WAYFARER - DREADNOUGHT

"The single best example of Western black metal"

WAYFARER

WAYFARER is black metal of the American West. A cavalcade of fury, melancholia, and dust-laden storytelling; the band is informed by the fierce and adventurous spectrum of heavy music, along with the stark Americana of the “Denver Sound” artists that carved the identity of their home.

In A Romance With Violence, their most fully realized effort to date, WAYFARER presents a searing silver-screen requiem for the myth of the West. This new work sees them at their most intense and triumphant, as well as at their most pensive. Bold, rhythmic and riff laden, the band’s pointed expedition across the frontiers of black and extreme metal are tinged with the grit and genuine air of artists like Sixteen Horsepower and Jay Munly, and the majestic heights of the Ennio Morricone/Sergio Leone collaborations.

Through seven harrowing and triumphant anthems of the high plains, the album paints a poignant exploration of heroes and killers, the setting sun of a romantic era, and the shadow it has cast on the world we live in today.

DREADNOUGHT 

For their fifth full length “The Endless”, genre-defying progressive metal outfit DREADNOUGHT present their most spellbinding musical feature yet. With riveting vocal performances, ferocious grooves, and soaring synthesis, the quartet offers a familiarity to the melodic awe of previous records "Lifewoven" (2013) and "Bridging Realms"(2015) as well as the dark complexities within "A Wake In Sacred Waves" (2017) and "Emergence"(2019), but with a beautifully fresh perspective in writing, production, and performance. Joining in the common ground of extreme metal, the quartet explores a blend of prog, doom, folk, jazz, classical, black metal, and post rock.

Thematically, “The Endless” departs from the familiar abstract of Dreadnought’s first four albums and dives into a relatable character arc about the human divide of light and suffering. It is an overture to the complexities of the proliferation of life, exploring the trail of choices that shape our world and our lives. It invites the question, can we overcome our nature and make higher minded choices to better humanity and our planet? Or are we lost in a never ending cycle of shadow?The album opener “Worlds Break” begins in a post-apocalyptic landscape, heeding our need for guidance in the direst of times. “Midnight Moon” leads the listener in trance, through depths of manipulation and fear. As we reach the title track “The Endless”, lush textures and crooning vocals place us among the pits of despair, shock, and loss. "Liminal Veil" offers a vast landscape of celestial drones and enthusiastic grooves, while "Gears of Violent Endurance" reminds us of our primal nature through great ferocity.

In reaching the album closer "The Paradigm Mirror", the dust begins to settle yet a great tension remains, inviting us to reflect upon vicious cycles of the human experience and how we can escape them.