Immediately evident from the opening one and a half minutes of ‘Everything Inside Me Echoed’, – the first track on Maidenhead four-piece Hindsights’ debut – ‘Cold Walls / Cloudy Eyes’ is as atmospheric as they come. Rather than generating this through epic post rock or melodramatic clichés, Hindsights have layering heavy, passionate and honest melodies that simultaneously rouse and chill to the core.
Frontman and lyricist Benio Baumgart oozes with a melancholic charm as his cracked vocals deliver the spine-tingling opening segment – an atmosphere which remains throughout the record. Whether he is delivering downbeat croons or shuddering screams, there’s an unparalleled honesty in his vocal style. Combined with their often macabre compositions, there’s an air of pain which underpins ‘Cold Walls / Cloudy Eyes’.
The two title tracks prove to be the most instantly accessible tracks on the record, delivering rare glimpses into more traditional pop-punk territory. Yet fundamentally ‘Cold Walls / Cloudy Eyes’ is far too dark to fit the genre. Perhaps sharing more with turn of the century emo, ultimately contemporary genres fail to match the unapologetic density of the ten tracks.
Instead, Hindsights self-define their sound as sad-rock – not only commenting on the sheer emotion that proves to be the lifeblood of ‘Cold Walls / Cloudy Eyes’, but placing them in a niche all their own. ‘Cold Walls / Cloudy Eyes’ is brilliantly sombre, brimming with passion and immensely powerful. Somehow, in amongst all of this, it remains beautifully exhilarating. There are few, if any records that deliver with as much understated intensity as ‘Cold Walls / Cloudy Eyes’.
BEN TIPPLE