Wear Your Wounds - Rust On The Gates of Heaven Review

Jacob Bannon is an extremely talented individual. Not only is he the creator and frontman of this band, but he also is the frontman of Converge, a former member of Irons, a prolific artist, co-founded Deathwish Inc., and he curated Roadburn Festival 2018. That is a lot for one man to accomplish in the last 25 years. The frontman of Baroness, John Baizley, has created artwork for numerous bands including Kvelertak, Darkest Hour, and Skeletonwitch, and as of last year, Converge as well. He created a piece for Jane Live, the live-recorded version of their fourth and seminal LP Jane Doe, which is as stunning as it is different than Bannon's original piece. A certain level of respect should be given to these artists and all of those not mentioned that are also immensely talented. So, in his many years of creating beautiful works of the visual and auditory mediums, where do we land with Wear Your Wounds? Their (Bannon's) debut WYW was released in early 2017 to my absolute praise. A breathtaking album, with unforgettable tracks like "Iron Rose", "Fog" and "Goodbye Old Friend," sent chills down my spine while birthing emotions somber and grievous throughout. A month later, Dunedevil was released, an experimental companion piece to a book of abstract art published by Bannon, and yet again I was taken aback by the content this man was putting out. Wear Your Wounds lends themselves to a very different sonic landscape than that of Bannon's other projects. Where Converge out is loud, brutish and aggressive, Wear Your Wounds is melancholic, haunting and contemplative.  Recruiting the guest musicians employed to record their debut soon after to tour, the band evolved into the five-piece they are today, with current and former members of The Red Chord, Cave In, Twitching Tongues, and Trap Them. A mighty supergroup to lead the bands next album, Rust on The Gates Of Heaven. At just over 50 minutes across 11 tracks, Rust On The Gates of Heaven is an intriguing listen in this year's already fantastic line-up of releases. It came to me just as their first album, seemingly out of nowhere. Not only this, but it took me quite a while to actually listen to it. So, with all of this buildup I've been giving to the band who made one of my favorite releases of 2017, does Wear Your Wounds deliver. A resounding yes, and a hesitant no. 

The five-piece have created an album that reflects all of their other projects and influences, all while retaining the core of the original Wear Your Wounds sound, but not perfecting or innovating it. "Mercifully" is a similar opening track to "Wear Your Wounds", the first song on WYW; A somber track led by a piano melody that eases the listener in before intensity strikes. This song, however, is unlike "Wear Your Wounds" as though it seemingly builds to nothing. The climax of the prior was epic, including the sparse Bannon screams in the background of the swelling guitars and the repeated vocal refrain of 'Wear Your Wounds'. "Mercifully" does swell, but does so in a more calming way, utilizing strings instead of pounding drums and Bannon's vocals. I guess it depends on what you want in your opening tracks; I prefer songs that add to the tracklist in a memorable sonic way, rather than meandering and prolonging the runtime. This album has a shorter length than their debut, and length is going to be a recursive point of discussion during this review.

The title track follows "Mercifully" and this is the distinct Wear Your Wounds sound; Melancholic, slow and atmospheric, with kick-ass climaxes to boot. Bannon's baritone rings out in the mix, and the guitars play a yearning melody while the drums hang on their cymbals as the song builds to a sonic high. Welcoming the pummeling instrumentation soon after, this song in retrospect has a very similar structure to "Wear Your Wounds" and is odd to hear directly after "Mercifully". This song should be the opening track, as its similarities to that opening track are abundant. Regardless of its place in the lineup, "Rust On The Gates of Heaven" is a classic Wear Your Wounds song, and should be treated as such. The next song, "Paper Panther" is very reminiscent of a Converge song, with its spoken melodic vocal line, an up-tempo riff, and its eighth-note hi-hat pattern. Unlike a classic metalcore song, however, it never sprints blistering into an aggressive or loud track. At under 3 minutes, the track starts strong but just fades after the two-minute mark into static with a spoken word sample led in by a small guitar line. This is something this album does too often; fades into nothing or abruptly ends. While fades after long songs or at the end of albums are common in most metal, it is rare to find it after most of the songs on an album. "Tomorrow's Sorrow" and "Shrinking Violet" both fade into nothing and "Brittle Pillar" ends in what seems like the middle of a riff. For whatever reason, these odd endings to songs have really thrown me for a loop. The songs are well written and performed as needed for the most part, but most of the tracks do not feel complete. While the production on this release is much better than on WYW, their debut balances the ebb and flow of beautiful and atmospheric versus the pounding aggressiveness. This album tries to do this, but it is missing something.

What mysterious component the album is missing seems to be replaced by the formulaic songwriting of most of the tracks. Almost every song has one to two minutes of atmospheric build-up, a climax a minute or so after, and either a fade-out or an abrupt ending. Where the tracks on WYW were longer and fully developed, the cuts on Rust on the Gates of Heaven are shorter, more succinct, but also sudden in their endings. The songs feel less thought out as a whole, therefore degrading the listening experience. Another issue this album suffers from is creating too much buildup. For example, the eighth and ninth tracks effectively serve as intro songs for the tenth track, "Shrinking Violet". The songs are in the same key, and even reprise riffs from each other. This redundancy tends to clog its runtime and takes away from the album.

I cannot quantify why I am not a huge fan of this album. The riffs are awesome, Bannon is a genius with his vocal delivery, and everything sounds great. So what is the problem? As I said before, I don't really know. I've listened to this over 10 times now, and I have a very hard each time finishing this 53-minute album. This shouldn't be a problem, seeing as their debut was 10 minutes longer and I can listen to that with no hesitation. Aside from the oddball endings to some of the songs, I think this album is good, but I do not believe it's great. I think a lot of the tracks are boring, and not as interesting sonically as what the band was able to accomplish on their debut. There are a few diamonds in the rough towards the beginning of the record, like "Rust on the Gates of Heaven", "Paper Panther" and the start of "Brittle Pillar", but as the record goes on, the songs grow less and less interesting, and more and more monotonous. I really like this band, and I like where this band's influences and allegiances come from, and their sound is really up my alley. But due to repetitive songwriting and personal nitpicks, I cannot say I enjoy this album. I am sorry to all the fellow Wear Your Wounds fans out there, but if you are planning to listen to this band, stick to their debut.

Final Score: Life is a casualty to its own weight.

Favorite Tracks: "Rust on the Gates of Heaven", "Paper Panther"?