EP REVIEW: Adoring – blessedarethepitiful

‘…Between the chaotic soundscapes and stand-out production, repeated listens are a must to ensure that every little element is uncovered and savoured…’

It’s been a little while since we last heard from Bristolian duo Adoring. Composed of vocalist Jack Sargent and instrumentalist and producer George Turner, Adoring released their debut EP ‘The Absence of Everything‘ back in 2021, following it up with a double-single ‘Unholy Communion‘ and a delightfully dark anti-capitalist Christmas song for charity that same year. Since then, it’s all been quiet, save for a small collection of live shows.

Now, the band have returned once more, and during the three years between releases, it’s clear that Adoring have been cooking up something truly special. ‘blessedarethepitiful‘ takes the foundations that the band laid down on their debut EP, with plenty of goth rock and post-punk drive, and transforms it into a cinematic experience that pushes their established boundaries in wildly unexpected ways.

There is not a single moment across this EP that feels mundane. From the get-go with ‘Malevolent Grip‘, dreamy, ethereal guitar melodies and suggestions of percussion flutter about, contrasting the rough gravel of Sargent. In the back half, the track erupts suddenly into a claustrophobic inferno of screams and discordant guitars; it’s a brilliant moment of scathing aggression that serves as the perfect pay-off to the sombre melancholy that the rest of the track presents with. The follow-up, ‘Corrupted Vision‘, teeters between the repetitive grooves of post-punk and the all out thrash of punk, with incendiary riffs arriving on waves of stripped back, gothic grooves.

Even on the slower cuts of the track, where the band’s gothic, post-punk influences are more apparent, their capacity to create soundscapes that are ferocious and jarring stands strong. ‘Slowdown‘ makes for a truly decadent listen, as minimalist percussion snakes through a gorgeous sweeping landscape of synths, both glittering and pulsing with a gentle rave beat. ‘Misery Ritual‘ takes the stripping-back one step further, and for the most part consists of little more than Sargent’s smoky tones layered atop of a mournful piano performance. However, the track, and the EP as a whole, culminates in an apocalyptic climax, as guitars screech with hypnotic melodies, and unintelligible vocals are screamed out in the midst of it all, buried beneath disconcertingly immense walls of sound.

Certainly, those who were fans of Adoring’s debut EP will find plenty to enjoy here, but how the band have managed to expand and distort their sound makes them sound brilliantly unfamiliar. ‘blessedarethepitiful‘ stands out amongst a crowd seeking to revisit the gothic post-punk sounds of the 80’s by taking those foundations and actually manipulating and contorting them into something interesting and sonically challenging. Between the chaotic soundscapes and stand-out production, repeated listens are a must to ensure that every little element is uncovered and savoured.

It’s a harsh and sometimes unpleasant listen, but that only serves to maximise the enjoyment you can get from it; not everything is supposed to be pretty.

RATING: 80/100 – Very Good

For Fans Of: Moth Slut, Joy Division, Ditz, Sun Spot, Dead Animals

Follow the band on social media below:

Instagram // Spotify