Run For Cover US Vinyl & CDs

Review: Death Is Nothing To Us has been a long time coming, and in many ways represents pinnacle moment in the Fiddlehead story. In 2010, Pat Flynn, who some knew though Have Heart, lost a father who left behind his grief-stricken mother. Faced with the profound impact death can have on those forced to pick up the pieces, and feeling incapable of helping, this emotional period directly informed Fiddlehead's 2018 debut, Springtime & The Blind. A little later, Flynn's first child came into the world, and the sadness that comes with having a kid but no father to introduce them to was distilled into 2021's follow up, Between The Richness. Now, two years on, Death Is Nothing To Us rounds off the fatalistic trilogy, a rousing journey from bleak depression to strength, which touches on ideas from sleeping off trauma to leaning on friends. The result is every bit the right way to conclude this odyssey - leaving us under no illusions as to how difficult life can be, but how important it is to acknowledge when it's there, all delivered through equally vital hardcore anthems.

Review: Following on from the reissue of Rival Schools' first record, Run For Cover turns its attention to the band's landmark 2011 studio LP, which took two years to be released after the original recording sessions finished and a staggering ten years after the inaugural long player, United By Fate, had landed. Rooted in emo, pop rock, and post-hardcore, the main difference between episodes one and two was the comparatively lighter moods on the second, and an absence of distortion. In many ways, a more commercially-minded outing, at the time critics lauded Pedals for its comparative maturity, with many trumpeting the return as being slicker, more self-assured and altogether more grown up. Nevertheless, the tracks still tear from the blocks with the energy of youth and there's no denying these songs are the result of musicians with a real ear for writing infectious hooks.