- Bryon Harris
We Left As Lions – 'The Factory'
Review by April Kranz & Staff
We Left As Lions front man Neil McWilliam has been active in the music scene for years. After the disbandment of his former project The Sounds of Silence, this longtime songwriter had a musical itch to scratch; so, he enlisted the help of friends Chris Cowan, Nick Chandler, and Jon Harquail, as well as the songwriting talents of Troy Fullerton to continue his successful run. Nowadays, the group performs what is best described as "nu metal powerhouse."
Opening with a crescendoing main guitar progression, everything opens with intensity with verses that build and are full of gritty, introspective lyrics. The prechorus dials it back a bit, letting the drums take control of the groove, exploding into the chorus with supercharged lyrics:
“Everything’s free in the Factory
I knew this all along
Been blind what a fallacy let’s carry on
If I could change my mind
Turn the day to night
Breakaway from time”
The form repeats then heads into a beefy bridge section, but not without surprises underneath it's main melody. On a second listen there’s something new within the depths of the song, these juicy little vocal flourishes and production throws - kudos to the mixing engineer for tasty nuggets to find as well as shifting guitar licks.
More obviously, and already stated previously, the drums absolutely shine on this track, and you can hear how much fun the band had with this. As we continue towards the end of the song, McWilliam laments on his cynical views of society, his desire for escapism, and the anguish that comes with it all.
In short, The Factory was a fun, intense, and engaging heavier sounding listen that doesn’t usually come across my desk, and I'm glad it did. Powerhouse just doesn't seem to capture all this band has to offer. We Left As Lions are a must add to your 2022 playlist.
LINKS for The Factory
About We Left As Lions
We Left As Lions started as a music project by East Coast Canadian Neil McWilliam after his rock band The Sounds of Silence disbanded. Armed with a furious desire to write music and years of songwriting experience, Neil embarked on a journey to write music of many different genres, only to eventually hone in on the final sound that would come together as We Left As Lions – a rock band with metalcore style influences, yet somewhat deep and intellectual lyrically.
During the COVID pandemic, Neil began collaborating with his longtime co-writer Troy Fullerton, and fellow co-bandmate and drummer Chris Cowan. Creating songs with promise, such as “The Ghost of You” and “Alive Forever”.
Because of the remote nature of COVID, Neil also started collaborating with musicians around the world, such as Jared Woosley in Arizona (Ex-Fivespeed) to create the track “Forget Yourself”, and Don Levandier (The Motorleague) to create “Satellite”. Leveraging these collaborations, Neil got a strong feeling for what was possible. Fast forward a few months, Neil has focused back on vocals and songwriting, and finalized new stable lineup, which features: Chris Cowan, Nick Chandler and Jon Harquail (Ex-Adaptation).
Nick Chandler, with his engineering prowess, has taken the production value up and notch and now the band is focused on creating hard hitting rock and metal songs. We Left As Lions is excited to launch the track “The Factory” into the world, because it has come together incredibly and has become the new representation of what We Left As Lions is capable of. The music is created by kids with a dream growing up and playing music in various bands throughout our lives, and finally the right sound has come to fruition.
After releasing “Satellite” and “Forget Yourself”, We Left As Lions has been able to garner radio play both locally and on multiple online radio stations, won contests on ReverbNation via Foley Entertainment, been featured on the homepage of ReverbNation multiple times, and has also been nominated by Music New Brunswick for Breakthrough Artist of the Year.
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