Norwich’s Blaming Bad is a two-piece operation built across continents – Jason writes and records from England, while Trenza is in Santiago, Chile, sending files back and forth until something sticks. The pair have been at this long enough to have four albums behind them and a fifth already in progress, so “Edge Of The Wire,” released January 23rd, is far from a debut statement. Their reference points are firmly rooted in the 90s melodic hardcore world – Bigwig, Pennywise, and NOFX – and they’ve spent years refining what that means to them specifically, rather than just chasing the blueprint.
This song feels like a jam that has gone off the rails in the best way possible. It’s loud and expressive and has a piece of every one of the band members’ identities embedded in it. The transatlantic recording process could easily flatten things into something sterile, but “Edge Of The Wire” has a scrappiness to it that suggests the opposite – as the distance forced them to commit harder to every part rather than leaving room to second-guess it in the room together. The energy is immediate and doesn’t let up, and the song’s core theme – losing your mind in a world that keeps giving you reasons to – comes through in the urgency of the playing rather than just the lyrics.
Five albums deep, Blaming Bad know exactly what they’re doing. “Edge Of The Wire” isn’t a reinvention – it’s a band playing to their strengths with confidence, and that counts for a lot in a genre where conviction is half the battle.
