‘Severe Loss’, Narrow Minded’s debut EP, is a harrowing, yet deeply moving album, about the stages of dealing with the death of a loved one. It catalogues the emotions, the heartache, the sense of loss and emptiness.
From Walla Walla Washington, in the US Pacific North West, Narrow Minded is a new hardcore punk band. Hardcore is an acquired taste, but almost invariably, it’s a style which lends itself to sharing emotions and “letting it all out”, and so almost without fail, the lyrics of hardcore songs are well thought out, emotional, and very moving. Presumably they’re also very cathartic for both writer and singer.
Title track ‘Severe Loss’ is no exception to this rule. Accompanied by a music video which is as much a short film as it is a promotional video, singer documents his feelings about death, his loss, his distress at not feeling that there’s a future after life:
Why can’t I seem to find
Comfort in the divine
When everyone I love
Just fucking dies
The remainder of the six track EP deal with similar issues, touching on concerns we all have about death. ‘Beat The Bounds’, the second track, is sad and melancholy and verges on the distressing:
It’s the weight of the world
That’s coming down on me
I’ve felt the weight of this world
But haven’t we all felt this way? Haven’t we all wondered what happens after we die? When our loved ones die, haven’t we all felt despondent, and broken and bitter about the world and everything else? ‘Severe Loss’ covers these responses admirably well, and we hope their future releases will likewise touch their listeners.
You can find Narrow Minded online on Facebook and their official website. Download ‘Severe Loss’ from Bandcamp. Check out the video for ‘Severe Loss’:
