An Emotional Masterpiece
(WARNING) - The review for this EP includes language, as well as potentially distressing themes.
Artist: Knocked Loose
Album: A Tear in the Fabric of Life
Year: 2021
Band Lineup for Album: Bryan Garris - Lead Vocals, Isaac Hale - Lead Guitar and Backup Vocals, Nico Calderon - Rhythm Guitar, Kevin Otten - Bass, Kevin Kaine - Drums
Before this year (2022) I had never heard of Knocked Loose. Maybe one of the band's songs had featured on a YouTube video I had seen, but it never crossed my mind. That all changed after hearing the first track from this EP, Where Light Divides the Holler. The song stuck with me so much that I wanted to listen to the rest of the album.
Knocked Loose is a little hard to fit into a genre. It's easy to say it's just metal, but its fits well into the genres of metalcore and hardcore punk. Like the lovechild of Slayer and the punk genre. The main thing that really stands out about the band is the love it or hate it vocals of singer Bryan Garris. It's a one-tone scream or yell that doesn't fluctuate too much, but when given the context of the album, I'm more than happy to accept it since it works beautifully.
Whoever says that heavier bands don't know how to talk about anything other than death and destruction needs to hear this album. It is without doubt one of the most emotionally charged album experiences I've ever had, and when paired with the incredible animated short film that plays the whole album as one music video experience, it's damn near perfect. Over the course of the album, we hear the story of an individual who loses their partner after a car crash takes their life. The main character then begins their descent into madness as the weight of what has happened begins to sink in. I'll do my best to analyze what I think the lyrics are trying to say as I go through, but I highly recommend you listen to the album first, without hearing my analysis. Click HERE for the link to the animated short film for the album.
Let's look track by track:
We start off with Where the Light Divides the Holler. The song begins with the sounds of rain and footsteps, our characters beginning their drive home during a storm. The car starts, we hear some radio broadcasts (with a really creepy gospel song) before the car ultimately crashes. It's here the music begins. We're pounded with a riff so heavy that it could tear a star in two, before Bryan's tortured, pained vocals scream out into the night. The main character sees his love "Floating around the bend / Where light divides the holler". It's beautifully, painfully effective at conveying what the main character is seeing as his partner has flown from the vehicle into a nearby river. The song is heavy, yes, but the lyrics especially in this song break my heart, especially the lines, "The sense of touch reminds me that it's real / And from within you, I hear a whimper / A voice echoes in an empty form". When combined with the visuals from the short film, this first song is so devastating that it hurts, but also because you're banging your head so hard from the incredible breakdown at the end because you've said "fuck it" and are throwing the health of your neck muscles out the window. As the song ends, we get a painful indication of where the rest of the album will lead, "Shaking hands with blood underneath my nails / I am reborn in a life without you". It's chilling, and so effectively written by Garris that I still get shivers when I listen to it. It's also an important note that while I will be analyzing the lyrics and feeling more so than the music, the band behind Garris here is staggeringly powerful on every track. These artists are at the top of their game.
Next is God Knows. The opening riff from the band is one of the heaviest I've heard in a very long time, echoing bands like Gojira. Here, we start to see the main character begins to feel the true weight of what has happened. Lines like "It wraps around my feet / Pooling like wet cement, I sink / Clawing to get away / But every branch I hold onto breaks / Where do I go from here? / Panic sets in and I start to shake" This crushing and utterly inescapable feeling of grief and loss has just washed over the main character like a tsunami. It's rather fitting that the band's heaviness also feels like we're being routinely pummeled by a wave, hammering the point home. The character then seems to understand what's happening, and we see a beautifully written batch of lyrics as the main character hands his love over to God. I may not be religious, at all, but even this lyric does bring a tear to my eye. We end the song with the main character accepting what will happen next, "God knows I belong to hell / That's why he left me here by myself / God knows". As the singing ends, the song suddenly drops off into a form of a void, spiraling and climaxing before we drop into the next album. I actually prefer the short film's version though, where it drops into a haunting play of the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows". Both versions are incredibly effective though, and either will deliver the feeling it's trying to convey. The song is ultimately a realization that while they think they know the worst pain, it's only yet to come.
The following track is Forced to Stay. It begins with a droning guitar riff that carries us into lyrics that convey the main character's guilt and pain beginning to take over, as well as the notion that they were the cause of the death. "Everyday is getting worse / I dissolve into the pain / Pour myself into the guilt / Hanging over me like skies of rain / All the blood that I have spilt" As someone who has grief and a guilt over a personal loss, I feel like I can understand where this character is coming from. The pain of guilt and grief are truly horrible, and what's worse is that they feel so alone and isolated in this moment. Later, it seems a funeral is held, as the lyrics say "A celebration / The finale of life / The marriage between / Soil and bride" It's at this event, this funeral, where the main character gets their first look at those who would blame and denounce him. "I am judged and set on fire / at the stand falling deaf to their cries / The bleating of a hundred voices / In unison asking me why / Why did I take a chance and gamble life?" It's horrifying, and while it is easier to read into this as the character having a vision of the hell that awaits them, I read into it more as the loved ones of their departed lover berating and vilifying them. The music here also takes twists and turns, which offers an air of uncertainty, before again hearing the words from Garris, "We should've left before the storm". We are then treated to a heavier riff again as Garris repeatedly screams "The rain washes you away (Forced to stay)". Then, the guitar slowly repeats a line of music causing a feeling of dread to wash over. Powerful stuff.
