WAXWING – FOR MADMEN ONLY

Waxwing features Rocky Votolato (vocals/guitar) and brother Cody Votolato on guitar (Blood Brothers). Seattle-based Waxwing’s debut full length, For Madmen Only, is a beautifully involved album of contrasting emotions set against the musical contradictions of both lush acoustic movements and propulsive dramatic rock. Musically, For Madmen Only’s nine tracks transverse myriad rock landscapes (be it traditional rock, indie, folk or Americana), but with a sullen, repentant quality that stains these tracks with a morose, languid atmosphere perfectly echoed in singer/guitarist Rocky Votolato’s brooding vocals and lyrics. One of For Madmen Only’s greatest strengths is Votolato’s golden crooning, which serves as both focal point and background for Waxwing’s music, slipping into the foreground and back again with ease, as it’s required. Waxwing’s lilting dynamics takes the music from tender acoustic folk to somnambulant indie rock to restrained melodies that build to emotional climaxes and rock spasms, but always with a faltering push-pull theme laced throughout For Madmen Only. Sharing its members with The Blood Brothers, Bugs In Amber, as well as Votolato’s solo endeavors has done nothing to diminish Waxwing’s dramatic focus, and For Madmen Only is an exquisite, effecting debut. Recorded by Matt Bayles (MINUS THE BEAR, The Sword, Botch, ISIS, Cursive, Make Do and Mend, Murder City Devils, Mastodon, Blood Brothers).