Chemically enraged medicine and the warmth of a therapy room have made it so we, as humans, can better understand and combat the harshness of our internals and what we experience outside our own bodies. However, with Wiltwither's newest album, Pure Light, we are no longer patients of comfort and healing, but subjects of pain and revelation. The Columbia, South Carolina-based metalcore band has been breaking ground for the last five years, releasing several EPs (the most notable being last year's The Yellow Wallpaper, praised by Knotfest), touring alongside big-league acts such as VCTMS, Heavy // Hitter, and being added onto the 3DOT Recordings (owned by members of Periphery) roster. This album is ambitious, and one of the more luring ones in metal this year.
This thing is as heavy as it is creative: a 12-track concept album set in a group therapy setting where numerous individuals from various sections of the country are taken and administered, monitored, and manipulated through a new drug, "Pure Light"- causing subjects to gain euphoria, telepathic bonds, and an uneasy sense of susceptibility. Split into three separate 'acts' narrated by a female moderator, the album is morphed into a story dosed in a wall of intense riffs, unrelenting and even jazz-like drumming, and vocal barrages. There is a lot of intricate sounds packed throughout the album, and we're going to dissect the shit out of them. Breathe, relax, and let the medicine do its work. Welcome to Pure Light.
Act I: Open The Fucking Door
"Act I" sets us into what will be an anchor point throughout the session. Booming sets of echoed bass pour out of it, where we're introduced to a professional female voice- the moderator. If you've been in therapy, this choice of dialogue and the promised reward of insight will sound all too familiar. The floor becomes ours to speak, and we're thrown into "New Pain". Resistance of suicidal ideation engulfed by ridiculously low-tuned guitars and bass, the drums are crisp and swing with an axe, and the vocals are maddening; somebody has issues. As a guitar player, my preferred instrument will always be a more focal point in my mind, and this album is filled with some of the most impressive effects and nuances. Guitarists Dakota Brown & Joshua Davis hemorrhage each track with neck slides, pick scraps, and fret taps, and what sounds like Digitech's whammy turned to the highest damn octave for dissonant chords- the tabs for these songs have to be as insane as they are engaging. Digital glitches blur with our moderator asking to "tell me more / that's...interesting.." mid-song before vocalist Nick Rendelman barks a refusal against awaiting the inevitable. Within the first track, you are reminded that you will see through this experiment with Wiltwither.
"Front Door Phobia" featuring Andrew Herman of Johnny Booth swivels between thrashing and bouncing and has one of the hardest outro breakdowns on the album. Paranoia and isolation are breathing behind this track, and distorted voices begging to "open the fucking door" sent a chill down my spinal column. Bassist Anna Harper is an integral part of this procedure; her chosen tone rumbles, and every verse section sounds like it's in a thunderstorm- therefore, every breakdown becomes a fucking hurricane. "Worst Case Scenario," featuring Joshua Rendelmen (brother of Nick), is an interesting track, where Joshua delivers the album's first clean vocals, in a melodic fashion, while the rest of it sounds like Black Tongue and Alpha Wolf going to war. Low-tuned guitars throw dissonance and Digi-Tech effected riffs one way, while drummer Tyler Syphertt tightly mixed kicks and chinas are bashing the other way. It's a damn symphony. The outro is the kicker- the onslaught cuts to soft piano and chatter, and we get a soulful saxophone solo: we went from the mosh pit to a jazz club, and we're not even halfway through the damn album. There are a lot of thought-out, creative choices that were dabbled into this thing, and it's as enjoyable as it is experimental.
"Front Door Phobia" featuring Andrew Herman of Johnny Booth OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
Act II: Embrace
"Act II" sets us back into the chair, except in addition to the previous acts' prominent bass echoes, sinister minor-key synths are now creeping up throughout it. The moderator encourages the subjects to dig deeper, really get into it, share, and accept that with suffering, there will be change. "Can I Live In This Moment Forever?" pries us open with grief and denial- down-stepping riffs and sporadic drums further open the ribcage. The atmospheric guitar leads make this one sound like it's levitating during the choruses, and the drums and bass during the buildups are insanely tasteful before we exit with a beatdown that gets fucking slower with harmonics that bring a taste of industrial metal.
