Since forming in 2007, Counterparts – made up of Brendan Murphy, Jesse Doreen, Tyler Williams, and Kyle Brownlee – have gone from the Hamilton, Ontario, underground to touring the world both as hardcore heavyweights and one of Canada’s most impactful musical exports. With 15+ years of experience and seven full-length albums, a live album, and 5 EPs under their belts, Counterparts has consistently found new ways to push their sound to its greatest extremes. They’re a catharsis machine, turning raw introspection into apocalyptic aggression.
Over the years, Brendan Murphy’s forthrightness has been part of Counterparts’ magnetism. It’s earned them a loyal fanbase that has come to appreciate the unflinching honesty at the heart of everything the band does. It’s no small feat to remain a band as long as they have, and their dedication to their craft is a throughline throughout their discography. The band’s 2024 EP ‘Heaven Let Them Die’ proves that the band’s creative well isn’t anywhere close to running dry. Picking up where ‘A Eulogy for Those Still Here’ (2022) left off, ‘Heaven Let Them Die’ is pure existential horror in musical form. It’s a new breed of heavy where lyrics about pain without purpose and sacrifice without salvation cut through muscular riffs and devastating breakdowns.
While performing on Audiotree ‘From Nothing’, it’s obvious that Counterparts have honed every element of their sound to its sharpest point. As the band plays through ‘Heaven Let Them Die’, towering blasts of frenetic, metal-tinged hardcore spin on a dime between soaring leads and vicious riffs, all while Murphy’s eye-bulging roar lays out harsh truths without restraint. On set, it was hard not to feel like we were a part of capturing the most authentic representation of Counterparts to date.