WVRM – Can You Hear the Wind Howl (To Live A Lie Records, 30 September 2017)

Okay, so one day last weekend I was running out to grab some food from a nearby pizza place. And as always seems to happen, especially around this time of year, I’ve found myself falling pretty far behind with checking out all the new releases that have been sent my way — and as a result I have been trying to take advantage of any spare moments I can find to listen to stuff. That includes times when I’ll be alone in the car, no matter how short the trip might be, figuring that I’ll at least get the chance to hear a song or two and possibly get a feel for whether I’ll want to write about something here or if it’s not really my cup of tea and I’d be better off moving on. Anyway, on this particular occasion the next thing queued up on my Walkman was a recent EP by a band called WVRM who I’d later learn (I usually try to go into things without any preconceived notions wherever possible) have been around for a few years now and are based in Greenville, South Carolina.

Well, the noise that emanated from my car speakers really grabbed my attention in a hurry; I felt battered, bruised, and tossed around the whole way — and just as quickly, it was over. In fact, the sixth and final song coincidentally had concluded just as I was pulling into a parking space, so I decided it would be appropriate to listen to the whole thing again (all nine minutes and seven seconds) on the trip back home.

The folks at the Encyclopaedia Metallum are notoriously finicky about determining what qualifies as “metal” and what does not — and the realm of grind music is always a battleground. They’ve laid down fairly well-defined (if seemingly arbitrary and highly subjective) rules, most of which boil down to “grind is sort of like halfway between metal and punk so it has to be grind that sounds a bit more metally and somewhat less punky,” to qualify for inclusion in their extensive archives. Well, in this case I feel like there should be no question — this is clearly very metal-oriented. And having just looked it up, I’m surprised to find that for once the keepers of the sacred archives are in agreement, because here is the listing for WVRM.

For the most part, the songs here are typical grind fare: spastic and aggressive, fast and heavy, and right around the neighborhood of a minute or so in length. The two main exceptions form a one-two punch as the EP’s centerpiece, and were the tracks that had really caught my ear: the shortest of the six, “Distinguish,” is just a seventeen-second burst of raw noise and pure energy, but then it’s followed by the longest song (about eleven-and-a-half times longer than its predecessor) “Suffer Ritual” — a bit slower and more deliberate, darker in tone and definitely dark in message (“Do it / Pull the trigger” / That’s what they say / The voices in my head, just to name one example of the acidic lyrics that are snarled over the hypnotically bludgeoning riffs. All in all, the combination makes for material that should appeal to fans of Indian every bit as much as fans of Die Choking …

Grab yourself a download of this little gem right here. Physical 7″ copies are available directly from the band here.
 

WVRM December 2017 Can You Hear the Wind Howl Tour

(all dates with Funeral Chic)

 
12/02/2017 The Milestone – Charlotte, NC
12/03/2017 That 70s House – Nashville, TN
12/04/2017 Poor Boys – New Orleans, LA
12/05/2017 The Lost Well – Austin, TX
12/06/2017 Rockhouse Bar – El Paso, TX
12/07/2017 The Rogue Bar – Scottsdale, AZ
12/08/2017 Til Two – San Diego, CA
12/09/2017 Mi Pueblito Bar – Tijuana, MX
12/10/2017 For The Children 2017 – Los Angeles, CA
12/11/2017 Blacklight District Lounge – Long Beach, CA
12/13/2017 Beauty Bar – Las Vegas, NV
12/14/2017 Burt’s Tiki Lounge – Albuquerque, NM
12/15/2017 Reno’s Chop Shop – Dallas, TX
12/16/2017 Vino’s – Little Rock, AR
12/17/2017 Rockhouse Live Midtown – Memphis, TN
12/18/2017 The Earl – Atlanta, GA

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