Idle Heirs – Life Is Violence
Release Date: 11th April 2025
Label: Relapse Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Post-Metal
FFO: Cult Of Luna, Amenra, Isis, Red Sparowes & PSOTY.
Review By: John Newlands
Ok, ladies and gentlefolk of the interwebs, I’m going to say this straight off the line. This is a genuine contender for the best post-metal release of 2025. The bar has been set, and I believe it will be very hard to beat.
When Dave (my Metal Epidemic overlord) asked me if I wanted to review the Idle Heirs debut, I must admit, I had no clue about the band. A quick listen to the lead singles on my chosen streaming platform, and I was 100% onboard.
Digging a little deeper into the backstory of the band, I found out that it comprised of two gentlemen, Sean Ingram, vocalist of Coalesce (making his return for the first time in over a decade), and producer and musician Josh Barber. The duo set to work compiling an album of work that thematically contemplates the influence on parenting from one generation to the next and examines how this influence can be disrupted or interrupted and the resulting fallout. This became Life Is Violence.
The album was recorded at Ocean Sound studio in Giske, Norway. Situated in a remote location on the north-west coast, the studio has been popular for many popular Norwegian artists and metal artists such as Leprous and Cult Of Luna. The isolation of the studio and the absence of external pressures allowed the duo (and five of their artistic collaborators) to focus on every detail of the release, and this is very apparent.
So, what does it sound like?? I guess, if you were to take Cult Of Luna, mash in some ISIS vibes and then throw in the post-rock feel and clean vocals of POSTY, then you have something kind of close to Idle Heirs.
For me, Cult Of Luna are probably the biggest influence through this album and at times a guitar riff or drum pattern can sound like cuts from The Beyond, Eternal Kingdom or Vertikal. With that said, Idle Heirs have clearly got their own thing going on and I, for one, absolutely love it.
Composition of the tracks is exceptional, with each track perfectly composed and delivered. There is a fantastic use of melody throughout, and vocal and guitar hooks that provide the listener with earworms that can’t be shaken for days. The album flows beautifully, and I really enjoy how it is bookended by lighter tracks with predominantly clean vocals. A bold move for a debut, but it really shows the confidence, experience and pedigree of the band.
There really is not a weak track on here, and I struggle to pick any favourites and honestly, this has changed many times as with each listen as I uncover something new that I haven’t noticed before. But if push came to shove, I’d say of the 8 tracks, standouts are Loose Tooth, Rare Bird, Pillow Talk, Dim Shepherd & Dead Ringer.
I could not have concluded this review without making comment on the production of Life is Violence. It is absolutely flawless and a genuine masterclass in how a great post-metal album should sound. There is beautiful clarity and gentleness in lighter sections and heavy sections are crushing with weight, density and impact that is like being hit by a tsunami of sound. Delivery, phrasing and recording of instrumentation is exceptional, with clarity and space between all instruments and every nuance of all the instrumentation is noticeable. I noticed from music videos that the band not only make use of synthesizers, but also lap steel, both of which add heft and density to the overall sound, and the expert production integrates them wonderfully into the mix.
Vocal performance and production on Life Is Violence are top shelf. From memory Coalesce did not feature clean vocal, and you would never have guessed, here Sean Ingram delivers passionate, heartfelt and genuinely awesome cleans. I’m not really a huge fan of super clean vocal delivery in metal, squeaky clean production, and thankfully that’s not what we get here. The imperfection and fragility of the vocal is what, for me, makes them perfect.
Congratulations to the band for a fantastic achievement. You certainly have a big fan here in Norway & I’m excited to get my vinyl and T-shirt in the post!
(5 / 5)
