REVIEW: Free Throw - Moments Before the Wind
- Julia Brunton
- 7 hours ago
- 4 min read
After a transformative period, FREE THROW’S 6th album Moments Before the Wind captures the static feeling of watching one’s life change around you. It draws on the intricate melodies of emo to take the listener to the liminal spaces that Cory Castro cites as the inspiration for FREE THROW’S 6th studio album, and delivers on the lyricism to deliver gut punches while chained in these endless hallways.
Sonically, Moments Before the Wind stays muted through most of its 11-track runtime, yet the melodies and drumlines woven throughout create a sound quietly beautiful. From opener Missing No. the melody drives the track, with a higher-pitched riff atop a heavily accented hi-hat/snare trading drumline in its beginning then getting heavier by its end with a drum solo behind the crescendo bridge to be hard-stopped by a vocal only ending and windchime outro. Zach Hall’s drumming in general is assured: using a cowbell at the end of Mike Nolan’s Long Weekend to add punch to its layered harmonies; and upping the anti in Deviancy as it dabbles in a rockier sound with a ghost snare in the drumline turning into a fill-fuelled movement in the breakdown to match Castro’s full-commitment scream.
As for the guitars, the melodies are created like woven lace particularly in the first half - common for emo and well executed by the scene staples. For Those Who Come After is the standout example of this in the first half: a well-timed switch to minor key and a carefully picked melody mixed with piano keys that is just as beautiful as it is sad, which is what emo is truly for. Further on There Will Come Soft Rains brings back a melody-heavy sound after a focus on chords in Moments Before the Wind’s midsection, with its own midsection using a repetitive melody to capture the stasis of the track's themes.
The main pull of Moments Before the Wind, however, is the exemplary songwriting throughout, capturing the fast moving stasis of liminal spaces and major life changes. A long-term breakup and the birth of Castro’s first child in the recent past of FREE THROW’S songwriting sessions were ample fuel for resonant lyrics that are equal parts resigned and frustrated, with just enough hope littered in to usher in the life transformations that they discuss. Stand out lines include “the wind was cold/but your hand kept mine warm” from Missing No. as the positive lyrics are concerned, as well as “like opening curtains when the hour turns gold” in Floarama Town that captures the sweet in a bittersweet track. On the flip-side there is “I feel so seen/yet so obscure” from There Will Come Soft Rains, succinctly putting the depersonalisation of the transformation of one's life, as well as the brutal “Men don’t cry/I say as my lip quivers” in This Dollar General Store Ain’t Gonna Rob Itself; the best title on Moments Before the Wind paired with a raw imagery of a man coming face to face with his darkest feelings.
The highlight lyrically in Moments Before the Wind is The Need For A Post-Credits Scene, hidden at the album’s midpoint and painting a painfully clear picture of the “I know it's over” stage of a long-term relationship’s breakdown. Starting with a scene of fatal indifference as the ex-partner leaves for work, Castro moves around a shared home alone, using filming as a metaphor for putting on appearances while begging to be clued into when time will finally be called. The stasis of this situation is worded wonderfully in “I haven’t fed my psyche in weeks”, then the lyricism turns into punches then stabs in the chest with the fights and nothingness described as the “murder of my self esteem.” The stab? The outro repetition of “Can you clue me in/when does this movie end” sung quietly as if begging for an emotional mercy kill. The instrumentals of The Need For A Post-Credits Scene were as there as they needed to be to lift this story from the page, giving the time and pause for a snapshot of what is for many one of the worst periods of time in their life.
For balance, it should be said that the last quarter of Moments Before the Wind teeters off with its engagement as the repeated song structure starts to make the tracks blend into one another. Even then, the structure of the track listing overall feel intentional and this pays off, for example the placement of the punchier The Outlaw Star straight after The Need For A Post-Credits Scene to inject energy for Moments Before the Wind’s second act, or the placement of The Waters of Life - about Castro inviting the change that came with his first child being on the way - ending the album on a hopeful note.
Moments Before the Wind is a showcase in honest songwriting, taking angst and forcing it to mature with all the growing pains that are involved. The heavy melody focus in the drumming and guitar give the album a pensive edge as well as the liminal space that Castro was inspired by, making Moments Before the Wind a gift to emo in 2026.
Score: 8/10
Moments Before the Wind will be released on March 27th 2026 via Wax Bodega.
Words: Julia Brunton
Photos: Imani Givertz
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