Album review: VOWWS – I’ll Fill Your House With An Army

The world of VOWWS has never exactly been sunshine and rainbows, but I’ll Fill Your House With An Army finds the Australian-born, LA-based duo plunging even deeper into their shadowy, synth-drenched universe, and emerging with something truly magnetic.

Matt James and Rizz have always existed somewhere between the neon gloom of Depeche Mode, the industrial tinge of Nine Inch Nails and the gritted-teeth catharsis of Alice In Chains, all the while making their very own unique sound. On their third album, they strike their most devastating balance yet.

From the opening churn of Blood’s On Fire, which a menacing slow burn featuring Josh Freese behind the kit, it’s clear VOWWS have levelled up. The song lurches forward from the shadowy abyss with Rizz and Matt’s dual vocals locked in a battle between light and dark. This is quickly followed by SHUDDER, boasting guest riffing from Korn’s Munky. It feels like a post-industrial hymn that fuses menace with melody so tightly it feels dangerous.

Elsewhere, Pulls Me Apart and Hurt You show a more fragile underbelly to VOWWS, feeling ethereal, aching and cinematic all at once. The haunting I Never Left might be their most vulnerable moment yet, drifting between eerie tenderness and emotional obliteration. And when closer Waterline fades into the aether, you’re left hollowed out but oddly comforted, as if you’ve glimpsed beauty through the cracks of a broken mirror.

Having torn down and rebuilt the album during a long, painful creative process, VOWWS have emerged with something transcendent here: a record that bleeds heart and grit in equal measure. It’s not just music, it’s a world you step into, and by enlisting the help of A Perfect Circle’s Billy Howerdel for production, that world is one of eloquent gloom.

Bleak, beautiful and utterly absorbing, I’ll Fill Your House With An Army proves VOWWS aren’t staring into the abyss anymore. They’ve built a home inside it.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Nine Inch Nails, Alice In Chains, Depeche Mode

I’ll Fill Your House With An Army is released on October 24 via Out Of Line