The Transits – Bleed Hope (13th Floor Album Review)
The Transits return with Bleed Hope, an album that opens at full tilt and rarely lets the listener come up for air across the punchy, pop-punk and rock of its fifteen tracks.
The Aotearoa New Zealand–South African trio, Ryan Lunn on vocals, guitars and production, Dom Antelme on bass, and Tyrone Smith on drums, have always traded in urgency, but here they push that instinct to its limit. Everything feels lean, wired and propulsive. Drums snap like cables under tension, guitars flare through the mix, and the vocals ride the wave. The result is exhilarating, sometimes overwhelming, and doesn’t let up.
Outsiders sets the pace immediately. Smith’s drums pelt forward, Antelme’s bass locks into a tight sprint, and Lunn’s guitar adds power. The brief pauses feel like coiled springs rather than breaks, each one priming the next surge. Live Today keeps that breathless momentum with a chiming guitar line and overlapping voices giving the track a restless interior energy. Even early on it’s clear how carefully the band shape their dynamics. Drops are sharp, rebuilds are fast, and the cumulative effect is a sense of perpetual motion.
Dancing With Shadows is built on a bouncing rhythm and flickering guitars, the line “in the dark we starve” cuts straight through the swirl, anchoring the theme of isolation beneath the shimmer. The video deepens the impression as AI-generated surges of black liquid tear through bedrooms, tunnels and shifting landscapes. The imagery mirrors the song’s tension between internal collapse and external pressure. For the title track, Bleed Hope, the video of masked figures and walls of surveillance screens intensifies the explosive full-band assault. The song is defiant, committed, and designed to seize attention and hold it fast.
The band’s command of tension and release peaks in Middle of the Night, which opens with pounding drums before collapsing into wiry guitar and near-whispered vocals. It rises, falls and then detonates, each crest higher than the last. On Ghosts of Summer a droning note hovers before bass and drums crash in, the vocals echo in the mix, the drums stop dead, then ignite again.
One of the album’s standout turns arrives on Never Back Down, featuring Lacey Lunn, whose clear, bright vocal line cuts through the darkness. The track is shaded differently, and her presence adds an emotional dimension without sacrificing the forward momentum. It’s a welcome shift in texture and one of the album’s most memorable moments.
Elsewhere the band maintain their grip on intensity. Find My Way Back To You buzzes at the edges, threatening chaos without losing control. Living Dead for a Paycheck feels like a sprint through desperation. Empty Room opens with echoing synths and darker vocals, offering a momentary recalibration before the guitars and drums push it forward again. Come Melt My Heart begins quietly before the drums hammer in and the riff tears the song open. Across the final sprint of Simple Love, Guiding Lights, Back to Yesterday, and Youth Puppets the songs are delivered with precision and conviction.
Over the album’s forty four minutes the trio show they can power a song forward, drop it to a whisper, and revive it in seconds. The playing is tight, the production crisp, and the commitment absolute. The lyrics lean toward isolation, resilience, and restlessness, matching the sonic palette. These are short, sharp songs, and a moment or two of space, or another track in the mould of Never Back Down or Empty Room might have allowed the album to breathe more deeply.
Throughout, Bleed Hope is a thrilling listen. The Transits in full flight carry you through a world that pulses with vitality, and once inside the momentum is unstoppable. This is a band driving hard toward the far edge of their sound, and the rush is undeniable.
John Bradbury
Bleed Hope is out now
Click here to watch the 13th Floor MusicTalk interview with Dom of The Transits
