The band Widow Rings is located in Fredericksburg, Virginia and containing two members who moved here from Anchorage, Alaska. The band says “their music aims to blend intense elements of our hardcore and punk rock roots with the atmosphere and at times dance worthy moments of synthesizer based music.”
Their album The Luminous Veil opens with “103119” which is an intro of white noise and distant beat. They get going with “Polaroid” and you can easily notice the post-punk influence from bands like Joy Division and The Cure. As soon as the vocals start, the song begins to feel more pop punk inspired. Something about the delivery felt more celebratory in that way I associate with pop punk. It’s a hybrid but can’t say this had many hardcore elements that I noticed. This felt like a clear highlight. Up next is “Cape May House Show” and this again felt like more of a blend of pop punk and post-punk. I think the thing that really added to this factor was the character and inflection of the lead vocalist. The music is synth heavy and at moments I was reminded of Postal Service. “Dissociation” embraces a lot of atmosphere and darker qualities. The ’80s post punk aesthetic is clear. The vocalist sounds his best in a lower register and octave. “Skinwalker” is pretty straightforward with some resemblance to the band Daughters. The best song on the album was the last one entitled “Party's Over.” I really liked the buzzing, dissonant guitars. I also thought the spoken word vocals were great and this was also the best vocal performance in general. As an engineer myself I thought the band did a solid job with the home recording. That being said I think at some point it will make a lot of sense to work with an engineer. There are a lot of elements and a lot of things an experienced engineer can do to elevate these mixes. I thought the vocalist did a great job. It’s also clear he does a much better job singing at a lower octave. Take for instance “Party's Over.” When he gets to a higher octave there are certain notes he has a hard time reaching. The band is off to a solid start with these songs. I like the blend of genres and the songwriting was good. Take a listen.
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