Drop everything, because Bloom have new music!
If you’ve followed Depth for awhile, you’d have heard my various ravings of appreciation for Bloom.. such as when I reviewed their Past Tense EP (and gave it a perfect 10!), when myself and fellow Depth writer Andrew Cauchi each chose Past Tense as one of our stand out releases of 2018, and when we had the pleasure of premiering the “Home Felt Better With You” music video. Hopefully you’ve had the pleasure of taking time with Bloom by now, but if not, their new release “Cold” is as good of a place as any to get to know the Sydney band and their sound.
“Cold” kicks off with fast pace and discomfort, with tandem vocals from Jarod McLaren and Jono Hawkey painting a picture of confusion and unease. Raw emotion is something that Bloom do very well, courtesy of Jono’s unfiltered anguish and Bloom’s instrumental atmospheres, as well as hard-hitting and uncomfortably relatable lyrics like “Are you happy now I’m gone?”. Ow.
Moments where guitars ease back give focus to the story being shared, with drums and downward stepping bass together crafting a moment of choice-making, of ultimatums. When guitar joins back in to the ongoing thread of song, the anguish continues to build, despite the ear-pleasing harmonies. Bloom know how to wreck a feelsy listener and do it in style!
“I’m not okay. I still feel it.”
“Cold” comes across as a journey, from urgent discomfort through to defeat and destruction, and the music video turns as cold as the relationship they’re talking about in the song. Heart-wrenching as it goes, “Cold” hits palpably to the chest with riffs that pare back to nothing… before a slamming, building, and aching finish works to obliterate any togetherness your heart might have held. As it comes to an end, you think “This is officially another brilliant release from Bloom” and then you hit ‘repeat’ times infinity.
“Cold” is released as a standalone single for the moment, but is an exciting first step into the next chapter of Bloom. In the process of bringing “Cold” to life, the band travelled to Melbourne to work with Christopher Vernon. They shared that they appreciated Christopher’s style, knowledge, and expertise when it came to a more alternative sound. Having been branded as ‘melodic hardcore’ so far, Bloom were conscious of this going into music after Past Tense, intent on building on what they’d already created, but also keen to assert their own identity beyond the genre stamp.
In a brief chat with Bloom’s vocalist Jono Hawkey, he shared that Past Tense had been designed as something of a conceptual release, with a specific mood and style of writing. In between Past Tense and now, Jono shared that the band had found themselves hitting a ‘creative wall’. They were trying to retain features they’d appreciated from the EP, but also found that it wasn’t really working. With attempts scrapped, Bloom eventually landed upon something they feel is fresh and original, honing their creative process at the same time, to the benefit of future music. Jono summed up their outlook by saying “whenever we write, we just write what we like, and what we think fits our own ideas of the band”.
“Cold” comes coupled with a music video (and other imagery) created by Billy Zammit, whom Bloom worked with previously on the “Home Felt Better With You” video. Watch via YouTube below or via your favourite streaming places.
