CiTR

With their massive sonics and anthemic pop songwriting, Woolworm is an arena rock band that just so happens to perform in DIY venues. Their music, which somehow seamlessly combines shoegaze, Britpop, post-punk, hardcore and black-metal into an impossibly cohesive sound, is the sum of their parts. Heather Black pounds her bass like she’s ripping a basement punk set before delivering sweet vocal harmonies straight out of the C86 compilation. Nick Tolliday pummels his drums with the reckless abandon of the hardcore scene that birthed the band. All the while, dual guitarists Alex Pomeroy and Giles Roy offer intricate, complex riff interplay as often as they stomp their pedals and break into hard-hitting power chords.

“People seem to be rightfully wary of rock in general,” frontman Giles Roy says, admitting that his band’s complicated genre blending is rooted in the familiar. “I like the underdog feeling.” That scrappiness is self-evident, but make no mistake: Woolworm are anything but underdogs.

The band’s third album Awe (due out November 8 via Mint) expands the band’s already robust songbook even further by offering a new take on their heavy, hardcore-inflected indie pop sound. The band’s bleakly fulfilling 2017 LP Deserve to Die saw them smashing their heads against the wall, meticulously planning every note before entering a real studio with venerable Vancouver producer Jesse Gander. This time around, they recorded with labelmate Jay Arner whenever the inspiration hit.