Soot Sprite – Wield Your Hope Like A Weapon
Release Date: May 16, 2025
Origin: Exeter, UK
Genre: Indie rock, shoegaze
With Wield Your Hope Like A Weapon, Exeter-based band Soot Sprite deliver a powerful, emotionally raw album that blends the immersive textures of shoegaze with the melodic urgency of indie rock. Laced with vulnerability, defiance, and introspection, the album unfolds like a personal manifesto—intimate in tone, yet widescreen in scope.
Band Members & Credits
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Elise Cook – Lyrics, vocals, rhythm guitar
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Sam Cother – Drums, percussion, backing vocals
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Sean Mariner – Bass
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Abi Crisp – Lead guitar
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Recorded and produced by: Tom Hill at The Bookhouse Studio
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Mastered by: Dan Coutant at Sun Room Audio
The band’s chemistry is unmistakable, with each member bringing nuance and depth to a sound that swells with emotion but never loses its grip on melody and structure.
Sound & Aesthetic
Wield Your Hope Like A Weapon is rich with texture—layered guitar work, hazy feedback, and thick reverb form the sonic bedrock, while Elise Cook’s emotive vocals rise through the mix like a clear signal from deep inside the noise. There’s a dreamlike quality to the atmosphere, but the emotional tone remains grounded and urgent.
The production captures both the grit and grace of the band’s sound. It’s immersive without being overwhelming—each detail carefully shaped, each crescendo earned. Whether leaning into shimmering introspection or crashing into cathartic release, the album moves with confidence and clarity.
Themes & Mood
As its title suggests, Wield Your Hope Like A Weapon is about survival, agency, and holding on to optimism in the face of difficulty. The lyrics navigate themes of emotional exhaustion, resilience, and the tension between collapse and recovery. It’s a record that wears its heart on its sleeve—fragile at times, but always pressing forward.
The mood is introspective and charged, often teetering between melancholy and empowerment. There’s a quiet rebellion in its tone—hope not as a passive feeling, but as an active force, something to be picked up and wielded against the darkness.
Critical Response
The album has been praised for its emotional honesty, richly layered instrumentation, and compelling songwriting. Critics have highlighted Soot Sprite’s ability to channel vulnerability into strength, carving out a distinct space in the UK’s shoegaze and indie rock landscape. Wield Your Hope Like A Weapon stands as a testament to the power of introspective music that dares to feel deeply and speak loudly.
