Will Haven are a band who have diligently been plugging away since 1995, and with VII (MinusHead Records), the cult Californian’s have provided a brash, noisy slice of post-hardcore, which has a raw and relentlessly abrasive sound throughout.
Opening with ‘Luna’, the album sets the pace with a simple drum beat and vocalist Grady Avenall spitting his vocals with venomous rage. A chugging guitar drops and the song ends in a swirling chaos that continues into ‘5 of Fire’.
There is a kind of echoey lo-fi sound with the production on the record, which would appear to signify a band looking back at creating the sound of their roots, while the style is particularly dark with doomy down-tuned riffing on ‘For All Future Time’, ‘Feeding the Soil’ and ‘Paloma’s Blessing’.
The continuously snarled vocals of Grady, and the brash cutting guitar tone of Jeff Irwin collide occasionally with synth atmospherics, which become more prominent as the record progresses on tracks like ‘Wings of Mariposa’ and ‘No Stars to Guide Me’, which is experimentally structured with an emotionally powerful chorus, making it a standout cut for me.
‘Evolution of a Man’ provides the first moments of clean singing on the record with some melodic respite, while in contrast ‘Diabilito’ is a deeply textured slice of chaotic deathly hardcore. ‘Diabilito II’ reintroduces the synths, which roll into the atmospheric closing on ‘La Ultima Nota’.
Bookending melody with some typically raw heaviness, and perfectly summing up VII, which coming in at a little over thirty minutes is all over in an enjoyably chaotic flash.
Buy the album here:
7 / 10
ABSTRAKT_SOUL_