There’s a phrase you’ll hear repeatedly when in the company of Split Chain: “The Chain does what it wants”. As mantras go, it’s used by the Bristol, UK quintet as a means of encapsulating the broad-minded, unconstrained creative freedom with which they approach their art, as well as a means through which to try to make sense of the sky-rocketing trajectory the band have found themselves on.
Call it instinct, fate, divine intervention, whatever – the whims of ‘The Chain’ have led to a moment where one thing is abundantly clear: Split Chain are one of the hottest, zeitgeist-capturing new bands in the world.
“Split Chain is something that none of us feel like we have any control of,” says frontman Bert Martinez-Cowles. “Split Chain simply does what it wants and what it needs.”
It is at this juncture in Split Chain’s journey that debut album motionblur arrives. Described by Bert as “a coming of age story”, the album channels the conflicting and contradictory angst, excitement, joy and pain of growing up and discovering your true sense of self. motionblur presents a story that speaks to both Split Chain’s members’ personal experiences and those shared together in the past few dizzying years; a visceral, kaleidoscopic wall of sound where unsettling, disorientating confusion meets a fevered adrenaline-rush. motionblur is an album to experience, to feel, to engulf; it’s the blissful sense of euphoria that comes with drowning in its waves.
There are shades of the quintet’s beloved Deftones, Superheaven, Narrowhead; bursts of nu-metal, and ripples of shoegaze. An emo melancholy hangs heavy. Grunge swerves in and out of view. Metal crackles under the surface. Its beauty lies in its skillfully crafted coalescence, no mean feat for an album so richly varied yet singularly focused. motionblur is at once a nostalgic homage to its 90s and early 00s cultural reference points while never once sounding anything less than thrillingly vibrant, a captivating depiction of rock’s burgeoning present and future.
As a singular statement, motionblur “is a record that tells you that it’s okay to be your authentic self”, Bert says. “This is the story of what we’ve been through, and this is the story of who we are today. You either let the things you have experienced define you, or you choose a different path. You can be whoever you want to be. If there’s one thing I hope people take from the album, it’s that.”
As for Split Chain themselves, motionblur is another bold step into an unknown of which they could only dream a few short years ago. The Chain, as they say, does what it wants. The key, Bert nods, is continuing to put their faith in its ways, to let their fiercely DIY ethics and purity of creative vision that has served them so well carve the path forward, organically and authentically.
“We let chaos reign,” Bert says. “And we just try to hold on.”
