"Number[s]" is Woe, Is Me's debut album release, under the wings of Rise Records. The album was released when Tyler Carter, their clean vocals, was around before his departure to pursuit other interest(s). The ten-track album also guest features Johnny Craig, who makes an appeance on two tracks of the album: "Our Number[s]" & "Desolate [The Conductor]." But will the album actually sway listeners to enjoy the whole album, or disregard it and consider it "Risecore" material?
The first song on the track, "On Veiled Men," the shortest song on the album, shows off a heavy side that the band is capable of playing and occurs throughout the rest of the album, and play it off well.
The song gives into a techno-sound build-up for fifteen seconds into the song before the drums come in, followed by the guitarists and the bassist, and another fifteen comes both Ben Ferret & Michael Bohn into the song, ripping shit up: Ben Ferret's growls over Michael Bohn's screaming, which happens in quite a few songs of the album, like the beginning of "Mannequin Religion," and at the end of "Keep Your Enemies Close" & "Our Number[s]."
The album goes through a pattern of either Tyler Carter singing, with Bohn being heard in the midst of Carter for a brief, few seconds, and then Bohn screaming, and, as I previously said, Ferret coming in over Bohn's screams, growling.
Every song also offers up a different sound than their previous, layed-before-them song. Tyler Carter offers up relatively catchy parts on the album, like "Hell or High Water," "[&] Delinquents," & "Our Number[s]," and the occasional, superb heavy parts that are offered in the album, mainly at the end of tracks, are something that everyone can enjoy.
Two tracks on the album that offer new air to breathe are "I" & "Desolate [The Conductor]."
"I" breaks down with Carter singing with a slow-paced rhythm in the background, followed by Bohn & Ferret doing the usual, with the heaviness that the band can pull off breaking in. Carter then proceeds to singing again, shortly after a techno-like pausem then the song breaks into a long bridge; slow paced & instrumental-lacked, kicking it up a knock. Then, after Carter's part, the song ends with Bohn & Ferret laying it down once again, ripping up shit.
"Desolate [The Conductor]" gives off a big difference than the rest of the album. This is also one of two songs that features Johnny Craig singing on the album.
The song goes into a techno-utilized sound that's used for the majority of the song, with Carter singing, like usual, and Johnny Craig being heard. Johnny Craig chants the lines, "Unanswered prayers, sleeping under streetlights!" & "[Salvage] every skyline!" Then, after about a minute & twenty seconds into the song, the band "close the show" with Bohn & Ferret and a heavy pace like "On Veiled Men."
While the tracks offer a grand joyous to listeners, the lyrics are also a good thing on the album.
While straying off a path of straightforward writing, the lyrics of every song are hidden behind a mist of lyrical-metaphors, offering a great ponder, to deciphering the meaning behind every track. Hell, even "On Veiled Men," being the shortest song, has a relatively heavy-metaphored write-up that's really interesting:
"Murder the man who devoured your God, for these hands, like houses, will protect you from the storm!"
However, one thing that I'm picky about for Number[s] is the fact two songs on the album, "On Veiled Men" & "Desolate [The Conductor]", are relatively short songs compared to the rest of the album, that range usually around three minutes, cutting down the amount of songs by, to be heard for a long length of time, by two, to eight.
