The four-piece show an expansion of their sound on the second single from the long-awaited November release, and demonstrate an impressive ability to carefully navigate the line between beautiful and fierce with their unique spin on blackened post-metal gaining a lot of traction in recent weeks since the release of album opener 'Defanged', and impressive slots at festivals such as ArcTanGent and Bastard Fest.
'Still Sickness' shows off haunting vocals from Luke Scrivens coupled with vicious screams from Liam Knowles, and musically exemplifies how much the group have honed their craft over recent times to become an outfit putting out material of much higher quality than most bands this early in their career. Knowles says of the track lyrically, "'Still Sickness' looks at the long and difficult process of ‘recovery’ from a period of crisis in mental illness and the doubting that comes with that. It’s about the slow and difficult acceptance of the shoddy, misshapen home of a disordered mind and learning to live with uncertainty even if the ‘danger’ of crisis has passed".
The band, rounded out by guitarist Ari Malekpour and drummer Adam Kossowicz, and belonging to the wonderful Church Road Records, look set to make a big impact with a massive album come the end of the year, and seem very much geared up for bigger stages in the near future. Knotfest sat down with bassist/vocalist Liam Knowles to get a little more insight.
-How does it feel that after so long you're finally able to get your debut album out to the world, and what are you hoping people can take from it.
Honestly, it feels incredible. We're well aware that it's become a bit of a running joke that we've taken so long to get our debut album out into the world, and we're so grateful that people have stuck with us patiently whilst we've been squirreling away at it. We hope people will enjoy the record and recognise what we've aimed for; an album that expands our original premise in lots of different ways and properly reflects our diverse influences. I know it's a cliche to say "the soft parts are softer and the heavy parts are heavier" but on 'Erosion / Avulsion' that's definitely true. We like to think we've tackled this in our own distinctive way, but the listener will be the final judge of that! It's also a very personal record to Luke so hopefully people will enjoy the work he has put in lyrically as well as the overall sound.
-How have you found the reception to first single 'Defanged'?
It's been overwhelmingly positive. We haven't released any music since 2020 and in the meantime we've had a lineup change and a bit of a detour in terms of our musical direction so whilst we're still very much Hidden Mothers, we weren't 100% sure how people would respond to this new sound. Turns out we needn't have been worried, 'Defanged' has been incredibly well received and people seem excited to hear more new music from us! Thank you to everyone who has listened to it, especially if you've shared it with other people. Word of mouth is so important for a band of our stature. It's worth mentioning that part of the reason 'Defanged' sounds so great is down to the stellar work of our producer (Joe Clayton) and mastering engineer (Grant Berry) who both absolutely smashed it.
-What was the thinking behind releasing 'Still Sickness' as the second taste of the record for the fans?
We released 'Defanged' as the debut single because it's probably the closest in sound to our original material, so it works really well as a bridge between our debut EP and the new album. 'Still Sickness' is much more of a curveball; it's quite a careful, delicate song, particularly for the first half, and it's given us an opportunity to explore melodic textures and softer dynamics that we hadn't really worked with previously. It's more heavily influenced by post-hardcore bands like Touche Amore and Pianos Become The Teeth than anything remotely "blackened". Between 'Defanged', 'Still Sickness', and the final single (TBA), we think we've created a really well-rounded showcase for the full album.
-Can you tell us a bit about the ideas behind the artwork of the album?
When we sat down to discuss artwork, the only artist we all agreed on was Paul (True Spilt Milk Designs). We gave him a brief based around the themes of the album; the idea of decay, both personal and societal, and how that decay can sometimes creep up on you slowly, and sometimes can happen in an instant. We liked the idea of something man-made being reclaimed by nature, and he came back with this image of a sort of brutalist block of flats isolated within a forest, with a figure on top of the building signalling for help. We feel it perfectly represents what we were aiming for - this feeling of isolation and hopelessness, but with a determination to improve the situation.
-What was your approach in writing the songs for this record?
We're very much a band that works best when we're in a room together, so we've always just sort of jammed things out and the songs come together from there. Luke writes all the lyrics and vocals, but other than that we don't really have a process as such. Sometimes songs come together quickly, but sometimes they take on many forms before their final one. The original version of 'Still Sickness' was a post-metal song with a vocoder in it, but over time we (thankfully) realised it could be better.
-How have you found the step up to being arguably the 'frontman' of the band? What's changed in your approach both in the studio and a live environment?
As much as my ego loves it when people call me the frontman, I think it does a disservice to the way we operate as a band. Luke and I share vocal duties; all the clean vocals on the record are him, as well as some of the screams, and as I've already said he also writes all of the lyrics. We're very much focused on what works best for the song - the next record may have less of my voice and more of Luke's, or the split may remain the same, but we would never approach it like "well Liam is the frontman so we need to make sure he has plenty of vocal parts" because then you're writing to people's expectations of you instead of what comes naturally. I'm a bassist first and a vocalist second. That said, I have really enjoyed taking on more vocals. It's definitely been a learning curve, and I'm still learning and improving as I go, but it definitely feels like we're in a good place vocally after working on this record and playing live this year.
-What are your ambitions on the road for this record? Who would be a dream lineup for you to play on?
To be honest, our only ambitions when we started was to work with Church Road Records, and to play ArcTanGent Festival (which we have done twice now), so I'm not really sure what comes next! We're open to playing most events really, and I think modern audiences are happy to see varied lineups. A while ago I'd have said we were too soft to play Bloodstock, but then Unpeople played it and went down a storm. On the flip side, I'd have said we were too heavy/weird for Slam Dunk, but then Heriot played so maybe we're not. We'd love to do Damnation, 2000 Trees, Download...Glasto? In terms of bands we'd love to play with, I think the big one is probably Thrice, particularly for Luke. A lineup with Thrice, Envy, Holy Fawn and us would be literally perfect.
-Where would you like this album to take Hidden Mothers going forward?
We'd like to play as many new places as we possibly can. We've currently got two shows booked for 2025 in cities we've never played before (more on that soon) but we would like to increase that number. We've never been to Scotland, Ireland or mainland Europe so we definitely need to rectify that. Watch this space!
Erosion / Avulsion is out Nov 29 via Church Road Records.
