Oozing Wound. Photo by Evan Jenkins
The FADER’s “Songs You Need” are the tracks we can’t stop playing. Check back every day for new music and follow along on our Spotify playlist.
You would think that a band that calls themselves Oozing Wound wouldn't be a particularly subtle group. It's true that the Chicago three-piece is a walking, breathing bile duct, spewing resentment and misanthropy with the abandon of a Godzilla villain. But the overall package is taut in its fusion of heavy guitar-based genres and spins its steely threads into an exciting new texture.
It's not easy to make nihilism sound so consistently charismatic, even righteous, something Oozing Wound continue to pull off on their latest single "Hypnic Jerk." The frenzy of noise-rock starts and stops, toying with our expectations like a leopard with her prey, as Zack Weil's soul screeches against the toxic media ecosystem ("Can’t stand these voices / Talking on and on to me.") Weil goes on to bemoan an ineffectual therapist with Black Flag's biting black humour before discarding irony to penetrate the heart of the matter: "There’s a voice in my head / That’s lurking’ round like a twin / So now I’m never alone / Even in my own skin." On songs like "Hypnic Jerk," Oozing Wound spell it out for you: the cacophony of their music is a tool to drown out the internal din, a measure of last resort whose desperation is evident in the fire and fury of the music.
