ALBUM REVIEW: Fragments Of A Bitter Memory – Dying Wish

For many, metalcore will always be synonymous with its mid-00s commercial peak. It was a time when bands like KILLSWITCH ENGAGE and BLEEDING THROUGH led the charge, bringing the genre to the masses like never before. Things have changed a lot since then, but it’s still hard not to feel intensely nostalgic for such glory days. If that sounds like you, then Fragments Of A Bitter Memory by DYING WISH will be right up your street. It’s a throwback in the best way possible, paying tribute to metalcore’s heyday without ever losing its own biting urgency. As a result, while nostalgia might get you through the door, it’s the record’s quality that’ll keep you there.

With 35 minutes to make their case, DYING WISH waste no time in launching into the album’s vicious opening run. Cowards Feed, Cowards Bleed, Hollowed By Affliction and Innate Thirst all hit hard and fast – the kind of metalcore that could take someone’s head off. They set the pace well for the record as a whole, each track overflowing with chugging breakdowns and Gothenburg-style riffing. Vocalist Emma Boster adds ferocity aplenty, and every instrument is produced to pummelling perfection. The third of these opening tracks is particularly merciless, with Boster’s repeated cries of “I’ll seal this message with my blood and a bullet” sitting atop one of the album’s most bone-crushing breakdowns.

While the opening salvo leaves no doubts over their savagery, DYING WISH are by no means a one trick pony. Just when listeners might start to think they’ve got the making of them, fourth track Severing The Senses and the title track which follows it see Boster mix things up with powerful clean vocals. It’s another trick straight out of the mid-00s metalcore playbook, but one that works brilliantly regardless. It adds an intensely emotional quality to proceedings which is only heightened by the subject matter of the songs themselves. Both tracks explore the effects of abuse and Boster‘s own experiences of growing up in an abusive home. The results are unsurprisingly devastating, with the latter seeing Boster ask “Where did your love go?” before her repeated assertions of “I would bury you if I could” hit with every bit as hard as the music behind her.

Abuse isn’t the only issue the band explore on Fragments… either. It’s an unflinching record from start to finish, one that tackles both the personal and the political. Seventh track Until Mourning Comes, written in the same week the world lost Riley Gale, aptly stares feelings of grief and loss straight in the face. It makes for another of the album’s more poignant moments, with Boster’s clean vocal declarations of “I will live free in your memory” left to ring in listeners’ ears long after the track itself has ended. Elsewhere, Blood Laced Misery takes things to their angriest heights – a furious indictment of ICE, colonialism and white supremacy. True to form, Boster doesn’t mince her words at all here, spitting lines like “You raped, pillaged, burned/You killed, plundered, purged” with a scorching venom.

Given its lyrical strength, it’s perhaps no surprise that Boster stands out in particular on Fragments…, but she doesn’t have all the vocal fun here. Specifically, tenth track Enemies In Red sees Bryan Garris of KNOCKED LOOSE lend his talents to proceedings. He’s an easy, obvious fit with DYING WISH, trading off furious screams with Boster to turn the song in question into a firm overall highlight. The rest of the band don’t put a foot wrong either, their metallic crush matching Boster‘s passion every step of the way.

For a young band, DYING WISH seem to have a lot of eyes on them at the moment. This record makes it easy to see why. Even at a time when many others are tapping into a similarly nostalgic take on metalcore, Fragments… manages to cut through as one of the very best examples in recent memory. It’s not only a fierce and fiery record, but also one that boasts a significant degree of emotional resonance. Will it return the genre to its old heights? Realistically, perhaps not, but either way this album still stands comfortably alongside some of that golden era’s finest offerings. That alone is quite the feat, and the best is almost certainly yet to come from these uncompromising up-and-comers.

Rating: 8/10

Fragments Of A Bitter Memory is set for release on October 1st via SharpTone Records.

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