Lazer/Wulf

Anyone who tries to spread the word about Lazer/Wulf always runs into the same problem: Explaining their sound. People throw around genre catchwords such as metal, jazz fusion, thrash, sludge, mathcore, aggressive, progressive, symphonic, melodic, evil-funk, avant-metal… the list goes on. Personally, I prefer to use the phrase “groove math metal on steroids”, although it wouldn’t be doing them justice. Regardless of their undefinable vibrations, their live show most certainly gives everyone excitations.
Lazer/Wulf consists of Bryan Aiken on guitar, Sean Peiffer on bass, and Brad Rice on drums. This trio writes classically rooted compositions that leave you breathless. Seriously, I kept forgetting to breathe during the performance. The time-signatures and tempo constantly varied, the rhythms were complex, and their melodies resembled a sonic labyrinth, yet they never alienated the crowd by always keeping it groovy. Bryan and Sean’s guitars formed an elaborate dance in your brain while Brad’s double-bass reverberated in your rib-cage. They closed with playing their new EP “There Was A Hole Here. It’s Gone Now” in it’s entirety, which feels more like a 12-minute opus than five individual songs. Their lazer-like precision and timing consistently made my jaw drop. I would turned to the stranger next to me, jaw also dropped. We would smile and shake our heads, signifying the mutual thought, “I don’t get how they’re DOING that!”, then continue to stare at the beautiful destruction in front of us.
Many times, I catch myself over-using this adjective, but the band truly deserves it when I say they’re “EPIC”. If you haven’t seen Lazer/Wulf, you haven’t actually lived yet. I can’t wait to see where this band takes us in the future. - Atlanta Music Guide

It has to be said that the There Was A Hole Here. It’s Gone Now EP from Georgia band Lazer/Wulf is one remarkable release, a stirring and intriguing piece of songwriting and realisation. The EP, barely touching twelve minutes in length contains four tracks making one full, continuous, and evolving emotive experience which is individual to each who immerses themselves in its powerful presence. It is a release which no matter the original premise and theme which the artist represents with its sounds, instigates a personal vision and journey which changes and finds its own evolution the more one spends in its company.

Lazer/Wulf is an instrumental band who occasionally use vocals as another element not a focus. From Athens, GA, the trio of guitarist Bryan Aiken, bassist Sean Peiffer, and drummer Brad Rice, create an involved form of progressive metal fused with distinct and varied strains such as sludge, jazz, technical metal, and more. Their music is wonderfully unpredictable and impossible to bring any expectations to, except that from the evidence of There Was A Hole Here. It’s Gone Now it will be something unforgettable. Their sound is dense and rich in consumptive originality without becoming painfully intrusive, its heart and breath a perpetual trigger for individual thoughts and responses.

Originally a quintet the band has consistently grabbed strong attention through their live shows and striking releases, which led to them in 2008 being acclaimed Athens Band of the Year. 2006 saw their debut demo Demo-Lition! taking no time in making its mark in the ears of local music lovers, but the line-up changes, some enforced, saw the band reduced to a threesome and the challenge of re-interpreting their immense sound without losing its might. 2009 saw the release of their full debut The Void That Isn’t, its strong and impressive sounds a declaration of the new Lazer/Wulf though this also was followed by losing another member. A long search led Aiken and Peiffer to the eventual discovery of drummer Rice in 2011 and finally the band was set and began working on There Was A Hole Here. It’s Gone Now.

Opening track We Will Meet Again teases the ear from the start with a brewing atmosphere which beckons without revealing its intent merely offering a sense of something big impending. As it flexes its mass a throbbing hungry bass begins lurking behind the mesmeric guitar intrigue. As it lifts its energy the rhythms become eager and excitable and even in the restrained moments when vocals add their breath the track is pulling at its reins. Eventually the song breaks free and we are treated to a storm of urgent energy, striking melodic prompting, and feisty rhythms. The track awakens thoughts, its warm yet open sense of finality inspiring ever changing interpretations of personal imagination.

The piece turns into a muscular beast as it emerges as second track Song from the Second Floor. Whereas the first track has a Mars Volta like gait here it brings an angrier intensity to its energy, a thrash laced metallic presence. With the guitars surging with purpose and again the bass a ravenous presence, the track is an initial inciting bruise of pleasure. Taking a step back to assess the situation the song offers a lull before it builds to its climactic chaotic riot upon the senses. Chaos breaks out as a battlefield of emotions, sounds, and intrusive atmospheres collide in ingenious invention, the track having the feel of an all powerful element standing over the enraged mayhem within its shadow.

