Polaris - The Death Of Me (2020)

Polaris‘s debut record, The Mortal Coil (2017) was the first album I ever reviewed for Heavy Blog. While my life remains largely unchanged since then, a lot of has happened for the band in the interim. At the time of their debut, the Sydney act were an undeniable local act who were quickly outgrowing the Australian scene by chewing up support slots left, right and center. Since then, they’ve become a formidable, international touring act in their own right (apparently someone finally succeeded at getting them in front of an Architects crowd) and are now comfortably selling out the venues they used to open back home. All this is to say that The Death of Me has a lot riding on it. Yet, although it’s a remarkable enough effort to avoid the dreaded (and largely mythical) “sophomore slump”, it’s a less convincing follow-up than many might have expected.

There’s still no two ways about it, Polaris still sound more or less exactly like Architects. The similarity might actually be more of a boon than a hindrance, in The Death of Me‘s case. For all the emotionality behind it and the seemingly universal acclaim thrown its way, Holy Hell (2018) was a largely “Architects by numbers” affair, with the added variation shown by Polaris on their second outing only further revealing just how one-dimensional an album it really was. Yet, although The Death of Me‘s stylistic breadth is one of its biggest strengths, it’s also one of its greatest hindrances.

In spite of everything in between, The Death of Me is very much an album of two parts: the brutal and the melodic; and only very rarely the twain shall meet. Some of the album’s best material comes from when the band fully commit to a single aspect of their sound. The appropriately named “Landmine” is probably the heaviest song Polaris have come up with to date, and it’s one which recalls many of The Mortal Coil‘s standout moments, such as “Collapse” and “Lucid”, and its great to see the band hanging onto the more abrasive aspects of their sound despite their elevated profile. On the other end of the spectrum is lead single “Masochist”. At first, the song may come off as a tad contrived, especially with its (over)dramatic video clip in tow. The song is expertly crafted, however, with its at-first jarring refrain proving ultimately irresistible. It’s a big moment for Polaris and one you can expect to see closing out their shows for years to come.

TRACKLIST

1. Pray For Rain
2. Hypermania
3. Masochist
4. Landmine
5. Vagabond
6. Creatures Of Habit
7. Above My Head
8. Martyr (Waves)
9. All Of This Is Fleeting
10. The Descent