Making a name for themselves in the hard rock music scene are WARS, a 5-piece band from Rugby, Warwickshire. Having released an independent EP And So The Sea Will Claim Us All, back in 2015, they have now been signed by Spinefarm Records, a Finnish Record Label and spin-off from the Universal Music Group.

Their brand new 10-track album entitled We Are Islands, After All, was released earlier this month and the band celebrated with a launch party in Styles pub, Rugby with friends and family.

Without a doubt their music is loud and powerful with singer/screamer and lyricist Rob Vicars blending with the melodic sounds from ‘clean’ singer Sam Barnard. Lee Tysall is on drums, Rich Bennett on bass and Matt Burns guitar and harmonies.

However, this isn’t just a band blasting out a monster sound, a great deal of intelligence, musical prowess and intellectual thought has gone into every track.

The majority of the lyrics are written by ‘screamer’ 28 year old Rob Vicars. Talking about the message they are trying to portray through their music, Rob says: “The album is based on an existential philosophy about our ability to connect with one another. We see everything through a filter, a lens made up of all our experiences, behaviours, environments, hopes, fears, mistakes.

“This lens is totally unique to each of us, which on the one hand gives us a platform for boundless, creative expression and perspective, but at the same time it renders us all inherently alone, unable to share this lens with anybody else in its entirety.

“There’s a tragic, almost beautiful irony of the human condition in that we all seem to mechanically crave that ultimate connection with another, something it would seem we are, at a fundamental level, incapable of.”

The name of the band itself, is not, as you might think, have anything to do with wars as we know them, as drummer Lee Tysall explains: “WARS isn’t about war, it’s the internal wars that we all struggle with inside ourselves, so it’s an internal battle.

wars album release gig

“Every single lyric in every song has a meaning, and we scream because we are passionate about what we believe.”

Three of the band members, Lee, Sam and Rob have known each other since college days and were part of the band Lavondys. Matt became friends when the band he was in, Immerse, toured with Lavondys and Rich met up through jamming with the guys and becoming good friends.

The lads are now working on new material for their next album and looking forward to playing music festivals later this year. Two of which are Teddy Rocks which is in aid of Cancer Research and takes place in Dorset in April and 2000 Trees an award winning music festival that takes place in Cheltenham in July.

The album deal with Spinefarm Records has also enabled the band to create a video of them performing The Art of Not Knowing to accompany the album.

Photo credit: Rob Tysall, Black Lotus Photography.

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