HEAD WITH WINGS: From Worry To Shame (PROGRESSIVE ROCK,Alternative Rock): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

There are albums discoveries that, long before hearing the slightest note, arouse interest and curiosity. This is the case with Head With Wings and their first album "From Worry To Shame". Head With Wings is basically a guitar duo (Brandon Cousino and Joshua Corum, who also provides vocals), with a third guitar, bass and drums. On the other hand, Frank Sacramone and Jamie Van Dyck, the two masterminds of Earthside - a band that made a great impression on us with their "A Dream In Static" in 2015 -, took an active part in the record (production and writing).

The main instrument of this album is the guitar which Head With Wings uses all its potentialities to build its tracks and shape its atmospheres. Whether they are electric or acoustic, they are used with a dominance of clear sounds, which allows to overlap the layers while keeping the maximum of clarity and precision without oversaturation effect. The duo masters the braiding of strings and the intertwining of phrasing to perfection and they only increase the gain of their amps to accentuate the contrasts and to highlight their rise in intensity. The American's writing is never excessive in technicality or complexity and favors the fluidity of harmonic contributions. It is in the assembly of the various parts that the magic operates and that all the depth of the music of Head With Wings reveals itself.

In nine tracks which are as many chapters of a dramatic story, "From Worry To Shame" tells the ravages of school killings in the United States and paints a critical picture of the American society. This concept contributes to the great coherence of this record, which is very easy to grasp but which requires several listenings in order to extract all its subtleties and melodic richness. This unity is never monotonous because the duo shows a real diversity in the tonalities, the accentuations or the tempi. The first part of the record appears as the most musically and emotionally dense with a marked progressive orientation as in 'Goodbye Sky' and 'In Memoriam' with superb final ascensions, the catchy 'Somewhere, Something Gives' which reminds Oceansize or the dark 'Misanthropy' and 'From Worry To Shame' which sound like COG.

The second part concerns a more optimistic development of the story and in which Head With Wings stresses its alternative side with always this same originality. Head With Wings adds a little more clarity in the nuances and dares more frankly to carry away its compositions by even trying some touches of soul through the very expressive singing of Joshua Corum who illuminates the whole record with his class and his sensitivity. It is notably the case in 'Stepping Stone' and especially the groovy 'In Dark Motel Room' which could be the meeting between Jeff Buckley, Dredg and Demians.

"From Worry To Shame" is undoubtedly one of those discoveries with a personal signature that offers an original progressive rock, densely packed without being ostentatious and able to touch the listener. Head With Wings has the gift of transporting the listener in its introspective universe, at the same time ethereal by the emotion and the sensitivity deployed, radically realistic by the subject tackled in the lyrics and very organic with the use of many natural sounds. The feet well anchored in the reality and the spirit which tends to tear itself off from it. Hardly a group will have so well carried his name... - Official website

HEAD WITH WINGS

FROM WORRY TO SHAME

AUTRE LABEL

PROGRESSIVE ROCK