Woe enters a new phase in its existence.
Three years after releasing its fifth album, Legacies of Frailty, Chris Grigg (vocals/guitar/bass/drums/keyboards) reinvents it with the help of Matt Mewton (guitar, Belus, Glorious Depravity), John McKinney (bass, Glorious Depravity) and Mike “Megaton” Kadnar (drums, Downfall of Gaia, So Hideous). Welcome to Legacies of Human Frailty.
Scavenger Prophets immediately plunges us back into this flood of striking coldness, complemented by Chris‘ visceral screams, instantly annihilating any attempt to resist this heady assault. The harmonics take possession of our minds, battered by the rhythm, becoming more insistent as the vocals diversify, allowing the break to give us a moment of respite before joining The Justice of Gnashing Teeth, which quickly develops a more dissonant atmosphere. Made up of bursts and accelerations, the composition also offers us more majestic keyboard passages, but also waves of dark rage that are barely veiled by the more digestible central passage, reigniting the fire to intensify the riffs before giving way to Fresh Chaos Greets the Dawn. The track was originally the first on the album, and we find the same enveloping keyboards that rise slowly but are swept away by the surrounding darkness, even more present than on the original track, ensuring continuity with the previous track before confronting us with the brutality of Distant Epitaphs. This composition is much more abrasive, much more oppressive, while retaining the dissonant elements of the previous tracks and the obvious fury in the vocals, even adding some aggressive Old School patterns before a break on Shores of Extinction, which starts much more slowly, but with the same unhealthy atmosphere. The change I noticed on the original track seems to come more naturally, once again relying on intoxicating harmonics to distill its palpable nostalgia before giving way to the last track, Far Beyond the Fracture of the Sky, which kicks off with a veritable wave of aggression combined with an almost chaotic touch, seeming to bubble up from everywhere at once, and granting us only a brief respite with a keyboard passage before bursting into flames one last time.
If Legacies of Frailty was already an excellent album, Legacies of Human Frailty has an even more visceral, more natural feel to it. Woe has understood this over time and was right to devote himself to the exercise of rearrangement, both for live performances and to mark his new identity.
95/100
A few questions to Chris Grigg, thinking head of the band Woe, about the release of their new album, Legacies of Human Frailty.
Hello Chris and first of all, thank you very much for your time! How would you describe Woe’s music without using the words “Black Metal” or any kind of subgenre?
Chris Grigg (vocals/guitar): Hello, thank you as well! Given those constraints, Woe creates aggressive music that shifts between melodic and chaotic passages to evoke moments of despair, fury, fear, and wonder. It challenges the listener to commune with something primitive and uncontrollable.
Do you remember how you came out with the name Woe, back in time? How do you still link it to the music you play?
Chris: It’s funny but I honestly don’t remember exactly what made me consider the name. I do remember being surprised that there wasn’t already a band of that name. Names are interesting in that after a certain amount of time, the literal meaning of the word(s) disappears and it becomes an algebraic placeholder representing something in the world, distinct from any other meaning of the world. “Woe” as a word — despair, sorrow — of course has its relation to the music we make but at this point, I don’t see the definition, I see the thing emerging from it.
A bit more than two years after releasing your fifth album, Legacies of Frailty, you now offer us a full-band version called Legacies of Human Frailty. How do you feel about it? Do you already have any feedback?
Chris: I’m immensely proud of how it came out and glad we did it. We went through phases of concepts: maybe we’d release a live recording, then maybe we’d do it fully live including vocals in the studio, then we landed on live instrumentally with vocal and lead guitar overdubs so I could stand in the room with the band and not compromise on the final sonic result. I’m glad we handled it this way since now we have a real final form of this material that reflects the idealized but still true and honest versions of the songs. Feedback has been tremendous. The people who get it really get it. Of course there are detractors, but this is almost exclusively Prog fans and people with short attention spans who want hyped up singles from social media influencers.
How would you sum Legacies of Human Frailty’s identity up in only three words?
Chris: True fucking intensity.
Legacies of Frailty was only composed by you (with the help of drummer Lev Weinstein), but Legacies of Human Frailty is a collaborative “re-composition”. How did you notice some songs deserve some shuffles?
Chris: In pretty much every case, the changes were made to translate songs to the live experience. This was especially true vocally, where changes were needed to make the songs feel fulfilling and correct both physically and emotionally. The original LoF record’s vocals were meant to feel like a tank crushing the world: constant, oppressive, pummeling. This didn’t feel right in the live space. What was right: the vocals had to be frantic, dynamic, more expressive. Beyond that, we simplified some arrangements by removing some extra guitars. Synths came up, again, because that was what made the songs feel most intense live while performing. And then there’s the song order, which we’ll discuss next.
