Guest post by Drew Zackary
It doesn't take a pipe-smoking Frenchman writing novels about a godless universe to make me terrified of my own moral freedoms. James Johnson's chanting voice is enough.
Baltimore-based Wilderness's 2006 EP Living Through should be played loud, ( as all Wilderness songs should be). The title track begins silent, the soft patter of rain the only sound for nearly a minute until the reverb-dripping guitar comes forward towards the listener. The bass and drums crash suddenly into a tight unexpected groove.
Then it happens.
That terrible voice of the Id muscles in. He chants, So here is to you and your situation / well hello to these trying times. But the tension is in the delivery. You truly have to hear it to feel it.
Wilderness are a guitar player's wet dream. It's one of those bands that we hear and immediately wish we were in.
With 2 previous full lengths, a self-titled, and Vessel States. This single is a good introduction to the band. For pure bliss, buy the self-titled; it's a masterpiece: blending classic production with crazy compression levels, the sound just works.
Try out Arkless. In fact, I dare you not to listen to it for 2 days straight. Simply put, if you feel latter day secret terrors, Wilderness will remind you, you are not alone; a benchmark for all great art.
ed. note: the only versions of 'Living Through' anyone had were DRM-crippled downloads from iTunes, which don't embed very well. So we managed to find a streaming version of 'End of Freedom' from their eponymous 2005 release, which we think you will enjoy
update: the embedded track was making some people's browsers do horrible, horrible things, so it has been removed. We're sorry.
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