W.O.W.A [CD]

Ghinzu return with W. O. W. A, their fourth studio album and their first in 17 years. Long in the making, the record draws from an extensive creative period during which the band wrote nearly 90 fully formed ideas before refining them into the final tracklisting. "We had all these hard drives everywhere," recalls frontman John Descamps. "We wanted to bring together 10 tracks that truly represented all those years of condensed work. " The result sees Ghinzu return to their foundations while pushing into uncharted territory. Their formative influences - the energy and expression of Queen; the raucous grunge noise of Nirvana and The Melvins - remain, alongside their passion for visual art. Citing painters Gerhard Richter and Francis Bacon as key inspirations, the band stepped back from perfectionism to embrace a more instinctive and visceral approach to songwriting. Recorded at Hillside Manor in Los Angeles, W. O. W. A was made alongside the acclaimed Dave Sardy, who became an additional member of the band. The results speak for themselves. W. O. W. A (When Other Worlds Await) is a terrific record, laced with raw pulsions and engineered tensions. The distillation of a decade's worth of ideas, it finds Ghinzu reveling in creative maturity.