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'The world is going down the shitter, this is music that represents it'. Ahead of WristMeetRazor's upcoming third album, vocalist Justin Fornoff talked to Jake Longhurst about the music, the imagery, and the inspiration for the next step in the evolution of this band.
Jumping straight into the sound and feel of the album, inspirations for the album were the first port of call - with an industrial sound I felt the whole release was reminiscent of Code Orange's 2020 album 'Underneath', but Justin instantly shot the thought down - "I wouldn't say it's influenced by Code Orange, though we have played with them, but I would say it's influenced by some of the influences of Code Orange for sure", namedropping 90's groove metal and 90's industrial as two huge influences, as well as smaller takes from black and death metal, with plenty of metalcore still in the mix. Notably, he mentioned the relative lack of screamo which has been a staple of their sound up until now: "we wanted to take the band in a different direction... there's enough bands doing the chaotic screamo thing and it was time for us to go a different direction."
The record is, of course, not just made up of its influences. Each song was written individually, without a specific thought of a concept, but forms a cohesive semi-conceptual album that revolves around a core set of themes. On the first listen it felt nihilistic, but Justin reassured me otherwise saying that "It's about this absurdist, misanthropic kind of view that I've taken on that I feel is more relevant now than it's ever been before." Having as much care for the world around him as Justin does has led him to hating the things pushing the world down, giving the record its misanthropy which is not aimed nearly as wide as it first seems. Each speck of loathing and venom is targeted, whilst the listeners are encouraged to try and take solace from the hopelessness, that there is still something out there to be fixed if we can work together to fix it.
One thing that struck me particularly was Alex Eckman-Lawn's striking art for the cover, and Justin was more than happy to go into depth about the design and decision making behind it. Shown above, the front of the record depicts four human figures tied up on power lines, with their bodies made up of mechanical parts. Asking on whether the religious motif of crucifixion was deliberate, Justin gave an emphatic nod and explained that "there was a heavy influence for it to be not necessarily messianic, in that there's multiple of them, but more so that it's the degeneration of the crucified kind of person within society, how every person that kind of raises themselves up to speak out is eventually crucified and degenerated into a rusted through machine." Further explanation gave way to the thought of how the working class are left to rot and have further power lines built over them, by other working class people, all in the service of some supposedly 'important' person.
Justin and the band spent plenty of time working on more than just the music, as clearly shown by the art, but that wasn't the only thing they worked on. The build up to the album included a veritable treasure hunt that started off with just 12 zeroes, in order to find the name of lead single 'Trepanation' and get 12 seconds of the song. The entire record is built upon these little details - "this is a maximalist record where the minutiae all matters, literally to every tiny extent". Not content to leave it at the incredible depth of the imagery and the treasure hunt, the whole record is full of little pockets of detail. Without giving too many details away, Justin had this to say about all the nuance and subtlety involved "There's a tonne of stuff hidden in this mix of clips and different sounds... I don't think anyone will ever find it unless you somehow get the files to the record and can bump up the sound and some of them... It's part of the the mystique of the record".
The last note of the interview was on Justin's favourite part of the record, and he ended up settling on tenth track 'The Vanity Procession' in part due to how buried in the record it is, as well as the lyrics and subject matter of the song. He's taken aim at everyone who believes in the power of fame and celebrity to boost themselves when they're only using it to step on people who are barely one rung lower on the ladder than they are. His feelings on all this came out quickly, "the only things that actually mean something are when you're putting out music that you really and truly believe in and care about, and when you're putting a tonne of effort into creating a piece of art that will speak for who you are and say what you want to say." Lyrics like "You can't own the shadow, it's just an ego veil" sum up his thoughts poetically and let any vitriol flow steadily through the song, pinpointed at all who've made this move.
"the only things that actually mean something are when you're putting out music that you really and truly believe in and care about, and when you're putting a tonne of effort into creating a piece of art that will speak for who you are and say what you want to say."
With that last bit of detail, Out Of Rage and Justin parted ways. Feeling suitably enriched with plenty of new tidbits of knowledge, the record has opened up the next of its many layers to us, and with further listening maybe we'll be able to uncover a few more of its panoply of secrets.
'Degeneration' is released on March 29th via Prosthetic Records.
Words: Jake Longhurst
Art: Alex Eckman-Lawn
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