I've been loving Holding Absence a lot since their split EP with Alpha Wolf, and Coffin was in my top three songs of 2022. When this year came around and they started dropping singles for a new album cycle, I was pretty excited. Their last album was commendable but I found it falling a bit flat in certain places, and I was cherry-picking at the end of it.
The Noble Art Of Self Destruction first showed its colours with A Crooked Melody, a catchy post-hardcore, almost pop-punky banger. False Dawn followed, and I love that song to death, but Scissors and Honey Moon didn't really hold my attention. It looked to be shaping up to be similar to The Greatest Mistake Of My Life where there were some great picks and the rest were meh, but I held out hope.
Overall, I think The Noble Art Of Self Destruction is still a step forward in the evolution of their sound, however subtle. It's clear that they're still strongly rooted in their iconic flavour of post-hardcore, powered by strong clean vocals and vibrant instrumentation, but I love that they took the chance with experimenting and diversifying a bit here and there. Honey Moon is a nice change of pace that really dials in on the softer side of Lucas' vocals, and Scissors sees him gaining some good grit in the vocals like he did on Aching Longing.
Their lyrical identity has remained largely the same, but I love the different conceptual palette they had this time around. It feels brighter and more modern compared to the more vintage aesthetic of The Greatest Mistake Of My Life, like the kintsugi on the cover art, which gives a tastefully sharp contrast to the lyrical themes of the music. Mental health struggles, relationships, contemplating life and death, all against a high-energy instrumental background.
I think they've gotten better at sticking to the mark this time around. Of course, coming from someone who might just not be completely immersed in the genre and its stylings, take my words with a grain of salt. That said, I found a lot more songs on this album sticking to me than the previous one, and I found their songwriting to be more refined and captivating. Cohesiveness has never been an issue for them, and I think they've always been great at telling a story and painting a great picture throughout an album, but some of the songs suffer in being less memorable as a result. The Noble Art Of Self Destruction sees that being whittled down to a minimum though, which is nice.
I think Holding Absence can be summarised as having a duality of songs: either they are designed to be extremely catchy, or to be extremely meaningful and sentimental. I won't deny that their lyrical content is a treat at times, especially on songs that aren't as catchy. I do wish they could put two and two together though, I would kill for a song with the lyrical heaviness of The Angel In The Marble and the musical and melodic charm of False Dawn.
All in all, The Noble Art Of Self Destruction is still a small step up. I'll probably end up cherry picking still, but I have a much better impression of this album for sure. False Dawn also has me irreparably hooked, maybe even more than Coffin did, so that's always a win in my books. And above all, they remain wholly true to themselves and their unique sound, which I can never complain about. As long as Holding Absence sounds like Holding Absence, no matter what form that takes, I'll be happy.
Rating: 7/10