Before I can tell you the story of Woundflower and their debut full-length, Misery, we will have to first talk about the band Bled To Submission. Blog alumns and friends to The House of Grindcore, Nashville's Bled To Submission released their third and final major release, Bury Them in the Graves They Dug For You, on Nerve Altar Records back in 2021. After a musical career spanning some five years, the band ultimately chose to bury themselves in the grave that they dug by calling it quits soon after the release of that last EP. The band's sludgey mix of power violence, hardcore, grindcore and harsh noise coalesced into a darkly textured and atmospheric record. (The particulars of that release can be found here.) But as prophetically titled as that final EP was, the members of Bled To Submission would ultimately claw their way out of that acidic grave dirt—well, some of them, anyways.
Nashville's Woundflower are the metaphorical and literal successor to Bled To Submission and their noise fueled metallic grind-violence. Like their predecessor, Woundflower are cultivating that same rich atmospheric form of grindcore. Their malevolent, sour-electric take on the genre isn't wholly new, but I think both Bled To Submission and Woundflower offer a powerful and sophisticated take on the genre. Woundflower operate within that same technological hellscape that Bled To Submission did, yet Woundflower are not as meticulous in the circuitry that they are sewing. They are less Tetsuo: The Iron Man and more Tetsuo Shima of tech-dystopian anime, Akira. And of course those are deep cuts that are completely convoluted and are very much a Japanese comparison of apples and oranges; but suffice to say, I feel Woundflower are first and foremost focused on obliterative grindcore. Songs on Misery play out about as you would think with their own ghostly aura. If anything, I feel Woundflower are the haunted house within that industrial-noise-grind post-apocalyptic, overdeveloped cyber-cacotopia. Misery has a bitter and calculating anger to it that I feel is from fermenting deep someplace in an eldritch sort of darkness.
From my first listen of Misery, I was immediately struck by the album's heavy low-end. The bass and drums are massive in the mix. Not only is it nice to hear the rotundity of the band, but it also gives a live performance feel to the album. If you have ever been to a show at a venue that was proportionally generous with the subwoofers and you could feel the bass in your chest, imagine something like that. The bass guitar, floor tom and kick drum, in particular, rumble with a thunderous weight.
Misery's basswork is provided by one J. Weilburg, who seems to have also taken over bass duties from Bled to Submission's Patrick Quinn after Bury Them in the Graves They Dug For You, if I'm not mistaken. His return here in Woundflower is emphatically underscored by the aforementioned mix. Opening track, "Worthless," begins with a slow and foreboding bassline against a backdrop of pouring white noise. It plays like a Wound Man track only deformed and darkened by its time in the abyss. Instead of the bass waning when other instruments enter or the tempo increases, it remains audible and forefront; especially in the slower dirges. The bass can also turn those dirges into confrontational and sneering power violence pawings like in tracks, "Parasite Unsurpassed" and "Hopeless." Misery's mixing and mastering by Kevin Bernsten at Developing Nations Studios and Dan Emery at Black Matter Mastering, have turned this record into a real love letter to grindcore bassists and bass enthusiasts. While the basslines might not be overly flashy, their mere prominence is enough to get me completely pumped.
J. Weilburg is working closely with drummer Ross Winchel. Winchel is a careening and shifting torrent of blast beats and slow groove based power violence themed sludges. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of blast beats in Misery. The album could have very easily put the grindcore on the back-burner in favor of artistic experimentation. Instead, Winchel is providing the proverbial two scoops of blasts. He is riding a line between precision and unhinged impetuosity; stepping in and out of tempos as need be, but never missing a beat or distracting from the composition. I really enjoyed his relentless blasting in "I Am Regret." A little more than half way through the song he turns the snare drum into a pulse pounding two-step that proves that sometimes raw power can be just as propelling as blast beats.
One of the more notable differences between the Bled To Submission's v1.0 and Woundflower's v2.0 is the guitarwork from Isaiah Rodriguez. One of two guitarists in Bled To Submission, Rodriguez is now sole guitarist and has really evolved. His former contributions in Bury Them in the Graves They Dug For You were a flaming, stannic writhing. Misery has a heavy dissonance that I didn't remember in past releases. The style is reminiscent of bands like Cognizant or Chadhel. Rodriguez's playing style is a whipping and aggressive string of fanged distortion torn with peels of feedback. It's a lot smoother and more modern than what I have heard from him before. While almost every song features dissonance, "Rusted Flesh" is a good example specifically of Rodriguez's guitar prowess. Not to mention a summative descriptor for the band itself.
I hate to keep drawing comparisons to the band members' past musical endeavors, but the comparisons between Woundflower and Bled To Submission can't be ignored when it comes to the harsh noise elements of the two bands. Although, while not as enamel dissolving as the noise elements on Bury Them in the Graves They Dug For You, Misery contains some very similar and very shrill noise tracks. This isn't surprising given the noise orchestrations are once again handled by Isaiah Rodriguez and J. Weilburg. Weilburg, himself, is known in the Nashville post-industrial noise scene and is the founder of Trance//Furnace, an electronic and noise art collective.
However, Misery is less of that screeching sizzle and more of a haunting air. "Cultivating Misery" has an old horror vibe. The song sounds like a 1950's science fiction B-movie mixed with someone pouring a cup of nails onto sheet metal. I feel the band's noise elements, as well as the malign nature of the album overall, have a horror tinged influence. Maybe that's just where my mind naturally goes or maybe it's the eeriness of the encroaching autumn season. Who knows? This might also be the reason why I couldn't help but hear an Earth A.D. riff on this album. Likewise, the song "The Bottom Feeder" plays like an ominous ambient synth score to some A24 or Neon Films arthouse fright feature.
In addition to their noise, guitar and bass contributions, Isaiah Rodriguez and J. Weilburg have taken the reins as far as the vocal duties. What we get here is the standard high/low contrast dual vocal combination. The lows have that tone of the throaty crusty, metallic hardcore ilk. The highs, of course, are the scathing and decorticating vocals that boil your eardrums out like a hot liquid metal. Sometimes I think I even hear a combination of the two.
Overall, Woundflower's Misery is not only what I expected from this group of young men, but it's what I was hoping for. Their noise charred industrial wired grindcore—emphasis on the "grindcore"—is some of the best out there. It's aggressive, abrasive, fast and brutal. While the band takes its time laying out the bleak and moody noisescapes, they know when to speed things up. Like I said, the similarities to Bled To Submission are inescapable and I saw that Austin Strobel, former guitarist and vocalist in Bled To Submission, has a writing credit on Misery. Perhaps this entire thing was meant to be a Bury Them in the Graves They Dug For You follow-up, but things and lineups changed for whatever reason. Maybe the decision to start something new out of respect for a departing member and an ending an era resulted in Woundflower. I've been there.
Regardless, and with all due respect, I find myself digging Woundflower a tad more. (Another apples and oranges comparison at this point.) Misery is a little more straightforward and to the point. There is less of that black metal drip and more of a grindcore focus. Not to mention the mix is great for those who like a little more boom in their blast. I did this review from a digital download so I don't know how all that bass will translate on a cassette tape. Yet, this album is a must for anyone who has a penchant for noisy or file corrupted grindcore.
Listen to album: https://woundflower.bandcamp.com/album/misery
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