EP Review: LIMBS - 'Coma Year'

Enticing US post-hardcore band LIMBS return with their second intimate, catchy, and aggressive EP experience, Coma Year via UNFD.

US post-hardcore band LIMBS made an impressive dent in the music industry last year with their 2020 EP Only The Lonely Know, cementing the band possessed a unique melodic drawing-power and emotional resonance to keep a few heads turned and engaged in the scene. Now the band returns with their powerfully moving second EP, Coma Year. A captivating experience that builds on a slew of personal emotions that rose to the surface during the restrictions of COVID-19, its lockdown forced people to take a hard look within, the result being Coma Year during that meditative process.

"If I Go Before You" creates a gorgeously somber mood on the EP. While different from many of the colossal energies we have experienced up to this point, this stripped-down moment is a welcomed attraction on the EP that many will enjoy."

Starting with an instrumentally muscular and melodically satisfying opener, "Morality Moment." Beautifully engaging and instrumentally cutthroat, this hard-hitting track begins the journey for what's to come for the rest of the EP.

We then dive into an intensely poignant track, "Spirit Breaker." One of the heavier experiences on the record, it still carries the same sentimental potence we heard in the previous opener. With magnetizing guitar hooks overlapping fierce guitar riffs, it further develops LIMBS' dynamic presence and the ability to combine heaviness, melodicism, and emotion within their tracks well.

Another super-star juncture on this EP is "Coma Year." An addicting combination of pop-infused vocal and lyrical energy combined with gravid instrumental fervor, it effectively shows LIMBS at their very best on this EP.

"If I Go Before You" creates a gorgeously somber mood on the EP. While different from many of the colossal energies we have experienced up to this point, this stripped-down moment is a welcomed attraction on the EP that many will enjoy.

This segues into other aggressive leviathans, "Vertigo" and "Blood and Heel." Frenetic and atmospheric, LIMBS stays in their power coming toward the end of the EP while keeping their lyrically intimate energies in sync.

The EP ends with a massive number, "Slow Burn." Sonically pummeling with gut-punching vulnerability, the EP ends on a high note.

Coma Year is an EP built on emotional earnestness and instrumental quality. While things come and go in the music industry, it's those two things bands can count on if they want to make an impression. From the beginning of the EP, bands like LIMBS understand that concept. You don't have to rewrite the playbook on post-hardcore, you just have to reinforce the rules and organically build on them.