Wovenwar, the new band featuring the talents of Jordan Mancino (drums), Nick Hipa (guitar), Phil Sgrosso (guitar) and Josh Gilbert (bass) of San Diego, California-based metal act As I Lay Dying and vocalist Shane Blay (previously lead guitar/clean vocals in Oh Sleeper) released their self-titled debut album last tuesday (August 5) via Metal Blade. The CD was produced by Bill Stevenson (Descendents, Black Flag) with mixing duties currently being handled by Colin Richardson (Slipknot, Machine Head, Trivium).
The band’s debut single ‘All Rise’ is released on April 21th. Today they released the music video for ‘All Rise’. Check it out below.
Wovenwar & While She Sleeps [U.K] are confirmed to support Swedish metallers In Flames during their European tour this fall. The tour will kick off on Sept. 27 in Krakow, Poland and will end Nov. 8 in Goteborg, Sweden. Dates and locations are listed below.
In a recent interview with The Weeklings, Hipa stated about the name of the new band: “The name is just something that we collectively settled on based on the idea that at our core, we’re all the same.
“As human beings, there’s a common thread that runs through us, and we have the spectrum of love and hate and everything in between; we’re born exactly the same but as we age and go through life, certain parts of our character are cultivated, whether it’s a belief system or whether it’s a religious belief or a political belief, or prejudices or anything. Those are influenced by the people who are raising you or the environment you’re reared in.
“You see so much bigotry, hatred violence and war, but they’re all fabricated — they’re not necessary, but they’re just created.
“I think people lose sight of the fact that the human heart is the same in all of us and that’s where the name comes from.
“We chose ‘Wovenwar‘ instead of ‘Wovenhearts’ or something like that because we had to go with the heavier-sounding one and that might sound superficial, but the idea is there.
“If you recognize that those things are all created, then you can choose to live a life in opposition to that.”
Hipa also spoke about Wovenwar‘s much more melodic vocal approach compared to that of As I Lay Dying. He said: “It happened in a pretty natural way.
“When we were thinking of singers, we thought about who met our criteria who we’d want to be in a band with, almost immediately when Shane’s name came up, that was it. There was no tryouts with other guys, or there was no, ‘OK, he’s an option, let’s see who else is out there.’ This is somebody that’s been my friend that half of my life, and somebody that the guys knew and that they respected as a musician and who we were all comfortable with. It was like he was already one of us, and he’s such a talented guy, so let’s see what we can do with Shane.
“When you’re in a band, you want to draw from everyone’s strengths. In As I Lay Dying, I think we made the made the best music we could with what everyone was awesome at and we’re proud of that. With Wovenwar, Shane‘s strength, apart from his guitar playing, which he doesn’t do enough of on this record, is his voice. He’s just got a great voice and what he does best is sing, and we love that about him and we wanted to explore that, so that’s what we did. It worked out extremely naturally because we didn’t ask him to do anything that he didn’t feel comfortable doing. We’d say, ‘Here’s some music, what would you do with this?’ and he’d come back with all these vocal melodies. Immediately Josh hears those and has all these harmony ideas, so you’ve got two singers making the vocal presentation something that, if you take away all of our past musical endeavors, on its own, we felt it was awesome and that’s what we wanted to develop. The sound of the band, while extremely different, came about in a very natural sort of way in the sense of, this is what everyone does well.”
Our review for Wovenwar‘s self-titled debut album can be read here.
Tracklisting:
01. Foreword
02. All Rise
03. Death to Rights
04. Tempest
05. The Mason
06. Moving Up
07. Sight of Shore
08. Father/Son
09. Profane
10. Archers
11. Ruined Ends
12. Identity
13. Matter of Time
14. Prophets
15. Onward
Upcoming Shows:
U.S
Aug 07 Chain Reaction Anaheim, CA
Aug 08 Soma San Diego, CA
Aug 09 The Roxy Los Angeles, CA
EUROPE/U.K.
