Wade Easy - Honey Venom

Wade Easy

Honey Venom
self-released; 2026

By Dan Weston

Wade Easy writes in bursts, finishing records quickly before sometimes stepping away from music for months. That helps explain the Morgantown, West Virginia songwriter’s crowded release schedule: Honey Venom arrives one day short of the anniversary of his debut, Sleeping With the Sun On, with May’s Sea of Night between them. Three albums in a year is a lot to absorb from someone still introducing himself, but Easy has already established a recognizable approach: loose rhythms, blurred guitars and vocals that can make a straightforward love song sound faintly unnerving.

Self-recorded in Morgantown and mastered by Carl Saff, Honey Venom gives that approach a heavier treatment. Psychedelic rock, Americana and garage rock provide the basic vocabulary, while the songs keep returning to desire and devotion. 

“Ey Mama” opens with a groove that reminded me of the White Stripes at a slower, more deliberate pace. The bass drum sounds enormous. Easy’s voice has the pinched, amplified quality of an SM57 fed through an amp, and his theatrical delivery brought Trent Reznor to mind. There’s something slightly excessive about the performance, especially against such a basic rhythm, but that excess gives the opener its character.

“Tomato” eases off the guitar distortion and fills out the arrangement without changing the underlying method very much. Another plain 4/4 beat supports whispered vocals delivered with considerable drama. Heard together, the opening songs establish both the appeal and the limitation of Easy’s approach: he gets plenty from a simple groove, though the vocal mannerisms can become familiar quickly.

“Hot Honey” made me picture a long walk across the desert, its largely instrumental arrangement giving the album a useful break from those whispers. “Pirate of Sand” brings back the gloom with an Alice in Chains feel, while “Reverie” pares things down and leaves more room for quieter details. I found “Strange” among the strongest tracks; it reminded me of the Jesus and Mary Chain.

​“Low,” “Venom” and “Raw” hold up the later stretch, and “Stung” closes as another highlight. The album is cohesive and works very well when listening from beginning to end. Easy’s strongest moments come when a small change in texture or emphasis gives these simple arrangements enough distinction to make me want to return.

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