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About Vacant Home
Hailing from Perth, Australia, Vacant Home have been a highly regarded force in the heavy and alternative music scene for some time now. Since their acclaimed debut single, ‘Shiver’, they have managed to carve a space for themselves in Australia’s hotbed of incredible talent, which has seen them support internationally renowned acts such as Touché Amoré, Casey, Being as an Ocean, Justice for the Damned, Make Them Suffer, Stick To Your Guns, and Polaris, to name a few.
But it's their national tours in support of bands like Tapestry, Eat Your Heart Out, and Whatever, Forever - which have seen them incredibly memorable shows that their fans often remember.
In this article we'll be coming through their latest LP, "Can You Show Me Who I Am?" to see if it's My Kind Of Weird.
Vacant Home - "Can You Show Me Who I Am?" Review
This is the second album by melodic hardcore band, Vacant Home, who have released some rather impressive cuts since 2024. Entering the scene back in 2017 with debut LP Reflect, Respond and then dropping two follow up singles (one in 2018 and one in 2024). While sounding consistent and building on their strengths as a group the disparity between releases would've given listeners cause to reflect and question "is this local Aussie band from Perth hanging up the boots as a project?" But, I'm thankful to see and hear this is not the case with Can You Show Me Who I Am? being, very much, a return to form. And not the nail in the coffin which would've been a dreadful shame.
While Reflect, Respond was very much a raw, in-your-face, mosh-positive smattering of hardcore and punk influences that, feel like they had a finite shelf life. Can You Show Me Who I Am?, on the other hand, elevates the band's songwriting abilities to another level with correcting any feelings the band's style might've been rudder-less.
This latest LP takes the band in directions of, being melodic hardcore in their bio, but entering the territory that many post-hardcore bands aspire to. Remarkably self-produced, Can You Show Me Who I Am? launches into this aural assault of the senses as second track "Thoughts We Can't Reclaim", which is a great demonstration of their style to come, flirts with ideas of hardcore savagery and melodic ambience. Like what Poison the Well introduced with The Opposite of December... A Season of Separation in how hardcore vocals and riffs could exist harmoniously with ambient melodies. But, unlike that legendary album, Vacant Home's clean vocals hit a crooning-like quality and echo the guitars in a fashion where you'll start to view their vocalist as another instrument - and not just a singer.
Third track, "Between Branches and a Dying Sun", often repeats these sensibilities while "Weathered"'s cleaner guitar riffs which border on math-rock tuning, provide a melodic element that palette-cleanse the mix. Providing a whole new range for the band's capabilities and will make you look at them completely differently to that of how Reflect, Respond turned out.
"The Only Place I Felt Fine Was With You" spends its time rocking out while the lyrics enter a fray of longing, regret, hopefulness and dwelling on the mistakes that were made. It utters this atmosphere of emotional frustration as the lyricist tries to struggle with the pain he's feeling. This gives rise to the opportunity of "Will I Ever See You Again?", a mostly instrumental outro of sorts, to be appropriately placed inserted into the track before the soaring guitar melodies of "Knife's Edge" grab you by the throat. A song that depicts a feeling of regret and that everything that can go wrong in this relationship - has gone wrong.
“It Stays the Same” is where the drumming hits a psychotic rumble, the hardcore screams are a resounding shock to the system and the guitar work is unrelenting. Allowing for the powerful juxtaposition that is “Lilac Reflection” to burst through the seems. With melancholic clean vocals that unsurprisingly rear their ethereal heads at the end of a song with an ambient quality that couldn’t sound anymore authentic if it tried.
But the real surprising part is the last track, “You’ll Find Yourself In Someone Else”, which borrows post-rock guitar licks at the start, lays down screamo savagery in the middle and ends with a slow moody breakdown in the realm of Neurosis or Pelican is what sees this track and album blast off into cosmic-soaked post hardcore oblivion. Ending this LP on a high note.
Is it My Kind Of Weird? Yes.
Score: 8/10.
