Few bands have exponentially grown between records quite like Canada’s Wormwitch. Their brand of crusty, blackened thrash has taken on more influences (folk, melodeath, gothic rock) and emphasized a real sense of grandeur that has helped them stand out a define a unique sound.
That evolution continues with their upcoming third record, Wolf Hex, out August 27 via Prosthetic Records. Everything Wormwitch do well is on display throughout on what should be one of the best metal records of 2021.
New Noise are proud to premiere “The Wolves of Ossory” below, which showcases the band’s strengths and their ability to distill decades of metal into one hell of a good time. It’s an energized, vivacious video:
Read on below for an excerpt from our exclusive interview with vocalist/bassist Robin Harris about his journey to self-discovery and how he and the band got their groove back. You can read more by subscribing to our print magazine here.
Wolf Hex is great because there’s not a single, fucking bit of fat on the record. The whole thing feels like an episode of a TV show you just don’t want to turn your head away from, if that makes sense.
You’ve been very clear about maybe not being upset at yourself, but very dismissive of the idea that the early stuff was just a guess, and that you’ve been a lot more focused as what the band means to you over time. With a lot of us having a lot of time over the last 16 months to figure out ourselves, what does Wormwitch mean to you in this moment?
I was clinging onto Wormwitch for fucking dear life, basically. Because it was the only thing I had in my life that was cool, or it was something I was trying to make cool, anyways. And it’s interesting when I look back at it how I was fucking obsessed with Wormwitch, and how it represented me as a person. I can see how fucking stressful it was. [Past album] Heaven That Dwells Within is the most stressful record that we’ve ever made. And I think you could tell.
That had to be exhausting. So what was the change that led to where you are now?
A little bit of candid info here is basically, we almost didn’t make a third record. We almost stopped the band because it got to a point where we just cared so fucking much about it that it was like an identity crisis. Because a lot of people liked Heaven That Dwells Within, and some people liked the first record as well. But the first record was fairly innocent. It was just the first metal record that I ever made. And then through the process of Heaven That Dwells Within, there was just arguments about the direction we wanted the band to go. And that record is so different from the first record, but [that second album], we obsessed over.
So this record, basically the band almost wasn’t happening. And we had sat down one night, Kyle and I, the new guitarist. We were watching old, live videos of us. After watching these videos, we were looking at these moments where you could see the guy looking to his friend and be like, “Oh yeah, this part’s sick.” You could see. I was like, “What if we made a record that was only those parts? What if we just stop giving so much of a shit about it?”
We were like, let’s just do it. Whatever we want to do, whatever happens, whatever the record turns out like, is what the record is. We’re not going to think about it. We’re not going to fucking try and warp it into being something specific so that we can fucking prove ourselves to anyone. We’re just going to write some riffs that we want to write that we think are cool, and we’re just going to do a bunch of shit.
And the vocals we did, it was one day, and I just got fucking hammered. And we just did the vocals. And we did a bunch of it in our jam space. There was just way less pressure. And it was just way more DIY. We mixed it ourselves this time. I did the artwork myself. Everything was just like, fuck it. Let’s just make a record. And the difference has been, just there’s no stress at all. It was all play, and I think you can tell.
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