Belmont Releases Sensational Third Album Liminal

Belmont takes their head-spinning sound to new heights with their latest album Liminal released April 12th through Pure Noise Records.

Liminal serves as Belmont’s third album, the band’s second album with Pure Noise Records, and their second album working with producer Andrew Wade. Wade worked on the band’s 2022 release Aftermath, the album that we can thank for its heavy experimentation with elements of different genres. While Aftermath served as an exploration of new sounds, Liminal solidifies a blend of old and new Belmont. They have never been one to shy away from the integration of other genres in their work, it has just gotten even stronger over the last two albums. Landing them with the creation of an eclectic sound that is cemented in the minds of listeners as something that belongs solely to the once strictly pop-punk trio.

The record takes off with the neck-breaking track “SSX Trickmont” with its kicking drums and a powerful promise of adrenaline. A dramatic tone is set for the rest of the album and for the most part stuck to. Drummer Brian Lada is phenomenal throughout the entire record providing a rock-solid backbone to each and every track and leaving me to pick my jaw up off the floor after every breakdown.

Belmont plays with genres like a jump rope bouncing between metal and electronic elements whilst maintaining the influences of pop-punk that got them started. Overall the band’s focus with Liminal seems to be an attempt to bridge the gaps between their older influences with their new ideas.

This album comes off as softer than previous work, there are heavier moments but they fall in and out of the songs off the album never quite being the focus. It seems like a daunting task to balance the screams and heavy breakdowns known in Belmont’s past with the softer vocals and playful trap beats they’ve been using recently. It works. There are delightfully dark breakdowns that can be found on tracks like “Play Pretend” and “B3ND_BUDGE” but the focus of this album seems to fall back into softer ideas. The title track “Liminal” centers in on a dancy and hypnotic beat, pulling from ideas mostly founded in Belmont’s experimentation on Aftermath. It remains miles away from their 2016 EP Between You and Me. That is not to say that they have abandoned their pop-punk roots. Liminal appears to place all of their easy pop punk in the middle of the track list, bookended by the heavy and the experimental. Tracks like “Moxie” or “Dark Paradise” are more expected, and easy, akin to the cake you can’t see under all of its pretty frosting, it’s there but is it what you were looking for?

With the overall aura of change, some things for better or for worse remain the same. Their continuous clever lyricism in relation to all of the new avenues taken musically is friendly in the face of the unknown. Tales of heartbreak, self-doubt, and self-discovery are not new ideas with any pop-punk or alt-rock band and serve as a great way to keep the attention of those who are still hoping 2016 Belmont makes a return. Thankfully those cries seem to continuously fall on deaf ears outside of lyrical themes. Liminal’s seamless blend of old and new Belmont makes it a fun release overall. It is obvious that the band knows what they want to do and can execute it to near perfection.

Keeping both artistic growth and their current fanbase in mind, Belmont’s stylistic evolution will continue to reward them and have many others sprinting to keep up.

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