EP REVIEW: Finding Better Health – A Place I Once Called Home

‘…the weighty ferocity of your favourite post-hardcore band intermingling with the shimmering nostalgia of 00’s indie rock; it is a bittersweet and often beautiful EP…’

Sydney five-piece Finding Better Health are difficult to pigeonhole into a single genre. Pulling as much influence from Turnstile as they do Black Country, New Road, this “sorta heavy band” have been rumbling around since 2021, with a slow trickle of singles and a scattered selection of live shows. 2024 saw a year of no releases for the band, and 2025 looked to be the very same until midway through December, when they dropped the lead single of their upcoming debut EP.

Two months later, the band would release that collection of five tracks, entitled ‘A Place I Once Called Home‘, and in doing so, have cemented themselves as an important talent in the increasingly blurred landscape between indie and heavy. Lyrics oscillate between confessional and cinematic, whilst instrumental landscapes unfurl through scopes of shoegaze, post-rock, post-hardcore, and simple alternative rock. It all feels incredibly familiar, drenched in a weighty sense of nostalgia, yet wholly unique.

‘The Autumn‘ is a driving cut that demands to be blasted from your car stereo, as the bittersweet melodies take flight atop of a ceaseless wall of fuzzy guitars and rollicking percussion. Cinematic undertones blossom into pure, captivating drama, as the band reckon with the boiling point of a relationship that holds no hope, the track building towards a magnificent climax of crashing cymbals and lyrical catharsis. ‘The Earth‘ takes a turn for the heartbreaking, serving as a shiver-inducing musings on grief and learning to live whilst time still permits us. Instrumentally consisting of bright pianos and gentle acoustics, the track manages to build and blossom from quiet beginnings to a rapturous apex without ever feeling overwrought or overdone; the simplicity permits the emotional damage dealt to be of the highest degree, and the scathing rawness to the vocals contrast the soft edges of the instruments beautifully.

‘The Wind‘ lollops forth with a country flair, as guitars and banjos twang over a steady beat that keeps things simple yet devilishly effective. Vocals ascend to powerful new highs whilst being decorated with particularly gorgeous backing harmonies, as the band explore the way our relationships bend and break given the circumstances around that, and furthermore how not every break is impossible to mend. The EP reaches a rapturous conclusion with ‘The Snow‘, pummelling the listener with walls of glittering guitars, weighty percussion, and screamed vocals that feel wholly natural. Once more, the backing harmonies that the band utilise are truly something special, swirling about in tandem with the waltzing rhythms that tug at your spirit. The lyrical callback to ‘The Autumn‘ is a fantastic choice, and enables the EP to feel less like a simple collection of tracks, and truly like a singular cohesive work of art. There is an undeniable artfulness and ambition in Finding Better Health’s sound that could take them incredibly far.

It feels like an inevitability that Finding Better Health will become the next darlings of alternative music spaces, bringing creativity, talent, and fearlessness together to produce something that has broad appeal without feeling insubstantial or imprecise. ‘A Place That I Once Called Home‘ has the weighty ferocity of your favourite post-hardcore band intermingling with the shimmering nostalgia of 00’s indie rock; it is a bittersweet and often beautiful EP that refuses to be beholden to expectations. This band from down under deserve to be at the top of your ‘to listen to’ list.

RATING: 81/100

For Fans Of: Turnstile, The Orchestra (For Now), Snow Patrol, Black Country New Road, Manchester Orchestra

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