Authored By Joshua Pickard

Chattanooga trio Winter Mute has a few different goals—one of which is to shake your speakers while revealing a thunderous slew of headbanging riffs and dense choruses that reach for the lower stratosphere. They also want to remind their audience of the relevance and emotional complexity of hard rock, a genre long known for bland sentiments and blander musical excavations. But by injecting their coarse and serrated rhythms with an unusually pop-minded swagger, they deliver a sound both forceful and persuasive. Comprised of singer-guitarist Lee Williams, bassist Samuel Ward and drummer Jason Brown, Winter Mute strips away the unnecessary aspects of their chosen genre to arrive at a pure product of volume, density and rock 'n' roll. There's a gravity to their work, a mantle-bearing of sorts for a sound which has come in and out of fashion a dozen times over the past few decades. Not content to simply rehash the roar of their inspirations, the band turns their harder rocking tendencies into a compelling argument for its resonance and necessity. On their new 5-track self-titled EP, they concoct a volatile brew of chugging licks, amped-up melodies and howled narratives. The resulting noise is a fascinating ode to the longevity of alternative rock and hard rock aesthetics. And while there is some familiarity here (read: nostalgia), it's used less as a crutch and more as a way to draw listeners in before subverting their expectations. There's clearly a love of '90s alt-rock present—"A Million Miles" dials back the raucousness to evoke comparisons to Soundgarden and Pearl Jam—but also a deference to classic rockers like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. Opener "Parachute" evokes the grand theatricality and heaviness of Sabbath while "Tidal Wave" feels pulled from mid-90s modern rock radio. They're able to seamlessly blend these elements into a coherent perspective on the evolution of hard rock, taking a tangled network of influences and aspirations and turning them into something virulent and instantly memorable. The band revels in the challenge of adapting these sounds for those people who might not have a deeper understanding of the history of hard rock but who will undoubtedly hear the connections once they understand how they should be listening. Joshua Pickard covers local and national music, film and other aspects of pop culture. You can contact him on Facebook, Twitter or by email. The opinions expressed in this column belong solely to the author, not Nooga.com or its employees.