More about: Touche Amore

Following on from 2016’s acclaimed Stage Four, which chronicled frontman Jeremy Bolm’s loss of his mother to cancer, Touché Amoré have continued to add nuance and emotion to their work on fifth album Lament. 

While Stage Four was a brutally raw portrait of grief, the Los Angeles-based hardcore outfit are slightly more circumspect four years on. Yet it's clear that Bolm is still picking his way through the wreckage wrought by such a turbulent time of his life. 

For this outing Bolm is once again joined by guitarists Clayton Stevens and Nick Steinhardt with Elliot Babin and Tyler Kirby resuming duties on drums and bass respectively, while Ross Robinson - most notable for his work with Korn, Slipknot and At The Drive-In - is on production duties.

Opening track 'Come Heroine' suggests some positivity emerging through the clouds, but even in paying tribute to his partner’s role in pulling him through a tough time, Bolm offers the self-deprecating “And I’m just a risk/ A colossal near miss/ Prone to resist what is best for me.”

There's plenty of innovation occurring though amongst the traditional signposts of a Touché Amoré record, with 'Reminders' demonstrating their progressive musicianship alongside typically forthright vocals still grappling with pain and hurt, while the impressive 'Feign' keeps the album moving along at high pace.

Now more than 11 years on from debut release ...To The Beat of a Dead Horse, it feels like the band, and Bolm in particular, still have plenty more to say and are finding new ways of saying it with every passing record. 

Both in the context of Bolm and his circumstances and the band's deserved place at the forefront of post-hardcore, Touché Amoré have once again demonstrated their enduring resilience - with no signs of slowing down.

Lament arrives 9 October via Epitaph. 

More about: Touche Amore