Gnarwolves - The Chronicles of Gnarnia

The title of this record deserves a special mention for being an excellent pun; if they'd released it under any other name, you can guarantee someone would have suggested it later and they'd have been kicking themselves.

As the title suggests, this record chronicles Gnarwolves' first three EPs onto one handy LP. I have a copy of the 2x7" reissue of Fun Club and wrote about that here - Decay and Reaper are still huge songs. The Cru EP was released sometime between Fun Club and Fun Club being reissued, so it was long sold out by the time I got that 7". Actually, I vaguely remember it coming out, thinking I should get a copy only to be surprised that it sold out so quickly. That was the first clue that the band were gaining a lot of popularity. History is Bunk and Community, Stability, Identity are the highlights there, the latter reaching new levels of slow/doom for the band. I don't really remember Funemployed coming out, but I think Melody Has Big Plans was a single (in some sense) - the title certainly sounds familiar for some reason. It's a strong song.

I picked this up in Banquet not long after it came out. I'd had that slight urge to get the other EPs at some point, but getting this record quenched that particular thirst - there was already such a lot of hype about the band by that point that I didn't fancy paying the going price for the original releases, not to mention the countless colour-variants that they put out (speaking of which, this is the green/blue/purple mix, although it's mostly green until you hold it up into the light). The songs all work together well as an album, although the production on Funemployed is notably different and doesn't sound as rich as the other two.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 15
Cost: £15 new
Bought: Banquet Records, Kingston
When: 22/03/14
Colour: Green/blue/purple mix
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Gnarwolves - Fun Club

By the first time I saw Gnarwolves, there was already a buzz around them. I'm not sure how long they'd been together by that point, but I remember reading their name a lot before seeing them support Lemuria in The Peel in Kingston in 2012. I also remember tweeting about how impressed I was whilst on the bus home afterwards; they'd clearly lived up to their hype and more that night.

Nearly a year later, I picked up the reissue of their Fun Club 7", having missed out on their already-sold-out 7" CRU (I think I ordered this a long time before May but it took a while to actually get pressed). It was released on four different colours, and the most limited (black with silver glitter) had already sold out. This copy is the orange and blue swirl, of which there were 200 copies, and it is a very attractive colour vinyl indeed, as you can see in the pictures below.

An added part of the appeal here was the bonus 7" of covers. I've enjoyed Converge live on a few occasions, but I've never really enjoyed them on record. The Gnarwolves cover doesn't add much for me, but it's nice hearing them play something that heavy. The sleeve lists the second cover as Green Day's Pulling Teeth, but the song they play is very much Basket Case. It's a fine cover of a good song. They also cover Black Flag's Gimme Gimme Gimme (because everyone loves a Black Flag cover), although the break between the experimental guitar and the hardcore is less clear than on the original (and the highlight of the song, to be honest), and finally an AFI song that I don't know much about (but has that same AFI style about it). Overall, the covers seem to represent a good selection of the music I imagine the band listen to and are influenced by, so it's a nice addition. Also, given Gnarwolves improbable reach, I imagine a lot of their fans first heard of Converge and maybe even Black Flag because of these covers (that said, these songs didn't make it onto the compilation LP, so maybe haven't been heard that widely).

As for the original 7", the songs are pretty great. Highlights are Decay (with its doom bass-line before the break) and Reaper (with the chanted vocals). Impressively, they fit five songs into a 7" played at 45rpm, but then again, that's what I was expecting after that set in Kingston. I've mostly kept up with the band and their unexpected levels of success, so there'll be more records to talk about at some point in the future.

Format: Double 7", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 9
Cost: £11.50 new
Bought: Dog's Knight website
When: 20/05/13
Colour: Orange with blue swirl
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code