Burn Rome in a Dream

It’s heartening that BRIAD’s final album together is the most remarkable piece of their enviable discography. For eight years, the quartet of Scott Ballem, Evan Clarke, Kristian Galberg and Lee Sheppard were a lynchpin in Toronto’s post-hardcore musical community, and their foray into instrumental music was a truly unique amalgamation of jazz and punk rock. As the last creative burst in the band’s career, Fuck Holding Pattern (a reference to an American group that claimed ownership of BRIAD’s original moniker) is a wonderful elegy to the ambitious music that band composed together over the past decade. On songs like "Morbid Orbit” and the "Plays Pretty for Babies,” intricate guitar lines cascade against each other while an airtight rhythm section knowingly locks everything in place. BRIAD’s penchant for steady builds is fully realised in the epic "Mutant in Three Sections,” whose layered tones are bolstered by a string section and dynamic guitar. A sonically varied and multifaceted document of BRIAD, Fuck Holding Pattern is a testament to the band’s musical prowess and a sweet farewell to an ensemble at the peak of its power.