WAVES OF DISTORTION “Race against Time”

Self-released, 2021

Music: Heavy Metal / Hard Rock
Website: http://wavesofdistortion.com/
Duration: 45:00 (9 tracks)
Country: U.S.A

Music has no boundaries – neither does it know we are combating a deadly, and invisible force, we call the Coronavirus. Musicians, on the other hand, have used their home isolation period to reflect on their strengths, and the direction of their band – making them find their creative edge! I believe this can be clearly seen on Waves of Distortion’s new album – “Race against Time”. When it comes to Waves of Distortion – they have always been a Rock band utilising the heaviness of Straightforward – heavy metal on some of their tracks. However for this album, it seems as if their focus has shifted completely. With an intent to merge as many as genres, possible – the execution, too, is nothing short of being a masterpiece!

Before we get there, let us discuss the brains behind this band. Based out of Sacremento, Waves of Distortion is a quartet envisioned by the guitarist Brennen Von Slack – who had an idea of blending melodic distortion and clean droning tone. This vision is clearly seen on the album – in fact, right from the beginning itself! “R.A.T” the title track opens with an angsty growl from Fox coupled with a chunky guitar riff. The intro soon dissolves and heads back to the melodic sound that Slack wanted in the first place. Fox’s deliverance is surely an highlight on this track as his cleans are near-perfect and mixes well with the instruments.

This balance between melody and heaviness is also demonstrated on the third track “Original Sin” as well.  The dark guitar tones balance out Fox’s vocals, so does the thudding drum grooves. To be honest, the underrated part of the group is the drums. There’s a lot going on in the drums, but it’s almost as if the guitars shadow it – like one pay more attention to the transition made through the guitars rather than observing the change in patterns on the drum beats. This accounts for a different experience – most of the times we feel as if the transitions are not quite perfect – thereby making one single song seem like two different ones – but, then again, it may be just me who observed this. After all, music is subjective and changes in accordance to a person’s perception and likeness.

Before I wrap up this review, I want to touch on one more track – the last one – “Note to Self”. The reason being the excellent drumming – fills, grooves, transition – everything is perfectly executed here. Wahlstrom shines all through this track, and Kudos to Slack, as he has given him the centre stage by taking the guitar riffs aback. Great song to end a great album!

Overall, “Race against time” will surely be seen as a benchmark on Waves of Distortion’s discography as it shows the best of every bit of their pack. I would love to see more of their experimentation, especially how they nail the transitions on their next album. I would also like to see more of Evans – the album showed his finesse, but doesn’t really give an centre stage to bass. Perhaps an intro from Evans on the next effort would be great. Anyways, I’m totally up for anything that the bands puts out next!

Tracklist:

01 – R.A.T.
02 – LOTUS
03 – ORIGINAL SIN
04 – GUARDS
05 – CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY
06 – NO THEORY
07 – GHOSTS
08 – ONE LAST GOODBYE
09 – NOTE TO SELF

Line-up:

Josiah Fox – Vocal
Brennen Von Slack – Guitar
Glen Evans – Bass
Jonas Wahlstrom – Drums

Rate: 8.5/10