Ok I’m gonna start this review off by saying, what the hell took so long Head Wound City? If you don’t know these guys, they’re a Grindcore/Noise Rock/Art Punk supergroup made up of members of The Blood Brothers, The Locust, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. They released their first E.P. which was a whopping 9 minutes long in 2005 before breaking up soon after. The E.P. though, which was self titled, was surprisingly really solid, and was exactly the sound I was really looking for from the supergrup. And now here we are 11 years later with a full length album from this supergroup, this time a whopping 24 minutes in length. Was it really worth the wait? Let’s find out shall we.
This 10 track explosion of an album starts off with “Old Age Takes Too Long”. Head Wound City absolutely start off on their artsy side by throwing in some tribal drums which I honestly didn’t expect at all. If you heard any of the Blood Brothers early records, or Head Wound City’s self titled E.P., listening to this opening might throw you off guard. I was expecting to be thrust into an instant Grindcore hell house, and it does absolutely eventually show up, just not right off the bat. Now I’m a huge fan of Jordan Blilie and his vocal performance in the Blood Brothers, I always thought he was just so over the top and exciting. Maybe it’s just that he’s gotten older, but outside of the tracks most piercing moments Billie sounds a cheap rip off of himself. Not to mention what was so great about the supergroup’s self titled E.P. was just how in the moment it was. It sounded so dirty, so exciting, so grimy, like I was there in the beer soaked pits as the band was playing fast paced melodic grindcore. But here, Head Wound City honestly sound grossly overproduced. “Old Age Takes Too Long” has power, but the energy is just not what I expected at all, and it ends up leaving me completely unaffected. This sadly is the feeling I get on a lot of tracks here, take for example “Head Wound City U.S.A.”. This one starts off with super punchy guitars, and up until this point is by far the most chaotic thing I’ve heard. But in the 2 minutes that it’s around, “Head Wound City U.S.A.” doesn’t really accomplish anything either. Sure, the energy of the group is commendable, and that monologue about halfway through is pretty cool, the track literally blasts by without leaving any impact. Now for the most part, “A New Wave Of Violence” has a pretty straightforward Grindcore formula, but there are a few tracks on here that are legitimately strange. Take for example “I Cast A Shadow For You”. Talk about bizzare, here Head Wound City decide to take a stab (no pun intended) at groove metal. While the guitars are punchy, the vocals here for the most part are watered down to the point where it sounds like a completely different band. The biggest shame here is that this track has it’s moments. When those guitars start winding up and Billie’s vocals get back to where they should be, it get’s legit intense. For about 15 seconds. Moving on to “Scraper”. Right from the get-go Head Wound City drop everything and decide to become a melodic hardcore band. Here, they come off as one of those “Punk” bands of the early 2000’s that took themselves super seriously and really thought they were reinventing Punk Rock even though they weren’t. The last minute of “Scraper” does shape up, but that first minute and a half is just so damn weird. So to get this straight, in the 11 years that have passed since their self title E.P., Head Wound City really don’t sound like they know where they’re going at all. Yes, I know they haven’t been together practically at all during that time, but still c’mon, you expected more out of this didn’t you?
Now I can’t sit here and bash the entire album. Well I could, but I’d be lying if only a little bit. “Born To Burn” isn’t terrible, and for the most part all of the elements I love are there. The blasting guitars have actually a tiny bit of “impending doom” in them, and Billie here sounds great. But it’s still not nearly as good as a track as I was expecting, at it’s very best this sounds like a B-Side from a classic Blood Brothers album like “Crimes”. While it is solid, and while other tracks here are decent too, I really can’t help but feel like I expected just so much more. And it’s a shame, because there are a few really great moments here, like “I Wanna Be Your Original Sin”. After a few bland tracks, this one serves as quite the wakeup call, and it’s easily the most “Hardcore” track here. The guitars here sound like they’re seconds away from breaking from shear force, and the Billie’s vocal performance here is so unhinged and outrageous that it works absolutely perfectly. And while it’s only 56 seconds, honestly it’s everything I wanted to hear from Head Wound City. Later on we have “Closed Casket” which honestly sounds really solid too. The drum performance here is fantastic, the verses are unforgiving, and the band pulls off an insanely catchy and memorable chorus which I can’t get enough of. Like, if they made an album just like this from start to finish I would be so sold. Now there are some obvious cliche’s in the later moments, but I’m willing to overlook that, “Closed Casket” is just freakin’ fun man. Even “Palace of Love and Hate” is more straightforward than some of this album’s more strange moments. This one here, let me tell you is just pure chaos. The verses here are a complete buildup to the “Freak Out” of a chorus, which honestly that’s really what it should be in this brand of Punk. “Palace of Love and Hate” is short yes, but it’s also unforgiving, violent, and just really solid. So see, this album’s not a complete waste of time.
Well I have all my good things to say about this album out of the way boys and girls, time to wrap this up. “Avalanche In Heaven”, oh boy, right off the bat this just doesn’t work for me. Sure the guitars are powerful, and Billie’s vocals remain aggressive, but man oh man the atmosphere and the energy just don’t cut it for me at all. The chorus sound’s like a Blood Brothers cover band, and there is just no heart to this at all. “Avalanche In Heaven” is just so overproduced and so rehearsed sounding, it just falls flat for me. Finally we have the album’s finale “Love Is Best”. Once again right from the opening notes it doesn’t sit right with me, nothing about this does. Even that opening guitar riff just sounds way too clean to me. Absolutely NOTHING happens for the first minute, and the moment that the instrumentals do pop in it practically sounds like they’re trying out Doom Metal. Nope, sorry, not into it. Everything about “Love Is Best” even at its more intense moments just feels so damn sluggish. Like, I get it, Head Wound City here are trying to go for more of a slow-burning finale. If they did it right, it could’ve turned out awesome. But it really didn’t. “Love Is Best” just comes off so staged feeling, and while there are solid moments throughout this album it’s not here at all.
Rating: 6.6/10
Give A Listen To: "Closed Casket", “Palace of Love and Hate”, “I Wanna Be Your Original Sin”, "Born To Burn" (I Guess)
Overall Thoughts: Ok let's get the obvious right out of the way: Guys what the hell took so long? I don't think this album is completely unlistenable. But for starters, I think this would've been a whole lot cooler about 10 years ago. Second, man is this thing overproduced. That first E.P. these guys put out was so great because it felt so in the moment. This, sounds like they took about 100 tries to rehearse about half of these songs. Some of these songs are really solid, and if they hunkered down on the sound of tracks like "Closed Casket" I think Head Wound City could make a really great album. But there are so many weird detours into groove metal and God knows what else on here. "A New Wave Of Violence" just feels way too incomplete, I expected a whole lot more.
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