Hard hitting UK theatrical titans, Ward XVI, unleash their engrossing new album, Id3ntity, on Friday, via Earache. We’ve already reviewed it and it’s awesome! We exclusively asked Psychoberrie to give us a track by track breakdown of the tracks from the record:
Track 1: Regeneration
Following on from the last album this song begins with chanting, cries and howls of fellow inmates and a news report detailing the release of Psychoberrie, the infamous killer whom (SPOILER ALERT!) in the previous album murdered her own mother. This tails out and then it’s straight in with a bang and a hard hitting, bouncing riff that’s sure to, in fact it’s been specifically designed to get the crowd jumping from the get-go. Unlike the last album this is fast paced, with a mid-section that’s reminiscent of The Prodigy’s “Firestarter” that transitions beautifully into a climactic solo.
Of all the songs on the album, to record this was the most fun and bizarre of them all. To capture the clanking asylum sound effects, we went in search of all metal objects we could find in the studio and the most effective of all was a set of step ladders that we whacked with various other metal items. We also had chains being hit against the floor to the beat of the music and we created the sound of the inmates by all of us just standing in a circle doing various takes of us all randomly shouting different things whilst stomping our feet to the beat.
Then there was the news report where our voice actors all read the article in a different accent and voice, some of those takes were hilarious. Not all got used but everything on that song we created and the result sounds just insane.
Track 2: Into the Wilderness
I’m not going to go into the story from this point as it’s something that needs to be experienced alongside the music. But this song captures the title perfectly. It’s eerie but it’s also catchy and when it gets going it’s a hard rock banger with a meticulously crafted solo, one of many on this album. I love the structure of this song; it literally kicks you right in the gut.
Track 3: What’s in the Box
If you could put ADHD into a song this would be it, it is just wild and it’s brilliant. With the album trilogy we have 3 songs that are connected: “Toy Box” from album 1, “Broken Toys” from album 2 and this absolute banger. All of them begin with an accordion but this one takes it to the next level.
We initially didn’t know where to go with this. Unlike the previous 2 songs in the ‘BOX’ trilogy, it transitions into a fast and hard guitar riff and for a long time we didn’t know what to do keys-wise, it didn’t sound right with the keys just dropping out, but the accordion didn’t sound right either. Then the Dok texted me “how about some synth”. He got home and I’d chavved this up big style with gated techno synths and he listened and said “when I said synth I meant like ahhhhh”. He’d envisioned choirs and pads, and I’d turned it into happy hard-core and it worked.
From then on, this song continued to merge and dive into every genre, it comes right down into a maiden-esque fear of the dark type of section and then bam, my favourite bit of the whole song, an 8 count into a 3/4 chorus. It makes no sense, but it sounds mental, and I love it.
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Track 4: Macabaret
This comes in hard and heavy with one of the catchiest riffs I’ve heard since “Ace of Spades”, followed by a snare roll into some good old hard rock and roll. Lemmy would be proud of this except I slapped some brass on it, so he’d probably turn in his grave, but that’s what rock n roll is all about, being experimental and not giving 2 s**ts about staying within the boundaries. It works and works well, and it’s got a chorus that people are going to sing along to (non-optional). It’s a drunken debaucherous anthem with a roaring Nuno inspired solo and hard rock vocals.
We had some fun in the studio with this too, recording group vocals and sound effects, one of which being the sound of a smashed glass which we recorded. We could’ve got a sample but that’s far less amusing than having 6 band members on their hands and knees trying to find all the shards of glass that went flying across the stone floor.
Track 5: Blood is the new Black
This was the first single from the album. It’s a mash up of old and new, dance and metal with nu-metal style vocals and a reggae/ dubstep breakdown. It marks a dark turn in the story, it’s filled with anger depicting Psychoberrie’s struggle with identity and inability to detach herself from her past.
By far and away our heaviest song to date and I bet it will take over as the most fun to play live.
We had hoped to get Benjii from Skindred to sing on the middle part of the song, but I think it was too heavy for him .. sorry mate… we could have made you a legend. check your emails.
