WVRM’s Can You Hear the Wind Howl: The Best Grind Album of 2017 I Didn’t Know Existed Until Last Week

One the many (many, many, many) reasons why these year-end lists are so reshitulous is because it’s really (really, really, really) hard to keep track of everything that comes out in any given year, let alone listen to all of it for the proper amount of time it actually takes to assess the work. So I’m bet I’m not alone in this amongst members of the metal media, but: every friggin’ year, I hear at least (at least!) one release that would have been a serious contender for my list, had it only been brought to my attention a little earlier.

This year, that release is WVRM’s Can You Hear the Wind Howl. The six-song EP by these Converse Rubber Tracks x MetalSucks alum wasn’t even brought to my attention (Thanks Vince! IOU) until, like, right after I published my list (the silly version, not the fun-free version). And in the past week since, I’ve listened to it about a gajillion times. Which, granted, isn’t much of a time commitment — the entire EP is ten minutes long — but it’s grind, so it still counts.

Recorded and mixed by one Mr. Kurt Ballou, Esq., Can You Hear the Wind Howl might have been called Can You Help Me Get This Loogie Out of My Throat. Like Gatecreeper’s Chase Mason, WVRM frontman Ian Nix sounds like he records on Mucinex, and never misses an opportunity to let loose a cathartic “BLECH!” sound. The music which surrounds Nix is appropriately starchy, the instrumental equivalent of wiping your ass with steel wool. When Wind goes full-speed, as it does most of the time, it’s basically an emulation of this:

But even when it slows down to take a breath, as it does on the epic (3+ minutes!) elephant-marcher “Suffer Ritual,” it still sounds like someone using a floor waxer on a baby’s ass to try and remove a blemish which exists only in the waxer’s mind. It’s like, the glass crusher is still going… it’s just going slow. Which may be even worse.

Point is, Can You Hear the Wind Howl is a disgusting, violent release. If I was a school teacher, I’d expel it. As an extreme music fan, I’ll do anything but.

Check out WVRM’s Can You Hear the Wind Howl below. Digital and physical editions are available here for a measly five bucks!!!