We live in a world where there is much to be angry about. I'm not even going to attempt to list out the major issues affecting our society today - I would certainly miss hundreds, if not thousands, of major topics that are deserving of white hot, boiling rage. Because of the nature of the music I cover, I find myself listening to a lot of albums that tackle the grand scale of injustice in the world. On the other hand, the new album by New York's Wellness presents a more focused distillation of rage. Whereas something like Chat Pile's new album takes on the collective failures of 21st Century life, Wellness are more laser-focused on more specific, yet no less substantive, societal issues, which they take on in a concentrated 16-minute explosion of righteous indignation. 

On their debut album, Wellness are tackling anticapitalism, state-sanctioned violence, issues related to transgender identity, and fittingly, the wellness industry (I guess it was preordained that we cover them here on this metal and fitness site). The first track, in its two-minute runtime, addresses the vapidity of modern online relationships with lyrics like "Pointless superficial connections / Meaningless parasocial relationships / Killing time until it runs out / Keeping up appearances with backlit self portraits" and the wellness and beauty industries' messages that only the young are worthwhile: "A thirst for eternal youth - for relevance / A picture perfect body concealing senescence and any semblance of the self." There's a lot packed into such short songs. 

Musically, the album is similarly efficient. There are no long instrumental meanderings here or even a devotion to the standard verse-chorus-verse song structure. The seven tracks on this release are an all-out assault on the senses, but this isn't one-gear grindcore or simplistic punk. The members of Wellness are veterans of bands like Liturgy and Kayo Dot, and there is a mathcore vibe that's always evident behind the blackened vocals. The tags on Wellness' Bandcamp page include "metal," "emoviolence," "mathcore," and "screamo," and the diversity of those genres points at the complexity of these short songs. Tracks like "Stained Glass" let the noise recede momentarily so you can hear the razor-sharp precision of the guitar. It takes a great deal of skill to make such intricate noise. 

Wellness is a blistering album, raw emotions pressed into a primal diamond of self expression. In a world with so much to be angry about, it can be hard to know where and how to focus your rage. When that anger feels overwhelming, an album like this one feels like a gift. 

Wellness' self-titled album is out September 18th via Third House Records.