Album Review: Death is Nothing to Us by Fiddlehead

The wildest thing about Fiddlehead is they never planned to release as many albums as they have. Their discography was supposed to be the 2015 EP Out of the Bloom and their debut album, 2018’s Springtime and Blind. The success of Springtime and Blind encouraged the group to release their sophomore LP, 2021’s Between the Richness- which skyrocketed them into the alternative music spotlight because of how well received the record was. Between the Richness made Fiddlehead the Hottest “New” Band of 2021 and crowned the band as royalty in the post-hardcore world. At the end of 2022, vocalist Pat Flynn announced that Fiddlehead was working on their third album via an Instagram post; fast forward to June 2023, they announced their third album, Death is Nothing to Us with lead single “Sullenboy.” In July and August they released two other singles, “Sleepyhead” and “Fifteen to Infinity,” and on August 18th, they released their widely anticipated third record, Death is Nothing to Us. 

This album is a wild ride. It still sounds like a Fiddlehead album, but it’s nothing like they’ve done before. Unlike previous releases where the it takes a bit for the pace to pick up tempo wise and the songs start out slow (especially for a Fiddlehead song), listeners are thrown into an aggressive, fast paced, instant mosh pit opener of a song (and album) with “The Deathlife.” As a fan of vocalist Pat Flynn’s previous band, Have Heart, as well as Fiddlehead, you can see Flynn’s sonic evolution through the pretty different styles of Fiddlehead and Have Heart and his improved vocal technique. There’s a reason many Have Heart fans are still in with Flynn and his latest project. The rest of the album doesn’t have any other songs similar to the intriguing opener, and tempo wise the songs do slow down just a bit, but the energy remains constant up until the end. While tracks like “Loserman” and “True Hardcore (II)” are much slower compared to “The Deathlife,” the record does slow itself down a lot for the rest of the album. That energy picks itself back up again in parts of songs such as “Sullenboy” and (my personal favorite off the album) “Queen of Limerick” with the bridges in both songs (this idea of high energy in parts of the songs once again repeats itself in “The Woes” with the bridge as well). The fast paced energy is consistent throughout the album even if it’s not as fast as it was in the beginning, and then seriously slows itself down significantly with second to last track, “Fifteen to Infinity.” 

The slower moments on the record that aren’t dominated by intense guitar riffs and headbang-worthy drum beats really allow you to really sit with the lyrics and the lyrics are what reminds you that Death is Nothing to Us in fact a Fiddlehead record. The common themes of death and nostalgia run rampant throughout this album and pretty much everything that Fiddlehead has ever put out, but with each record it seems that there’s more of a hopeful outlook on things. The title of the album shows that there’s clearly a theme of acceptance about subject of death and losing a loved one. Lyrically, each song looks at that theme from a different angle. For example there’s a nostalgic element that comes with reflecting on life as it was growing up (as seen in “True Hardcore (II)”) and it comes back while focusing on the “present” with a loved one and being happy with things in the current moment (as seen in “Fifteen to Infinity”). 

Death is Nothing to Us can best be described as the inverse of Between The Richness. It’s a lot more aggressive than melodic, the lyrics are much more optimistic even though some of the song titles have more negative connotations to it (Loverman/Loserman, Joyboy/Sullenboy) while the lyrics in Between the Richness are much darker. No matter how you look or listen to this album, in comparison with Between the Richness (or even Springtime and Blind) you’re still getting a Fiddlehead Record, but a new version of them. Lyrically it might be one of the most moving albums you’ve ever listened to, but it simultaneously brings you on a wild ride with fast paced instrumentals and catchy riffs. Between the Richness helped them become a major name in the alternative music world, and Death is Nothing to Us helped them secure the throne they deserve. The Boston-based rockers are post-hardcore icons, the hype behind this band isn’t going away anytime soon, especially with how good this album is.