You can’t blame Held. for seeing in their debut era with The Song Featuring Frank Iero. They’re a new name (with not a particularly good name), so why not put in an early appeal to the emo gaze if they’ve got the means to? Granted, as individuals, Held. are far from inexperienced. Both frontman Douglas Robinson and bassist Sal Mignano were in The Sleeping (Robinson was also in a pre-vocalless Night Verses), and drummer Josh Eppard is one of the founding members of Coheed And Cambria.
Safe to say, there’s pedigree here, and by no means does it go to waste. Iero’s name on New You Anthem might get you through the door, but Held. themselves are magnetic across every second of Grey. If you’re after 2000s emo and post-hardcore that you don’t need to keep looking over your shoulder out of self-consciousness for, it’s hard to think of a better example in recent memory than this. Grey is a clean reworking, rebuilt and souped-up to remove nostalgia’s yoke entirely. Held., quite simply, don’t need it.
And it’s worth noting that, even with a sprinkling of My Chemical Romance’s pixie dust upon its form, Grey hardly feels in its debt. As a presence, Iero really doesn’t leap out or commandeer his track like he could so easily do. (Conversely, High Vis’ Graham Sayle is far more identifiable on Knifepoint, though that’s a factor of his Scouse accent being so radically different to Robinson’s voice.) Thus, it’s a test to how undeniable Held. feel right out of the gate, with Robinson especially deserving a lot of praise. With every word and audible intake of breath, he sounds like he’s got an axe to grind with someone or something, chipping away at this overbearing spectre until the final deluge of screams on Emptiness: A Side Effect sees it shatter for good.
Musically, a great wash of tension only seals the deal further, though not so much that Held. find themselves…well, held back. Grey sounds huge, no doubt about it, but in a way that crushes just as easily as it takes flight. Fittingly, the highlighted hook comes on Constant Tension, a monster that simultaneously sounds as though it’s dragging the weight of the world, and throwing it around as if it were nothing. There’s this storm-bringing churn that Grey treats as standard, filtered into the manic anthemia of I And I Against The World, or slamming, oversized mid-pacers like the title track or Broken Spacesuit \\ “Decay And Sand” //.
All the while, there’s a depth to this sound and mix that pushes Held. into straight excellence. Even beyond melodic chops and an utterly purposeful compositional knack, Held. never cease to explore the cavernous extremities of their sound and make use of what they find. Chiefly, it’s Sal Mignano’s bass work that’s most enlightening. On an album that’s rather pared-back in its colour palette, a rhythm section as quaking and prominent as this works wonders. Just give a listen to Waves Of Fire and how Mignano punches and pummels at the low end.
Honestly, there’s so much that comes together and works excellently across Grey that you struggle to find complaints. It’s a triumph of what stimuli from this scene in this era can achieve, galaxies away from Warped Tour disposability or the ongoing plight for relevance from also-rans. No, Held. is its own beast, formed of likeminded individuals with deep, deep wells of creativity ready to go. From said wells emerges Grey, a highlight among post-hardcore in 2026 for being literally everything you’d want it to be. It’s powerful; it’s mountainous; it’s addictive; it’s the beginning of something undeniably special.
For fans of: The Sleeping, L.S. Dunes, Coheed And Cambria
‘Grey’ by Held. is released on 15th May on MNRK Heavy.
Words by Luke Nuttall
