Sophie's Floorboard: Departures

Departures are a five-piece melodic hardcore band from Glasgow, Scotland that formed in 2007. They emerged branding a similar sound to other notable UK hardcore bands such as Dead Swans and More Than Life, tearing from the inside-out. Their first full-length, When Losing Everything Is Everything You Wanted came out in 2011, and gave them a solid foot in the door for what would come next. In 2012, they signed to No Sleep Records and released another album, Teenage Haze. The melodic hardcore base that Departures had established grew to incorporate very melodic guitars, that would often intermingle between cutting leads and distortion-laden backing chords. Sonically, they have more in common with emerging American post-hardcore bands such as Pianos Become The Teeth, Touché Amoré, and Balance And Composure. Perhaps one of the most notable things about this band is the vocals. Their singer shreds his voice to the point of being hoarse to get his point across, which makes the emotionally-charged and personal lyrics much more powerful.

Overall, their sophomore album is incredibly solid, and really holds up well over time. Despite their stylistic similarities to a lot of other bands, Departures manage to hold their own without ever sounding too derivative, which is a trap that a lot of bands in this genre have fallen into in the past few years. Unfortunately there's been a bit of a gap since their last release, which was a split with Moose Blood in 2013 (also recommended). Hopefully a new album is on the way, but until then, here's what they've done so far. Enjoy.