Cardiff, UK · post-hardcore · alternative rock

Holding Absence

3 upcoming festivals ↓

Welsh post-hardcore romantics — soaring, heart-first heaviness, every chorus written to be wept through, Cardiff sincerity at full wingspan.

Holding Absence formed in Cardiff in 2015, when bassist James Evans and guitarist Giorgio Cantarutti left their previous band Oceans Apart to build a new melodic hardcore project. Original singer Zac Vernon departed in 2016 and was replaced by Lucas Woodland, previously of Falling With Style. The band's name comes from "Holding Your Absence," a song by the ambient act Hammock.

Woodland's arrival led to the single "Permanent," which drew the attention of SharpTone Records. The label signed the band in 2017 and released "Permanent" and "Dream of Me" together as a double A-side. Holding Absence spent the following months touring the UK alongside Blood Youth and We Are the Ocean, building a live reputation away from their recordings.

In 2018 the band released a split EP with label mates Loathe, titled This Is as One, touring the UK and Europe together. Founding guitarist Feisal El-Khazragi left soon after and joined Loathe on bass; Scott Carey and Chris Smitheram stepped into the guitar spots, and the retooled band went on to win the Cardiff Music Award for Best Breakthrough Band.

Holding Absence works in a melodic strain of post-hardcore built on reverb-heavy guitars and slow-building arrangements, with choruses pitched for maximum lift. Woodland sings rather than screams, and his lyrics deal directly with grief, love and mental health, giving the material an unusually direct emotional register for the genre.

Their self-titled debut album arrived in 2019, followed by The Greatest Mistake of My Life in 2021 and The Noble Art of Self Destruction in 2023, all released through SharpTone. The band's current lineup keeps Woodland alongside guitarist Scott Carey and bassist Benjamin Elliott.

Read more

post-hardcorealternative rock