Cork four-piece Ways of Seeing just released their anticipated second album, The Inheritance of Fear. Led by James O’Donnell, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, the project grew through recalling personal meditations and wider storytelling. Through this, themes of trauma, loss and anxiety are tackled, made all the more poignant by the backdrop of illness and death O’Donnell was experiencing at that time.
The sound is a rich tapestry of shoegaze, post-punk and alternative rock, but, backed with poetry and personal exploration, it becomes more distinct than your average indie melting pot. The project feels weighty, emotive and experimental. Moments of sparkle appear in a melancholic hope, and the percussion knows just when to ramp up the driving spirit.
On the lead single, ‘Last Wave’, the band explains, “The song examines our Irish identity; a colonial past and Catholic upbringing – how there are parts of our history so intertwined in our culture that to leave it behind completely would almost seem like a betrayal. That perhaps to live with the darkness is to live more fully, and that without it, we are left with something devoid of meaning… somehow. In the song I’m examining my makeup – what I can let go of and what must I hold dear? Writing it was my way of acknowledging those existential burdens, while also searching for release and healing.”
The band worked with Daniel Fox, and with him, embraced their heavier side, giving their overall voice an even more distinctive edge. It’s that edge that has, in the past, earned praise from tastemakers across the UK and Ireland, both for their recorded emotion and live atmospheres.
Check out the new album here…
