ALBUM REVIEW: Hir Oes I’r Cof – Breichiau Hir
Wales has a long, rich history of producing some of the world’s best-known and beloved musicians, and over the years the rock and metal communities have been blessed with some of the biggest, most revolutionary bands of the modern side of the genre. From one of the earliest heavy metal bands BUDGIE, through to the likes of THE BLACKOUT and FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND, and today’s stadium-dwellers SKINDRED and BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, the country has given us a lot to be thankful for.
However, none of these bands have particularly stuck to their Welsh roots in the way that BREICHIAU HIR does. This is a band from Cardiff who – as you may be able to tell from their name – performs entirely in the Welsh language. Hir Oes I’r Cof roughly translates to ‘Long Live Memory’ and is their debut album, following a 2015 EP and a long line of standalone singles. This body of work has already been picked up by the likes of BBC’s Huw Stephens and Daniel P. Carter, as well as being used in the hype videos for FA Wales’ Euro 2020 campaign.
The album itself deals with both the melancholy and joy that comes from nostalgia. Kicking off with the title track, Hir Oes I’r Cof is a song that deals with humanity’s penchant for looking back, and finding comfort in the way things were, but also the sadness of knowing you can never relive those days; they are but illusory memories that risk changing as the years roll by. From here, the album progresses naturally through these feelings, touching on nostalgia taking over one’s existence if you let it (Y Pwysau Mawr), the important events that push us on to adulthood (Y Teimlad Yngsol, Eto) and becoming happily insane by living in the past (Beth Bynnag Sydd Ar Ôl). This is heavy subject matter, delivered with grace, emotion and a dash of self-deprecating humour to boot.
Mwynhau (translates to ‘Enjoy’) provides the album’s first proper singalong; this is a song delivered with something of a boyish charm, and the message of chasing a good time is not lost through the language. Lines like “I’ve been awake, dancing between houses/Swinging under hell and creating drama” feel poignantly familiar and relatable. Ofni Braidd (‘Quite Concerned’) is a fantastically tender number that represents a conversation between friends who have moved apart and are reminiscing on days gone by. By far the best display of what BREICHIAU HIR brings to the table, we see the band at both their most delicate and most intense. The song surges to a raucously emotional outburst, before subduing back down to softly delivered phrases. It’s a stunning song and one that will stay with the listener far beyond the end of the album.
For everything that has been done right on this record though, and there is plenty, there is perhaps a different level largely missing from this work. For much of the album, there are glimpses of the band taking their work to maximum energy and those moments are fantastic. But it would be nice to see them do more than dip their toe, so to speak, and use that wall of sound, that harder edge, more frequently. As it stands, a lot of the songs risk blending into one another due to being dynamically very similar.
Another issue comes from the subject matter at hand on Hir Oes I’r Cof. While BREICHIAU HIR deserve praise for how much they have been able to write about the theme of nostalgia, it does at times feel like they are singing themselves in circles and reusing ideas throughout. Perhaps this is a theme that would be better suited to an EP, or at the very least an album with a few less tracks. It also would have been nice to see the band explore related themes, or a more fleshed out evolution of what nostalgia can do to a person and their relationships, their decisions, maybe even why it’s better to let go of nostalgia, or the success that can be found in chasing it. It’s a massive ocean of possibilities, and one that feels lightly paddled in.
Overall, Hir Oes I’r Cof is an interesting record delivered to a great standard, but under closer scrutiny, begins to run threadbare and familiar. But for a debut album, BREICHIAU HIR have done themselves proud, and it will be great to see what they’re capable of in the future.
Rating: 7/10
Hir Oes I’r Cof is set for release on November 19th via Libertino Records.
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