I also noticed the first three songs are not in the same order, why did you decide to change the song order?
Chris: The song order was changed to give an urgency to the experience as opposed to the original album’s slower build. The original intro is meant to feel like opening credits to a movie, transporting you somewhere else, and then the song introduces the album’s themes. Live, we wanted to get right into it. It still leaves the overall narrative of the album intact, adjusting the flow to start at full intensity and moving dynamics more to the center. This feels right to us on stage.
Do you now have a different vision of composing while achieving Legacies of Human Frailty? Which bands would you quote as your main influences, and what did shape the band’s sound through time?
Chris: Since Hope Attrition, I’ve been much more careful and deliberate about my songwriting. It means things take more time but the results are better. I have a very wide range of influences and so much of Woe’s sound is (I think) distinctly mine. We sound like Woe at this point. But when I go back to the well, it’s Leviathan, Emperor and other early classics, Horna and contemporaries, Drudkh and other bands from that crew, Dawn. I listen to a lot of Death Metal, you’ll hear the coming through more at times. If you go back to the earlier Woe recordings, you’ll hear more and less of these and others over the years. I started simple, had a few years experimenting with sounds from outside Black Metal, and now I’m old and dumb and primitive.
What is your personal favorite song on Legacies of Human Frailty, or maybe the hardest one to achieve? Did it change from Legacies of Frailty?
Chris: It’s very hard to say since they all have their own personalities and agendas. If I could only play one song to someone that embodies the album, The Justice of Gnashing Teeth. My favorite riffs, arrangement, vocal performance, long exhausting stretches of blast beats, some of my favorite synths, a lot more subtle details than I think you realize at first listen. That said, the slow section where the vocals return towards the end of Fresh Chaos Greets the Dawn and the riff immediately after the synth break in Far Beyond the Fracture of the Sky are my overall favorites moments in Woe’s discography with some of my favorite lyrics.
Do you think you improved yourself as a musician and with this new record?
Chris: As a musician? I really don’t know. It’s some of my favorite Woe riffs and great performances all around. As a songwriter, probably? As a vocalist, sure. As a lyricist, definitely. But I’m not sure how to measure my own progress overall as a musician.
Legacies of Human Frailty is an independent album, how did you decide to get away from labels?
Chris: We wanted this to be as efficient as possible: no advance press, no marketing plan, no hype. We didn’t want to commit to anything, just wanted to get it out into the world and see if there was interest in big runs of physical editions. Working independently let us move fast with all of this. We did a limited hand copied DIY tape with Ten Plagues Tapes the week after it came out. Vinyl was recently announced through our drummer’s label Silent Pendulum and in Europe through Fractions of Life. And we’ll announce pro tapes (again with Ten Plagues) and CDs (again with Silent Pendulum) soon, all at our own speed and terms.
I unfortunately never had the opportunity to see Woe on stage. How do you live a live show from your point of view? Maybe you have some preshow or post-show habit, or some kind of warmup?
Chris: Woe live performances are active, ferocious experiences. We care a lot about sound, presentation, pace, and communicating a physical component to our music. We all handle our pre- and post-show activities separately, but it always involves band meal and we try to find a local bar afterwards to see the place we’re visiting. We like to walk, explore, get into trouble after we perform.
What will come next for Woe? About music, live, maybe other projects on the way?
Chris: This year we’re focused on writing, with live performances more limited to festivals and special events. We’ll perform at Maryland Deathfest this year, a first for the band, and we’re exploring a few more opportunities, but we want to get a new album written and recorded so we can return to Europe.
Do you remember how you discovered Metal, and especially Black Metal back in time?
Chris: Like so many teenagers, I was seeking something darker and more extreme than Punk and the Metal I was listening to. Black Metal spoke to me at a different level, in different ways…
Have you ever heard of the French Metal scene? Are there any bands you know and like?
Chris: The French scene is killer! I’m not an expert by any means but Mütiilation, Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Nord, Aosoth, and Antaeus especially stand out for me. I’d like to learn more and look forward to performing in France again so we can experience the modern underground scene.
Are there any bands you would love to play with? I let you create your dream poster with Woe and three other bands, even unrealistic answers are accepted.
Chris: Slayer (in 1986), Emperor (in 1994), Dawn, Woe.
That was the last question for me, so thank you very much for your time and your music, last words are yours.
Chris: Thank you so much for your time and patience awaiting my reply! Friendly readers, please know that your generous editor graciously accepted the album submission for review, promptly sent this interview, and then life complications resulted in it taking two months to return. Thank you for your support of Woe and I hope we see you soon!