Coming out of Brooklyn, NY, War Honey are a 4 piece who “write gloomy songs and like to experiment with thick atmospheres and elements of ambient and noise music”.
Their latest single, I Don’t Blame the Rats is out on March 31st.
It opens with sparse chords and very subtle cymbal rhythms, and Gaby singing (with quite a bit of reverb) over what gently builds with a picked riff and an almost hypnotic, pulse-like bass drum. The song is in compound time which helps with the flowing sound.
Almost as quickly as the verse has just got into it’s flow, the song explodes into the chorus, evoking strong memories of The Mars Volta’s The Widow both in terms of soundscape and melody.
The second verse adds some really strong tom work on the kit, and I think there’s a very faint backing vocal quite low in the mix.
Lots of tonal similarities with post-rock bands such as Mogwai, or The Twilight Sad , but with a singer who manages to channel a wee bit of Siouxsie Sioux, Cedric Bixler-Zavala, and particularly Johnette Napolitano at times.
There’s an interesting atmospheric 80 seconds or so from about 3 minutes in, complete with sweeping wind type noises building to the final chorus, and at 5:13 the song comes to an end on an unresolved vocal note.
Highlight: 2 main highlights for me were Gaby’s vocals, which were both moody and soaring in equal measure; and the accomplished drum work (particularly on the pitched toms from the second verse onwards).
Lowlight: the production was just a wee bit too muddy – it was hard to hear the lyrics at several points, and the backing vocal was too low in the mix for it to really have any effect (which is a shame as in the 2nd pre-chorus, there’s a really beautiful harmony in there).
Thoughts: I enjoyed this and had a bit of a dive through War Honey’s other songs which are on Spotify, and I particularly enjoyed Forage for Porridge – more Johnette style vocals, the production is much brighter, and the main riff is very reminiscent of Magazine. On earlier recordings there’s a significant Jeff Buckley influence on vocals too – Landmine in particular has some vocal runs which reminded me (in terms of the notation) of the breakdown at the end of Grace.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
I Don’t Blame the Rats is available on SoundCloud, Spotify and YouTube from 31st March 2023.
For more info on War Honey, check out their website: https://warhoneyband.wixsite.com/webpage
Pop-Crazed Youngster 