Woe has been a force in black metal since their inception, whether as the solo project of Chris Grigg or their more recent full band incarnation, unleashing dark, intense songs. On “The Ones We Lost,” Woe tackle a new, dark topic: losing a loved one.
“The Ones We Lost” displays Woe’s penchant for powerful introductions that explode into something more intense. Rapid tremolo picking complements walls of sound and Grigg’s vocals hold a mournful tone.
“If the name doesn’t give it away, ‘The Ones We Lost’ is about coming to terms with a loved one’s death,” Grigg says. “For me, it is the most draining song of Woe’s entire catalog. I, the other members of the band, and seemingly everyone I know had to deal with sudden deaths of family and friends over the past few years. Even if you recover, it leaves you changed. The cognitive dissonance between your body’s sense of something fundamentally broken in the world and the world’s indifference never really goes away. I think of this song as the emotional centerpiece of the album, a statement about grappling with the individual’s powerlessness in the face of the ultimate, final uncaring force.”
Woe will continue to grapple with these feelings on Hope Attrition when it’s released on March 17 through Vendetta Records. You can preorder the record here.
