ALBUM REVIEW: Harrowing – Lindsay Schoolcraft
LINDSAY SCHOOLCRAFT is as deft at plucking delicate tapestries from her harp as she is leading the charge on arena-stomping anthems. She’s an artist of contrasts, of light and shadow, as evidenced in her new record Harrowing’s artwork, making use of Alphonse Mucha’s L’Illustration. In the painting, a pale woman lies dying, thought to represent the passing of another year, while a dark figure wraps her in a shroud. If you look close enough, there are clues to the coming of a new year, rebirth in the face of tragedy.
Which is where we find SCHOOLCRAFT herself. ‘Where you end is where I start’, goes Chase The Dark, Harrowing’s final sigh of relief. What precedes it is a record in search of catharsis, beginning in torment, making way for revenge, before finally welcoming peace. She leans on her metallic influences this time round to bring her primal journey to life, entrusting MOTIONLESS IN WHITE’s producer Justin deBlieck to provide the heft.
Which he does. Harrowing is the 4K to Martyr’s 1080p. Everything is bigger and crisper. SCHOOLCRAFT sounds more complete as a metal artist here than on what came before and finds her place among the modern landscape. It’s to middling success, as a chunk of the record sounds undeniably familiar: Vague has the bones of a standout song with a real kick of a chorus, but it’s missing something that says ‘this is a LINDSAY SCHOOLCRAFT track’ among the many, many interchangeable modern metal cuts. It’s playlist friendly, inarguably competent and unchallenging. Elsewhere, djent-style juddering riffs, like on Crucified and on So Alive, need something to elevate them above all the other artists doing the same thing. Bits of Harrowing are calling out for a flourish or two that would make this undeniably a LINDSAY SCHOOLCRAFT record.
So when what sounds like a DJ scratching on I Wait For You To Fall joins the multifaceted percussion, it’s memorably odd, a nod to old school nu metal that sounds out of place but all the better for it. It’s a welcome change on the record for a song to feel this danceable, it’s an invitation to move, and SCHOOLCRAFT judges her melodies over this funky number perfectly. Cut Your Teeth similarly benefits from its distinct musical palette, leaning into something more sinister and apocalyptic. The spaces between each hammered chord leave room for realisation to sink in when SCHOOLCRAFT addresses her subject: ‘We all know you’ll never change.’ It’s an appropriately composed reckoning, one on which lines like ‘Your dirty hands cannot conceal what you’ve done’ hit all the harder for their lack of subtlety.
Like on A.A. WILLIAMS’ newly released Poison, there’s some hope as a reward. Chase The Dark rounds Harrowing off with biting lines of reclamation, like ‘As I carve you out of my soul, the pain brings back a glow’. There’s no arguing with SCHOOLCRAFT’s pen, in which she directly and without obfuscation accuses, threatens, and lets go of her target. In her diary-like sincerity, she writes lyrics that listeners can easily find their place within and take what they need from. Her voice as a singer and as a wordsmith is a powerful asset to her artistry. If she can bring the same level of personality to the modern metal influences she draws from and carve out her own sound, she’ll really be on to something.
Rating: 7/10
Harrowing is set for release on June 19th via Cyber Proxy Records.
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