#alamance

Based out of Oregon, the genre-blending mishmash of alternative, rock and metal quartet Alamance are constantly seeking to push the boundaries of music that’s overdone with something completely their own. With many reincarnations of the band since their founding in 2004 and reconstructing in 2021, Alamance have not just the experience of their many years but the true craftsmanship of their sound that’s taken decades to perfect. Now wielding their latest offering ‘Wanderers’, Alamance are here to remind you they’re not going anywhere, so you may as well give them a chance to be heard - you definitely won’t regret it.

‘Wanderers’ is loud right from the start, establishing its dominant wall of sound and high-impact energy between the clasps of thunderous drums, a shredding electric guitar riff and emphatic strums, all of which hitting at the most raucous of volumes. Levelling for the verses interruption, things simmer into steadier drum beats and guitar strums that ring out into the more atmospherically paired-back soundscape, creating a warm bedding to rest within and listen along to their more profound lyrical message interweaved in an an otherwise vigorous tune. The chorus’ picks things right back up to a rocking eruption of sound as reintroduced clashing drums and aggressively played guitar parallel with a message that’s fluctuating just as heavily in low to high. The vocals top it all off with a clean performance bearing a gravelly edge at times, wonderfully weaving themselves into the soundscapes’ journey through soft and harsh, with moments of more growled and screamed vocals adding an extra heavy touch to the track that errs between genres, particularly within the bridges’ volotile metal-esque breakdown. As Alamance continue to break down the boundaries of genre and create their own patchwork of sounds, ‘Wanderers’ is a song sure to catch the eyes of music fans spanning generations all looking to hear something that stands out from the rest.

Storming in sound, it’s no surprise that ‘Wanderers’ offers an equally tumultuous message of the struggles that come with facing our true selves, whether that be embracing our identities or the mistakes we’ve made as a part of our very human existence. The aching lyricism of Alamance shines throughout, as lines like ‘this empty home, just need a place I can hide from the humans outside and just when the timing seems right, I’ll leave this place here tonight’ offer a world of meaning to explore and unpack. Feeling detached from everyone else, the narrative seems to suggest that Alamance feel they don’t fit in amidst the crowd, isolating themselves and rejecting their identity and hiding in the darkness of the night from those around them. Yet the chorus hook ‘it’s too late to say goodbye to the human left inside’ seems to begin to embrace the identity they’ve shied away from, understanding it cannot be buried away forever and at some point must be learned to be accepted if not loved by themselves deep within. Truly profound, ‘Wanderers’ is surely an anthem needed by many to begin to feel less alone as well as appreciate or forgive themselves, as we all have our own identities that when embraced can open up an expansive universe of happiness as well as attract those walking similar paths.

Check out ‘Wanderers’ for yourself here to go through the experience that is Alamance’s wonderfully constructed, genre-bending soundscape and equally insightful lyrical message to take away.

Written by: Tatiana Whybrow

Photo Credits: Unknown