"Wiltwither 2" is thrashy, and dissonance has laid claim to the land here. There is a lot of chaotic things going on here- Syphertt's drums are firing on all cylinders, and Rendelman's mid-range vocals are going berserk, with the only confession here is that with pain, we will build our salvation. For a band to have a self-titled track placed on the album, they gave it their all right here. "Black Pearl" is an ode to witnessing addiction and illness; the track feels like it's being literally stretched and tightened as it progresses, as it tilts itself on its head.
Despite the issues at hand from our subjects being presented as melancholic, anxiety-filled, and guilt-ridden, there is positive pushback through each track.
Vocalist Nick Rendleman states the album's goal,
"If you're experiencing the record as a whole, I'd love for you to walk away caring about your neighbor a little bit more. For as heavy as it is, the message is to be kinder and more compassionate".
For influence, the band has nurtured this realm of metalcore, hip-hop, and R&B to create this world of futuristic science and politics gone from bad to worse.
Drummer Tyler Syphertt cites influence from such artists and films and states,
"We were inspired by how certain films and shows approach the gravity of an unraveling mystery. The influences were all over the place- from Kendrick Lamar to Jesus Molina. We got these slight undertones of retro mid-century futurism by researching classified projects like MK Ultra and other historical events".
Act III: Pure Light
"Obsolete" OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
"Act III" builds upon this stepping-stone progression of our experiment and has become unhinged. Bass echoes are replaced with pounding and droning guitars and drums with synths behind it- with the moderator now urging, unhealthily, the subjects to claw out and expose the parts of themselves where it all went wrong. This act is the most cinematic of the three, and serves as the climax of the album. Pure Light is now our drug of choice.
"Obsolete" is spiteful with Nu-Metal and Hardcore elements. The more the song sounds like I'm supposed to leave others, and others leave me, with a bloody mess from elbows and punches, the more I love it. Rendelman throws us left field and introduces death metal like high screams, and even some nasty guttural work. The guitar bends in the breakdowns are absolutely filthy and make this song as hostile as possible. "Front Door Phobia" was top of my list until this one came on. This is my personal favorite on the record.
"Sink Until You Reach The Bottom," featuring Tristen England (Of Wolves and East Viridian), is atmospheric and puts subjects into a catatonic and dreamlike state of regret. The second instance of clean vocals in a chorus, and it brings a nice flow out of the relentless blitz we've been exposed to majority of the album. The culminating and final track of our experiment, "Pure Light", is filled with heavy bliss. High echoes pour out, soft guitar, and prog-like drums carry us to an ethereal-like chorus of how well this new drug works, and "all you need is a taste". The self-titled track fights back with as much aggression as possible to resist the high before it can no longer, and drifts into submission.
Pure Light is an example of a band carving new, creative, and intelligent ways of expressing themselves through heavy music and storytelling. Concept albums are a hit and miss on the spectrum of metal because they can get lost within their own lore or how they're musically presented- that is not the case here. You are sucked into this story of a cold scientific experiment disguised as a therapy session, and the interlude separation gives you a bookmark of where we are in this album, story-wise and musically. Sonically, the band has crafted a unique sound that I have only seen from them thus far. The instruments are vastly versatile with strong creative uses of effects, atmosphere, and dabbling into other genres. The vocals fit the album's need to expose real emotions, and the feature choices brought out instances of needed stasis throughout it. Wiltwither is upping the dosage of creativity with ingenuity, storytelling, and unique songwriting in metal. These guitar tabs are going to be fucking crazy.
Catch Wiltwither performing November 24th with Fox Lake, Deathbloom, and Chained at New Brookland Tavern in Columbia, South Carolina here:
