Originally on Drowned In Sound
At the turn of the millennium, when nu-metal had reached its peak saturation, Will Haven—often known as that band who were tight with Deftones—slipped through the door with their third record, Carpe Diem. Their timing was impeccable, building a cult following in the late '90s metal scene from Sacramento, California, the state that housed most of the genre's shaky acts. That album, especially its title track (with Chino Moreno of Deftones appearing in the charmingly lo-fi video), gave them a well-deserved hit that kept them in memory. Even if their sound often felt like a less dynamic version of their Sacramento peers, they were still far better than most 'metal' bands of the era.
Muerte by Will Haven
By 2003, when nu-metal was essentially dead, Will Haven went on hiatus for a few years, then returned in a limited way without main vocalist Grady Avenell on 2008's The Hierophant. Their proper comeback came in 2011 with Voir Dire, Avenell back at the helm, and even featuring Slipknot percussionist Chris 'Dicknose' Fehn on bass—a relatively warm reception for their true 'return' album. Now, with their follow-up Muerte (Death), the band has expanded their sound further and wider, making it arguably the best-sounding Will Haven record to date.
There's a heightened emphasis on synthesizers here, adding an almost black metal atmosphere—a welcome shift. On lead single 'Winds of Change', the breakdown two minutes in feels like being suspended in midair while guitarist Jeff Irwin's trademark bent riffs smack your ears; it's genuinely thrilling. They pull this trick a few times across the record but in different guises, like the closing sequences of 'The Son' and '43', and toward the end, moving into full ambient territory on 'Now in the Ashes'.
Elsewhere, Will Haven is joined by Mike Scheidt of legendary doom-metal band YOB. His vocals on 'No Escape' are disorienting at first but grow into the track as it progresses. Meanwhile, the album's finale 'El Sol' doesn't help accusations of living in Deftones' shadow, as it's co-written with and features guitarist Stephen Carpenter. It's an epic song—though the final vocal line is a bit odd—but it's hard to tell what Carpenter adds, given the band already spends a lot of time trying to sound like him.
So, Muerte, Will Haven's sixth album overall, is an impressive record for its inventiveness and atmospheric production. It suffers from the classic metal problem of being decidedly one-note, but they do enough within their genre conventions to keep things interesting and always mind-crushingly heavy.
