Worn in Red

Banshees (2012)

Joe Pelone

Virginian post-hardcore outfit Worn in Red recently returned with a new full-length. Banshees, the act's second album, takes everything that worked on debut In the Offing and just, ya know…keeps doing that. Fans of Hot Water Music, Bridge & Tunnel and Young Livers should be down with the sound. Also, just to clarify how Fest-ish the band gets, they'll be at Fest 11, so bring your beard.

Banshees is something of a spiritual cousin to Bridge and Tunnel's Rebuilding Year: The tunes bring the noise but also find time for some atmospheric noodling. Dig on fiery closer "Beethoven Knows." At some points, it's a straight ahead rocker, culminating in a desperate race to the finish. But it also packs in some neat guitar ambience throughout as well, making it one of several tunes on the record that sound almost deceptively simple.

Mostly, though, Worn in Red sticks to the HWM playbook: Big throaty vocals, snarling guitars, plenty of moments that call for bodies piling on top of bodies in concert. This band is a little different, but not too different.

Still, what distinguishes Worn in Red from the pack, in addition to the jammier sections, lies in the lyrics. The band has certain emo leanings, and they all come out in the words. Song after song is rife with questioning and doubt, yearning for change. Sometimes they disappear up their own ass ("Is it too late for something? / If that something is the only thing we know?"), but the underlying hope that pushes this search complements the rocking nicely.

Worn in Red don't exactly reinvent post-hardcore here, but Banshees is still a solid record all the same. Here's yet another band to research for the Fest.