We The Wild
From the Cities We Fled
(Self-Release)
While it’s fallen a bit from the spotlight recently, what I call progressive post-hardcore (think Dance Gavin Dance, A Lot Like Birds) is a mighty vessel for chaotic, cathartic tunes. When it’s done well, it’s easy to grow infatuated with its musical dexterity and raw emotion. Portland’s We The Wild do a great job of capturing what makes the style so successful on their debut full-length, while throwing in some welcome curve balls and offering up hope that they haven’t peaked yet.
The group’s sound is part Hail The Sun’s bombast, Exotic Animal Petting Zoo’s heady melange of mathy fury, melody, and metallic breaks, and a dash of A Static Lullaby’s emotional aggression. There’s also a welcome dash of southern fried metal that makes From the Cities We Fled more flavorful. When at peak performance (basically, the first seven songs), We The Wild show you what they are best at: wild, flailing riffs with unexpected, truly fantastic choruses. While the vocals do the expected sing/scream mix, they are do really well. There’s no nasally R&B tenor hooks or scratchy yelling. Ben Cline is a fantastic vocalist for the style, as his melodic chops lead to some real earworms.
I mean, sweet Jesus, “Exodus and Decay” is just so much fun. The chorus is just killer, and the southern touches are gold. It leads to “Ol’ Boy”, which is basically a hybrid pop-punk and technical post-hardcore tune and the title track which sounds like Mastodon trying to write a Fall of Troy tune (in a very good way). It shows that the group can play around with their sound a little bit and still be equally dazzling. They maybe aren’t the most original progressive post-hardcore group, very few do it as well as We The Wild when they’re at their best. Unfortunately, the ending trio of songs derail things a bit. Slowing things down isn’t a good choice for a band that works so damn well in catchy bombast. Thankfully, closer “2001” recovers just enough to end this impressive debut on a bright spot.
We The Wild throw a lot of ideas into their musical blender. From the Cities We Fled may be one of the more promising debuts from a post-hardcore band in some time. This Portland band definitely understands how to write a damn catchy tune while hiding dazzling technical skill in plain sight.
Purchase From the Cities We Fled here.
