While resilience and, well, pure obstinance (so much for the ten-year plan, hey?) have been foundation stones to the story of Irish alternative noise rock stalwarts Therapy?, there are also certain relationships that have been integral throughout their journey. The three-decade (plus) partnership of singer/guitarist Andy Cairns and bass-pounder Michael McKeegan is one, the teaming up with Marshall Records on phoenix album and Marshall’s first release, Cleave (2018) feels important, too particularly as it was a release that also saw them reunited with producer Chris Sheldon, the man behind the mixing desk of the seminal and still majestic Troublegum album that catapulted Therapy? to mainstream success in the mid-nineties. 

And it is those partnerships that are at the heart of Hard Cold Fire. A consciously more hopeful album than the times that raged around its creation may have led to had Cairns and McKeegan not held steadfast to a vision to not make a lockdown misery-fest of an album. Decamping to the newly opened Marshall Studios with Sheldon, the trio (completed by long-time drummer Neil Cooper) with a view of collating a series of songs of energy and cautious optimism to bring into a live arena the band couldn’t wait to return to.

The ingrained Therapy? caustic nature and cynicism is still an undertone throughout, don’t worry, and it is bitter, burnt-sugar sweetness in many of the lyrical and vocal hooks – ‘Two Wounded Animals’ and ‘To Disappear’ keeping the centre of the album a dark and considered place; grunge-washed jagged pills with angular stabs. 

But around them bounce several trademark Therapy? anthems that balance raise-your-voices choruses (‘Woe’, ‘Mongrel’) with choppy, discordant riffs, that innate habit Cairns has always had of hooking you with an off-kilter lyrical phrase-cum-earworm (‘They Shoot The Terrible Masters’, ‘Poundland of Hope And Glory’), and simple straight-up alternative rock class (‘Joy’, ‘Ugly’).

In the way that the very best have about them of being able to retain and showcase a hallmark sound and style without repeating (or worse, chasing) previous glories, Therapy? remain resolutely true to themselves while creating a standalone and definable album in its own right. If Cleave  was a reset and the start of a new chapter, this is the rip-roaring second instalment that proves that the Hard Cold Fire at the heart of these noise rock champions burns bright and unabated. 

Buy the album here:

https://biglink.to/HardColdFire_Pre-Order

8 / 10

STEVE TOVEY