Review Summary: Familiar, but different.
Counterparts have a reputation for being one of the most consistent bands within the melodic hardcore/metalcore space. However, consistency can easily slide into stagnation; very few bands manage to play the same basic sound for the majority of their career without eventually becoming tiresome. With "A Eulogy for Those Still Here", Counterparts have proven themselves to be one of those few bands. This album has everything you would expect from a Counterparts album, but it somehow crafts an emotional urgency that outshines their previous work.
At the center of this urgency is Brendan Murphy's poetic and often pessimistic lyrics. Discussions of death, depression, and grief abound here, as they always have for this band. In the hands of an amateur writer, many of these lines could come off as cringy, but Brendan delivers his lines with a sincerity that should captivate even the most averse to this heart-on-my-sleeve style of lyricism. He really takes 'confessional songwriting' to a new level. If you can listen to the absolute gut punch of "Soil II" and "Flesh to Fill Your Wounds" - two songs that boldly and shamelessly toss around descriptions of death and bodily harm - without feeling some sickly combination of dread and triumph, then you ought to check yourself for a pulse.
Its not just Brendan that is to thank for the emotional urgency of this record, however. For several albums now, Counterparts have been cultivating an instrumental style that blends hardcore riffing with a melodic sensibility that is simply infectious. Familiar hardcore rhythms are interlaced with sudden flourishes of melodic lead-work. No riff overstays its welcome, and just when you've gotten used to a section, the band pulls the rug out from under you with a tempo change or some other rhythmic or melodic variation. This is a truly potent blend of repetition and progression that Counterparts has perfected on their seventh album. On my second listen, I was surprised to notice that I remembered the vast majority of the riffs and choruses the band laid down; this is a feat for a band that has stuck to the same style for so many years.
While this album is not improperly called a refinement of their previous efforts, Counterparts does expand their sound here in some crucial ways. To put it crudely, they have more fully embraced the melodic side of melodic hardcore. There is more clean singing here than on any previous Counterparts album, and there are also more atmospheric sections in general. Even the lead guitar is sweeter than usual. This was a great move for the band to make. Counterparts has always stood out because of their penchant for fusing hardcore aggression with sublime beauty and catchiness; this album feels like a fateful embrace of that strength. The overall pacing of the album also feels much more methodical this time around; "A Eulogy for Those Still Here" ebbs and flows in the best way. It doesn't feel like a block of songs, as Counterparts records have tended to feel like in the past. It feels like a journey, and that is the best compliment that an album can receive.
While its themes may often be morbid and depressing, "A Eulogy for Those Still Here" feels like a celebration of everything this band has achieved. Few albums feel so sincere, like such a pure expression of feeling. Its cynicism is tempered with a genuine will to live and persevere; a sorrowful yet hopeful celebration of existence. It is these dualities that make "A Eulogy for Those Still Here" feel like such a faithful representation of the human condition, and that cement it as Counterparts best album so far.
