Wear Your Wounds – Rust on the Gates of Heaven (Review)

Artist: Wear Your Wounds
Album: Rust on the Gates to Heaven
Genre: Experimental Rock, Post-Metal, Post-Rock, Ambient
Country: USA
Release date: 12th of July, 2019
Released via: Deathwish Inc.
Cover artwork © Deathwish Inc. 2019

I must confess, that it took a while to get into Wear Your Wounds. I’ve been and am a long time Converge fan, so it’s only natural to look into Wear Your Wounds. The self-titled debut was a good start, but it just didn’t connect with me. But when the Live at the BBC EP was released, I was convinced: the songs sounded way bigger and better in a live-setting.

When the first self-titled album was released, it was the brainchild of Jacob Bannon, coming to life with guest musicians. Now with the second album, Jacob Bannon has surrounded himself with musicians like Sean Martin (ex-Hatebreed), Mike Mckenzie (the Red Chord), Chris Maggio (Trap Them) and Adam Mcgrath (Cave-in) and formed a “real” band.

Judging by the aforementioned names one could expect a very excellent and visceral Hardcore record, but instead you’ll get a sometimes somber, sometimes heavy, but all the time beatiful record.

It starts with the quiet “Merciful” (which is later concluded with the not so quiet “Merciless”) and drifts nicely into the title track. When I first heard it (it was the first preview of this album), I thought it wasn’t a big departure from the sound, that was established on the debut: slow start, loud and noisy finish. So far so good. Another song striking this vein is “Shrinking Violet”.

The next song is is this first of many surpirises on this album: “Paper Panther”. Ticking in under three minutes, very straight forward and with a “western” finish (for real).

My personal favourite on the album “Tomorrow’s Sorrow” is up next. It starts quiet melancholic and shifts around the middle of the track into this upbeat, hopeful mood. From darkness to light, to use a corny metaphor, but it fits here perfectly. “Rainbow Fades” has a similar surprise effect. The song starts slow and moody only to explode at the end.

Jacob Bannon has found a beautiful outlet for all the ideas, that just would not fit within the Converge context, but that are too good to be unheard. Another song falling in this category is “Lurking Shadow”. A beautiful “ballad”, hard to imagine on any record of the single band members.

The whole album has caught me several times off guard. Although the first album was not bad at all, it just did not have this kind of sudden changes within the songs, which are a great strength of this album. I recommend this album to anyone, who has a weakness for nice melodies and is willing to spend some quality time with a great piece of art.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

8/10

As usual, we added the two favorite tracks to our Transcended Review Playlist.