Review Summary: clairvoyant only to delusion
While allegedly unintentional, Counterparts dropping a tortured seventeen minutes of music the day after another overwhelming confirmation that this planet is fucking doomed feels… right?
Heaven Let Them Die appeared out of nowhere and it might just be the most intense thing the band have ever put out: if anything, it’s like
From the Unforgiving Arms of God listened to
Eulogy and decided to borrow that record’s gorgeous meandering tendencies to maximise devastation.
Crucially, this EP does not find Counterparts bundling a few “Choke”s and “Your Own Knife”s and call it a day: opening cut “A Martyr Left Alive” is one of the band’s longer and most dynamic songs as it fades in and out of sheer desperation, providing a perfect canvas for Brendan Murphy’s most visceral performance since the last time he opened his mouth near a microphone. If
Eulogy were the ultimate incarnation of one version of Counterparts,
Heaven Let Them Die feels like the push towards another: one unconcerned with catchiness or precision, and instead laser-focused on conveying total decay. As such, most songs forego the need for a prominent, ever-changing melodic lead: pretty guitars are still present, but they are frequently pulverised by deeply haunting atmospheres. There’s hints of death metal, there’s post rock, and it all fits within the band’s framework. Whether it’s “To Hear of War”s unrelenting imagery or “Praise No Artery Intact”s earth-shattering final seconds, any uncanniness of experiencing a
simplistic Counterparts intro is eradicated into whatever void remains.
Amidst the chaos, “No Lamb Was Lost” presents the one moment of recognisable humanity: embodying the follow-up to “Whispers of Your Death”, the song is a beautiful tribute to unconditional love in spite of and amidst misery - “
I’d kill to keep them both alive” isn’t as much of a threat as it is a promise. Besides this one touching moment, it is unfortunate how applicable Murphy’s further contemplations on existence feel, but I cannot think of a better way to process life than with
Heaven Let Them Die. Or death, if you aren’t an old straight white male lucky enough to have been born in the west and be really fucking stupid… and even then, your days are mercifully numbered.
