The Black Map #175: Take Breath from Shrewsbury!

Falling into the gap between Post and Melodic Hardcore are Take Breath, a Shrewsbury Shropshire based quartet who may have only formed in 2019 but already have a pair of EPs out there for your listening pleasure. December 2020 saw the release of “The Hell In All I Held Too Close” with the bands huge 41k of streams single “Sleep” before “A Caged Bird Will Sing” appeared just last week. The former got a limited edition cassette run while the later is equally a thing of beauty thanks to mid-range unclean vocals and sweeping melodic guitars and a sense of raw and emotional engagement and plain as day influences from Casey and Thornhill. There is no doubt that if this band were in America or Australia they would be celebrated and successful but in the cold, murky waters that surround this green and pleasant land, they’ll have to work that little bit harder to make it happen. There can be no doubting that they have the raw talent, the only question is if they will have the time to smooth off some of those rough edges and become the band that they burn to be.