Album Review :
Plead the Widow's Cause - Silver Glass Stare

After the well-received album Pain Split in 2022 (vinyl in 2023), South Jersey’s melodic hardcore/post-hardcore heroes are back with another full-length. Once again, CDs were pressed by the band, while the vinyl release is through Resuscitation Records and comes in a beautiful transparent green vinyl.

If you want the short version of this review, here it is: if you liked the debut, you’ll probably love Silver Glass Stare. That’s not to say it’s not a remake by any means. In fact, there’s more of . . . well, everything. Perhaps stretching the album to 11 songs this time gave the band more room to play around, as there are more mosh parts, more clean leads, more sung vocals, more harsh vocals, more atmospheric parts, and . . . like I said, more everything. And yet, the album remains a cohesive whole. Now for the longer version.

“Marah” opens the album with dissonant riffs and vocals that remind me a little of Altars sing/screamed approach (or a melodic scream). This singing/screaming interplay is a recurring throughout the album that works really well for the style of hardcore that PTWC plays. The lyrics are intensely personal and confessional about the need to find one’s identity and sense of belonging in Christ, rather than any false gods.

Up next is “Jet Black Heart” with lots of emoish/semi-melodic singing on the bridge and moments that remind me of Beloved in the way the clean parts suggest vulnerability and the chugga chugga riffs suggest an intense ferocity. The lyrics continue the theme of a sort of shuffling through the daily struggles of discipleship, all the while being held by God’s unfailing grace.

“Grey” starts with a great two-step section and some layered vocals. The tempo never really relents on this one, but the clean vocals give this a very mid-00s emocore feel, with the lyrics to match. What’s interesting about the lyrical approach on this album is that it definitely fits the “Spirit-filled hardcore” ethos with a strong emphasis on one’s relationship with God, and yet it doesn’t get preachy at all, giving the band a unique niche within the field.

Track four, “Clip Your Wings” opens with jangly guitars in the intro and hard-hitting drums. There are clean lead guitars with screamed vocals over the top. The band starts to get a little more preachy here, but it’s about the dangers of drug abuse. The narrator pulls no punches about his anger:

Getting wasted
Sinking lower
Getting wasted
And leaving your children behind
In the wake of your mess
You are all alone
With no one to blame
You are all alone
Lie in your shame

But just when you thought the anger would be the only emotion carrying the song, the lyrics take a turn:

I will forgive you
But you will be alone
(But things are not the same)
I will forgive you
But you will be alone
I was just like you
Myself to blame
Nowhere to call my home
No shadows hide my shame
Grace from the One who died for me
His Love that can cover you too
Stop flying away
Clip the wings and stay

The pace slows down for “Emeral Eyes,” still with screamed vocals, which are paired with melodic/clean guitars. This is the most post-hardcore/emo track so far, and there is even some mild Deftones influence with some spacey guitars on the verses. This song is about the premature death of someone close to the narrator, so it could very well follow that the character from the last song didn’t win their battle with addiction. It’s not clear though, and it could refer to another individual altogether.

We come to the last song of side A on the record, “Sunset.” This one brings clean guitars and sung vocals for a recipe that at times feels like alternative/indie rock on the verses, and yet the chorus brings back the post-hardcore screaming. Something about the rawness of this track reminds me a little of early Brandtson (Letterbox era).

Side B kicks off with “Life Moves in a Circle,” a mid-paced screamy number (like some of the more subdued songs from mid-period Underoath). “Burn Bright, Burn Out” picks up the pace little bit and intensifies the screaming, with an underlying riff that is reminiscent of late 80s punk-thrash (ala Suicidal Tendencies or D.R.I.) The song is a plea to those who refuse to give their lives over to Christ, or at least seem to be taking their time in doing so:

Are you tired
Are you worn thin
Do you feel it deep inside under your skin
Is anybody desperate for more
Wake up it’s not to late

“Paper Cranes” describes the tragic suffering and ultimate loss of a life due to insufficient protections on a worksite, due to corporate negligence, or plainly put, greed. The song title seems to be a reference to the endless paperwork that can never account for the loss of a life:

Now the debt for greed demands its due
Now a man lies dead because of you
It takes and takes and takes until you’re through
Now there’s nothing else that you can do
You’ll never understand
No work done by hands
Ten thousand paper cranes
Could never save a man

“Trapped Within” features a heavy riff that is mosh-floor-ready—slower on the versus and two-step-paced on the choruses. Closing out the album we have “Spitting Venom,” which starts with a dissonant intensity, but is mid-paced and a little more mellow. Interestingly, the song ends somewhat unresolved. In a way, it’s a perfect ending to an album that raises a lot of questions, and is written from a place of deep earnestness despite a lack of anything resembling perfection or resolution.

Overall this is a great addition to the melodic hardcore/post-hardcore subgenre, and while it fits firmly within “Spirit-filled hardcore,” it is more devotional than preachy in its lyrical emphasis. Musical points of reference include artists such as Altars, Beloved, Atreyu, As Friends Rust, mid-period Underoath, Thrice, and Blacklisted.

Order the vinyl version from: Resuscitation Records
Order the CD version, or stream/downloand from: Plead the Widow’s Cause