wars: All Smoke And Broken Mirrors

In recent years, metalcore has become synonymous with the idea of innovation – with every new band comes a brave new fusion of genres. WARS are the latest group to push the metalcore envelope that little bit further; melding together fierce screams with floating, melodic breakdowns, WARS are crafting a fresh brand of unconventional heaviness. We had a chat with vocalist Rob Vicars about the group’s latest release, A Hundred Shivers, delving into their evolved sound, lyrical catharsis, and the unconventional decision to release the album in distinctive Chapters.

A Hundred Shivers is, in many ways, an exploration of the human condition. “[The album] explores topics we’ve spoken about in the past – like, the As Within /// So Without EP was a little bit of a forerunner to it. But, ultimately, A Hundred Shivers explores how each of these Chapters affect our overall sense of self,” Rob tells us. “The name of the album actually comes from a play (Shakespeare’s The Life and Death of Richard II), where this idea is very pertinent. We sort of see the world as a reflection in a broken mirror and our broken sense of self is reflected back by that broken mirror, highlighting ways our sense of self disseminates and cracks.” While the mirror is “in itself, a whole piece”, it is made up of a multitude of broken, fragmented thoughts and feelings – fragments that the album explores within each separate Chapter.

“Having things in chapters, and being able to sort of split things up, look at how we were,” Rob explains. “In each of the Chapters [we were able to] talk about a different internal conflict, a different idea that we were kind of coping with.” The staggered release also allowed each Chapter to shift and grow with the band; “we had a really good idea of everything, how we wanted it to be. Everything was at least written to a degree where one image of the album was, like, DONE, but part of the idea of doing it like this was that, as things changed, as we grew as musicians. We could put those new ideas into it while still remaining under the umbrella of A Hundred Shivers.”

The original plan was to craft an album that would grow and change alongside WARS‘ touring. Rob reveals that “we planned to be able to put out some songs, go out to play some shows, then reflect on that whole thing,” as well as telling us that, “it might have even ended up being a bit longer, or potentially shorter” if things had been different. However, despite the lack of live shows for the past 24 months, the pandemic was able to impact their work instead. “When the pandemic happened, well, there was more to add to it,” Rob tells us. “We could bring some of those ideas, some of those feelings that were more polarised and highlighted. We could bring those into the chapters, into the music, even bring it into things like the colours and the artwork. The pandemic sort of made a lot of the stuff feel more relevant. It felt like these were even more important songs for us to be playing and putting out, even just to get ourselves through it.”

So, let’s dive into the meat of this album. “I think it’s a definite evolution,” Rob muses – and we’re inclined to agree. A Hundred Shivers takes on a much more melodic approach than WARS‘ previous releases, thriving in its quieter moments in a compellingly poignant fashion. “Polarising sounds – switching between the melody and the harshness – that dynamic has always been quite integral to the music. And [it complements] the ideas behind the music.”

Despite this evolution, however, WARS strive to keep a common thread throughout their releases – notably with the naming of closing track, As Within, So Without, being a hark back to the 2019 EP of the same name. “Those ideas that were on As Within /// So Without very much carried through and were expanded on on A Hundred Shivers, so it felt like that last track encompassed all that. It took a lot from the EP. It felt nice to have a bit of a call-back there, making the project feel more complete.”

As well as this, group have also gotten into somewhat of a ‘tradition’ of ending on a sombre, drawn back tone – a brave move in metalcore, a place where fierce walls of sound often take the front seat. As Within, So Without is entirely stripped back, and Rob notes that this was also the case on previous release We Are Islands, After All. “The last song wasn’t acoustic but it was definitely stripped back, [followed by] a hidden spoken word track” (a track that apparently gets “a lot of complaints” in the modern age of streaming. “It just doesn’t translate quite as well as the by-gone days of CDs,” Rob laughs.) The stripped back approach allows a moment of silence, in Rob’s words, “you’ve had the full balls to the wall record, now let’s just take a moment to reflect.”

And how do these new tracks translate live? The group recently toured with AREA 11, so the tracks are finally seeing the light of day in the lead up to the new album’s release – and it’s sounding pretty positive. “We’ve only played a few shows since we’ve been back, but it’s a lot of fun to get out and play these shows,” Rob enthuses. “It feels like coming out of the dark into the blinding light!” He takes a moment to reflect over the first show back – Furnace Festival: “[it] showed that there’s just a real energy around playing these new songs, I do think the change in sound just suits us a lot more.“

Any more festivals in the pipeline? Well, who knows. “Well, there’s a whole two years of not playing shows that we really, really want to make up for! I think it’s going to be a case of getting out there as much as possible, doing as many shows, as many festivals and really playing through this record. I think that there’ll be a lot of writing in the next few months amongst playing any show, any stage, phonebox.”

In the meantime, before we can catch WARS out on tour again, we’ll have to dig in to the depths of A Hundred Shivers. Rob closes off by telling us his hopes for the album. “I feel like getting the opportunity to write music and put it out there and talk about these things is massively important and helpful for my own mental health. And I just kind of hope, if it helps anybody else, that’s a really incredible thing.”

A Hundred Shivers is out now via A Wolf At Your Door Records.