Fiddlehead's third album Death is Nothing to Us is a defiant,new chapter for the band. Since 2014, the Boston-basedgroup have been honing their unique sound, bringing together the energy of hardcore, the anthemic melodies of `90salternative, and the unbridled passion of Revolution Summerera emo. Their previous albums, 2018's Springtime and Blindand 2021's Between The Richness, dealt heavily with grieffrom different perspectives, and now their latest feels like ade facto culmination, drawing together many of the catalog'sthrough-lines sonically and lyrically.The band again teamed with producer Chris Teti for their thirdrecord, and his punchy production captures Fiddlehead's liveenergy while showcasing the massive guitars and undeniablecatchiness that makes their music so immensely satisfying.The album's concise 27 minutes sound like a natural extension of all of the band's strengths, but is glued together byvocalist Pat Flynn's singular tuneful roar. Flynn, since histime as the vocalist of Have Heart and now as Fiddlehead'sfrontman, has earned a reputation as one of hardcore's mostthoughtful lyricists. He interweaves his ruminations on life,death, and all the joy and tragedy in between with references to Roman philosopher Lucretius; the author Jean Améry;other musicians like Bad Brains, Alex G, or Wire, and evenreferences to the band's own back catalog.The humanity across Death Is Nothing To Us is palpable inevery note. It's the kind of art that observes pain with realhonesty rather than prescribing a solution for it-and in doingso, inadvertently offers some sense of hopefulness. Thealbum finds Fiddlehead so deeply delving into the pain, confusion, nuances, and contradictions of sadness-so willinglywrapping their arms around a concept as existentially bafflingas death itself-that they've created an album that is trulylife-affirming. Death is Nothing to Us exemplifies so much ofwhat makes Fiddlehead a special band: taking these heady,unanswerable questi...