EP Review Softcult - See You In The Dark

Canadian twins Mercedes and Phoenix Arn-Horn’s poignant messages spread well beyond their music, cultivating an online community offering a safe space for fans to discuss everything from cinema to traumatic experiences. That togetherness is fostered by the pair’s lyrical openness, with ‘see you in the dark’ delving into loss of identity (’One Of A Million’), self-sabotage (’Spoiled’), and a dangerous rise in toxic masculinity (’Someone2me’). It’s ‘Dress’, a scuzzy guitar-drenched response to assault and harassment, that projects the fury most succinctly; “I’ll never be the same again,” the duo exclaims somewhat hushed under dense shoegaze, leading to a visceral outpouring in the track’s closing moments. Most of the palpable anger is reserved for these momentary crescendos that rise out of comparably calm soundscapes, ones in which the powerful words sometimes get a little lost. The gentle ebb and flow in part mirrors the subject matter’s dark inevitability, but it’s in the louder moments where Softcult’s message breaks through most, not least as ‘Someone2me’ builds to its nauseating climax. Here, the ferocity of their sound joins with the safe community they have been nurturing, as uneasy and unsettling as it should be.