ALBUM REVIEW: Incisions – Bliss (TNSRecords)
Bliss is the second album by Manchester’s Incisions. If you like your punk hard, fast and furious, it’s an absolutely essential record.
After a single and couple of EPs on Horn And Hoof, they switched to TNS for their self-titled 2018 album. It was a searing blast of hardcore punk.
Hard hitting
I first saw them on the Introducing stage at Rebellion Festival 2019, and was impressed by their hard-hitting, energetic performance.
Last year they released a split 7in with labelmates Pizzatramp, and now they’re back with a second slice of shock and awe to blow you away.
No Shame, released as the first single, sounded more furious than the band ever have before. It whetted the appetite for the album, which delivers in spades.
To describe it as ‘uncompromising’ doesn’t even begin to do justice to Bliss. It’s the first album I’ve heard in a long time that me go ‘wow’.
Formed in 2015 as a three-piece, Incisions burned out seven different line-ups in four years, and now have the classic hardcore formation of Jordan Lloyd (vox), Archie Moss (bass), Martin Battle (guitar) and Andy Teal (drums).
Bleak lyrics
Starting with the short, raging You’re Not the Same and continuing in the same vein with Fuck The World and Fighting Myself, they tear through 12 tracks in just 20 minutes.
Ripping guitars are driven by a frantic rhythm section, and the metal-tinged Repeat Prescription, four songs in, somehow lifts things to new levels of intensity. Tackling themes of addiction, self-doubt and loss of control, it paints a bleak image of urban life.
Back Of The Line adds melody to the beautiful noise, and the seething No Shame – about trying to live up to other people’s expectations – makes it a stunning 1-2 as the album moves into its second half.
Lloyd’s voice is close to cracking on the bludgeoning First Impressions, while The Sweeney tackles fragile mental health, “The voices in my head are killing me/I’m a bomb, I’m about to explode.”
An unexpected change of pace on Better, just the singer and an acoustic guitar, shows a different side to Incisions. Most of all, it allows the lyrics space to breathe.
For the finale, Insecure, it’s back to absolutely blistering hardcore as the frontman confronts those personal demons again, screaming: “I can’t live inside my head/Aaaaaaaany more/It’s dark.”
On this form, Incisions are right at the top of their game, and ready to take the UK DIY scene by storm once we’re allowed to have gigs again. I can’t wait to see them again.
I wondered how they were going to top their excellent 2018 debut album. They’ve absolutely smashed it. 9/10.
