WBW may not have released any new material in 2022 but they are certainly making up for it in 2023 as while “Give ‘em Hell” is still moving up the SMR US Mainstream/Active Rock Charts (now not far from the Top Ten at #13), here they are with their second single of the year. This is again from the new album and is one they have been playing in concert so is already somewhat familiar to those of us who have been lucky enough to see them in the last year. Lyrically this is very much a follow-on to all the work they have been undertaking regarding mental health and getting it more into mainstream conversations. They say it is, “is an emphatic plea for something more in life than what we have been sold. The broken mental health systems, the loneliness and isolation felt by so many in a day and age in which we are more connected than ever, the over worked and stretched teachers, nurses, doctors and employees in almost every industry, inequality in almost every aspect of society and a self-serving, capitalist ideal that is not designed to aid or look after the well-being of people, humanity or the planet.”
The lyrics are hard-hitting, “And now we’re wandering this planet alone, Trapped inside our minds and in our cellular phones, Said we’d be connected but we’re feeling disowned, Forgotten, frustrated and fucken outgrown”, and frighteningly accurate. Musically they switch between the bombast and driving percussion and guitars we are used to and slower passages, while at one point we even have acoustic guitars and loads of space. Karl hits the kit really hard, with the drums always being a focal point of their sound, Oli fills in the layers with some keyboards in the background, and then we have the twin guitars of Davie and Bahador which give us the crunch while Michael Murphy does what he does best, singing sweetly at some points, screaming with venom at others, always totally in control of the maverick rocking beast which is Written By Wolves. There are also some choral backing vocals on this which somehow provide space to the overall arrangement, giving it a very different feel, and the four minutes feels far longer as we are being taken on an epic journey.
For quite a while now their major audiences have been abroad, and we can certainly see that from their current success in America, and surely it is only a matter of time before they truly get the recognition they deserve. This is a banger from the beginning to end, and two singles in I am salivating and the thought of the album yet to come.
Rating: 10/10
Links:
https://writtenbywolves.com/
