Review Summary: If you are one of those who are slightly dissatisfied with Teenage Wrist’s current musical direction, maybe this album will be more up your alley.
After having creative differences with guitarist, songwriter and singer Marshall Gallagher, Kamtim Mohager left amicably from Teenage Wrist in 2019 and very shortly after decided to create his own musical project under the moniker Heavenward.
Kamtim started writing songs and released three singles and one EP during the pandemic, in between 2020 and 2021. Fast forward to 2022 Mohager realized he had enough demo material to record a new album. His former bandmate, Marshall Gallagher, also collaborated with bringing shape to some of the demos and so Heavenward went into the studio with producer Zach Tuch (who also produced Staircase Music, the project’s debut EP). Just a couple of listens to Heavenward’s debut album, Pyrophonics, and you will notice where the chasm was between Marshall’s musical direction and Kamtim’s current direction; Where Chrome Neon Jesus had a near perfect balance between pop punk, grunge and shoegaze, Teenage Wrist’s sophomore album, Earth is a Black Hole, leaned more into the emo/pop punk influence. On the other hand, Pyrophonics explores more of the atmospheric grunge of Chrome Neon Jesus.
As the album cover implies, in spirit, this looks like and sounds like the spiritual follow up to Teenage Wrist's debut record. The first track, “Heavenward”, wastes no time in introducing the album with a huge wall of guitar and drums and picks up just where “Waitress” left off. While not as crisped produced as Kamtim’s former band’s debut, the rawness of the sound matches the album’s personality. “Be My Blues” is definitely one of the highlights, starting off as a shoegaze/post-grunge ballad and then devolving into a heavily distorted guitar riff accompanied by a robotic (female-like) voice. Songs like “Pneumatic (Fly)” and “Something Real” are mid-tempo grunge bangers that keep the pace up, the latter containing a heavy bridge with notable drum work carrying heavy guitar licks plus one of the darkest melodies Mohager has written. “Tangerine” is also a highlight, and cements Mohager signature use of heavily distorted licks under a big wall of melody.
Apart from “Planned Human Combustion”, which deviates more into brit pop territory and feels more like a hit or miss (and not a straight up misfire), the album has a healthy level of consistency and variability, even though some of that consistency feels a bit too conventional at times (“Gasoline”, “Wish”). Another minor criticism is that there isn’t a lot of vocal variability, but it doesn’t take away from the enjoyment or quality of the songs presented here overall.
Thankfully enough, fans have now two projects to enjoy and even if you are one of those who are slightly dissatisfied with Teenage Wrist’s current musical direction, maybe this album will be more up your alley.
