Hiroe – Wield – Album Review

7th June 2025 0 By Jon Deaux

It starts like mist creeping under the floorboards, all twinkles and careful hums—‘The Calm’, they call it, but it’s got that quiet-before-the-incident energy, like a kettle that knows it’s about to scream. There’s a bass in there moving around like it knows secrets. Doesn’t brag. Just rumbles politely. Makes the ceiling do funny things.

Next track—wait, there’s no time—‘Tides’ already happening. Three guitars now, tangled up like shoelaces in a tumble dryer. Each one’s trying to out-glimmer the other, but cooperatively, like siblings building a death ray. Drums stumble in behind them with the subtlety of a wolf in socks. And oh—synths. Lurking in the background like someone’s mum at a party. You think they’re not watching, but they are.

‘Collider’ sounds like someone trying to perform delicate surgery on a jet engine. Lots of fingery guitar things, like ants learning Morse code. Then everyone claps together and builds a mountain and throws you off it. Not violently. Just for the purpose.

‘Dancing at the End of the World’ comes in sideways. Bass is doing somersaults. Guitars are dizzy but committed. Drums try to keep order and mostly fail. It’s the sort of song that makes you wonder if your walls are breathing, but you don’t check, just in case they are.

‘The Crush’ arrives with its sleeves rolled up, covered in fuzz, timing all wrong in that clever way that means it’s right. The rhythm’s got a limp, but it marches proudly. Guitars swap jackets mid-song. Someone in the back keeps flicking lights on and off. Nobody minds.

Final track creeps in like someone coming home late. ‘I’ve Been Waiting For You All My Life’—which is an uncomfortably honest thing to name a song that sounds like it’s trying to patch your windows with soft light. The instruments huddle together and exhale. Everything slows. Not sad, not happy—just… finished. Not in a dramatic way. More like closing a book and noticing your hands are shaking.

The whole thing is held together with tape and tenderness. Every sound feels arranged, not polished. Big when it needs to be, small when it doesn’t. Guts without the drama.

Very good. Very not boring.

Would listen again, possibly with a helmet.
Score 8/10

Track-list
Side A
1. The Calm
2. Tides
3. Collider
Side B
4. Dancing at the End of the World
5. The Crush
6. I’ve Been Waiting For You All My Life
Label: Pelagic