The visionary mind of Jacob Bannon has been part of the aggressive music community for over 25 years. Aside from fronting the transcendent hardcore band, Converge, he has produced stunning artwork, and dipped his toe into numerous solo or collaborative projects. Having already experimented with noise as Supermachiner, he has been going under the Wear Your Wounds moniker for the past decade. While only a handful of tracks have surfaced, Bannon has found enough time dedicate to full-length release ‘WYW’.
Rather than opt for a straight, down the line solo record, Bannon has enlisted a number of musicians to take ‘WYW’ to far more exploratory sounds. It expands on the more divergent tracks that Converge offered up on ‘Axe To Fall’ and ‘All We Love We Leave Behind’, giving Bannon more artistic license with his chosen medium. This is creative freedom at its best, owing as much to expansive progressive rock and sludge as it does to neo folk or experimental noise.
What keeps it cohesive, though, is the tone of the record, with a very similar haunting piano lead repeating itself numerous times throughout. As a looming wall of guitars wrap around the multi layered title track, and the harrowing dissonance of instrumental track, ‘Hard Road To Heaven’, that piano acts as the spine of ‘WYW’, albeit a crooked, broken one. It’s a trait that classic prog rock bands have been utilising for years to hold together the story. It seems Bannon had a clear vision for cohesion, and it worked.
At its most reserved, ‘Giving Up’ and ‘Shine’, are stripped back to simple, repetitive acoustic guitars and incandescent keys. They expose Bannon in the most fragile light to date, and it works wonders. One of his main talents has always been his beautifully articulated way with words, and when shredding his larynx with Converge, they are often inaudible. On ‘WYW’, you get to take the journey with Bannon on a more personal level. It’s as humbling as it is heartbreaking.
Yet ‘WYW’ still finds time to traverse heavier plains, and given the cast of guest musicians, you expect nothing less. Kurt Ballou (Converge), Sean Martin (Hatebreed, Twitching Tongues), Mike McKenzie (The Red Chord) and Chris Maggio (Trap Them) all add their own flavour to ‘WYW’, bringing added to depth to the sonic palette of the album. But it’s not heavy like metal; it’s heavy in texture and emotion.
‘Best Cry Of Your Life’ is a hail of rolling snare drums and churning bottom end guitars, and ‘Heavy Blood’ edges is slow burning doom at its finest before cascading into full sludge territory. The latter seeps into the final track ‘Goodbye Old Friend’, a near ten-minute opus in which Bannon bids a sombre farewell to a departed loved one. The ambient serenity and glacial vocals make the lyrical narrative hit even harder.
Far from easy listening, ‘WYW’ is hard to digest at first. It is an album you need to spend time with and fully lose yourself in. The twists and turns ‘WYW’ takes keep it alive, punishing you sonically and emotionally until the very end. It is another example of the significant role of Bannon within underground music: a gift we should be thankful for.
GLEN BUSHELL