ALBUM REVIEW: How To Disappear – Casey

CASEY certainly do know how to disappear. After two critically-acclaimed albums, the band opted to break up in December 2018 after having said all they had to at the time. Fast forward four years to the day, the band reformed. Following a double A-side single and a string of tour dates, their third album How To Disappear is a return to sadness, dissecting personal grief and mental health. It’s still very much rooted in their take on melodic post-hardcore, with branches spreading out to touch on alt rock and hints of shoegaze; it’s also just as gut-wrenching as you’d expect, weaving tales about the concept of absence. 

Melancholic opener Unique Lights immediately makes clear this isn’t just retreading old ground, but CASEY expanding the melodicism of Where I Go When I Am Sleeping into almost post-rock territory. Despite its yearning feeling, Tom Weaver intones “I hope you know I’m happier now / Than I’ve ever been”; it’s followed by asking how he’ll be remembered “when it’s my turn to leave”, suggesting a darker turn than might be expected on the surface – this is CASEY, after all. 

That payoff arrives immediately with I Was Happy When You Died, its slow burn sung verse building gradually to a towering, morose chorus; it’s reminiscent of HOLDING ABSENCE (unsurprising given both bands hailing from the Welsh post-hardcore scene) and TOUCHÉ AMORÉ. The sheer amount of emotion packed into the songs is at times overwhelming, but the band strike a balance between fist-pumping anthemia, such as the arena-ready Sanctimonious, and emotional bloodletting. While it’s also a more melodic record overall, they’ve not forgotten or abandoned their heavier roots. Instead, they’re deployed more sparingly to maximise emotional impact, such as Sanctimonious’ midway mark or as Those That I’m Survived By reaches its emotional apex. 

There are clear standouts on How To Disappear, notably Space Between and the closing title track that open the emotional floodgates, but there aren’t really any lows before that either; How To Disappear maintains an envious consistency throughout. Take For Katie, where Weaver sings “When I think back I only see an apoplectic wreck / Numb behind the eyes and scared to death” as he reminisces on his 20s. It’s starkly honest, as all his lyrics are, eschewing metaphor for biting, incisive remarks that lay bare grief, trauma and mental distress. 

The aforementioned Space Between and title track, though, arguably stand as the most emotionally brutal songs on the album. While swells of post-rock guitar weave lush, morose melodies, the bass and drums lend their weight to the sadness whether it’s gentle openings or thunderous post-hardcore. They, along with separating song Blush, bring the band’s comeback album to a close in stellar, sob-along fashion that manages to feel both triumphant in knowing CASEY are back and producing such brilliant work, but so despairing, so overwhelming with distress and sadness. The theme of absence, of nothingness, becomes a rich tapestry for them to examine not only life and relationships but the band itself; they give something intangible a real presence and weight, impossible to ignore but also impossible to face without sadness. 

Rating: 9/10

How To Disappear is set for release on January 12th via Hassle Records.

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