and Kadeem France’s gorgeous vocals, it simultaneously feels like nothing I could have expected, but made me feel dumb to not have expected it. Loathe have this brilliant way of being so out of the box, that they create their own new box to play in. This almost felt like a Plan B ‘The Defamation of Strickland Banks’ inspired track the way France harmonised over the piano, which might be a deep cut only 3 people know. Beautifully haunting with lines like ‘We stood against goliath and we rose’, to really give you goosebumps.
‘Block of Flats’ however, gets quickly back to the vibes Loathe are known for. Blending the hard as fuck choruses in with the soft instrumentals and little vocal bridges, absolute chefs kiss of a tune. The last 40 seconds of this song though, fwahhhhh. I need to hear it live. I swear it could have been in a 90s goth nightclub, that’s how much it bops. Also, the Olii Appleyard from Static Dress feature on this is so good. I want a Loathe/Static Dress split ASAP. The vibes drop a little into ‘Fortress Down’, with that alternative metal/almost shoegaze vibe to the track. Definitely gave me a bit of a floaty feeling after the heaviness of ‘Block of Flats’.
‘Gemini’ brings back the heaviness, with some of the hardest hitting drums of the record from drummer Sean Radcliffe, where I thought I’d almost blow an ear drum out. France also hits some filthy vocal lines that give that real good stink face. The song turns into another 90s goth style EDM track about halfway through, where I could have sworn you could have seen this on a soundtrack for Blade, Queen of the Damned, or The Matrix. Solid tune.
Sandwiched between the interlude tracks of ‘Nothing Like the Knife’ and ‘ثينا (Athena)’, we get dropped clean into ‘Harder to Pretend’. This has more of the floaty, ethereal vibes found on ‘Fortress Down’. It might not be a track for everyone, but it’s definitely a track for me. After ‘ثينا (Athena)’, we get the band’s second single from the record, ‘Revenant’. There isn’t much more to say on the track other than what we’ve already heard. It’s heavy, and honestly, is peak Loathe. The YouTube comments on this music video are hilarious too, if you haven’t had a chance to read them yet. But back to the track, probably one of the best and heaviest on the record. There is a reason it was picked to lead the new era of Loathe.
We’re already over the halfway point of the album, and it’s crazy to think we’re only 24 minutes into the record. Every song has felt like a journey in literally the best way. But the best shit is still to come. Leaning into the 90s alternative vibes, ‘The Way It Breaks’ if for the fans that don’t like the mad heavy stuff. It’s pretty and just beautiful. And then followed up with ‘Meet My Maker’, whoever made that call deserves a raise. Two incredible songs to run back to back, with ‘Meet My Maker’ probably being my favourite song from the record.
‘Fangs’ is the record’s third single, and picking this and ‘Revenant’ for the singles is such a great choice. ‘Fangs’ is the perfect encapsulation of the softer side of the band. Zero notes on this one. And in again, inspired track selection, having ‘Fangs’ go back to back with ‘The Ladder’ is an inspired choice. ‘The Ladder’ also features Kiwi singer-songwriter Jordan Rakei on it, and is probably my second favourite feature Loathe has ever done, behind the Olii Appleyard feature on ‘Block of Flats’
The albums penultimate song, ‘Gifted Every Strength’, is a final show of the duality of pure metal and alternative rock the band shine on. I missed this, but apparently the band released this track last year. So hearing it as part of the record for the first time was an experience. Lyrics ‘Tearing your soul/Screaming just once more/Save all of your words/They’re pulling me so low’ echo out as France completely frys out the vocals, while guitarist Erik Bickerstaffe, bassist Feisal El-Khazragi, and Radcliffe just destroy every amp they can with how fucking heavy this shit gets. The flip at 3:21 though is where things get REAL good. And the guitar solo at 4 minutes in. Hook it to my veins.
Closing out the record, is the ‘kind of’ album time, in ‘No Stranger To You…’. This is near five minutes of honestly, what makes this band something I love so much. When it comes to the softer tracks in the discography, this one has become my new favourites. The chorus line of ‘And wander to you/I always knew/I’m no stranger to you’ hits the brain like a tonne of bricks in a beautiful, melancholic way.
The follow up to The Things They Believe was going to be a high bar. Working as a companion piece to their second album, I Let It In and It Took Everything, Loathe have shown the bar of quality is super high. So taking five and a half years to put A Stranger to You together was always a good sign. But I could never have expected A Stranger to You to clear that bar as high as it did. ‘A Stranger to You’ is Loathe at their very best.
Score: 10/10
Album Highlights: I’d say every track, but if I have to pick, ‘Meet My Maker’, ‘Gifted Every Strength’, ‘Revenant’, ‘No Stranger To You…’