Bones of the Youth is the portrait of this bedlam of creativity and intensity, its air paranoid and defensive but with a corruptive defiance. Each listen to the piece brings a difference thought, its varied metal veins incendiary and irresistible. Emerging from the venomous atmosphere the equally distorted air of Morgue Nest brings the EP to a unforgettable climax. With combative rhythms and aggressive riffs rippled with malevolent guitar play the track is the final statement. Whether it is a full finality or the spring board for another development you decide as it and the whole EP leaves you breathless and desperate for more.

The There Was A Hole Here. It’s Gone Now EP has to be heard as a whole for its fullest glorious effect to be felt and enjoyed, though individual tracks will still leave all metal and rock fans quivering with excitement. Released also on vinyl and cassette with the bonus instrumental It’s Gone Now, the EP is one of the most impressive things to come our way this year, and Lazer/Wulf one of the most exciting bands. - Ringmaster Review

You know how at the end of The Fly, when Jeff Goldblum becomes the “Brundlefly” and he knocks up Geena Davis, then he wants to use the telepods to combine himself with his unborn child and his lover to make the ultimate fly/man/woman/baby creature? Yeah, Lazer/Wulf is just like that, a blend of angular, syncopated metal groove, prog-rock, latin, jazz, and just about everything else you had in your iPod. The crazy thing is that it works perfectly.

Lazer/Wulf put on an absolutely flawless performance to a jam packed crowd at 529 this past Saturday(When is the last time you heard of a small time metal show being jam packed?). What makes it even more amazing is that guitarist, Bryan Aiken played the entire set in agony after slicing open his finger with a box cutter earlier in the day, and he still two-hand tapped like a champion. Now THAT is fucking metal! - Speaker Creatures

It is ironic that a metal-based band would be named Flagpole’s “Band of the Year” considering Athens’ predominantly pop predilections, but Lazer/Wülf earned 2008’s top honor with a multi-faceted sound that defies simple, if any, categorization. Band comparisons are frankly out the window and even though other “mostly” instrumental-only (track six, “Who Were the Mound Builders?” features some subtle, low, haunting vocals) heavy bands exist, such comparisons when listening to The Void That Isn’t’s uncompromising, ever-shifting psych/ avant/ metal/ jazz/ prog/ thrash/ rock mash-up would be misguided and unfair.

Six tracks totaling 31 minutes, The Void That Isn’t is amazing and maddening; amazing due to the bold, insanely competent musicianship, and maddening because it is only 31 minutes long. Like a practiced lotus eater, one is found wanting, hungering for more of this audio nirvana. Such thoughts are entirely selfish because it might be asking too much of L/W to give us more. But, oh, the craving is strong.

The stamina involved in creating such wondrously controlled derangement (how much of this is improvisational) must be taxing, but the more L/W grooves, thrashes, churns, chugs, stops, starts, lurches, drops and soars the more it reveals of its dynamic, multi-textured and boundless sound-verse. L/W is that good, and The Void That Isn’t is simply stunning in its audacity and boundless, imaginative scope. The Void That Isn’t holds such nuance that repeated listens are mandatory. Tangled, mercurial and mesmerizing are all words that come to mind when trying to artfully describe this heavy trip into the inner regions of L/W’s collective subconscious mind.

--John Mincemoyer - Flagpole Magazine (Athens, GA)

Lazer/Wulf can play their instruments. This much has always been clear. From the tense, finger-tapped opening bars of “We Will Meet Again,” the first track on the group’s ambitious new EP reaffirms their status as maniacal, prog-obsessed precisionists. But this only tells half the story. The thing that has characterized the Athens-cum-Atlanta act’s music from the start, the quality that has always served to save it from the hardhearted tech-rock doldrums to which so many like-minded acts fall prey, is a manifest humanness, a fleshy counterpart to the harsh and unyielding steel. L/W’s music is often machinelike, true, but it isn’t, in fact, the sound of machines as much as the sublimative and unpredictable sound of the mad scientists operating them.

