Screamo post-hardcore, grunge, sludge and mathier rock flex from Chicago trio Oozing Wound – RIYL Nirvana, TAD, bad Drugs

“Oozing Wound are both a subversive force in heavy music and key players in Chicago’s vibrant DIY warehouse scene. Their albums gleefully defy categorisation, delighting in contradictions and delivered with self-aware humor that sets them apart from their peers. No one is safe from their scathing gaze, not even themselves. Self-described as “a rock-band wolf in metal sheep’s clothing”, this disparity has brought accusations of the band “not taking this seriously” in the deeply serious business that is entertainment. Beneath the blunt- force of the trio’s music lies a deep-set dedication to sonic experimentalism. Catalysts of Chicago’s underground, the trio of guitarist and vocalist Zack Weil, bassist Kevin Cribbin and drummer Kyle Reynolds are champions of irreverence, experimentation and unrelenting volume. Their impact on Chicago DIY can not be overlooked: Cribbin lived in and ran legendary performance space Situations, while Reynolds’ Rotted Tooth Recordings was home to many of the scene’s essential artists. On We Cater To Cowards, Oozing Wound push their music further by turning metal into itself and with their scathing social observations they have produced an album that is devastatingly fierce and undeniably addictive.

Oozing Wound’s self-deprecating humor here reveals something surprisingly honest lurking beneath the veneer of nihilistic detachment. We Cater To Cowards’ lyrics often revolve around anxiety, fear, and the terror of modern existence. Persistent intrusive thoughts are given form in “Old Sludge”s noxious eruptions of noise. “Hypnic Jerk” mirrors 2020’s incessant waves of bad news in the track’s relentless onslaught and churning groove. “Chudly” channels the feeling that you’re the last of your kind, fighting a fight that no longer exists. Just when the listener thinks they know what is coming, the band’s dark layered humor rears its head, as on “Face Without Eyes”, (beyond being a play on the Billy Idol song of a similar name) a song based on the Ray Bradbury character the Lonely One. These heavy doses of unabashed honesty are less metal and in a myriad of ways closer to TAD, early Nirvana, and the heavier elements of the late 80’s Seattle Sound.”