tunic – A Harmony of Loss Has Been Sung | Album Review

tunic's latest work is proof loss creates art as the Canadian noise rockers explore their pain and create of their finest work to date.

tunic probably need very little introduction now, having established themselves as purveyors of noisey, sludgey punk rock in the vein of fellow countrymen KEN Mode and Bay area stalwarts Kowloon Walled City. For the uninitiated, tunic is a grating dissonant shadow creature, producing bleak, challenging and anguish ridden music for those in pain, and those in search of catharsis. The new record, A Harmony of Loss Has Been Sung, is no different, as it chronicles frontman David Schellenberg and his wife’s pain centred around the miscarriage of their child in 2023.

During the writing process the band met up for 8-hour long sessions, that were defined by their gruelling but organic nature. Throughout these sessions of long-drawn-out noise, the members riffed off each other, growing the songs like some sort of discordant houseplant.

This is not an album with catchy hooks, or even a clear structure at times, this is a visceral reaction to one of the biggest losses someone can experience. Schellenberg’s vocals lay across the album like tortured support beams, holding up everything else that goes on around them. From anguished screams and cries for help, to low spoken monotone passages highlighting the numbness that can be bought on by grief. You won’t find a chorus in here, nor a gang shout, you will however find the raw emotion of loss compacted into a 33 minutes long LP that leaves a lasting impression if you like it or not.

tunic have produced a sledgehammer record made of grief, sadness and anguish here. It’s not something to be taken lightly, and like its subject, it’s challenging, negative work. Unlike the previous release Wrong Dreams that at times did offer rays of hope for the beleaguered listener, A Harmony of Loss Has Been Sung offers no such respite, but in this case it’s not necessary. This isn’t a record that should offer hope, it’s a record that instead lays bare the raw, depressing emotion so that it itself becomes a more real picture of what it’s like to live through the situation. There shouldn’t be reprieve, there shouldn’t be breaks, maybe there is a little hope in the sense of catharsis the duo manage to capture. To give them their due, by the end of the record there is a feeling of release, after being swamped by negative emotions for the last half hour.