Album Review

MOULD, ‘Hoping as a Coping Mechanism’ Review: Controlled Chaos With Something to Say

Words by The Pit Standard

MOULD’s debut album is restless by design. Hoping as a Coping Mechanism moves between jagged post-punk, post-hardcore and more intricate, rhythmically unpredictable guitar music, often within the same song. The Bristol trio of Joe Sherrin on guitar and vocals, Kane Eagle on bass and vocals, and James Luxton on drums have little interest in sticking to one formula. Their best moments come when that refusal to settle produces something genuinely surprising, rather than simply another change of direction.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

‘Misanthrope’ opens with a sense of unease that quickly develops into something more confrontational. The guitars cut across the rhythm while the bass and drums keep shifting the ground beneath them. Sherrin’s vocal delivery carries a bleak introspection, setting the tone for an album concerned with the pressures of everyday life and the less comfortable corners of the mind. It is an abrasive introduction, but one with a clear purpose.

‘Float’ takes a different route. Its heavier, loping groove gives the song an immediacy that makes it one of the record’s most accessible moments. The subject is the relentless absurdity of online life, where social media feeds cycle between trivial distractions and genuinely disturbing news until everything becomes part of the same stream. MOULD capture that exhaustion without making the song feel weighed down by its subject. There is a muscular energy to the arrangement that makes its frustration feel physical.

The band become more adventurous on ‘Emotive Language’, where the guitar lines twist around a restless bass performance and shifting rhythms. The track demonstrates just how tightly the three musicians work together. Rather than relying on a conventional verse-and-chorus structure, they allow the music to change shape as it develops. The album takes its title from a line in this song, which feels appropriate for a record balancing the strain of contemporary life against the determination to keep making something worthwhile out of it.

That musical chemistry continues through ‘Tapes’, where the interplay between Eagle and Luxton gives the track its momentum. ‘Lucid’ pushes back towards heavier post-hardcore territory, with a forceful performance that makes good use of the trio’s ability to build intensity without adding layers of instrumentation. The sound is direct, but the playing is rarely straightforward. Even when the songs hit hardest, there is usually something shifting underneath.

‘Hatching’ offers a welcome change of pace. Its looser, more melodic guitar work brings an indie-rock sensibility into the mix, giving the album a different texture without feeling entirely disconnected from what has come before. It is a useful reminder that MOULD are not dependent on sheer aggression to hold attention.

The brief ‘///’ marks the halfway point before ‘Superseded’ returns with bright, angular guitar lines and a sharper sense of melodic direction. The contrast between the music’s energy and its focus on displacement gives the song a particular tension. ‘Falling Posture’ then compresses the band’s noisier instincts into a short, fast-moving burst, while ‘Reshaping Nothing’ continues to play with movement and shifting patterns rather than relying on repetition.

‘Lists’ is one of the more revealing tracks, using densely packed, list-like vocals to capture the feeling of a mind that cannot stop sorting, cataloguing and turning things over. The arrangement follows that restless thought process, building a song around accumulation rather than a single obvious hook. It is an effective idea, even if the density occasionally makes the track harder to absorb on first listen.

By the time ‘Decades’ arrives, the band are pushing their sound towards the point of instability. The rhythm and guitar parts seem to compete for space, creating a sense that the whole arrangement could come apart at any moment. That tension is central to MOULD’s appeal, but it also exposes the album’s main weakness. With so many changes, intricate passages and competing ideas packed into 13 tracks, the record can feel as though it rarely gives itself time to settle. Some sections impress more for the musicianship involved than for the song they ultimately create.

Closer ‘Humm’ is the most unexpected departure. The addition of string arrangements expands the band’s sound beyond the stark guitar, bass and drums that dominate much of the album. Rather than ending with another burst of noise, MOULD allow the track to develop into something more cinematic and reflective. The strings give the conclusion a different emotional weight, providing a sense of scale that the preceding songs have deliberately avoided. It is an ambitious ending, and one that reveals a willingness to take the music somewhere new.

Produced and engineered by Sean Oakley at London’s 5dB Studios, the album retains a physical, live-band energy while allowing the individual parts to remain distinct. That clarity matters in music this rhythmically busy. The three musicians sound closely connected, and the record benefits from the feeling that each instrument is responding to the others rather than simply following a fixed arrangement.

Hoping as a Coping Mechanism is at its strongest when MOULD find a balance between technical invention and songwriting. ‘Float’, ‘Emotive Language’ and ‘Humm’ offer three very different examples of what the trio can do, from a heavy, immediately engaging groove to intricate rhythmic shifts and an unexpectedly expansive finale. Elsewhere, the constant movement occasionally comes at the expense of a stronger melodic centre.

There is plenty to admire in a debut that refuses to play it safe, and MOULD have the chemistry and ideas to make their approach work. The next step is knowing when to let a good idea breathe instead of introducing another one. For now, Hoping as a Coping Mechanism is an energetic, often inventive record that suggests a band with considerably more to explore.