Review:
Just over a year has passed since I was left
gushing over Washington trio Wild Throne’s stunning and bombastic
‘Blood Maker EP’ here at
The Sludgelord. This website is, quite rightly, inundated with some gloriously
good music, crossing a multitude of styles and showing just how rude and
healthly the scene is currently in. It’s inspiring to see. There are literally
thousands of bands vying for our attention week in, week out, so it has to take
something special to catch our imagination – and more importantly here, mine
specifically. But Wild Throne’s ‘Blood Maker EP’ did exactly that. Now the
troupe have returned, fresh from penning a deal with Roadrunner Records – a
mean and well deserved fete in itself – with a blistering new single, ‘War Is
Romance.’
Across the tracks frenetic,
as-chaotic-as-a-bouncy-ball-launched-into-a-tiny-rubber-lined-room length, you
pass through so many dimensions, musical references, gorgeous, spine-tingling
nuances and insatiable fury. It stops you dead in your tracks. From the Motörhead styled,
foot-to-the-accelerator openings, to Mastodon like pummelling’s later on down
the line, betwixt solos that twist and scream like one of Jack the Ripper’s
vulnerable and squeamish victims, it’s a song that has more than affirmed my
already well established love for this band.
Previously known as Dog Shredder, the new song,
the first monster to rear its ugly head from their forthcoming album ‘Heart of
Darkness,’ gives you a snapshot of what this band is. It’s all over the place –
flirting with the sounds of the aforementioned artists alongside the likes of
Converge, Mars Volta, Muse and the Dillinger Escape Plan – yet at the same
time, it couldn’t be more fluent. It picks you up and shuttles you through an
intimidating sonic space time continuum that, quite literally, takes your
breath away.
At times, frontman Josh Holland’s vocal
replicate that of Matt Bellamy’s schizophrenic and maniacal octave jumps – only
if Matt had had an ounce of cocaine burst in his stomach, causing him to thrash
about the place in a full-blooded adrenaline craze.
“Humans tend to seek out both love and war
instinctively,” Holland has stated on the topic of War Is Romance’s
lyrical theme. “Rather than thinking of them as opposites, I wanted to suggest
that the intensities of violence and passion actually share more similarities
than differences. That the hunger to fight is some sort of inner romance. We
lust for it.”
‘Harvest of Darkness’ is
released August 18th via Roadrunner Records. If this lead track is
anything to go by, it promises to be a record to kick a boot up the arse of
their already dizzying ascent.
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