The world is full of music that is criminally underrated. Genius seethes and simmers in the shadows as the world convulses to the latest pan flashing identikit pop sensation.
Breach is high on the list of gems people don’t seem to know about. Hailing from Luleå Sweden Breach formed part of the Burning Heart Swedish hardcore scene of the late 90’s and early 00’s. While Refused found fame (largely after they split up) with the New Noise single and accompanying gloriously weird video, Breach were a much denser darker proposition and stayed very much underground.
Breach are often described as post metal , post hardcore and post rock. They sure come after a lot.

1997’s Its Me God is a glorious epic journey through dark heavy textured guitar music. You could hear that this music was coming from the ice encrusted nordic landscape. Opener Valid sees the twin guitars layering menacingly with the bass and most importantly the original drum work of Janne Westerberg. The track builds tension till at the very last moment the only vocal line “our first embrace” rings out, profound and yet without elaboration. This was the first Breach track I ever heard and I was hooked.

The album’s production is marked by a raw rock and roll sound rather than the very clean precise recording sound that a lot of other hardcore records were going for at the time. This was to be even more evident on Venom which followed several years later. I suspect its no coincidence that Sweden also had a ‘Death n Roll’ scene at the same time with bands like Entombed combining raw garage rock elements and production to heavier music.

Raw, vital, and rowdy yet also precise and beautiful where it needs to be Its Me God is one of the great overlooked albums of the last 40 years. Look it up .