Will Haven

Will Haven are one of my favourite bands ever. True story. I've been a fan since around 1996 when their first album El Diablo surfaced. At the time their name was thrown around over here with the likes of the Deftones, Korn, Limp Bizkit, and other bands of that Nu-Metal wave that came over around that time, but anybody expecting rap metal and baggy jeans would have been in for a shock because Nu-Metal these guys weren't. Bleak, painful screams of sorrow and despair, down tuned, 3-4 time signatures and more in common with Deadguy than Deadsy (?!??).
I loved it, and I continued to love the band until 2007 when they released what was quite frankly an abomination of an album entitled The Hierophant, gone was Grady the singer and at least one other member of the band leaving a pale impostor in it's place. I even saw the band on the supporting tour and it was pretty woeful. So when I heard that the original line-up had re-grouped it was with some intrepidation that I waited for the new album to arrive. The result was Voir Dire, and thankfully it's a return to form.It's the return of Will Haven.

Even the layout/artwork is back in keeping with the previous releases, it's like The Hierophant never happened.

My copy is pressed on this red and orange 'sunset' vinyl, which for such a bleak band is actually quite cheery and limited to 150. It's a great soundtrack whilst we wait for this UK summer to arrive actually.

Part 2 of my Will Haven post involves this sucker:

WHVN pressed on White and released by Revelation Records in 1999. I was buying CD's in '99, so missed out on this then but over the last 10 years or so I'd occasionally seen pictures of this release and just thought it looked great, something about the black cover and white vinyl or maybe just because it's a good record, but when I got back into buying vinyl 7 months ago this was actually one of the releases at the top of my WANT list. I didn't know if I'd be able to find one but after 4 or 5 months one appeared on eBay and I won it at a very good (read low) price.

Number 4309 hardly rare but I like it non the less and I'm really pleased to have this in my collection. A good Will Haven addition and a good addition to my slowly growing Revelation collection.

Now to start my search for El Diablo on Clear Red.