ALBUM REVIEW: Wayfarer, "World's Blood"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 25/05/2018

Label: Profound Lore Records

On “World’s Blood” Wayfarer rises to be more transcendent than many of its contemporaries in the execution of its new album and overall there is so much to appreciate on this Colorado act's return.  "World's Blood" is a dazzling listen

“World’s Blood” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Animal Crown
2. On Horseback They Carried Thunder
3. The Crows Ahead Cry War
4. The Dreaming Plain
5. A Nation Of Immigrants

The Review:

The beauty and bestial of black metal is that it is today an expansive metal subgenre. At its best, there is something truly gauzy, conceptually original and aurally memorable records. However, there is plenty on the scene that is at times too derivative (first wave throwback movements, anyone?), audacious and over-the-top in a way that can mask musical deficiencies. Goat and pentagram iconography, and too much flourish – literal and figurative – on song titles and imagery, can only carry any band so far. In its most cringeworthy moments, there are more than a few unintentional parodies of black metal.

Fortunately enough, Wayfarer rises to be more transcendent than many of its contemporaries in the execution of its new album, "World's Blood."

The Denver band has been reliable thus far in its output, producing an LP every two years or so. 2014's "Children of the Iron Age" was well received by fans and critics. There might have been a touch too much self-importance early on. Folk and atmospheric metal together can be a bit tiring at turns. And the overlong tracks and intricate storytelling may have felt out of place at first. As you settle in with the band, though, you get a strong sense that Wayfarer is devoted to creating an experience. There are many bands that arguably try to do the same. Wayfarer's iconoclastic approach deserves a deeper look, though.

On "World's Blood," Wayfarer provides a sound informed by a mélange of styles. Black metal, doom and hints of sludge are central to the album. What makes it most fascinating, though, is identifying the disparate inspirations. "Animal Crown" begins the recording with a flash of spaghetti Western romp. There's immediacy to the noisier guitars and rhythm section as the first track builds, with a pained vocal wafting just above it all. The liner notes remark of how the band sought to represent aptly the Western frontier that is part of its experience. Inescapable to that tale is a picture of loss. Rarely has it been so stunningly felt.

The band excels when its orchestration reaches an almost polyrhythmic instance on songs like "On Horseback They Carried Thunder." What feels at first like chaos rewards you as the song crests into a beautiful hybrid of black metal, where pensive pacing strains just below the surface. Where it once drew out tracks possibly a bit too much, Wayfarer's selection and overall production this time offer a new focus. This attention to little things as well as major arcs makes for a more sophisticated album than ever before. With "The Crows Ahead Cry War," thundering drums threaten from a distance. The balance between measured and frenzied is a gorgeous tension you feel again and again on "World's Blood."

That flume of shot-a-man-in-Reno dirty Americana vibe peeks its head out at the start of "The Dreaming Plain," before laying waste into a mad sound space. "A Nation of Immigrants" flits past this inspiration too, in a divergent manner. In all, "World's Blood" is a dazzling listen. One of their best? That's up to longtime fans to judge, but undoubtedly there is so much to appreciate in the Colorado act's return.

“World’s Blood” is available here

Band info: facebook|| bandcamp

Wayfarer - Children Of The Iron Age (Album Review)

Album Type: Album

Date Released: November 24^th 2014

Label: Prosthetic Records

Children Of The Iron Age – track listing

1.The Earth Only Endures 01:08

2.Forests Ash By Dawn 10:01

3.Toward Mountains 10:42

4.The Elemental 10:29

5.Stormcall 03:58

6.Children Of The Iron Age 08:50

7.A Place Among Stars 08:18

8.Skysong 15:11

9.Cities Built on Conquered Ground 06:01

Bio

WAYFARER is a four piece band hailing from the Rocky Mountains of Denver Colorado. Through a storm of riffing and unrelenting atmosphere, the band creates a sound that feels at once archaic and elemental, and ultimately human.