And L/W are madmen. Look above: I described this EP as “ambitious.” Weird, right? For an extended play (this one clocks in at a laughably terse 12 minutes), There Was a Hole Here. It’s Gone Now is ridiculously far-reaching, a psychotic compendium of four interwoven movements that induce exhaustion and exhilaration in equal measure. TWAHHIGN is the sort of record that’s almost too much to take. Listening to it over and over, I veered back and forth between wanting to term it the best thing ever and a distended, unendurable mess. But the reality is, it’s neither. It’s untamable, unknowable: the sound of a band that can sure play its instruments but also refuses, to its everlasting credit, to play by the rules. - Flagpole Magazine (Athens, GA)

In my research prior to hearing Lazer/Wulf for the first time, I read a bio that described the band as “an evil funk group with thrash roots, or an aggro jazz trio with sludge issues,” cringed a bit, and edged the volume down on my speakers.

In short, I was totally unprepared to experience something beautiful.

Lazer/Wulf formed in Athens and later moved to Atlanta after the departure of their vocalist, who left the band due to a vocal cord injury. The remaining three members explore symphonic metal with their latest EP, There Was A Hole Here, It’s Gone Now.

While the four tracks could stand alone, they definitely work best when presented in the complete 12-minute session. Drawing from prog rock and classical influences, the gathering storm that becomes the frenzied symphony, “We Will Meet Again,” is the perfect introduction to the talent that Lazer/Wulf has to offer. Distorted vocals, glittering electronic notes, and call-and-answer interplay between drums, bass, and guitar work together to define the dark territory ahead. Thrashing guitars make way for a creepy little Tim Burton break in “From the Second Floor.” A bonus track called “It’s Gone Now” is available only on the cassette and vinyl formats. If the band followed a more traditional style, they could reach the commercial acclaim of early Muse gems like “Stockholm Syndrome.” But Lazer/Wulf defies definition and follows their own muse for now.

Lazer/Wulf’s EP, There Was A Hole, will be available April 24 in vinyl, cassette and downloadable formats from www.lazerwulf.com - Atlanta Music Guide

Athens' Lazer/Wulf has experienced several lineup changes since its inception in 2006, but its current incarnation as a feral three-piece is by far the strongest. The band's scathing instrumental metal assault isn’t pure adrenaline -- there's an obvious musical aptitude afoot beneath the crushing volume -- but Lazer/Wulf's planned polyrhythmic smarts don't make for nerd-rock, either. Put it this way: There's no formula for discerning the exact face-meltingness of a guitar riff. This is some real-deal shit.
— Gabe Vodicka - Creative Loafing ATL

Perseverance doesn’t always have to imply a particular level of suffering. It can simply mean diligently stepping over any roadblocks in one's path and continuing on. In this respect, Athens metal band Lazer/Wülf is one of the most persevering bands in town.

Although the lineup now stands at three members, the group has included as many as five and as few as two. Most recently, though, Lazer/Wülf (which has not always had a singer) featured vocalist Jimmy Baldwin in addition to its core of drummer Mathius York, guitarist Bryan Aiken and bassist Sean Peiffer. After Baldwin’s exit following throat problems, the trio realized that a lot could be said without vocalizing anything. Aiken says, “It wasn't even a decision to continue as an instrumental trio. It was obvious; we had already become comfortable without the crutch of vocals years before, and we were confident that our music was emotive enough that an audience could still connect without being told, verbally, what to feel. In fact, the return to our instrumental roots was freeing in a lot of ways.”

Although not the most visible band around town or one that comes up in conversation very much, Lazer/Wülf has connected with a fan base that has spread largely by word of mouth. They are conscientious about meeting new fans at shows and are careful to spot new faces. Still, the band was knocked for a loop when it came in second in the 2007 Flagpole Music Awards in the category of Best Up And Coming Band. “[That was a] total surprise,” says York. “The first year, we didn't even know we were nominated until too late. We didn't let anyone know about that.” However, after being nominated in the 2008 season for Band/Performer of the Year, the guys in Lazer/Wülf quietly let it be known that they were in the running, and their fans responded. In the end, Lazer/Wülf took home the award in that category. “'Surprise' is a vast understatement. It was a sucker-punch of absolute shock,” says Aiken. "We thank everyone who voted for us as Band of the Year, but in this town, I don't know how that happened. I talked to Jeff Tobias from We Versus the Shark, one of my biggest influences, after the awards ceremony, and he said he wasn't surprised and that we had supporters outside of just metal because of our interesting approach to the music. It was a huge honor not only to receive that award, but to get a pat on the back from someone who made me want to do this in the first place!”

