Bleakness - Blurred Visions

Bleakness make post-punk that carries the urgency of punk without sacrificing the shadows.

With Blurred Visions, the French trio continue to occupy the tense ground between post-punk, deathrock, and dark punk, favoring muscular rhythms and sharp guitar work over the polished electronics of much contemporary darkwave. The result feels immediate and physical, music built as much for a packed basement show as a dark club.

Driving bass provides much of the momentum, locked to forceful drums while guitars alternate between ringing post-punk lines, jagged chords, and darker atmospheric passages. The vocals bring a raw, impassioned edge that keeps the material rooted in punk even when the arrangements venture into colder, more gothic territory. There are echoes of early ’80s post-punk and deathrock throughout, but Bleakness approach those influences with the velocity and abrasion of a modern hardcore-adjacent band.

That tension is central to Blurred Visions. Melody and atmosphere are always present, but neither comes at the expense of impact. The songs carry a sense of anxiety and disillusionment that suits their stark production, with enough hooks beneath the gloom to keep the record from disappearing entirely into darkness.

Blurred Visions is a potent example of the point where post-punk, deathrock, and punk converge, dark and melodic without becoming overly polished, aggressive without losing atmosphere. For listeners who prefer their goth-adjacent music with guitars pushed forward and a little dirt under its fingernails, Bleakness hit the mark.