For the better part of the past 10 years, there has been an effervescent force amassing an anthology of storied metalcore. These marvels are woven together by monstrous sonicism and the collaborative curation of Paul Lierman (drums and lyrics), Tyler Eads (clean vocals), Joseph Sammuel (extreme vocals), Codi Chambers (lead guitar), Nathan Kane (rhythm guitar/vocals), and Thomas Barham (bass guitar). Six pals who hold a deep love and respect for, not just each other, but, the soundscapes and worlds in which they build their music.
From their explosive debut LP, Castle in the Clouds…the adventurous chronicle of “a young knight, representative of mankind, on his quest to find a legendary Castle and allegorically, the meaning of life” (a-thank you Spotify!)...to their latest sand-strewn epic, Atlas Runica; these band of brothers are on a mission to deliver consistently riveting tales that literally come to life before your very ears. Even if you aren’t “too into metal,” I must beckon anyone who loves storytelling, literary craftsmanship, precision sound engineering, and laying witness to the amalgamation of a brilliantly cohesive product to keep their eyes on The Wise Man’s Fear.
I had the utmost pleasure to video with Tyler and Paul to just talk and ask them a random, but fun, assortment of questions on this latest feature for the Moved. While the interview being read below is a transcription from our recorded audio, I will be highlighting and referencing our conversation as a whole at the close of this piece.
Without gobbling up all the rest of the wind with my gabbing, here is Moved By Music’s latest featured guest(s)… The Wise Man’s Fear!
MBM: Super cliché to start out with…but what is the story behind your name? It’s super cool! I have a feeling it’s named after the fantasy novel (of the same name).
WMF: (Paul) "Yeah, you pretty much named it! We originally readapted it to be a statement against pride, ya’know? If you ever encounter somebody who’s actually wise, generally they aren’t prideful. To the degree that it’s almost like a certain paranoia or a fear of theirs. So yeah, it’s that and (the fact that) the book was super dope!"
MBM: Even before Castle in the Clouds, did you guys solely pursue the fantasycore sound or did it take some navigating?
WMF: (Tyler) "That’s a good question. I feel like, growing up, we were all just geeky kids in general. Loved all the fantasy elements! I played so much World of Warcraft, loved Lord of the Rings, Star Wars...you name it. So I think when we had the opportunity to kind of start fresh with a new trilogy and our first full-length album, it felt natural to want to make it…for lack of a better term…sound more epic. Essentially like a cinematic take on metalcore. That kinda fed one thing into another and it happened more organically than anything. And of course, I know Paul can speak to this too, but with having the story play out, it made sense to be able to have certain elements (of the sound) be able to accentuate the story where it needed to most."
(Paul) "Yeah, we didn’t really have any direction before the first full length. We kinda just put out this EP that we repressed and, ya’know, tried not to think about those days (haha). That was before a solidified lineup, but yeah, like Tyler was saying…going into Castle, it was something we did have a distinct conversation about. Like, should we take this branding idea and run with it and do we want to commit to it? Ultimately, we felt like the most dangerous thing to do was to be forgettable; and it was the kind of music we wanted to hear anyway so it just made a lot of sense. As Tyler said, we’re all just nerdy people who like heavy music…so it fit!"
MBM: Besides your own (vocals included), what is your other favorite instrument and why?
WMF: (Tyler) "I would say, for me personally…I know this is oddly specific, but it would have to be a synthesizer. Just because it combines the more technical side (with everything). Like, with being an audio engineer and having done that for a while now, on the technical side you can get lost in the weeds with it. Change all these parameters and stuff that you wouldn’t “normally” have to mess with on a normal instrument, but then you also get the basic side of it…it’s just a piano that you're essentially manipulating these different signals on. So yeah, it kind of just combines the best of both worlds there and that’s probably why it’s my favorite."
(Paul) "I think my favorite ones are always the fantasy-type instrumentation that we use. They’re real instruments but they’re not always “real”…a lot of the time they’re either sampled or midi just because it doesn’t make sense to pay a secessionist for four flute notes or something (haha)...this last record, as an example, we did some like…Norwegian stuff; I went on this huge Heilung kick and they do crazy, Iron Age Nordic sounds. They don’t use anything that wouldn’t have been available back then and it’s really cool because they’re, like, headlining Death Metal festivals even though they’re not strictly a metal band. They’re really weird and experimental but that stuff gets me the most excited when it comes to thinking about how we can expand our sonic horizon. I always think of it as a particle collider of ideas. Song ideas will just erupt out of it if you spin enough elements around."
MBM: If you could score your own remake of a classic fantasy/sci-fi movie, which would you choose and why?