WAYFARER came together in 2012, after recording an instrumental demo the previous year. With the lineup complete, the band then cut its teeth playing out in the burgeoning Denver underground, and began work on their debut album “CHILDREN OF THE IRON AGE”; a lengthy epic of blackened atmospherics interwoven with entrancing acoustic passages and driving, powerful post-metal soundscapes. The album was recorded in early 2014 at Flatline Audio in Westminster, Colorado with Shane Howard (Martriden) and mixed and mastered by Dave Otero (Cobalt, Primitive Man, Cattle Decapitation). The debut album was followed by subsequent touring of the Western United States with Denver cohorts DREADNOUGHT over the summer. 

Members

Shane McCarthy
Tanner Rezabek
Isaac Faulk
James Hansen

Review:

There are some bands that really capture the feel of their home environment in their music. Kyuss are inextricably linked with the wide open spaces of the desert while Down evoke the steamy swamps of New Orleans. Following this fine tradition, Denver’s Wayfarer effortlessly distil the timeless grandeur of the Rocky Mountains of their home in Colorado. “Children of the Iron Age” is their debut LP and over the course of its mammoth 60+ minute duration the band craft a monolithic wall of sound, every bit as ancient and powerful as their surroundings.

The album opens with the brief acoustic instrumental “The Earth Only Endures” before a curt drum fill ushers in the thunderous intro of “Forests Ash By Dawn”. What follows is ten minutes of furious riffing and melodic passages, falling away to reveal hushed acoustic guitars, gentle drums and faraway chanting before jolting back into a glorious distorted climax. Aside from the four minute instrumental oasis of calm of “Stormcall” at the heart of the album, the rest of the album offers further epic voyages into the abyss and beyond.

Wayfarer draw on a number of obvious influences but combine them to create a distinctive and affecting sound that is very much their own. The main noticeable inspiration here is the atmospheric post rock informed black metal of bands such as Wolves in the Thorne Room and France’s Great Old Ones. These bands and those from the more post metal end of the spectrum like Isis tend to rely on a vast arsenal of effects pedals to build their many layers of noise. Wayfarer manage to create similarly dense and textured compositions using a simple palette of reverberated distorted and acoustic guitars. This lack of reliance on technology to create strange sounds and greater emphasis on dynamic playing leads to a stark simplicity which lends a weighty emotional punch to these songs.

Before fully filling out the band to the membership and sound it has now, Wayfarer cut an instrumental demo in 2011. Although an instrumental version of “Children of the Iron Age” would still be an engaging listen, this fact highlights an integral ingredient in the bands sonic alchemy – the vocals. Huge, expansive roars and screams accompany the ebb and flow of the bands lengthy, complex orchestrations, sounding like echoes from a bygone age.

Wayfarer share a further similarity with the aforementioned Wolves in the Throne Room; the inspiration of nature on their music. The lyrical matter here seems to focus on the power of nature, reinforced by a well-placed sample of revered comics scribe Alan Moore reading from his seminal 80s work “Swamp Thing” at the climax of lengthy closer “Skysong”. The sound of Moore’s strong Northampton accent lends an extra quality to the stirring finale, particularly when he delivers the words “If nature were to shrug, or raise an eyebrow, you would all be gone”.

The only minor issue I have with this album is its lengthy running time. Although there are no bad songs here, the six ten minute tracks that make up the bulk of the record make for rich but exhausting listening. A shorter overall duration or a variety in track length and complexity could have made for a punchier listen but as it stands the edge is taken off the overall impact due to the sheer vastness of the material.

This a minor point though that shouldn’t detract from the fact that Wayfarer have crafted something very special here which is sure to when them a legion of admirers. The display of towering ambition exhibited by this debut demonstrates that Wayfarer look set to reach even greater heights in the future.

Words by Charlie Butler

Thanks to Kelly at Prosthetic Records for sending us a promo. The album will be available to buy on Vinyl/CD now from Prosthetic Records and Digital Download from BandCamp.

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