Familiar faces. A sound entirely their own.
Calling Wrong Man “newcomers” requires a small asterisk. Formed in Ghent, Belgium in 2021, the band features members of Oathbreaker, Partisan and Rise And Fall — so, no, these people did not discover distortion pedals last Tuesday.
What is new is the territory they explore together.
Wrong Man’s music sits somewhere between post-hardcore, ’90s indie rock and the rawer edges of proto-punk: noisy but melodic, tense yet strangely soulful, occasionally bluesy and never afraid of a chorus that might remain lodged in your brain. You could mention Quicksand, Fugazi, Drive Like Jehu, Sonic Youth or The Jesus Lizard. All would make sense. None quite tells the whole story.
Following the distinctly ’90s-flavoured ‘Who Are You?’ in 2022 and the more adventurous ‘Big Plans’ in 2023, Wrong Man will release its debut full-length, ‘Here’s That Feeling’, on September 11 through Deathwish Inc., co-founded by Jacob Bannon from Converge and home of bands such as Gouge Away, Frail Body, Modern Life Is War or Planes Mistaken For Stars.
The first preview, “Exit Strategy,” features Jeremy Bolm of Touché Amoré and gives a convincing taste of what is coming: restless guitars, brooding tension, emotional urgency and one of those irritatingly effective choruses you find yourself humming after claiming you were mainly paying attention to the guitar tone.
Recorded in Kortrijk with Michael Neyt — Oathbreaker, Predatory Void, Feverchild — and mixed by Kurt Ballou of Converge at GodCity Studio, ‘Here’s That Feeling’ finds Wrong Man sounding sharper, broader and more confident without sanding down any of its rough edges.
The résumés may be impressive, but that is not really the point. Wrong Man does not sound like a side project, a nostalgic ’90s exercise or the sum of several better-known former bands.
It sounds like Wrong Man. Which, four years in, is probably the best possible introduction.
…Tracklist…
- 01 Loose Ends
- 02 It Won’t Wash Off
- 03 Exit Strategy
- 04 Blue
- 05 Petty Thief
- 06 Mystic Eye
- 07 Heaven Ain’t Happening
- 08 Ripped Open I
- 09 Ripped Open II
