Wear Your Wounds started as the solo project of Converge vocalist Jacob Bannon, but here in 2019 Bannon has a massively skilled band backing him up, including members and ex-members of, to name just a few, Cave In, Hatebreed, Zozobra, 27, Trap Them, and Coliseum. That list immediately gets my adrenaline flowing, but, really, it might just be 27 that’s the kindred spirit to this band in there, Wear Your Wounds starting this one off with “Mercifully”, a phenomenal instrumental opener, and it’s nothing like what you’re thinking, basically a huge melodramatic classical/soundtrack piece. 

The title track and “Paper Panther” are more rock-based, noisy, post-hardcore, post-emo, very much operating on their own plane, Bannon—as always—using music as a vehicle for pure emotional expression. The acoustic “Tomorrow’s Sorrow” is a highlight, and “Brittle Pillar” shows off the band members’ strengths in atmospheric sludge. “Rainbow Fades” almost sounds like Sabbath at their most stoned, until it sounds like Sabbath at their most rockin’; either way, this song rules, Bannon managing to lead the orchestra of chaos behind him through a most harrowing journey. “Lurking Shadow” and “Shrinking Violet” prepare the listener for the album’s close, and they both have some of the most soulful guitar work that any of the aforementioned bands has ever laid down; closer “Mercilessly” starts like it’s going to mimic “Mercifully”, which it does, but in a whole other way, showing multiple sides to Bannon’s musical personality, which is displayed in all its beautiful, sorrowful glory on this great album.