Aug 15 Pukkelpop Festival Hasselt, Belgium
Aug 16 ELB Riot Hamburg, Germany
Aug 17 X RockFest Herford, Germany
Aug 19 Lido Berlin, Germany
Aug 21 Barfly London, United Kingdom
Aug 22 Bramham Park Bramham, United Kingdom
Aug 23 Reading Festival Reading, United Kingdom
Aug 24 Leeds Festival Leeds, United Kingdom
with In Flames
Sep 27 Studio Club w/ In Flames Krakow, Poland
Sep 28 Barba Negra w/ In Flames Budapest, Hungary
Sep 29 The Roxy w/ In Flames Prague, Czech Republic
Sep 30 Grosse Freiheit w/ In Flames Hamburg, Germany
Oct 01 Rockhal w/ In Flames Esch Sur Alzette, Luxembourg
Oct 02 Live Club w/ In Flames Milano, Italy
Oct 03 Komplex w/ In Flames Zurich, Switzerland
Oct 04 Les Docks w/ In Flames Lausanne, Switzerland
Oct 07 La Riviera w/ In Flames Madrid, Spain
Oct 08 Sala Razzamatazz w/ In Flames Barcelona, Spain
Oct 09 Zaragoza w/ In Flames Zaragoza, Spain
Oct 10 Le Rocher de Palmer w/ In Flames Cenon, France
Oct 11 La Cooperative de Mai w/ In Flames Clermont Ferrand, France
Oct 12 Le Bataclan w/ In Flames Paris, France
Oct 14 La Laiterie w/ In Flames Alsace, France
Oct 15 Ab Hall w/ In Flames Brussels, Belgium
Oct 20 013 w/ In Flames Tilburg, Netherlands
Oct 24 Jahrhunderthalle Frankfurt w/ In Flames Frankfurt Am Main, Germany
Oct 25 Big Box w/ In Flames Kempten, Germany
Oct 26 Haus Auensee w/ In Flames Leipzig, Germany
Oct 27 Gasometer w/ In Flames Vienna, Austria
Oct 29 Columbiahalle w/ In Flames Berlin, Germany
Oct 30 Arena w/ In Flames Ludwigsburg, Germany
Oct 31 Palladium w/ In Flames Cologne, Germany
Nov 01 RuhrCongress w/ In Flames Bochum, Germany
Nov 02 Store Vega w/ In Flames Copenhagen, Denmark
Nov 04 Helsingin Jäähalli w/ In Flames Helsinki, Finland
Nov 06 Hovet w/ In Flames Stockholm, Sweden
Nov 07 Oslo Spektrum Arena ANS w/ In Flames Oslo, Norway
Nov 08 Scandinavium w/ In Flames Goteborg, Sweden
Weblinks: Facebook / Twitter / Website
Video below ‘All Rise’
Related articles:
As I Lay Dying – Awakened [Album Review]
‘Tim Lambesis’ Bandmates Comment On His Arrest [May 2013]
‘As I Lay Dying’ ‘Awakened’ Guitar Tab Book Now Available [May 2013]
‘As I Lay Dying’ Guitarist ‘Nick Hipa’ Interviewed By ‘George Lynch’, Video Available [Feb. 2014]
‘As I Lay Dying’ is sleeping rather than dead, and there are two separate projects to hold you over whether or not it is awakened again (Statement Available)
[April 2014]
‘As I Lay Dying’ members announce new band ‘Wovenwar’ [April 2014]
‘Wovenwar’ (feat. As I Lay Dying members) Release First Single ‘All Rise’ [April 2014]
‘Wovenwar’ (feat. As I Lay Dying members) Studio Update #1 Posted Online [May 2014]
‘As I Lay Dying’ guitarist ‘Nick Hipa’ Tells in Statement His Side of the Story and Stand up for His Bandmates [May 20]
‘Wovenwar’ (feat. As I Lay Dying members) to Support ‘In Flames’ this Fall at European Tour [June 2014]
‘Wovenwar’ (feat. As I Lay Dying members) to Release Debut Album August 5th. Tracklist Revealed, Pre-Order Your Copy Now [June 2014]
‘Wovenwar’ (feat. As I Lay Dying members) More Previews of Debut Album Available, European Tour with ‘In Flames’ Kicks off Sept. 27th. [July 2014]
Wovenwar – “Wovenwar” [Album Review]