Not a hoax! Not a ploy! Not a gimmick! Sort of! Regardless, you read that right! What we have for you today is a five track review of the upcoming Wear Your Wounds album because a) We wanted to get something out before it drops on Friday through Deathwish Inc b) You don’t need to read about us waxing poetic on this entire beautiful beast and c) Frankly, we thought it was a neat idea.
But I digress.
Rust on the Gates of Heaven, the second full-length from Jacob Bannon’s Wear Your Wounds is just as gorgeous as the debut and even more fleshed out. As I said in the review of that album back in 2017 (Read it here!), if you’re looking for the next “Dark Horse” or “Concubine” then you are in the wrong place, my friend! Sort of like the antithesis to Mutoid Man (Who also feature a member of Cave In and Converge), Wear Your Wounds go for a different kind of intensity with a fully realized band this time out featuring Cave In and Nomad Stones guitarist Adam McGrath, Mike McKenzie of The Red Chord, Chris Maggio of Trap Them, and Twitching Tongues’ Sean Martin. And as an added bonus, Chelsea Wolfe’s Ben Chisholm and Planes Mistaken For Stars’ own Gared O’Donnell collaborate throughout as well.
“Mercifully” is somber yet hopeful and cinematic in scope. Think Sigur Ros or Mogwai in terms of epicness while “Paper Panther” is a rawker for sure with the guitar providing just as much of a voice as Bannon as the rhythm section rumble in frenetic yet cohesive ways into the grand sunset.
Can I be honest for a second?
I lied. Sort of. Because “Brittle Pillar” has some Converge-ness to it. I mean, how can it not when you have Bannon at the helm? It’s sort of like “Cruel Bloom” mixed with something off of Perfect Pitch Black in this case so Verge-In fer real! Later on, “Lurking Shadow” is all shimmery with added twang to give it a Blues feel and later still, “Mercilessly” concludes in direct contrast to quiet opener “Mercifully” with a track that should give you the Alice In Chains/Jerry Cantrell guitar-screaming-to-the-heavens kind of vibes if your ears are working properly.
And we’re done. To recap: We told you about five tracks while three are already out for mass consumption and the three more that complete the album are open to interpretation come Friday. If you’re not sold already then nothing we do now will push you one way or another. But you should definitely listen to it.
Rust on the Gates of Heaven sees release this Friday, July 12th, through Deathwish Inc. There’s a slew of pre-order options available now which you can peruse with your peepers by clicking here. For more on Wear Your Wounds, including upcoming shows with Torche (Which hits Great Scott on August 3rd), head here and here.