Founded in June 2012 in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany, 5-piece hardcore/metal outfit WAVES LIKE WALLS have released multiple singles and Eps, played close to 100 shows across central Europe, shared the stage with bands such as Unearth, The Acacia Strain, Thy Art is Murder, Terror, and many others, and this year, they’re finally ready to unleash their self-titled debut full length! Filled with heavy, yet melodious metalcore tracks that were almost 5 years in the making, the LP grapples with personal experiences, social criticism, and political issues. Today, we’re giving you the band’s 2 powerful forerunners “Time” and “Choice“, special track by track commentary, as well as their first-hand take on some of the main world events happening right now, including COVID-19 and anti-racist protests in America.
Track by track commentary:
Time: Initially written in 2015. About the futility of material wealth and the pain that many people suffer because some choose to exploit others for their own benefit. Even if you’ve ruled a country, in a couple centuries you will be forgotten and your memory will be based on your choices.
Sinking Battleship: If you choose to build your self-conception on blunt, overt statements, you will end up struggling to reassure yourself when things get rough. If you undermine your own belief system over and over again, your mind will be ‘unsinkable’ because it has been put to the test before.
Choice: Based on personal experiences. Sometimes you have to make the hard choice and let go of things to find who you really are and who you want to be
Chainbreaker: Some emotions and the choices that come with them are not to be restrained. If you care for somebody, you will have to understand what parts of them are essential and should not be compromised. Sometimes anger is crucial, essential for survival, and necessary to let off steam.
Buried: Sometimes people hold you back solely based on what they did to you in the past. They make you feel like / believe you are incapable of things. To overcome the harm, you have to realize that they have no right to do so and bury that dark thought yourself.
Redemption: Losing loved ones takes a toll on your mind. But we can cherish their legacy by reminding ourselves of all the good times we had and how much they influenced our lives. Once they become the ones in need, we can show our gratitude by staying by their side.
World in Flames: The impact we as humans have on the environment is self-evident. There is no time for excuses. If you want to change the world: Take action. Instead of blaming others for minor mistakes, we should communicate and work towards a better tomorrow for everyone.
True Strength: True Strength comes from within. Simple as that. Turn your inner quarrel and everything that makes you mad into a source of power: Wisdom.
Turn: You have to make choices every day, every second. You can’t always be right, but you can get back on the right track via self-reflection and readjusting.
The Pain: An instrumental track based on a spontaneous idea (the opening riff). We all liked it and so we played around with it until it became fun enough to be on the album.
Continued below…
George Floyd and the anti-racist protests
We are a privileged group of people, who grew up in one of the safest, wealthiest places on this planet. We never had to endure much of a struggle compared to the rest of the world. We understand that we will never understand how people, who actually suffer from injustices such as racial profiling, extensive police brutality and inequalities in basically all other aspects of daily life, feel on a day-to-day basis. But we can still use our voice for them and point out these issues. We are also responsible to make sure that these things do not happen around us and that these things stop happening anywhere else. We cannot stop, change, and improve everything everywhere, immediately. But we can start trying everywhere, right now.
Covid-19 lockdown:
None of us lost any loved ones, we got lucky and just had to stay home for a couple of weeks. It was annoying and we had to change lots of plans, pause a lot of things. But we also got the opportunity to rethink, adjust, and cringe at the people who feel like these lockdown rules are the worst that could possibly happen to them.
Ingolstadt music scene
There used to be a lot more going on. Many metal / hardcore bands after the metalcore wave in the 2000s. Very few acts play outside their own region here, but some acts are gearing up again, it seems. Our town is also not very good at using its wealth to endorse young artists. We have huge classical concerts with international stars, but for years young bands had no affordable place to practice. There’s hope that’s changing now, though.
Be sure to check ou Slitch Fane and Deep Down the Soul!
