Those who dwell in these dark territories of underground Rock and Metal, of the noisy, the abrasive, the alternative, and the avant-garde are not always so open to big anthemic hooks. Sometimes our reaction to music that dares to rouse the spirits and attempt to soar can be somewhat dismissive. But let us not entirely close our ears and our hearts to hope, because sometimes in the right hands, the results of such sincere passions can be glorious and in the case of Everything A War (7 People Records/ Village Slut)—the latest record by former Prog-Metal frontman David Judson Clemmons (previously of Damn The Machine)—glorious is exactly what they are. 

Having reached something of a creative peak after some 30+ years of making music with 2020’s Tribe & Throne (a record of brooding majesty), Everything a War is another high watermark. Seven tracks of (on the surface) simple, acoustic-guitar-built songs. Something like a cross between the campfire singalong prog of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”, the slowly creeping dark Rock of Mad Season and the Pop-Rock melodic flair of early Heart.

Presented with these apparently simple, by turns rousing, by turns melancholic, melodic rock songs, averaging out around six or seven minutes a track, the question might be posed: do these tracks need to be so long to make their point? The answer? Yes they do, they very much do. 

For on top of the beguiling guitar lines, Clemmons’ impassioned, swirling effects-laden vocals, and the stellar rhythm section Everything a War is a record as sonically beautiful as it is emotionally powerful, rich, and layered instrumentally, without being cluttered. A rich and textured record that envelopes the listener from the first to last note.  

With opener “Learn To Resist” already deploying melodic shifts that puncture the heart with an arrow and shoot it into the sky, the album brilliantly weaves between soaring swells of major-key hopefulness and darker, Heavy Rock turns. It’s a feature within tracks like the opener and from track to track, as the album moves across sonic and emotional terrains of light and dark, of ascension and intensity. 

Perhaps nowhere is this more effective than the really quite perfect “No Fear, No Love, No Lie”. Lush and layered and propulsive with a rhythmic strut, the icing on the cake being an unexpected, ukulele interlude. 

Indeed, while you can describe a certain formula to Everything a War with its dichotomy of light and dark, the execution from track to track is always inventive, satisfyingly rocking, and emotionally resonant. 

After six tracks and 38 minutes of such exquisite Rock music Clemmons still manages to save the most anthemic note for the end with the nine-plus minutes of “The Old World Is Gone”. Allusions to Clemmons’ Prog Rock tendencies reappear with the Pink Floyd-evoking line “I’d rather be locked inside your room than free out there” and one of the album’s few lead-guitar whig-outs. When he roars the line “Alone with all this light in me” phew, it’s a hairs-standing-on-the-back-of-the-neck moment. 

At its core Everything a War is a record of humanism, a passionate rallying cry to love and hope and self-determination. Life-affirming anthems for the underground.  

Buy the album here:
https://davidjudsonclemmons.bandcamp.com/album/everything-a-war 

9 / 10
TOM OSMAN
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