Lazer/Wülf has just finished recording its newest full-length album. However, while it seems appropriate to refer to the new recording, The Void That Isn’t, as a full-length release, Aiken seems torn over this designation. He says, “It's five instrumental songs, for a total of 31 minutes, and while I'm not sure what constitutes a ‘full-length,’ I'm doubly unsure that this actually is one. Our first album, Demo-Lition! was the same amount of material, about the same length, but less than a fourth of the quality. That's why we consider that one a demo and this one an EP. But hey, if we can pass it off as a full-length, why not? Cinemechanica's The Martial Arts is the same length as our Void, so what the hell!”

The recording was done with engineer Anthony Lunn of Rising Tide Recordings at his home studio. “The experience was beyond incredible,” says Aiken. “He was open to any amount of antics or tangents that we are prone to take to an extreme. He let us have full reign of the ultimate direction of the recording and the flow of the album as a cohesive piece of music. It was beyond our expectations. We would show up at his place with all sorts of instruments and found objects and kitchen utensils, even an actual cellist and a flautist at one point, and Anthony was always supportive.”

Although Lazer/Wülf, whose name Aiken notes bears more than a passing resemblance to Fiddler on the Roof butcher Lazar Wulf, is confident in its brand of instrumental heavy metal, the members recognize that this aspect of the band may be unsettling for listeners used to being told how to think and react via a vocalist's lyrics. They would rather this effect come by way of the music itself. “We all need to vent, so metal is perfect for venting. But really, Lazer/Wülf is selfish,” says York. “We want our fans to be angry, then sad then happy. I want my music to affect you the way I want you to be affected.” Speaking of the music’s future, he says, “I love instrumental, but I know there are a lot of people who need lyrics to relate to music. Instrumental music is so much harder to pull off. You can't just repeat a riff over and over... To be able to keep someone’s attention for 40 minutes without saying a word is a huge challenge, don't you think?"

--Gordon Lamb - Flagpole Magazine

“To say Lazer/Wulf is on point is an understatement—the band functioned as one cohesive entity, blasting through complex riffs and melting the faces off anyone within earshot. It was as if the high-speed funk-rock thrash had literally enraptured the entire audience and pulled each individual forward on an invisible string. With each song, the intensity grew and even the most jaded and pretentious of audience members could not help but drop their jaws, if only momentarily. The brief silence following the set was an appropriate response to the performance. When the universe aligns and a band pulls off that kind of flawless and crisp congruity, there are really no words.”

— Carrie Dagenhard

"If you are unaware of just how much noise one band can make, take a listen to Lazer/Wulf. Did I mention that they were [Flagpole Magazine's] BAND OF THE YEAR last year? Yeah, there's a reason, punk."

- Jordan Stepp

"Consider L/W your oasis of hell, a mind-bending fusion of jazz sensibilities, psych-fueled chaos and avant-garde adventurism."

- Michelle Gilzenrat
- Flagpole Magazine (Athens, GA)

“Lazer/Wulf is my life. I was lost for a year and a half.”

That’s Bryan Aiken referring to his band Lazer/Wulf and the group’s unfortunate hiatus since mid-2009. Formed in Athens in 2006, L/W’s music is a blinding fusion of thrash, jazz, indie rock and funk, delivered at blistering speeds and mind-numbing volume. The band quickly became a local favorite, winning the Flagpole Athens Music Award for “Band of the Year” a mere two years after its formation.

But then things took a downward turn. In the summer of 2009, L/W’s previous drummer abruptly quit, bringing the band’s promising momentum to a screeching halt. Weeks turned into months as remaining members Bryan Aiken (guitar, percussion, vocals) and Sean Peiffer (bass) scoured the Internet for a drummer who not only could keep up with Lazer/Wulf’s insane tempo and mid-measure style change-ups but who also had a like-minded musical vision.

The band auditioned a number of drummers over the course of the year.

“The drummers we tried out were very niche drummers,” says Aiken. “We would have a very stern jazz drummer or a stern thrash or stern indie-rock drummer. We couldn’t find anybody who was comfortable doing all of those things or who was open to that.”

This was not the first time Lazer/Wulf had been dealt a potential death blow. The band has gone through five different incarnations since its inception—a vocalist got sick, a drummer quit, members moved away or left for school—and each time the band was forced to reinvent itself.

