Wall: More Than Just Bricks And Mortar

Lockdowns. Remember them? Hell for some people, bliss for (a few) others. Brothers Ryan and Elliot Cole certainly fall more into the former category. Furloughed from their ‘proper’ jobs, unable to write, rehearse or even hang out with their other bands DESERT STORM and THE GRAND MAL and trapped together in the tiny flat they shared, the only thing they could do to stave off the boredom and madness was to start a brand new musical project, if only to pass the time.

Fast forward four years and, with two excellent EPs under their belts, WALL are finally out of the flat and celebrating the release of their debut album Brick By Brick on APF Records. In order to celebrate with them, we thought it only proper to catch up with the Oxford-based SABBATH-loving duo for a chat about how this instrumental doom monster came to be.

“Yeah that first lockdown was a long one wasn’t it?” Begins Ryan. “The whole thing lasted about six months and we actually started writing together quite early on. I had a load of ideas for riffs left over from the most recent DESERT STORM album (Death Rattle), which was already in the bag by that point. So we wrote enough material for an EP, probably four or five songs, and then when the rules were relaxed a little bit we went straight into the studio with these ideas and asked Fieldy (APF overlord Andrew Field) if he fancied putting it out.”

And put it out he did. This was WALL’s debut self-titled EP which quickly garnered attention from UK doomheads and the metal press alike, so it made sense to support the release with a few gigs, despite the potential problems this idea would run into. “We thought – well, yeah I suppose we could try to do some gigs – but neither of us drive so we have to be quite selective about where we play!” Ryan laughs. “We made it work though and during that time we’d started writing a few follow up songs so after those first gigs we thought we’d better get on and finish the second EP. In all honesty it started off as us just wanting to record some music, we weren’t really planning on playing any of it live!”

Playing it live was ultimately something of a baptism of fire for the band, though, as their second gig came just after the release of second EP Vol. 2 and saw them gracing the EMP Stage at the 2021 Bloodstock Festival, something the band hadn’t even dreamed of at that point and something that probably would never have happened without the support and encouragement of their label, as Ryan confirms. “We can always rely on Fieldy to keep pushing and supporting us. I remember the first time we met him – he came to a DESERT STORM gig in Liverpool dressed in a suit and we were all like ‘have you seen this guy over here in the suit?’ Sort of laughing really. Then he came over to us and he just told us how much he’d enjoyed the gig, so we added him on Facebook and before we knew it he was setting up a label and asking us if we wanted to be a part of it. He’s just a proper music fan too, which means he’s always really behind us. There are a lot of labels out there who don’t actually do that much to support the bands they work with and sometimes there can be trust issues between bands and labels as a result. We’re lucky that we’ve never had to experience any of that.”

Brick By Brick is very much a different beast to the proggier stoner metal of DESERT STORM though and that was something the pair were conscious of when writing: “There’s obviously some crossover with stuff like the guitar tone but we really wanted to do something heavier, more direct and brutal with this,” says Elliot. That more brutal approach is definitely evident on tracks like Wrath Of The Serpent, although the origins of the songs on the album are far from the sonic attack of the final product. “Because of the lockdown restrictions, and being stuck in the flat, we actually wrote these songs completely acoustically,” the drummer continues. “Ryan played the riffs on an unplugged SG and I developed the drum parts by just tapping along on my legs. We didn’t want to scare the neighbours!”

Something that would definitely have scared those neighbours had they rehearsed it electrically is a blistering version of KARMA TO BURN’s Nineteen and Ryan explains why that song means so much to them. “We toured with them a lot with DESERT STORM and I really think they’re the best instrumental stoner rock band there’s ever been. Unfortunately Will (KARMA TO BURN guitarist) passed away a few years ago so it’s just a great way to remember him, although we actually recorded the track about six months before he died. We’d really wanted to send it to him to see what he thought but sadly we never got the chance in the end, although it’s become a nice little way to pay our respects to him now.”

With a whole album’s worth of material to celebrate now under their belts, WALL will be demolishing a venue near you (no doubt brick by brick) in the coming months. Just don’t expect unplugged guitars and thigh-tapping drum parts.

Brick By Brick is out now via APF Records.

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