Wars – And So The Sea Will Claim Us All
EP Review
It often takes a long time for small bands to make a splash in the waters of the national scene, but not long after putting their trunks on, wars have made a lot of noise and gotten lots of people wet. (This analogy has gotten very out of hand). The debut EP And So The Sea Will Claim Us All by Rugby based melodic hardcore band wars (lower-case intentional) is a frantic exercise in heavy music, it experiments with the typical combination of melody and aggression and leaves something that fans of heavy music can easily get into, but different enough that it all sounds new and exciting. And So The Sea Will Claim Us All is a near perfect debut.
One of the strongest points of And So The Sea Will Claim Us All is how each track brings something new to the table, baring the final track they’re all monstrously heavy, combining both clean and unclean vocal styles, a myriad of time signature changes, and a distinct style that links everything together, but each song has its own unique identity in the greater whole. wars don’t have a status quo or a default sound to work with, everything is different, it’d be very easy for everything to sound disjointed confusing – particularly in a debut, but wars have managed to avoid this – it particularly helps that the production work on the EP is of a very high calibre. The opener Gambler’s Ruin builds into an explosion of sound. Suddenly everything is happening so fast, the guitars are distinct and powerful and the vocals flow really well, what’s significant here is the transition from heavy into melodic, Gambler’s Ruin is the perfect blend. Eight On The Ballantine Scale continues on as a fast paced metallic hardcore mission statement, the things of note here are the sheer prowess of the drums, and the wonderful use of vocal layering.
Weathered Eyes mixes things up again by being primarily an angry punky song, with a baseline so groovy that it’d embarrasses it’s kids on nights out, Weathered Eyes also makes use of a genre staple of gang vocals, but uses them to emphasise elements of the song. It also has an excellently catchy ‘chorus’ of sorts. #WeAreTheBrokenMachines. The Leviathan And The Liar is an intricate and technical piece of music, it sacrifices none of the energy built up throughout the EP, it is headbangingly good. it is possibly the heaviest track, while still maintaining the soulful and delicate edge. Personal highlight of the EP. Finally the EP ends with 00:01 which is the wind down of the entire EP; it is soft and gentle and showcases that wars can craft something small and gentle it is really a testament to their musicianship.
And So The Sea Will Claim Us All is a fantastic debut, from an exciting new band who despite their short time out in the open have garnered a lot of attention, as this EP is anything to go by it is wholeheartedly deserved. The EP is heavy, melodic, and brings in many different sounds and influences, a must listen to any fan of Melodic hardcore/Metalcore/Post-whatever-core Good heavy music. Hopefully wars will continue to impress.
And So The Sea Will Claim Us All is out now.
https://www.facebook.com/weareallwars
https://twitter.com/weareall_wars
Words by Oliver Pawsey