Album Review: William Wallace – How Gods Are Made (Self Released)

William Wallace are a thrash/metalcore band that formed in 2009 by The Brothers Soto. The goal was to create music they loved and share it with everyone. Today that goal remains the same. With the addition of the very talented Brandon Garrett, Aaron Wheeler and Josh Ruloph, that goal is being realised.

Their debut album, How Gods Are Made, will be released on October 26th 2018. The album title lays out the basis of what their debut album is about. It begins with a nameless Hero returning home from war, only to find his family viciously murdered, and his land razed to the ground. As he stands on the bow of his ship, staring across the drink, filled with rage and a hunger for revenge, he has no idea of the trials and tribulations he is about to confront. In a time where Gods and ravenous monsters rule the earth, Man is trifling.

With an excellent theme, the question is just how well William Wallace get that across throughout the album.

Opening with Chapter I: Nautical Departure. The crackling of a fire, a grizzled old man begins to talk before he announces that he is getting ahead of himself. This is where the story truly starts as the sound of waves and birds take over, the harmonious vocals ring out before the thrash metal side of William Wallace erupts in ear-bleeding style. The word frantic does not do it justice, this is as fast and heavy as anything heard this year. Mixing clean and guttural vocals, harsh guitar squeals and rhythm changes that excel. An excellent start.

After such a start, Chapter II: Calm Before the Storm quiets things down in anticipation for the rager that is Chapter III: Untimely Arrival. The five-piece are aflame with metal passion and their capabilities of delivering unrelenting heaviness is impressive.

Driving brutal stakes into the heart isn’t the only thing William Wallace excel out though. They also have bags load of technical riffing and melody to offer too. Look no further then Chapter IV: Ashes of the Tyrant’s intro and Chapter V: Solace in Sadness’ morose guitar strumming.

The question regarding how well the theme/concept of the album comes across is well and truly answered by time the medley of guitars hits in Chapter VI: Octobeast. You can feel the spray of the waves on your face, the cold wind howling through your bones and the dread of knowing death is waiting for you at the bottom of the sea. You gotta love the imagination of William Wallace to craft such a tale.

We’re back to the fire for another short section of speaking from the grizzled man before the fury of Chapter VIII: Blood Thirst is unleashed. There is no time to relax though as Chapter IX: Maleficium follows with the most straight-forward thrash-based track of the album. This is as simple as it gets for William Wallace.

The epic tale comes to a close with a screeching guitar solo and the most intense metalcore vocals of the album in Chapter X: Tower of Abbeleth before the longest track (over 10 minutes) finishes up in unsurprising William Wallace style. Heavy, technical and every bit as thrashy as you could hope it to be. The drop into melody that occurs in the final few minutes is a chance for you to reflect on the journey you’ve just experienced.

This is a really long album but it never drags. It’s constantly interesting and the constant stream of furious metal thrown our way by William Wallace makes for an intense but addictive listen. They’ve done very well here.

William Wallace – How Gods Are Made Full Track Listing:

1. Chapter I: Nautical Departure
2. Chapter II: Calm Before the Storm
3. Chapter III: Untimely Arrival
4. Chapter IV: Ashes of the Tyrant
5. Chapter V: Solace in Sadness
6. Chapter VI: Octobeast
7. Chapter VII: Ascendant Realm
8. Chapter VIII: Blood Thirst
9. Chapter IX: Maleficium
10. Chapter X: Tower of Abbeleth
11. Chapter XI: How Gods Are Made

[amazon_link asins=’B07HDVG2XM,B07HDWMHCP,B07HDWDV1V,B07HDWKFDP’ template=’UseThisOne’ store=’g0e5b-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’8dbb57d4-c8ae-11e8-b6f8-1540a40fbaca’]

How Gods Are Made will be available via all major platforms on release but you can order it via iTunes now. You can find out more/keep up to date with news by liking the band’s Facebook Page, following them on Twitter and Instagram and stream songs on Soundcloud.