Will Haven – Muerte (Review)

Will Haven are a post-hardcore/sludge band from the US and this is their sixth album.

Will Haven specialise in playing music that effortlessly combines huge crushing riffs and punishing intensity with a compellingly emotive foundation to create highly evocative and engaging soundscapes.

Muerte mixes together elements of hardcore, noise rock, metal, sludge, post-rock/metal, and alternative metal into 47 minutes of material that’s as hypnotically absorbing and viscerally thrilling as anything the band have done at their best. This is an album that makes a strong impression on first listen, and only seems to get better as you get to know it more.

In addition to the usual aforementioned elements that should be familiar to any fan of the band, the Will Haven of 2018 is possibly their most violent and chaotic incarnation yet. This has been comprehensively incorporated into their existing musical framework, however, rather than replacing or overpowering it, manifesting in the songs as music with an even more dangerous edge than usual.

The songs are dynamic and marry abrasive aggression with ethereal atmosphere. Noise/electronic elements enhance the songs further, (more prominently than ever before, in fact), while the singer’s piercing screams are intensity personified. There’s an emotive depth and substance to Will Haven’s sound that can’t be explained via the colossal riffs alone; all factors of the music conspire to create something greater than the sum of its individual parts, and Muerte is an affecting listen on many levels.

Guests appear too – the guitarist of Deftones and, strikingly, the singer of Yob. The latter’s performance on the song No Escape adds an entirely new dimension to the Will Haven experience.

Will Haven are a great band, and Muerte confirms this in no uncertain terms.