01. live in a vacuum02. detective story
03. pinball
04. exercise in autism
05. peacock
06. efficiency
07. neutral observer
08. antiseptic
09. shovel
Genre: Noise Rock, Progressive Rock.
Country: USA.
Label: Magic Bullet, Black Box.
PThere are two kinds of people on this Earth: those who prefer to take things easy and those who are happy only when busy, when sweating in the heat of a hundred different tasks executed at a hundred miles an hour. My dear old mum used to say that The Wayward belonged to this latter group, but then she hadn’t heard the band’s second full length ‘Overexposure,’ for if she had she would’ve surely agreed that an entirely new categorization was needed, sinc
e to say that the album is the nocturnal emission in waiting of every hyperactive ADD-suffering rock fan out there would be akin to saying Hitler was a little bit bad.
For those unfamiliar with them, the Wayward are a Virginian three-piece who specialize in a dense and hectic fusion of math, noise and prog rock with a little bit of metal thrown in to finish off anyone who isn’t quite floored by the end of ‘Detective Story,’ the second track on ‘Overexposure.’ They’ve recorded an album that, bar a few intros, interludes, bridges and codas veering from the confidently laidback to the enigmatic, is nothing but ceaseless and relentless movement. Within its labyrinth of robotically discharged vitriol, spidery yet powerful guitar riffs spin around frantically and threaten to take off, churning bass lines convulse with inhuman rapidity, and the skins of dead cows are psychotically beaten just to make sure that they don’t return to life. The musicianship, particularly of guitarist Nick Skrobisz, but also of his bassist brother Jesse, is staggering throughout and the band use their chops to whip up an unshakeable sense of emergency and social extremity. Songs such as ‘Antiseptic’ and ‘Neutral Observer’ rocket by in a hail of notes, seething destructively as they go and leaving the listener wishing he had opted to do something less stressful, like wrestling alligators while fighting the Taliban.
Yet for all their single-minded viciousness and unwillingness to slow down, The Wayward certainly know how to draw on a wide range of influences and make use of structural dynamics. ‘Peacock,’ an album highlight, sounds like Baroque classical music put through a blender and played by the criminally insane; the aforementioned ‘Detective Story’ begins with an ominous intro of lightly picked chords before abruptly bursting into a marathon of jittery guitar gymnastics; while album closer ‘Shovel’ features an intricate and jazzy bridge that gives way to an explosive finale. If nothing else, ‘Overexposure’ is music for the over-worked and over-stimulated children of the 21st Century, an album so busy one is able to forget themselves for the best part of fifty storming minutes. The only weak side to it is the vocal performance of Nick Skrobisz, which is admittedly nondescript and distant, but since there’s so much going on, and since he’s the one playing all those crazy guitar parts as well, we’ll let him off the hook I think. (Simon Chandler)
Experimusic 
e to say that the album is the nocturnal emission in waiting of every hyperactive ADD-suffering rock fan out there would be akin to saying Hitler was a little bit bad. For those unfamiliar with them, the Wayward are a Virginian three-piece who specialize in a dense and hectic fusion of math, noise and prog rock with a little bit of metal thrown in to finish off anyone who isn’t quite floored by the end of ‘Detective Story,’ the second track on ‘Overexposure.’ They’ve recorded an album that, bar a few intros, interludes, bridges and codas veering from the confidently laidback to the enigmatic, is nothing but ceaseless and relentless movement. Within its labyrinth of robotically discharged vitriol, spidery yet powerful guitar riffs spin around frantically and threaten to take off, churning bass lines convulse with inhuman rapidity, and the skins of dead cows are psychotically beaten just to make sure that they don’t return to life. The musicianship, particularly of guitarist Nick Skrobisz, but also of his bassist brother Jesse, is staggering throughout and the band use their chops to whip up an unshakeable sense of emergency and social extremity. Songs such as ‘Antiseptic’ and ‘Neutral Observer’ rocket by in a hail of notes, seething destructively as they go and leaving the listener wishing he had opted to do something less stressful, like wrestling alligators while fighting the Taliban.
Yet for all their single-minded viciousness and unwillingness to slow down, The Wayward certainly know how to draw on a wide range of influences and make use of structural dynamics. ‘Peacock,’ an album highlight, sounds like Baroque classical music put through a blender and played by the criminally insane; the aforementioned ‘Detective Story’ begins with an ominous intro of lightly picked chords before abruptly bursting into a marathon of jittery guitar gymnastics; while album closer ‘Shovel’ features an intricate and jazzy bridge that gives way to an explosive finale. If nothing else, ‘Overexposure’ is music for the over-worked and over-stimulated children of the 21st Century, an album so busy one is able to forget themselves for the best part of fifty storming minutes. The only weak side to it is the vocal performance of Nick Skrobisz, which is admittedly nondescript and distant, but since there’s so much going on, and since he’s the one playing all those crazy guitar parts as well, we’ll let him off the hook I think. (Simon Chandler)
The Wayward @MySpace
Buy it.
The Wayward - Overexposure (2007)
