Review: Be Well – “A Tap I Can’t Turn Off”

The latest two-track single from Baltimore punk/hardcore band, Be Well, is an electric-charged artistic statement that demands to be taken seriously. Led by fearless frontman Brian McTernan, “A Tap I Can’t Turn Off” and “Without A Compass” rock with an immediacy to them that put a firm focus on why this band is so dynamic. Starting with “A Tap I Can’t Turn Off,” the heavy opening riffing sets the tone for the lyrics of, “There is an overwhelming sense of doubt / That’s spent a lifetime occupying my mind / The things that I’ve done to block it out / Have corroded the rest of what’s left over time,” that showcase McTernan’s conflict within his own mind. The track explodes out of the gate with a rare sense of urgency, and ends with the pain in the lyrics of, “But I still lack confidence / And sometimes I feel like shit.”

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Review: Be Well – Hello Sun

A lot of times when you’re going through tough times, experiencing anxiety, or battling a stint of depression, it can feel like the fight is done mostly on your own. That weight can bog you down pretty badly until it’s all you feel. In a lot of ways it’s like breathing: you don’t need to think about it until you can’t find air, and then it’s all you can think about. Brian McTernan and his bandmates honed in on these feelings deeply on the band’s debut, The Weight and The Cost, and as McTernan describes, “I was caught in the center of a storm. I really couldn’t see anything except the destruction, and I had no perspective on what was happening.” On Be Well’s latest EP, the lyrical material pave the way for coming out of the toughest times fairly unscathed, or at the very least being able to see through the heavy fog that surrounded them before. On the opener, McTernan describes this feeling through a series of self-reflection, or as he explains, “On ‘Treadless,’ it’s me finally being able to question myself, like, ‘How did I let it get this far? How did I live my whole life hiding something that was so integral to whom I am from the people who love me the most?’” No longer being bogged down by the weight of the world on their shoulders, Be Well have every right to say Hello Sun to the better days that lay ahead of them.

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