Holding Absence: The Greatest Step Forward
There are few bands that are shining as brightly as HOLDING ABSENCE right now. With the huge success ARCHITECTS and PARKWAY DRIVE are currently finding proving that with the right formula and enough tenacity even the heaviest of metalcore acts can find real mainstream success, it certainly begs the question. What will happen when a band has the right formula from the off? What heights are achievable then? Well, HOLDING ABSENCE might just be the band to answer these questions.
Forming in 2015 and dropping progressively impressive singles and EPs up until their stunning debut back in 2019, HOLDING ABSENCE have been steadily building their stock from the off, with clever and consistent imagery and a sound so painstakingly sharpened to the point we hear now. Through multiple lineup changes and years of progress, the core HOLDING ABSENCE sound has never been affected. The band is truly greater than the sum of its parts, and this has to be a huge reason for the hype and growth the band have seen over their years, from the underground clubs they cut their teeth in to the whole damn country.
There is a real sense of national pride for HOLDING ABSENCE when it comes to their home country, Wales. With rugby stadiums playing Afterlife during home nation tries might be seen as something small, but the huge amount of social media fanfare proved it to be anything but. The growing following of these humble Welsh lads is wonderful to see, and it only takes a few minutes speaking with Lucas Woodland to get really sucked into the wonderful world of a truly exciting band.
“HOLDING ABSENCE is at the top of its game and has written the best music of its career with The Greatest Mistake Of My Life,” explains Lucas when talking about the band’s impending sophomore release. “This is a hopeful album. It looks at shit things and says why we should learn from them. There are songs that look at relationships with death and learning from that, and coming to grips with how wonderful life is.” Hopeful is certainly the word you’d use to describe the triumphant noise that erupts from the speakers as Celebration Song kicks off the whole album. And with tracks as “disgustingly emotional” as Mourning Song or as Lucas describes, “clinical bangers”, there is enough with The Greatest Mistake Of My Life for anyone to find something in. This is precisely what made HOLDING ABSENCE such a draw in the first place.
The dose of hope comes at a time when it is most certainly needed. After everything that happened in 2020 and the continued uncertainty we feel this year, everywhere feels a little starved of colour and vibrance. But even with a light at the end of the tunnel seemingly being there, an overwhelming majority of us, this writer included, still feel deeply affected by the past 12 months. This album injects such incredible energy into the world it is amazing to experience. “This album was finished about a month before the pandemic hit, so was not for a second influenced by COVID-19. I’m glad the album wasn’t written with this sense of fear or unknowingness.”
Despite this, there was still a sense of trepidation with the evolution of the band. Lucas mentions the jump into colour being potentially “fatal” for them as they transitioned from the sombre black and white identity they had before, to the glorious full colour picture we see them in today. If you were able to catch the band in their earliest iteration then you’d have experienced a live act completely back lit with floodlights and five members soak in mystery dishing out some of the most captivating live shows of the decade, with Lucas never saying more than an introduction and a goodbye and always leaving you wanting more. The artistic nature of HOLDING ABSENCE has always been there, and now the band are opening themselves up to an even wider pool of artistic inspiration. “I think we’ve always been described as a cinematic band, and we just tapped into that more than ever before with this record with the film aesthetic. I just think it’s portraying the sound, if it sounds cinematic then lets make it look cinematic. But the themes as well, looking as external inspiration and trying not to be too confined by the constructs of music, trying to find new ways of expressing our art.”
From the immense, stadium sized bangers to the unique and captivating imagery used throughout this album build up, The Greatest Mistake Of My Life cements HOLDING ABSENCE as a genuinely exceptional act. There is a fearless nature ingrained in the way they express their emotive and moving art, and Lucas paints a picture of a band only looking only for growth and expansion. This could well be the decade of HOLDING ABSENCE, and we are certainly along for the ride.
The Greatest Mistake Of My Life is out now via SharpTone Records.
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