{"id":574,"date":"2010-04-13T18:35:29","date_gmt":"2010-04-13T23:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.forcefieldrecords.org\/site\/?p=574"},"modified":"2010-04-14T12:33:27","modified_gmt":"2010-04-14T17:33:27","slug":"041310-new-wayward-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.forcefieldrecords.org\/site\/041310-new-wayward-review\/","title":{"rendered":"04\/13\/10 – NEW WAYWARD & BALACLAVA REVIEWS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brand new review of THE WAYWARD record from our friends at HellrideMusic<\/a> is posted below –<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s been too long since I\u2019ve heard anything new from The Wayward (hailing from Baltimore, Maryland and Fairfax, Virginia respectively). The destructively progressive, noise-rock trio still has the distinguished honor of being one of the tightest, most technically impressive live acts I\u2019ve ever seen!<\/p>\n

Formed out of the ashes of the godly Carrion with the only difference being Jesse Skrobiz replacing Dustin Swanson on bass (Nate Simms is still bashing the kit and Nick Skrobiz is still dazzling with his proficient noise-rock shred and lacerated vocal chords), The Wayward still tours relentlessly, but haven\u2019t released any new material since 2007\u2019s shamefully underrated opus, Overexposure<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Unveiled at the tail end of 2009, the trio\u2019s latest 7\u201d recording features two newer cuts and a cover of The Birthday Party\u2019s \u201cThe Friend Catcher.\u201d Basically, the original compositions are sheer class, and the band couldn\u2019t have chosen a better cover, as there\u2019s more than a few similarities between the two outfit\u2019s jagged, rhythmic workouts and scraping guitar textures. Their cover is a spot on rendition of the original with Nick Skrobiz mutating his scathing howl into the drugged out drawl of TBP\u2019s very own Nick Cave. The major different is that The Wayward\u2019s version is so damn heavy, it\u2019s as much of an exercise in stomping, noise-damaged doom as it is a nod to the legendary, originators! Fucking awesome stuff, and they even renamed it as \u201cThe Chum Snatcher,\u201d which is telltale of its pulsating, bone-rattling surge.<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t skimp on the original material either. Side A will give you more than a run for your money with \u201cAlzheimer\u2019s\u201d and \u201cRipcord.\u201d This pair of dizzying, almost virtuoso-esque noise-prog jams is as tricky, agitated and winding as anything the band has ever done. \u201cAlzheimer\u2019s\u201d throws early Today is the Day, Big Black, King Crimson and Black Flag into a room and let\u2019s \u2018em duke it out for the top dog award. Sporting an intro with deliberately slow pacing, a murky bass presence and spoken vocals, it isn\u2019t long before this towering inferno burns up high into a sky of manic drumming (swift, punctuated fills unload by the bucketful and Simms proves he\u2019s capable of literally rolling across his kit for days on end), unbelievable guitar wizardry that toys with the type of jazzy progressions and noisy punk abandon that was the mark of Am-Rep TITD with bass licks to match, all the while Nick\u2019s patented, semi-melodic shout rings out like a gunshot above the complexity laden din produced by the instruments.<\/p>\n

If Am-Rep was still around, I guarantee they would have put out every Carrion and The Wayward release to come down the pike. \u201cAlzheimer\u2019s\u201d is without a doubt one of the tensest, most varied weapons the band has added to their arsenal thus far. \u201cRipcord\u201d is much shorter on the other hand and melds the broken back punk ethos of Black Flag with the number crunching arrangements of King Crimson circa their debut In the Court of the Crimson King<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m floored by this 7\u201d and everything the members have done past and present. The only complaint I can levy against the band is that there is never enough of The Wayward to go around. Three new tracks is both a sensuous fuck and a blue balling tease, but I\u2019ll take any loving I can get from the band at this point. It\u2019s been too long since we\u2019ve heard from you Wayward\u2026please don\u2019t make it a habit! Highly recommended, now bring on a new LP and another Pittsburgh stop and we\u2019ll be in business.” – Jay Snyder \/\/ HellrideMusic.com<\/a><\/p>\n

FLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORED!!!!!!!!!<\/p>\n

Not so new but RECENT review of BALACLAVA’s “Shame” EP up over at DeafSparrow.com<\/a>, THEY GAVE IT A 3.5 out of 5!!<\/p>\n

“Balaclava call Richmond home but live somewhere between punk and metal. And yeah, hardcore too. Shame is their seven inch released by Forcefield Records and it packs four songs of massive riffs, post hardcore structures (here and there but not all over) and plenty of metallic brutality. Balaclava sound to me like the punk band that never intended to come out even as slightly metal, but whose sounds came out so fluidly and flowed so organically they just couldn\u2019t help it. \u201cFences\u201d is as nice as this quartet is willing to play, and to be frank, it ain\u2019t that nice. The track starts clear, only to distort to a cruel mid tempo. The other three songs are way harsher, with faster tempos and the constancy of a D beat band with too much in their mind.” – DeafSparrow.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brand new review of THE WAYWARD record from our friends at HellrideMusic is posted below – “It\u2019s been too long since I\u2019ve heard anything new from The Wayward (hailing from Baltimore, Maryland and Fairfax, Virginia respectively). The destructively progressive, noise-rock trio still has the distinguished honor of being one of the tightest, most technically impressive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forcefieldrecords.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forcefieldrecords.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forcefieldrecords.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forcefieldrecords.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forcefieldrecords.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.forcefieldrecords.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":579,"href":"https:\/\/www.forcefieldrecords.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions\/579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forcefieldrecords.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forcefieldrecords.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forcefieldrecords.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}