The new incarnation of Amy Montgomery’s musical journey is firmly cemented with this debut album from the four-piece PREYRS. Given the new band’s new identity was only announced 8 months prior, this album plays like it has been eagerly waiting to be released into the world; like a long-suppressed outcry.
Resonating with trials and tribulations that may have led to this new identity, The Wounded Healer has captured my imagination as to where PREYRS may be heading as they move into their new united era.
The Wounded Healer is a ten-song declaration of power, moving the musical production of the group away from the woodland nature inspired spirituality of Amy’s previous releases to embrace the brash embers and machinery of urbanity and industry. It feels almost historically accurate that at this point in the narrative these heavy metal sounds enter the mix. A clashing of an anvil would not sound out of place.
‘Zeroes Ones & Lies’, the standout track for me, embodies the message of the album as a whole. Whatever Amy is encouraging us to rise up and fight against, count me in. Her compelling voice encompassed by the march of the drum and quickening pace of guitar creates a constant battle of two images. We are offered a preaching spiritual leader to drop to our knees for, while also threatening anyone that doesn’t follow the same enlightenment to be cut down to theirs.
At a point where albums can lose momentum, the track ‘Nova’ brought a spoken word interlude that demonstrates how the band’s musicianship highlights their years of experience rarely seen in a debut. It is not surprising to see such skill in PREYR’s work, but exciting to witness such a exciting band build an album with narrative and cohesion.
Although this is not an album that you can multitask while listening to, I relished listening to repeatedly. It is an incredibly cohesive album, for which I have to thank the gaps between tracks to allow me to come back to the reality of going about my mundane daily tasks. Otherwise I fear I would have become completely consumed.
I am sad that it is unlikely I will be able to relive my experience of seeing this amazing group perform in a folky-fairy-woodland clearing, as I did a number of years ago. I do expect however, to hear this new evolved sound leading grand stages and filling vast urban industrial wastelands, rallying their new recruits very soon. And what an album to open with!