Track 6: At the Window
This a real storyteller beginning with a horror score that rises into a catchy chorus. It takes you on a journey and, although it’s mainly orchestral using strings and choirs, it journeys through different vocal styles and it’s powerful and theatrical in its delivery. Eminem’s influence can be heard quite strongly in the verses as they’re fast paced, and the anger and passion build and builds until it bursts into a powerful guitar solo.
Track 7: I Spit on your Grave
If you have seen the film then not only do you have a strong stomach, but you can probably harbour a guess as to what this song’s about. Revenge is key here and this song is the most haunting on the album, it is the climax of the story. It’s got an upbeat, catchy chorus but then comes down into a slow, dark and sinister first verse. There’s a range of emotions in this song and it dives straight from the next chorus into a fast and crazed second verse. It’s the most theatrical part of the entire album and vocally wouldn’t sound out of place in the Rocky Horror Picture Show and this is followed by a fast, high-octane, beast of a solo.
The Dok gets his shred on hard in a delectable neoclassical inspired solo.
Track 8: Darkest Desire
Behold the birth of a new genre- ‘middle eastern power rock lounge room jazz death metal’.
We didn’t intentionally try to genre hop with this one, but I guess we just can’t help ourselves. I get bored, OK?
It begins with an eastern feel with a tapped guitar intro and lyrics that are a little bit saucy and that originally was the intention for the whole song until Bam Bam got bored at practice and started playing the chorus with this jazz beat and everyone just latched on and jammed along. I loved it so I was like scrap what we have, that’s going in the song and then from that point it just kept naturally progressing into other areas until we get to the end where it eventually transitions into a black metal outro. It sounds like it makes no sense but with the story and the lyrics it makes perfect sense because the mood is right in all the right places. I honestly don’t think everybody will like this song, but some people will absolutely love it and I’m sure that when we play this live it will be one of the best and most powerful performances of the album.
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Track 9: Amoeba of Madness
This is the perfect place on the album to bring the energy right down. This is the ballad of the album and metaphorically I think a lot of people will be able to associate with this song (unfortunately) and if not you’re gonna delve deep in the character’s psyche. It’s dark and chilling and beautiful all at the same time and it’s one of the most important songs on the album, of the trilogy in fact. This is the end of the story for this album and for those that have heard the first 2 it cleverly links into the first song off our debut album The Art of Manipulation. That’s one thing reviewers will miss that don’t know the other 2 albums, how much all 3 albums are interweaved and connected. If you don’t know the first album this is gonna be like “that’s a nice outro”, if you do, you’re gonna be like “holy f**king s**t”.
It took a lot of thought and trial and error to get this song to end the way it does, and it concludes everything perfectly.
Track 10: We are Legion
The last song from all three albums creates their own story but they also fit into the trilogy right between the second and 3rd album which both come before the 4th album. Tarantino and Kill Bill ain’t got nothing on us!!
This song also ties in with “Blood is the new Black” as it details the plan for that part of the story which I’m still not gonna unveil.
We’re back in the asylum and we’ve created an anthem for our ever expanding army of inmates. We spent a long time re-writing the last song on this album coming up with ideas in the same vein as “Ward XVI” and “Shadows” but nothing was right. I didn’t want to keep this exact same formula especially not when the previous song has this ballady feel to it.
I went to see Lord of the Lost and immediately following that gig I knew that this needed to be an inmate anthem, and it needed to bounce so I came up with this keyboard riff and the Doktor threw down some guitar that complimented it perfectly.
It was written very quickly and it was so unique and catchy that it became our 2nd single off the album. Compared to the others it’s structurally a lot simpler and the song is shorter but it’s exactly what it needs to be and our inmates that came to the video shoot have already latched on to this song hard.
There’s a specific move that the audience has to do in this song and they’re already posting it on socials with “IYKYK” and we’ve even seen the lyrics on somebody’s car number plate. It’s going to be our anthem for sure.
Id3ntity is out on July 11th and is available to pre-save or pre-order physically
Header image by Topher Maher
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