After exploring the guilt of being left behind, we come to Contorted in the Faille. Indeed, the main character is becoming contorted, slipping into insanity. The character is unable to let go, "Whispering sweet nothings / Beneath a daze, mind consumed / Pulling me, your infectious hum / Asleep at the foot of your tomb / Dust settles on a broken frame" In this state, the character is left to stew in their home, unable to move on and beginning to see things, "Inside our house, I haven't touched a thing / Focused on corners where lights now fade / Watching shadows float on broken wings / Sirens pull me to you". They have started doing what we all have in situations like this, dwelling in that dark pit of emotion. It's not healthy, and luckily most of us have someone to talk to. Not out main character. They are utterly alone, before their madness begins to make them hear their lost lover. "In the dawn, I hear you crooning / Could this all be in my head? / Whispering sweet nothings / Beneath a daze, mind consumed". It's at this point the main character is gone, mentally and emotionally, as the voice of their lost love pulls them closer and closer toward the unthinkable. "Pulling me, your infectious hum / Awaken at the foot of your tomb / Now all that is left / Is to remove the weight of the earth / Now all that is left / Is to remove the dirt that holds your ghost / I am with you now". Utterly and completely gone, that main character has exhumed their partner's corpse to be with it again. The guitars and bass clearly trying to emanate the feeling of digging with a shovel, or toiling away at breaking open a tomb, before literally cutting to the sound effects of someone digging and breathing heavily.
Next is the shortest song on the album at just over a minute, Return to Passion. However, even though it's the shortest song, it's by no means the least of them. The main character has reached their lover in the dirt, "From underground, I hear you calling / Clawing through the dirt return to life / (I can save you) Guided by the moon unto the grave / Dig / Dig". Pained, tortured, and so close to seeing their love again, the character finally reunited with them. "Everything will be okay / Force fed rebirth / Nurse your gored wings back to life / Death comes home / Light the candles just to mask the scent / Death comes home / Love resurrects". They've now taken the corpse home, and are completely lost to madness. In this madness they try to love again, to be loved again, and to not be alone. It takes a bit of a darker twist here, implying some unsavory things. "Back inside, I find myself again / The great return to passion / Back inside you / I lose myself / Hide you in my walls / Rotting" The haunting imagery, combined with the frenetic pace and music of the band, creates a truly unsettling image before we are treated to the closest thing to scary on the album, and a taste of the madness within as the music completely cuts out. We then hear a distorted, isolated piece of vocals, presumably from the deceased partner, that whispers into our ear "You are safe, and everything's okay / And I'm here with you". It's comforting but in a horrifying way, before we arrive at the last track of the album.
Last, but certainly not least, is Permanent, the final push beyond the edge of madness. The main character has exhumed their love, but it hasn't brought them any peace. They know, in their madness, that there's only one true way to get what they are looking for. "Suffering in this life without you / Permanent blue / Parted by death, reunited the same / Permanent blue". They begin to give thought to the idea of ending it all, to be close again with the one they love, even if it means making such a permanent decision. "In the presence of your figure / Your voice still echoes from far away / The wind blows a familiar thrum / Faced with one more choice to make / Shepherd me / Through walls of stone / The wooded valley that you call home / Shepherd me / Teach me the blade / The only way out love is saved / Can't last another day without you". Again, most of us are lucky to have people around us that will support us in our times of grief, guilt, and pain, but when utterly isolated and beyond the point of return the unthinkable happens. "Exercising every measure left / A spot for two in the womb of hell / An apology, my final breath". It's the moment, the final breath, a whisper of apology before the departing. "Closure in a physical form / Reject the hand of the devout / When I saw the ghost was you / All the lights went out / Permanent blue". Now, in no way, shape, or form, is the song or band telling you that suicide is the way to get what you want after a loss like this, but instead is making a poetic point of madness. It doesn't matter what happens after they're gone, they will see their love again because it's what their insanity will make them see. It's a brutal, yet emotional and effective point. With this, Garris fades away, and the band carries us from the mortal coil to the great after, becoming more ethereal as the song closes, taking us a full minute and a half past the last lyrics. A representative of whatever the character sees next. This is where the music video comes in beautifully.
Pure. Emotional. Ruin. It's artists like these, and albums like these, that make me so happy to say that I love heavier music. They've taken this haunting yet emotional message of grief, loss, and madness and created a pure work of musical art. When I look at it critically, it's hard to really find any faults in the process here. The band had a creative vision and executed it flawlessly. I wholeheartedly recommend that anyone and everyone listen to the album, at least give it a try, and watch the incredible short film that accompanies it. You won't be disappointed. It's a flawless album, and a true indication of the artistic merit of a genre that, unjustifiably, exists outside the realm of popular music. A true work of passionate and emotional genius.
OVERALL SCORE: 100/100
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