Hidden Mothers: The Pride Of Britain
The United Kingdom is, to put it mildly, a very dysfunctional quartet of countries. Day-to-day life across Great Britain and Northern Ireland has not been easy for its near 70 million residents over the last few years, so clinging onto the things in life that provide comfort and joy have never been more important. For fans of heavy music, one such area is a very fertile underground scene: the talent emerging into the bright lights of widespread exposure is exceptional, and leading the line are HIDDEN MOTHERS, a four piece from Sheffield who have sold out shows across the country despite the fact that – until recently – you could count their amount of officially released songs on one hand.
“We never expected anything like the level of response, the opportunities and everything else falling into place in such a manner that we’ve had,” admits bassist and vocalist Liam Knowles. “Obviously we’ve got Church Road (their record label) helping us out and their support and platform has been invaluable, but we don’t have an agent or money behind us, we’ve just been cracking on for five years and it finally seems to be happening for us.”
Even if you haven’t borne witness to a HIDDEN MOTHERS live show yet, it’s more than likely you’ve been at a festival where they’ve graced the bill. The band – completed by guitarist and vocalist Luke Scrivens, guitarist Arian Malekpour and drummer Adam Kossowicz – have been everywhere over the last couple of years, sometimes playing multiple sets a day: last summer, they played an early afternoon show in Nottingham as part of Mangata Festival before racing back to Sheffield to play a mid-evening set at Bastard Fest. However, it was when they played the Wednesday night of ArcTanGent in August that the penny finally began to drop on the momentum being built.
“In the words of James Scarlett (promoter and booker for both ArcTanGent and 2000trees), the Wednesday night is a celebration of the best of the previous year, and so not only did he have the faith to book us off the back of one three-song EP and a single in the first place (the band opened the PX3 stage at the 2023 edition), but he booked us again even though we hadn’t released anything else by that point. That was when I think we realised we were on to something,” reveals Liam. “And then, not to blow too much smoke up James’ arse, but to get booked for 2000trees in 2025 and seeing our name on the poster next to the likes of ALEXISONFIRE and COHEED AND CAMBRIA was another ‘oh shit, this is proper’, you know?”
If, however, you’re one of those people who’s not been at a festival either, the next place you’ve probably heard of the band is the world of social media; specifically, Liam’s social media. He’s been instrumental in keeping as many places possible up to date on the goings on of HIDDEN MOTHERS, from new music to tour dates and so much more in between, even if it’s just to have a friendly chinwag and share memes – or, as he so eloquently puts it. “Being a dickhead on the internet has helped keep us in people’s minds! Obviously if you put anything out in 2020, it’s going to have been difficult for people to retain it, especially when there’s been such a gap between releases, so we’ve been able to ensure that people haven’t forgotten about us. Going forward it’ll be nice to be able to talk about our music more, but we know it can only go so far, and you then need the songs to back it up.”
Just as oysters make pearls through constant irritation, so Liam’s online graft and HIDDEN MOTHERS’ constant appearances on the road have paid off handsomely. Expectations for their debut album, Erosion/Avulsion, were incredibly high as its release on November 29th drew near; for the band, though, they were aware they had to up their game considerably not long after their self-titled EP was released, and one area was in their diversity.
“When we started we were going for a post-black metal vibe, but as soon as we began writing new songs back in 2021, we immediately removed those shackles because we didn’t want to limit ourselves,” explains Liam. “We still loved all of that stuff, but we had concerns over restricting ourselves to that particular sound. Some of the tracks, like The Grey and Haze, we’ve played live in one form or other since then and Haze goes in a more shoegaze direction whilst The Grey borders on metalcore in places. We realised we could go in both directions and still have it be quite cohesive, so now we just write what we want, forget what genre we are, see what happens and hopefully we’ll be able to pull the strands together.”
As it transpires, Erosion/Avulsion hasn’t just seen HIDDEN MOTHERS pull strands together effectively; they’ve also weaved them into a rich, forty-one minute tapestry that is raw, powerful and tumultuous in the best way possible. The title is a juxtaposition; erosion is the gradual wearing away of something over time, whilst avulsion is having something torn away in an instant, such as an injury. “We wanted to get across the idea that decay, whether societal or personal, is never the same from incident to incident,” explains Liam. “Sometimes it happens so slowly that you don’t notice it for ages, sometimes it turns the world on its head in a flash, but both can be equally impossible to deal with.”
The contrast is present within the twists and turns of the eight tracks on the album: whereas you have the heavier strains of opening song Defanged, you also have the quieter, stripped back Grandfather where Scrivens sounds like he’s about to burst into tears at any moment, and yet both are completely in theme with the album’s overall context and never feel out of place. “It’s not all negative,” assures Liam, “there’s a song called Still Sickness which is about the process of bouncing back from a mental health episode, so whilst there is a lot of darkness on the record, I like to think there’s an element of hope as well.”
As the saying goes, you have your whole life to write your first album and eighteen months to write your second. Liam confirms that there are ‘the bones’ of ‘three or four’ new songs floating around, and that they’ll hopefully have one or two close to completion before another heavy touring schedule starts again at the end of January, this time with fans more familiar with their material than ever before. “I’m excited to get back on the road and see what people make of these songs in a live environment having had a couple of months to listen to them,” Liam says with a smile. “It’ll be a completely different experience to before, and I can’t wait to see their reactions.”
Those who have followed HIDDEN MOTHERS can’t wait to see them either. It’s hard to like a lot of things from the UK right now, but this group are certainly something to take pride in.
Erosion / Avulsion is out now via Church Road Records.
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