The Wormwood Project

You can film neat things when your old tech still works.

Always humbled by these guys and there reciews

As I eagerly await the upcoming sophomore album by The Wormwood Project, one of my favorite bands of all time, I’ve been listening to their debut Ghosts even more than usual. And I realized that nowhere near enough people have heard it.

Just over two years ago, I did a review of Ghosts and wanted to share it again in hopes that it might drive more listeners to this superlative album. Please, please give it a few minutes of your time. If you fall in love with this band even fractionally as much as I have, I’ll be so happy. (Find the Iinks in the c0mm3nts!)
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Ghosts (2023) by The Wormwood Project, reviewed by voxxy of vox + stix/vox + guest, September 18, 2023

It’s a sad fact of human existence that we all lose people we love. Whoever you are, wherever you go, whatever you do, death is an inexorable part of life. But imagine having lost so many people that you could fill multiple albums with songs about them. And then imagine that each of those felt to you like the ghost of someone you couldn’t save. That’s the underpinning storyline of the incredible album Ghosts by The Wormwood Project.

Front man, guitarist, and lyricist Aubrey Britt Bailey is unflinchingly open about his decades of alcohol addiction and laudable subsequent recovery. He wrote Ghosts, a six-song EP, about some of the many, many people he unfortunately lost along the way. Bailey has said that each of these stories is something he felt absolutely compelled to put into music, so much so that he can’t rest and let each ghost go until they’ve been honored in song.

The result is what I consider to be a perfect album. Bailey is a master lyricist, conveying his heartache, anguish, and melancholy brilliantly through a cinematic quality of imagery and metaphor you rarely find in any kind of popular music anymore. And he and the rest of the band are musicians at the top of their game, cradling the fragile, yet powerful lyrics in stellar instrumentation.

From the moment Anton Shields unleashes his virtuoso drumming on The Haunted and the Damned, you’re pulled into an opener that’s 100% ear candy from start to finish. Bailey’s vocals, reminiscent of a far-more talented Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots, are gritty, sexy, and urgent. Bailey and Brandon Lee Gaines heighten the emotion with heavy, dirty guitar, and the intricate interplay of Jaco Kiley’s slinky bass with Shields’ impeccably-crafted drums keeps you riveted. This is one of the most unforgettable performances by the rhythm section on the EP (and that’s saying a LOT.)

This is a dynamic that doesn’t waver in the slightest throughout the record. Bound, the second song, recalls the best elements of Alice In Chains, toying with rhythm, tempo, and feel to mirror the changeable mood of the lyrics, in which Bailey, clear-eyed and resolute, begs the devil for mercy on a loved one’s soul at the cost of his own. As we move into Temperance, the band draws us in seductively only to kick us right in the head with a song that brings to mind the best of Evanescence before becoming incomparably its own. The guitars are particularly driving on this one, layering emotion atop the one-two punch of drums and bass. The dueling melody lines of the fantastic guitar solo are an especially-high point in a song full of them.

The pinnacle of the album for me — although like choosing a favorite child, it’s nearly impossible to do — is Tonight We Dine with Crows. This song gives me goosebumps every single time I listen to it. The closest comparison I can make is the also-perfect Nutshell by AIC. It has that same heartbreaking lyricism and raw vocal power over intricate, but perfectly-balanced drum rhythms, serpentine bass, and doleful guitar. The lyrics paint an indelible portrait of a young schizophrenic who Bailey imagines as the queen of the lost and forgotten. On an EP stacked with fantastic songs, this one is an undeniable highlight. Listening to the bridge (around the 3:30 mark) and the wonderfully-wailing guitar solo, you’ll be mesmerized by Shields on drums, who somehow manages to infuse his mathematical drumming with such passion that it’s easy to find your own heartbeat in it.

Rounding out the EP are Solace of Mania, a very grungy rocker that showcases the range of what The Wormwood Project can do, and (A Keening) The Hollows. If you don’t hear Jeff Buckley in this Southern Gothic banger, you need to clean your ears immediately. This closer does absolutely everything you need it to: It’s headbangingly sludgy with searing vocals and skillful guitars over that unabashed gift of a rhythm section, building to an almost Tenacious D-like level of epicness before pulling the plug on the whole thing. There was no way as a listener to leave Ghosts not wanting more, but the band made absolutely sure of it with this one.

Believe me, I’ve tried to find something wrong with this album because I’m unfailingly objective. But I can’t. The only negative thing I can say is that The Wormwood Project has made it insanely difficult for themselves to top this one on their next outing, which I will be listening to the second it comes out. In the meantime, Ghosts has a permanent spot in my musical rotation. Gorgeous, vivid, haunting lyrics meld with spectacular musicianship from every member of the band to create a catchy, poignant collection of songs that will stay with you, like the ghosts they represent, long after the last song has ended. — voxxy