Warm - Death Ron
Self-Released
Released July 28th, 2023
There is nothing more exciting than listening to a song or a record that reminds you of your own environment. It’s safe to say that this happened to me immediately while listening to Vancouver based band Warm’s debut album Death Ron.
The emotive songs of this record come in strong with their intentions and musical timbre while still allowing surprises and mood switches to take you into their world. The album starts with the explosive track “Grain Entrapment" setting the record up with subtle and insightful lyrics backed with gritty and somber guitar melodies. The dissonant and angular guitar playing of Chris Merrel and Errol West is showcased on the second track in a brilliant way. The song comes in with honest emotion and booming energy in the first half as it builds up to its very satisfying and melancholic breakdown filled with soft picked guitar lines and pretty vocal melodies. As the record goes on Warm shows us their ability to serve their songs with dynamics and thought provoking lyrics sung in a soft spoken timbre and energetic screams. The technical aspect of their music isn't distracting but is tasteful in its use. A perfect example of their technicality is the noisy banger “Flat'' coming in at the middle of the record and keeping the energy strong for the rest of the run time.
Around this time last year, I caught Warm playing a very overheated yet well-attended benefit concert for drummer Korlon Marrisan of the legendary Vancouver band Dadweed. Warm played a loud and unwavering set which had me smiling and headbanging the whole time. When I heard this record around a year after that show they blew my expectations right out of the water.
The musical tone of this record is cohesive and uncompromising in its uniqueness with their well balanced guitar sounds. One guitar usually takes the thick and heavy sounding role while the other is bright and textural. If Duster and Drive Like Jehu had a band compiled with the same members that would be the closest comparison I could make to Warm’s unique sound and guitar tone.
As the record gets to its last half the songs build up in a sparse and thematic way. The second to last song “Goodbye Cool World” has quite a optimistic and catchy feel to the track. Its lyrics and rhythmically hooky chorus reminds me of some early Interpol songs while still retaining their edge and heaviness. The last track and title track is a heavy and tight ending to this honest and anthemic ripper of a debut and proves that Warm’s self acclaimed title “the number one most powerful band” has some powerful legs to walk on. If you want to feel solidarity with a Canadian DIY band and get excited about your scene again, I cannot recommend this record enough.
- Ben Lock