WMF: (Paul) "Dude, I feel like for me…this is a double-sided answer because one of the first fantasy series I got into as a kid was the Eragon series; and when they butchered that movie back in the day…it was heartbreaking. I feel like I’d wanna score a remake like that because A) a remake HAS to happen, and you already can’t make it worse so there’s nowhere to go but up! And then B) Dragons and metal? Dude *clicks tongue*"
(Tyler) "For a movie? I feel like this is more sci-fi than anything but Blade Runner. The music’s already great! I wouldn’t really change it but more so do my own cover of it because I love the soundtrack of the entire series. If I could go as far as a video game, I don’t know if that’s fair, but RuneScape. Would definitely do a modern spin on RuneScape!"
MBM: Say you could be written into the DBZ Universe and Kami invites you up to The Lookout to headline a “Concert for the Cosmos” …what’s the setlist gonna be?
WMF: (Paul) "I love the depth of that question (haha)! I feel like…and maybe this is just because this is where my head’s at with the new record but definitely a lot of stuff off of Atlas Runica. Like: 'Tailspin,' for sure… 'Sea of Fire,' for sure… I would put 'Codex' in there too, I feel like that track was kinda slept on because it was mid to late album on The Lost City… 'Cataclysm' feels very DBZ universe and would fit right in… then end with 'Chaotica' and 'Firefall,' man. Keep it fast and heavy!"
(Tyler) "Yeah, I think 'Cataclysm' is a very good one… and honestly, a lot of The Lost City, I feel, hits really well with that (universe); but then 'Sea of Fire' did also come right up to mind as well. I guess to kinda piggyback off Paul: heavier on the Atlas Runica side but definitely sprinkle in some of The Lost City!"
MBM: Lastly, what moves you most about music? What drove you to want to pursue it?
WMF: (Tyler) "What probably drove me to pursue was growing up in a pretty musical household. My dad was a drummer, then my older brother was a drummer and he started picking up guitar…and so, naturally, I started picking up different instruments. Drums, then guitar, and eventually vocals. Then, honestly, I just started listening to heavy music ‘cause “that’s what all the kids were into in that day!” And then, I just joined a couple of bands throughout high school…Joe being in one of them so that was the link there to The Wise Man’s Fear. After that, just kinda went from there and fell in love with songwriting throughout (our first) album’s process. I feel like we learned so much when we went into that studio with Johnny and Castle. It was…not a crap chute on anybody’s end but our own (haha).
We had some demos fleshed out but some we were just running from the ground up and figuring it out. I feel like we learned so much through that process and since then…I’ve been hooked on songwriting. That’s probably my favorite part about music and it’s what draws me in the most, but…I do love performing too. Ultimately, I feel like I can revert to that child-like state whenever I can sit in front of the computer and can have the evening blocked off to just sit there and mess around and hopefully come up with something good!"
(Paul) "Dude, honestly…I feel like it’s just the way it hit me when I was younger. Especially in Junior High and early High School when I was sort of branching off on my own music discovery journey and finding things that were just…exciting. There’s this sense of agency and it was almost like…my friends and I had this little “illegal” USB trade where we would pass this same hot-potato-USB around and just go, like, pirate different records and just share them back and forth (haha). So everybody was always trying to find something really cool and it felt a bit like panning for gold. It was awesome to get to emotionally connect with something and I just think back on the impact it had on my life, in that regard. Kind of serving as an outlet for any sort of frustration or negativity in life. It was a healthy way to siphon that away from my interpersonal relationships. Drumming itself, even, is a very brutish thing where you just smack things with a wooden stick; but there’s such an element of 'letting off steam.' That was super formative for me. As far as writing stuff, that’s kinda what I aim for…that is, 'would this excite or impact my younger (or current) self,' because I still value music for those same reasons."
Extensive, absolutely riveting, and chocked full of good times… I cannot thank Paul, Tyler, and the entirety of the band for agreeing to jump on a feature. During our convo, I tell them “not to fanboy here, but I’ve been listening to you guys pretty much since your inception;” then told them about how my ex-brother-in-law introduced me to them and they remembered his old band! They had played together before I became (my then brother-in-law’s) band’s merch guy, so I had just missed encountering them. However, The Wise Man’s Fear has not stopped showing signs of slowing down.
Label or no label, these fellas are only breaking molds and shaking up the meaning of independent artistry and musicianship in the metal (and music) world! Not only do their stories tell harrowing tales of fanatical whimsy, but they are also set to a soundscape that utterly succeeds in providing a soundtrack to the sheer brutality and elemental force of their message.
Keep up with The Wise Man’s Fear on all music streaming platforms and their social media via Instagram and Facebook. Storytelling and metal appreciatórs alike…go on and take a dive into one of the most adventurous discographies this side of the 21st century!
Thank you to all the Moved! Here’s to the next post!
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