March’s Spotify playlist was a monster. It started heavy with the like of Will Haven (who just released their best record in almost 20 years), Yards (featuring former Ghost of a Thousand frontman Tom Lacey), and Rolo Tomassi (who might have snatched album of the year honours already) before moving on to include punk rock old and new, post-hardcore from […]
Read moreWill Haven have been as low as they can go. Since the late 90s the Sacramento outfit have mined a seam of thick, dark, downtuned metal that, despite the changing scenes around them, has remained untainted by outside influence and uniquely, instantly recognisably, their own. They peaked (or descended if you like) with 2001’s ‘Carpe Diem’, a titanic slab of […]
Read moreNew Will Haven is like a warm blanket. I want it to be more, I really do, the dudes in this band deserve such high praise for their consistency and staying power, but ‘Open the Mind to Discomfort’ is more of the same shifting sheet metal they’ve always done. That’s not to say they don’t do it well, not at […]
Read moreThis is no grand return. But only because Will Haven never really went away. Sure, it’s been over a decade since the high-water mark of ‘Carpe Diem’, and Grady Avenell is back after skipping singing duties on 07s ‘The Hierophant’, but the core of the band never split, always wrote and played together, and musically, not much has changed since […]
Read more