Making noise since 2009, Head with Wings has spent years shaping its sound and sculpting its episodic narrative. After emerging from the New Haven, CT music scene in 2012, the band went on to release ‘Living with the Loss’ (EP) in 2013, ‘From Worry to Shame’ (LP) in 2018 and ‘Comfort in Illusion’ (EP)in 2021. The current lineup consists of guitarists, Brandon Cousino and Sayre Whitford, vocalist, Joshua Corum, drummer, Mike Short and bassist, Joe Elliott, although it was Joshua, Brandon and Mike (with help from Vikram Shankar and Connor Oyster) who recorded the new album.
Head with Wings are storytellers of sound. Textured, ethereal, and blissfully haunting, the U.S. – based quintet creates boundary-pushing rock songs that straddle the aesthetic line between art music and narrative drama. A Head with Wings song is a cinematically evocative listening experience, built on the pillars of alternative rock and forged in the depths of prog. It’s varied, emotionally potent and obsessive by nature. It’s a sound 14 years in the making – one that took its time to get here; to the point of ‘Without Intervention’. The new album is uncompromising in its vision and is acutely aware of the void that it fills in the modern rock landscape — an arena that is all too derivative.
I’ve been a long time fan and supporter of this band and they produce superlative music that just gets more sophisticated every time but the band never lose the connection with the listener. A sophisticated amalgam of alternative rock and prog but a sound that sits firmly in the latter, on ‘Without Intervention’ Head With Wings have finally integrated keyboards for the first time and it takes their sound to an even higher level.
It’s a hard hitting album, perhaps inevitable after the tough three year gestation period but there are still those moments of reflection and clarity that marked out the band’s earlier works. Joshua Corum has a very distinctive vocal and adds class and sophistication, though with a incisive cutting edge. The twin guitars give the requisite hard rock/metal chops when needed but also add a refined atmosphere where required. Short and Oyster on drums and bass respectively are an uber tight rhythm unit with Short’s drums especially adding layers of dynamism and added punch. To my ears, this band are like Coheed & Cambria in the early days with that hunger and energy that seems to be lacking from that band nowadays.
‘Without Intervention’, coming in at thirty-six minutes long, is short for a modern album but that leaves you wanting more, rather than outstaying its welcome. The songs are concise and yet deliver emotion filled angst in spades. The overwhelming feeling is one of a deep wistfulness, contemplating the world we live in and its anger, darkness and hatred but trying to find a chink of light and hope because, ultimately, life is worth living and , while it is never always sweetness and light, we need to make the most of it.
From the thunderous riffs of Brandon’s guitar and thoughtful vocals of opener The Dream Broker through the elegantly reflective Task of Breathing and upbeat pop-rock sensibilities of Galaxy, this is intelligently thought out and delivered music that entertains but asks deeply pertinent questions at the same time. I love the way the short interludes of Remnant and 26 Bell Chimes leave a bit of breathing space between songs. This works especially well for the latter as it breaks up the elegant cinematic soundscapes of Comfort In Illusion, eight minutes plus of glorious musical enterprise with Joshua’s passionate vocals and the classy cutting edge of Brandon’s guitar, from the powerfully dramatic and in your face brilliance of Three Months, without a doubt the heaviest track on the album, the intro alone will hit you like a hammer and leave you sat on your backside before this superb track then ebbs and flows between the thoughtful and the thunderous, a really clever piece of music where Vikram’s keyboards are used to wonderful effect. The album closes with Absolute Zero and the band finish on a high with his alt-rock gem. Soaring vocals and sweeping guitars, all backed up by Mike’s fantastic drums, deliver a fitting ending to this excellent album.
‘Without Intervention’, with its sophisticated widescreen soundscape and immersive listening experience, is Head With Wings most accomplished achievement to date. Intelligent songwriting and refined, polished musicianship are rapidly becoming hallmarks of the band’s releases and, with this latest album, the band are cementing their position at the forefront of the modern rock landscape.
Released 20th October, 2023.
Order from bandcamp here:
Without Intervention | Head with Wings (bandcamp.com)