‘A silent spring, An offering, Soil swallows whole what used to cast a shadow, Disintegrate, accept our fate: man must fall’ (All Is Dust)

Those unfortunate enough to share my home will know that, when my mood reaches a suitable depth of rueful contemplation, I am prone to reaching for Bleached Cross’s recent split album with True Faith, Columns Of Impenetrable Light.  The desire to belt out the chorus to the absolutely banging Grief’s Eternal Wound simply becomes too overwhelming.  Very uplifting for me, rather less so for everyone else.

Having missed the band’s self-titled debut album when it was first released in 2022, I was delighted to see that it was receiving this second press.  Hailing from Chicago and featuring among their ranks all three members of Frail Body, Bleached Cross have adopted ‘oppressive post-punk’ to describe their music.  And while this certainly captures the haunting claustrophobia that permeates their music, it rather understates the vibrant 1980s’ pop sensibility that vividly colours these more sinister impulses.

Bleakly melancholic guitars and coldly pulsing synths are fuelled by industrial inclined percussion, while the powerfully melodic lead vocals and soaring choruses are underscored at varying times by both scathingly blackened eruptions and contrastingly uplifting choral flourishes.  This decidedly heady mix proves a darkly atmospheric foil to the lyrical exploration of the ravages of grief, religious delusion, and humanity’s own increasingly fraught future.  Personal stand out tracks are the desolate euphoria of Mercy and the swirling, mournful eddies of All Is Dust.