GLASSING // FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR - CD

Two subsequent full-length releases, 2019’s ‘Spotted Horse’ and 2021’s ‘Twin Dream’, only dialled up this intensity as Glassing continued to push the envelope and cemented their position as an im- portant new voice within the noise rock community. 2022 however, is when Glassing set the scene for what is to come. The introduction of formidable drummer Scott Osment (Deaf Club, Planet B) bolste- red Cofman’s gut-punching basslines and inimitable howl and provided the perfect foil for guitarist Cory Brim’s razor-sharp playing style, as evidenced on the band’s most recent release, the epony- mous two-track EP, ‘Dire and Sulk’.

More discordant, more distorted and somehow even angrier than before, ‘Dire and Sulk’ was just the beginning as, on ‘From the Other Side of the Mirror’, Glassing prove that uncertain times call for deci- sive measures. Recorded across two years of intense fts and starts, afectionately nicknamed ‘Hell Weeks’ by the band, ‘From the Other Side of the Mirror’ is a metaphysical foray into the fractured, warped impressions of ourselves that exist only in the minds of others. Working again with producer Andrew Hernandez, who the band liken to a fourth member at this point, Glassing pushed themsel- ves harder, faster and more punishing than ever before. As their frst full-length release with Osment and their frst release on Pelagic Records, ‘From the Other Side of the Mirror’ became an opportunity for a new beginning, free of any pre-existing limitations or thresholds. As Cofman tells us, “This allo- wed us to forgo a lot of the convention and structure we've relied on in the past, the substitution was for raw expression. Kindred to the emotions that birthed it, this record is spirited, painful and unme- thodical.”

Wasting no time, album opener ‘Anything You Want’ is the aural equivalent of blunt force trauma, complete with the dizzying concussive delirium. Cofman’s raw, guttural screams convey a desperati- on and hopelessness at deliberate, duplicitous odds with his eerie alter ego, all whilst Brim’s unmista- kable guitar work slices through everything like a dichotic, white-hot blade. Lyrically, every song on the record explores a diferent interpersonal relationship in Cofman’s life and the layers of artifce at the heart of every interaction or engagement. As such, each track presents its own voice, but whether it’s sincere or synthesised is uncomfortably uncertain. Immediately following the total despair of ‘Anything You Want’, ‘Nothing Touches You’ lets the tiniest amount of light in. Hope seems to gather in the feeting pockets of dynamic respite dotted throughout the song which suspends the listener in liminal space, briefy able to see through the mirror as well as who or what it refects.

This duality continues throughout the album. Searing tracks like ‘Defacer’ and ‘Circle Down’ cast of Glassing’s sludge metal pigeon-holing as Osment’s relentless blast beats and Brim’s lean and taut guitar playing conjure all-out blackened metal fury to accompany Cofman’s plaintive, throat-tearing screams before epic album closer ‘Wake’ washes over us with its triumphant, major key optimism that leaves us reinvigorated and hopeful despite our uncertainties.

There’s an indescribable, beautiful rawness to this album that comes from Glassing throwing every- thing on the table in plain sight, rather than polishing ideas for the beneft of others until they’re unre- cognisable, perfect and fake. As such, ‘From the Other Side of the Mirror’ is the convergence of self- destructive introspection and the unwelcome understanding that no one ever reveals how they really see you or, as Cofman puts it, “You might catch your refection from time to time, but you’ll never know who put it there, them or you.”