EP REVIEW: Hello Sun – Be Well
BE WELL; a simple enough mantra, and yet a serious challenge for so many in today’s world of uncertainty and anxiety. It’s something veteran producer turned band founder and frontman Brian McTernan seems to feel all too keenly, with his melodic hardcore project seemingly named as more of a reminder or instruction to himself rather than anyone else. On 2020’s The Weight And The Cost, he explored his own struggles with mental health issues and substance abuse to striking and cathartic effect. Now, Hello Sun picks up where that record left off, this time finding McTernan in a place of greater clarity. It still hits just as hard, but there’s definitely more light at the end of the tunnel here.
Like its predecessor, Hello Sun’s central triumph lies in its absolutely unflinching lyrical honesty. McTernan may be in a better place than he was when he made The Weight And The Cost, but he still doesn’t shy away from talking about what it took to get there. On opener Treadless he sings of the importance of sharing your struggles with those close to you, something he wishes he had done as a young man himself. It’s predictably powerful and rousing, ending on a gang vocal shout-along of “Pick me up! Pull me in!” that follows his gut-punching confessions of “I never told my dad that I wished I was dead”.
As expected, emotions run high across all six tracks on Hello Sun. Supported by an experienced set of musicians, McTernan‘s lyrical contributions remain the clear and consistent highlight throughout. On second track I Will Leave You With This, he insists “You won’t have to miss me ‘cause I’m gonna live” as he reflects on his impressive career and legacy thus far. Elsewhere, the title track touches on darker days, with McTernan begging the sun to “take away what the darkness brought” as he looks back on a time of professional burn-out that saw him take a step back from his work as a producer.
Perhaps most powerful of all though is the EP’s closer In The Shadow Of Who You Thought I Was. As with all the tracks here, McTernan doesn’t pretend that all is well when it isn’t; the chorus provides arguably the most devastating summation of depression on the entire record, with lines like “‘Everything is gonna be alright’ is just a thing people that don’t know say”. What really elevates this however is the insistence on hope, heard most obviously in McTernan’s end of chorus assertion “but I want to get better, I wanna change” – words left to ring in our ears as Hello Sun concludes its tight 18-minute runtime.
Turning briefly to the music, BE WELL’s melodic hardcore sound provides the perfect vehicle for McTernan’s hard-hitting lyrics. There are plenty of antecedents here, not least in the likes of NO BRAGGING RIGHTS, LOVE IS RED and BANE (the latter of which makes particular sense given that bassist Aaron Dalbec is surely best known as that band’s founder). They keep the energy high throughout, with melodic guitar lines soaring atop a well-rounded and driving hardcore energy. Sometimes things get a little more dynamic – such as on the aforementioned title track and In The Shadow… especially – but there aren’t loads of sonic surprises here.
Ultimately though, Hello Sun is all about the stories it tells. McTernan may spend most of his time looking inwards, but there’s no doubt that many will relate so strongly to his beautiful and powerful honesty. It results in a record that could and should mean so much to so many, even if the music itself may not do much to break new ground. At the end of the day, one of those things is far more important than the other, so you’ll hear no serious complaints from us.
Rating: 8/10
Hello Sun is set for release on May 20th via Relevation Records.
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