Leave it to the guy who wrote "Armed with a Mind" almost 20 years ago to go on to lead one of the most cerebral punk bands of the present day. After spending a short yet highly influential seven years with the Boston hardcore legends Have Heart, Patrick Flynn disappeared from the public eye after their breakup in 2009 and became a high-school history teacher. Five years later, he recruited his former drummer Shawn Costa along with Basement guitarist Alex Henery and a couple other East Coast hardcore veterans to form Fiddlehead. Originally intended as a one-time outlet for Flynn's grief over the death of his father, the band has stuck together now for almost 10 years, outlasting most of their earlier projects while also garnering a level of widespread critical acclaim that had previously eluded them.
Fiddlehead's veteran status within the punk and hardcore scene was immediately apparent in the maturity of their music. Their debut Springtime and Blind presented their brand of gruff, melodic post-hardcore with rawness and sincerity, earning them comparisons to '90s acts like Jawbreaker and '90s-indebted acts like Title Fight. Their second record Between the Richness showed an additional keenness for melody and a wizened softness to their musical approach. There was also an extra shot of vitality that coursed through their veins, even as they showed increasing depth of thought and philosophy. Their third outing, Death Is Nothing to Us, combines the strengths of those previous releases — melody and intensity meeting in perfect harmony.
"The Deathlife" hits so hard and so fast, it's only a shade away from the straight-up hardcore of Bane or American Nightmare (or, well, Have Heart). "True Hardcore (II)" also jumps up a notch, with Flynn punctuating his open-air melodies with the barking shouts of guest Justice Tripp (Trapped Under Ice, Angel Du$t). "Queen of Limerick" and "Fiddleheads" are structured around classic emo in the vein of Texas Is the Reason, with the added intensity of Flynn's pained howls. But even among these most mosh-worthy songs, melody rarely takes a back seat.
Then there are the songs that, in a universe where Minor Threat got as big as blink-182, could be considered Fiddlehead's hit singles. "Sullenboy" is full of energy and has a chorus that's as catchy as hardcore gets, while "Sleepyhead" delivers a version of '90s college rock that's made for stage-diving and spin-kicking instead of singing "Push" at your girlfriend. "Fifteen to Infinity" seems unassuming at first, but it's full of sneakily catchy lines.
Beyond the physical response the music will inevitably evoke, Death Is Nothing to Us is just as intellectually and emotionally engaging. Flynn grapples with the feelings of loss, grief and depression that he explored on Fiddlehead's previous records, this time not just introspectively, but from the outside looking in: what is sadness, and how should we respond to it? On paper, the lyrics should read as solipsistic; Flynn speaks to his own feelings of depression, all the while making bookish references to the Roman philosopher Lucretius and the Austrian author Jean Améry (along with allusions to Bad Brains, Alex G and Wire). But as always, the songs are fiercely communal — Flynn has the maturity and experience to know that what resonates with him is bound to resonate with others.
That's best exemplified in "Loserman" with a single, pithy line: "You're on your own / But you're not alone." Pair that with Fiddlehead's music, and it takes no imagination whatsoever to picture a room full of people screaming the words. That's ultimately the guiding purpose of Fiddlehead: take the physicality and catharsis of hardcore punk, and use it to make people think, feel, sing and heal together.
(Run For Cover)Fiddlehead's veteran status within the punk and hardcore scene was immediately apparent in the maturity of their music. Their debut Springtime and Blind presented their brand of gruff, melodic post-hardcore with rawness and sincerity, earning them comparisons to '90s acts like Jawbreaker and '90s-indebted acts like Title Fight. Their second record Between the Richness showed an additional keenness for melody and a wizened softness to their musical approach. There was also an extra shot of vitality that coursed through their veins, even as they showed increasing depth of thought and philosophy. Their third outing, Death Is Nothing to Us, combines the strengths of those previous releases — melody and intensity meeting in perfect harmony.
"The Deathlife" hits so hard and so fast, it's only a shade away from the straight-up hardcore of Bane or American Nightmare (or, well, Have Heart). "True Hardcore (II)" also jumps up a notch, with Flynn punctuating his open-air melodies with the barking shouts of guest Justice Tripp (Trapped Under Ice, Angel Du$t). "Queen of Limerick" and "Fiddleheads" are structured around classic emo in the vein of Texas Is the Reason, with the added intensity of Flynn's pained howls. But even among these most mosh-worthy songs, melody rarely takes a back seat.
Then there are the songs that, in a universe where Minor Threat got as big as blink-182, could be considered Fiddlehead's hit singles. "Sullenboy" is full of energy and has a chorus that's as catchy as hardcore gets, while "Sleepyhead" delivers a version of '90s college rock that's made for stage-diving and spin-kicking instead of singing "Push" at your girlfriend. "Fifteen to Infinity" seems unassuming at first, but it's full of sneakily catchy lines.
Beyond the physical response the music will inevitably evoke, Death Is Nothing to Us is just as intellectually and emotionally engaging. Flynn grapples with the feelings of loss, grief and depression that he explored on Fiddlehead's previous records, this time not just introspectively, but from the outside looking in: what is sadness, and how should we respond to it? On paper, the lyrics should read as solipsistic; Flynn speaks to his own feelings of depression, all the while making bookish references to the Roman philosopher Lucretius and the Austrian author Jean Améry (along with allusions to Bad Brains, Alex G and Wire). But as always, the songs are fiercely communal — Flynn has the maturity and experience to know that what resonates with him is bound to resonate with others.
That's best exemplified in "Loserman" with a single, pithy line: "You're on your own / But you're not alone." Pair that with Fiddlehead's music, and it takes no imagination whatsoever to picture a room full of people screaming the words. That's ultimately the guiding purpose of Fiddlehead: take the physicality and catharsis of hardcore punk, and use it to make people think, feel, sing and heal together.
