Bleep

Six years on from the macrocosmic Compassion, detailing communal and catastrophic themes, Forest Swords reemerges with the inwardly facing yet outwardly gushing Bolted. Since 2017, Matthew Barnes has been busily sought for his scoring and sound design work, but on Bolted, he hones in on more overt club and UK bass influences without losing a shred of his celebrated stony textures. ‘Munitions’ plunges into a serrated world, a dark rendering of the former munitions factory he took residency in for the album, with swift slashes swinging out from the murk, while ‘Caged’ tease abstract echoes into an emotionally militant march.