Wowod: Fury And Forgiveness
It doesn’t really get much more intense than WOWOD. Whichever way you cut it, their latest album Yarost’ I Proshchenie definitely ticks most of the boxes when it comes to heavy music. At times, it’s a chaotic, abrasive record that’s sure to please fans of the most violent hardcore out there. At others, it’s slower and more straight-up crushing, resembling the punishing post-metal of the likes of AMENRA or ISIS. As well as all this, throughout the record runs an intense atmosphere that reminds listeners that heaviness isn’t just about screamed vocals and distortion. The band explain: “On Nutro, our sound was directed more towards dark hardcore, and on Zemlya we had a more melodic and blackened sound. On Yarost’ I Proshchenie we tried to find some balance between these two directions.”
With those starting points, it’s no surprise that Yarost’ I Proshchenie is intense. Even less so considering some of the record’s thematic influences. While the band struggle to pick out one or two things which had a significant impact on the making of the album, the album’s title, which translates to ‘Fury And Forgiveness’, offers a few clues: “Human feelings are a unique phenomena and it’s very hard to express them by words, or to explain them in any form. Everyone can say that they felt one or the other, but what was it they felt exactly? How can you compare one person’s feelings to another about the same event? The concept of the album was being built around these questions, and we just tried to express our feelings with the help of the music.”
The band also couldn’t escape the influence of their home city of Saint Petersburg. “The place you live in influences all of your life directly, that cannot help but be reflected in what you create. Saint-Petersburg definitely has its own spirit. It is a grim, but also a beautiful city, which is populated with an enormous quantity of creative people and creative communities.”
WOWOD’s ability to find the grim and the beautiful in the same place is striking on Yarost’ I Proshchenie. For all the record’s heaviness, there are still moments of melody which poke through like rays of sunlight amid the album’s dark clouds. The band say: “Melody always adds beauty and some kind of contemplative effect to the music. A beautiful melody is a very good seasoning for a heavy sound. If you can use this element, why shouldn’t you do it? All this expands the musical palette and makes the album more varied and interesting.”
It would be easy for things to get pretty messy on Yarost’ I Proshchenie considering just how much is going on. But this, for the most part, is something WOWOD manage to avoid. Instead, the album flows well, feeling like a completed work whilst still offering solid individual tracks. “We always try to make an album one whole thing. You can get a certain effect with that approach. It’s crucial to have the compositions in the right order, with seamless crossfades between them. When playing with the listener’s mood and feelings you can make the ideas and concepts in the record more detailed… It’s not enough to make a 40 minute long track and cut it into pieces – it’s not our method. We try to make each and every track in terms of composition, so it could be listened to separately, out of context with the album.”
WOWOD will no doubt be breathing a sigh of relief now that they can finally share Yarost’ I Proshchenie with the world. While the album was already in its final stages when the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread, the process of getting it out there was not without its challenges. “We had been planning to release our album by ourselves, as all our previous works, but our hard drive crashed with the project almost finished. We lost drum tracks for two whole songs. We had to postpone the release day for two weeks, so we could record and mix the missing parts again.”
The band subsequently signed to Holy Roar Records, before the label’s shocking demise pushed the release back even further. Now, they’re in good company on Church Road Records, and they couldn’t be happier. “There are cool bands on Church Road Records that we listen to, and we are very glad to be on the roster beside them and to be a part of the label… We deeply appreciate that [Church Road’s Justine Jones] didn’t abandon us at that difficult moment.”
As for pretty much everyone, COVID-19 has made it hard for WOWOD to put a finger on exactly what’s next for the band. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the sheer amount of creativity they exhibit on Yarost’ I Proshchenie, they’ve already got the ball rolling for a follow-up. “Right now we are in a process of making new material and refreshing our gear for the new record. Compositions and ideas, made step by step, are starting to form into the new album.” They’re also keen to get touring again once COVID gets out of the way for good. Both of those are exciting prospects, but it will probably be a little while until we get to enjoy either. In the meantime though, Yarost’ I Proshchenie is an album with more than enough going on to keep listeners occupied from a band whose vision knows very few bounds.
Yarost’ I Proshchenie is out now via Church Road Records.
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