Fleshwater : 2000: In Search of the Endless Sky
With a focus on shaping droning melodies through layers of effects, the sound of shoegaze runs the risk of being weighed down by its pedalboard. While its greatest bands—the My Bloody Valentines, the Slowdives and the like—display a wider range of sound and depth, it’s all too easy to err on the side of droning density at the expense of a more expressive approach.
This isn’t a problem for Fleshwater. Though often grouped with the contemporary shoegaze movement, the Boston band’s story begins with a different, even more explosive band: Vein.fm. The metalcore act was formed in 2013 by vocalist/guitarist Anthony DiDio, guitarist Jeremy Martin, drummer Matt Wood, bassist Jon Lhaubouet, and guitarist Josh Butts, all of whom aside from Butts would eventually form Fleshwater. Prior to the official formation of this project, Vein.fm created the demo songs that would end up on their 2020 debut demo. Fleshwater finally solidified with the addition of Marisa Shirar, who was brought into the band as a vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist before the release of their 2022 debut, We’re Not Here to Be Loved, a blend of infectious and alternative metal and shoegaze rife with atmospheric heaviness.
On the band’s sophomore album 2000: In Search of the Endless Sky—which has Vein.fm touring drummer Josian Omar Soto Ramos taking over for Wood—Fleshwater continues to embrace genre variety, presenting a record rich in emotional and technical depth. The band’s versatility is front and center on opener “Drowning Song,” featuring touches of hardcore and shoegaze at play. Rather than leaning into sonic pummeling or banal atmospheric droning, the band creates a unique cycle of tonal highs and lows. This sonic fluidity continues throughout the rest of the record, whether it be the melodic rock of “Last Escape,” the serene ambiance and acoustics of “Silverine,” or the Portishead-like trip-hop of “Be Your Best.”
Even when a song primarily sticks to one sound, Fleshwater leverage their instrumentation to broaden their approach. “Green Street” may be rooted in hardcore, but between the guitars and drums, the band plays with melody and space to create a heaviness that fluctuates over the track’s runtime.
Throughout 2000: In Search of the Endless Sky, Didio and Shirar reflect on the passing of time, with several songs alluding to grief, and relationships of varying degrees. Grief makes its presence known from the start in “Drowning Song”: “said in a dream, ‘this can’t be.’ / not another ‘this,’ now, ‘this,’ now. / but I want to know. say it: / what makes you?” In “Be Your Best,” Shirar and Didio likewise dive into how we can sink into a well of despair when dwelling on the negativity of the past. Shirar sings, “you want to be your best, / but they’ll forget. / healing your emptiness / is this sound like a voice that lives in your head. / it says you’re waiting for safety as you’re falling apart again.”
Yet even among such dreary lyrics, the duo ultimately provide a message of hope. Shirar and Didio display an understanding of the weight of the past—we are human and it’s in our nature to reflect—but it’s in reflection, not fixation, and the determination to move forward that we can find hope. This metaphor is more apparent in album closer “Endless Sky”: “this air, it feels like home / (when I’m all alone) / repair, it’s built on hope / in a dream, of a sky unknown.” In this context, the “endless sky” can stand in as a metaphor for the future, or perhaps the potential for what may come. You can hold onto resentment and anger, or you can learn from the past and move forward.
While there are readily apparent traces of Deftones, Hole, and Whirr in their music, Fleshwater have carved out a unique sonic identity by creating something new while honoring their influences. Throughout the duration of the album, Fleshwater weave together layers of complementary styles and technical twists where tone, tempo, and atmosphere evolve throughout. 2000: In Search of the Endless Sky further cements Fleshwater as an exhilarating force.
Label: Closed Casket Activities
Year: 2025
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Fleshwater : 2000: In Search of the Endless Sky
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