Wot Gorilla? are back with their sophomore album, Stay Home, which comes fourteen years after their debut, which dropped in 2014. That’s not to say the band has laid dormant for all those years; they’ve been semi-active with a handful of EPs here and there, but this is their first big album in all that time, and honestly it’s been well worth the wait.
In short, Stay Home is what you’d get if you blended UK math-rockers Colour with progressive metallers, Between the Buried and Me. The album intertwines elements of math-rock with progressive-rock and post-hardcore to create an album that keeps you on your toes throughout.
This album comes at a perfect time for math-rock, both in the UK and across the globe, as bands such as Love Rarely, Pennines, Hikes, Angine de Poitrine, Totorro, and more are dropping fantastic music, and festivals like ArcTanGent, Strangeforms, and Quiet Steps are putting these bands on stage (at least in the UK). There’s an odd sort of math-rock reneissance happening right now, and I’m absolutely here for it.
So, what can I say about Stay Home? The album is fully produced by the band, with digital mastering handled by Joe Gibb (who previously worked with Johnny Truant, Hondo Maclean, Million Dead, and Funeral For A Friend), and it’s very well done, considering. I’m not aware of any of the band members’ previous work with mixing/producing music, so with that in mind I’m actually really impressed. I never would have considered this produced in-house. All of the instruments are well balanced, and even the clean/screams are up front and not overly in your face.
It’s also a really clean album considering the band’s penchant to intertwine technical riffs, heavier elements, and tempo changes. At no point does it sound sloppy, nor does it fall victim to this current trend of over-produced metal, so I commend the band for how well this album is put together musically.
According to the band, the album was recorded over a very long period of time, with some tracks being written and ironed out before the pandemic – something the band touches on lyrically, too. Speaking of, Wot Gorilla? aren’t shy about touching on sensitive topics, with the opening track “No Side To Sit” addressing the ongoing conflicts in the world right now. One poignant line, “Civilian lives are not negotiable”, reminds us that, at the end of the day, innocent people are dying at the hands of the powers that be.
To open an album with a song with lyrics that are, frankly, a tough pill to swallow is definitely a courageous choice and shows that Wot Gorilla? aren’t here to fuck about.
From here, the album explores other uncomfortable themes, like the aforementioned pandemic, imposed lockdown rules broken by those who set them, and this weird rise in antivaxx rhetoric. Lyrically, this album is a bit of a kick in the teeth to how actually bizarre the last 6 or 7 years have gone, all while being backed by an intricate and almost whimsical progressive math-rock that music nerds will lap up.
Overall, Stay Home is an explosive return from Wot Gorilla?, and while they never had a point to prove (they’re incredibly well loved among the scene), they’ve come out swinging with this album to show fans that their musical (and lyrical) muscles haven’t atrophied during their time away. The album is an oxymoron of being raw but also polished, dancing around progressive rock, math-rock, and post-hardcore sounds while also remaining coherent to Wot Gorilla? stand for.
Score: 7.5/10
Stay Home by Wot Gorilla? dropped on February 20 on Drongo Records.