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When I think of Calgary (Alberta, Canada) I don't think of grind. I think of oil, rodeo, and Country. But Wake is changing that perception. I first heard the quartet on a split with Rehashed back in 2013 but had forgotten about them until 2016's Sowing the Seeds of a Worthless Tomorrow. Fast forward a couple years and the “terror grind” act cement their place as a force to be reckoned with, regardless of locale, with Misery Rites.
If you can't tell by the album titles, Wake deal in personal struggles like addiction, depression, and isolation. Rather than wallow in sombre moods and depressive atmosphere they work through those demons with force. Intense, explosive force. Especially from drummer Josh Bueckert. The way he attacks the kit breeds catharsis just listening to it. From the pure force of hard strikes to the lactic acid blasting of “Rumination”, he leaves the listener anything but wanting.
“Rumination” and its follow-up “Bitter Winter” both go for the powerviolence jugular, eviscerating eardrums with no holds barred speed and power. All is dust. You can feel your atoms being torn apart and thrown into the abyss in a release of energy that just gets fed back into the machine.
Vocalist Kyle Ball does some of his best work on those tracks but throughout the album his intensity never waivers. Deathly growls, higher pitched yells and other terrifying vocal manipulations maintain a fear factor. To make matters worse (in the best way) Primitive Man's Ethan McCarthy lends his voice here and there. That's not the only Primitive Man you'll hear. When Wake slow it down they've got that same filthy weight we've come to know and love from their Coloradan friends.
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| Photos © John Mourlas. All rights reserved. |
You may also notice Misery Rites “sounds” familiar. (Because you're already listening by now, right?) I'm not saying they are copying anyone that way. Not at all. But it does bear the sonic fingerprints of one Dave Otero. He recorded, mixed, and mastered this 27-minute adrenaline shot. He's also worked with the aforementioned Primitive Man as well as Cobalt (and Khemmis but that's a whole different ball of wax). To these ears Misery Rites kind of sounds like if Slow Forever Cobalt went full on grind with that sickening feeling you get from Primitive Man while maintaining Wake's own identity. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?
With grind such as this the violence is usually meted out in small bursts. That's mostly true here but not the 45-second premature ejaculations you get from a stereotypical powerviolence band. Wake have more stamina, pushing over two and three minutes. The shortest is 1:33. That is until you hit closer “Burial Ground”. It's over seven minutes but obviously not 1000bpm the whole time.
Something tells me Wake didn't slow tempos for the album's finale and drop “quiet” moments into a furious black metal flaying to give the listener some breathing room. No one who's made it this far into the album wants to cool down. You're not getting much of a break anyway. The iron still glows red as they hammer away at the world's collective psyche with crushing doom. Guitarists Rob LaChance and Arjun Gill lock horns and feed off each other through tremolo runs, feral chaos, and outright oppression.
Misery Rites is a lot to take in. It's full of unstoppable energy no matter the tempo and gorgeously painful tone. Unreal percussion and lung-searing vocals battle the ferocious guitars resulting in a bitterly angry record guaranteed to affect your day. The world is going to shit but at least we have something to soundtrack our misery.