“When we took a hit in a way that would kill most bands, we tried to assimilate to that change and turn it into a strength,” says Aiken. So rather than throwing in the towel, Aiken and Peiffer kept up their search for a drummer. Then, in August 2010, they found Brad Rice. A student at the Atlanta Institute of Music, Rice was a metal drummer studying jazz. He wanted to join a band in Georgia and responded to an ad that Aiken had placed on an online music forum.

“I listened to the two tracks they had on their website; as soon as I heard 20 seconds of the first song, I realized this was exactly what I wanted to do,” says Rice. “I immediately got in touch with Bryan, and they had me come in for a couple auditions. I guess I worked out OK for them.”

For Aiken and Peiffer, it was love at first drumbeat. Peiffer recalls, “Brad’s style was that of a hard-rock drummer, but he was studying jazz, so he had those elements, too. It was exactly what we were looking for: someone who was a heavy hitter but also had some chops.”

“Yeah, it was kind of exactly perfect,” laughs Aiken.

With a new drummer in tow, the trio began getting Rice up to speed. They planned on taking it slow; they wanted Rice to have plenty of time to get comfortable with the band’s back catalog. But then something happened.

“Sean and I went to see Cinemechanica and Manray at Caledonia in September,” says Aiken. “These bands were so good; it lit a fire under our asses. We called Rice that night and told him, ‘It’s time to do this.’”

Since then, the group has been practicing three times per week to get themselves ready for their comeback show. Initially, Rice just spent his time learning the drum parts for older L/W songs, but as the trio began working on a new song, it became more of a two-way street.

“It was a lot different than drummers we’ve had before. In the past, it was more like Bryan would say, ‘I have this riff; I was thinking you do this,’” notes Peiffer. “But as we were working on a new song for this Caledonia show, Brad was coming up with stuff and we were shifting what we were doing around his ideas—sort of adapting to him. Songwriting became much more of a collaborative effort.”

Lazer/Wulf even did a short out-of-state tour with Manray to make sure Rice was ready for the Athens return show. “He killed it,” says Aiken. “We’re finally at a place where I can truly say Lazer/Wulf is ready to play a show.”

Caledonia was the obvious location for the band’s return to Athens. Essentially the birthplace of the band, Caledonia has been a catalyst for L/W’s continuous stylistic evolution. “Caledonia has been so great towards us,” says Aiken. “They’ve put us on shows with bands across the genre spectrum… We consider Caledonia our home.”

L/W also thought carefully about whom they wanted to perform with. “Savagist is a crazy metal band, and Manray is a crazy indie band,” says Aiken. “We’re going to play in the middle, and I feel like that’s sort of a paradigm of Lazer/Wulf’s whole existence—that we’re caught between those two genres.”

“I’m just stoked to be playing again,” says Peiffer. And for the many Athens fans Lazer/Wulf left behind in 2009, it’s not a moment too soon.

John Granofsky - Flagpole Magazine (Athens, GA)

The evening’s highlight arrived in the form of Athens, Ga. instrumental trio Lazer/Wulf (oft-classified as “art metal,” but never quite verbally captured). The genre-bending group played selections from its forthcoming EP, The Void That Isn’t, scheduled to release later this year, as well as older material from its aptly-titled 2006 demo, Demo-lition!. The band parted with its second guitarist and lead vocalist over the past year, and have had to restructure compositions accordingly. Guitarist/found objects-player Bryan Aiken and bassist Sean Peiffer do some yelling and a little singing in lieu of a lead singer. Though vocalists generally remain the most immediate conduit between band and audience, the batch of new material Lazer/Wulf performed admirably maintains the relatable quality that for so long has been the hallmark of this unexpectedly magnetic group. The group has fully embraced this new instrumental three-piece status, true to its heavy roots but presenting an audience with material so interesting (and now conspicuously lacking the type of abrasive vocals that drive many away from the metal genre), that listeners latch right on. Among the multitude of disparate but somehow complementary styles the band explores, the new songs feature a heavy drum-and-bass element (Peiffer and drummer Mathius York feeding on each other’s energy), most notably a stunning oil drum/drum kit duet during “Lagarto,” an exploration into Morse code intended to evoke images of crushing metal and sunken submarines.

The set’s closer, “Rhinos Don’t Play,” from Demo-lition!, was by far the night’s standout, not only because of its excellent composition, but because Robert Green from McClane appeared at the side of the stage wielding a trumpet as the song neared it’s groovy B-section - one that usually requires a trumpet solo performed by Peiffer. This impromptu guest soloist compounded the set’s air of wonder and awe.

--Julia Reidy - SE Performer Magazine