REVIEW: Dead Retinas - Gloom

After blasting their way onto the hardcore scene with back-to-back singles, DEAD RETINAS went semi-quiet, still delivering live shows and hinting at new ideas that lay dormant and hungry to be released over 6 years. The 4-piece explode into the airwaves once more with their pulverising EP Gloom, an EP that speaks to specific but important issues not usually covered in the heavy scene in a sound that contains all their fury and energy over deafening instrumentals.

The Manchester hardcore punk group undeniably let loose on Gloom, treating it more as an outlet for the emotions heavily weighing on them rather than a project on precision and technical prowess. This doesn’t deny the fact they have a quality to their sound that’s equivalent to demolishing a house with your best friends and your bare hands, the red-mist rage as you tear down walls and strip back the facade. Metaphorically representing a society constructed in a “don’t call attention, don’t ask questions” mindset, DEAD RETINAS chooses to stand proudly in the bare-bones and scream about everything we’re told to ignore.

F.A.O. (Collarbreaker) launches an immediate assault of hardcore punk riffs that follow similar patterns in alternating keys against a backdrop of shattering drums, almost drowning out the vicious screams of vocalist CJ as they make it very fucking clear that consent is needed regardless of how you dress or act, a breakdown of cymbals and guitar feedback fuelling the lyrics “They compromise, ostracise ourselves, with glee in our heads and hearts”.

Slowly building in with dark riffs and ominous drums, Sleeping Giants tears its way in like a tornado, speed and destruction underlying the delicious rhythms from the guitar and bass. Delving into personal territory about a cocktail of medication making CJ feel “detached from reality”, the gradual layering of voices feels like that detachment of trying to make sense of everything and instead losing your grasp on it all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ4_nKQiqwc

Taking a more punk approach to its intro in its rhythms and key, Blink quickly molds into a frenzied pace of hardcore drums and screams against captivating punk-metal guitar hooks and a bassline that thunders through your bones, the lyrics attempting to scream at a wider world that doesn’t care about climate change or that we can’t turn it back, “Coastlines can’t break the rise of the tide”, its message as grim and foreboding as its feedback outro.

Fading straight in from its predecessor, Cantilever plunges back into dark and heavy tones with a riff fighting to break through the chaos as CJ shifts from guttural screams to desperate yells, their fraught emotion coming through in waves as they scream about the pitfalls of community that never truly had your back, the instruments slamming together repeatedly until they fade into feedback over fuzzed, melancholy notes.

Discourse Of Fools races in with an overpowering sense of heavy metal as the hardcore punk keeps the foundation of the track sturdy, the instruments keeping to their pattern of crushing drums and uncomplicated but affecting riffs, a sudden piano section holding back the anger but keeping the mournfulness, before it falls back into a tumultuous cacophony as CJ screams “Fool, Idol, Dead on arrival”, a heartbreaking look at how HIV stigma still results in unnecessary prejudice and death. DEAD RETINAS return brings a crystal-clear message to all - they refuse to hold back and refuse to let you remain in the dark.

Score: 7/10

Gloom will be released on 15th August 2026. Words: Julia Stark

Photos: Dead Retinas