{"id":99527,"date":"2025-07-10T10:00:27","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T09:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?p=99527"},"modified":"2025-07-09T22:31:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T21:31:27","slug":"review-split-chain-motionblur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-split-chain-motionblur\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Split Chain – motionblur"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s safe to say Split Chain<\/strong> have exploded over the past 24 months. Their brand of “nu-gaze” has earned the Bristol group impressive streaming numbers, shows on both sides of the Atlantic, and a string of festival slots. They’ve also found a label home on legendary independent, Epitaph<\/strong>. This is perhaps their most impressive achievement for a band who are still in its early days. Nevertheless, Split Chain<\/strong>‘s full-length debut,\u00a0‘motionblur’,<\/em> arrives with plenty of eyes and ears, on them.<\/p>\n

On the surface, they’re able to back it up with a concise record, albeit one that is understandably stylistically constrained by the band\u2019s newness. ‘Under The Wire’<\/em> bursts out of the gate with crunching guitars and penetrative drums. While an explosive chorus that sees vocalist Bert Mart\u00ednez-Cowles thriving in a newfound purpose, proving doubters wrong. Yet the narrative ‘motionblur’<\/em> provides isn’t a constant high. With the band\u2019s origins rooted in Bert helping bassist Tom Davies through addiction, there\u2019s a deeply personal edge to their songwriting, touching on toxic relationships, isolation, regret, and resilience.\u00a0That emotional weight makes the hushed verses and desperate chorus of ‘ I’m Not Dying To Be Here’<\/em> even more raw, while ‘SPIT’<\/em>s steely punch and swirling metallic guitars complement Mart\u00ednez-Cowles’s self-destructive words of grief and mental anguish.<\/p>\n