Wren is a 5-piece band from London, featuring members of established bands obe, Exhaustion, Throats and others. So, there is plenty of experience and quality in this newish project. But it comes as no surprise that the variety in musical genres from the other bands these guys play in comes to the foreground in the 4 tracks on this self-titled EP. There are lots of post-rock, post-metal, sludge, hardcore elements, and the vocals sound nearly black metal like, similar to Mike Paparo’s vocals in Inter Arma and Bastard Sapling.
The 20 minutes on offer here are of high musical quality and fans of sludgy, down tempo metal will definitely appreciate this. My sludge metal heart definitely skipped a few beats hearing this for the first time! What makes it stand out though are the progressive elements added to the mix and the overall post-rock feel. At various points on this EP you can hear those very typical post-rock guitar soundscapes adding layer upon layer.
This is especially notable in the opening track ‘Nørreport’ and third track ‘Habeas Corpus’, although it is not the prominent sound, but more an additional layer, as both those tracks evolve completely throughout, adding heavy drums, and those slow grinding sludge guitars, making the songs very captivating. Overall the amount of melody is what really strikes me on this EP. The opening seconds of ‘Nørreport’ for example start with a very melodic sounding guitar and once the wall of sludge kicks in, there are actually more melodic layers added.
There is also a very Deftones-like feeling to this EP, especially on the second track, ‘Pathos’. But imagine Deftones meets Inter Arma, as the vocals throughout this EP are on the edge of the realm of black metal, but also looking into the hardcore field a bit. Final track ‘Ynis Vitrin’ is a huge track, building upon a slow sludge groove, making you slowly nod your head while stroking your beard.
I don’t know too much about Wren and if this is simply a side project from their other bands, or if it’s a lot more serious, but I surely hope it’s the latter. This is way too good to just be a side project. More of this please!
