THE WISE MAN'S FEAR // The End Of A Chapter

Indiana fantasycore act The Wise Man’s Fear have come to the end of a chapter with their latest album Valley Of Kings–but they are far from finished.

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Their latest record caps off a trilogy–following on from previous releases Castle in the Clouds and The Lost City–which has been a labour of love for the band; especially for drummer and lyricist Paul Lierman, the man behind the band’s epic lyrical storytelling.

“We are just so over the moon with how this record came out. It took a really, really long time to get this thing released. We started writing for this in 2017, right after we released our second one [The Lost City].” says Lierman.

Albums and double albums that connect thematically are not a new concept, but few do it quite as well at The Wise Man’s Fear; who have crafted a cohesive story from start to finish between their three albums to date.

“Castle in the Clouds was our first record, and that one is an allegory, very similar to The Pilgrim’s Progress, where it’s charting the adventures of a main character, a man who’s representative of all mankind. Then the second record [The Lost City] actually served as a prequel to the first record, sort of Star Wars style. So, the backstory of the villain from our first record was the main story arc of the second record.” explains Lierman.

There are a lot of fun allusions and references to the previous records for people who are looking out for them.
[ Paul Lierman ]

“And then this third record [Valley Of Kings] takes place a thousand years in the future, with those two being the ancient past for the main characters here, and these main characters are setting out to destroy a series of five evil relics that were created by the antagonist, Chaotica, in [The Lost City]. And to do that, they have to take them deep underground to the ‘Valley Of Kings.’” Lierman continues.

“At the very end of [Valley Of Kings], kind of a weird convoluted twist, but the last surviving member of the group of five is set on a quest. He drinks from the river of life and achieves immortality, but then is doomed to become this timeless herald for the Kings that are in the Valley and they send them on this time loop to warn people against his mistakes. A little bit of a ‘Ghost of Christmas Past’ vibe.” Lierman continues.

So, as you can see, there’s more than just thematic connection between these three records. Instead, more of a deliberately weaved tapestry of lore.

While it may seem like a big task for a band to embark upon such a detailed approach to their lyrical storytelling, according to Lierman, that was always the plan.

“The way that we got the storytelling built in there was Joe [Joseph Sammuel], our harsh vocalist, used to play guitar and then he made a switch to vocals, but he didn’t really have much experience lyric writing. So, I was just like, ‘You know what? I have wanted to give this a shot’. I had a cool idea for like a Pilgrim’s Progress allegory. And I basically made a suggestion.” says Lierman.

“So, I was writing concept and lyrical structure on the one side, but then separate and simultaneous, the other guys were writing guitar skeletons for the record. Then, when it came time to record, we’d basically put heads together and mix and match a lot of these instrumental demos with a lot of the lyric concepts and sort of try to finalise things there.” Lierman continues.

This refined combination of lyrical storytelling and heavy but melodic instrumentals has proved a success for the band on Valley Of Kings, an album that manages to give the classic post-hardcore/metalcore sound a fascinating medieval twist. Though with a label like fantasycore connected to your band, you’d expect just as much.

“It’s funny, I remember we had a conversation back in 2014 in Joe’s parents’ basement, cause that’s where we used to do all of our practicing. We all just sat down and were like: ‘Hey, so should we run with this fantasycore label or are people gonna think that’s dumb and gimmicky’. But basically, the philosophy that we’ve operated on is the most dangerous thing you can do musically is to be forgettable. So, we thought, ‘Hey, it’s accurate. It also is a little something to remember us by, so if someone hears it in passing, it may peak their curiosity.” says Lierman.

Despite being the one largely responsible for the band’s elaborate and connective lore album-to-album, Lierman is more than content with his bandmates–harsh vocalist Joseph Sammuel and clean vocalist Tyler Eads–taking vocal duties come recording.

We’ve been taking a lot of inspiration from Lovecraftian cosmic horror, combined with this globe-trotting genre that you’d see from Uncharted or The DaVinci Code.
[ Paul Lierman ]

“I’m too self-conscious to do vocals for sure, and I’m not good at vocals. So, it’s honestly like, I don’t want to say liberating, but it’s really rewarding to hear lyrics that I’ve worked on be delivered through Tyler and Joe’s killer vocals. I’m such a fan of their voices as individuals. So, it feels like best case scenario for me, because the storytelling and the plotting for the record, that’s where I get my geeky kick from. But then Tyler and Joe’s delivery is just top notch in my opinion, so it’s really, really cool.” says Lierman.

Of course, any good story must come to an end. While the band are still going strong, Valley Of Kings marks a sort of conclusion to this first story arc that the band have set out to tell with their first three records.

“We just wanted to make sure this was buttoned up perfectly. This has been our passion project since 2014 now, so it’s been a while. There are a lot of fun allusions and references to the previous records for people who are looking out for them. And then, at the very end of this record, like the final piece of the last song, it bleeds directly into the first track of the first record. And you know, kind of creates a little feedback loop for you.”

Now that this massive three-album story has concluded, what comes next? Well, even though the band have just closed the book on this six-year-journey, Lierman already has some ideas for what’s to come on album number four.

“I was kind of nervous about LP four, because this is definitely a trilogy and it’s definitely been tied off. Now that we’ve had some time to digest things and talk together as a group, I’m really, really, excited about the prospects we have for the fourth record. We’ve been taking a lot of inspiration from Lovecraftian cosmic horror, combined with this globe-trotting genre that you’d see from Uncharted or The DaVinci Code. So, somewhere in there we might end up landing with the fourth record. But it’ll be in a parallel universe, or maybe our universe. It’ll be set somewhere else just to let sleeping giants lie.”

Despite their epic thematic approach to music, surprisingly, the band don’t take much inspiration from the European metal legends that have pioneered some of the more specific historical and fantastical genres of heavy music.

“I really like the storytelling and branding and stylisation of a lot of those bands, but I don’t really like the sound for most of them. It’s kind of hard for me to find a European power metal band that I’m really into. So I think as far as story goes, we probably draw more from certain books and movies and video games, but you know, I have a lot of respect for the Amon Amarth‘s of the world that are just absolutely putting on insane live shows and pushing the boundaries of what you can accomplish with metal.” says Lierman.

“But you know, groups like Underoath, Saosin, Envy on the Coast, A Day to Remember, I See Stars. There’s a lot of groups that we can identify and say: ‘Okay, they have that X factor’, or whatever it is, they’re doing something right, and try to emulate them.”

Who knows what will come next in the ever-expanding storybook of The Wise Man’s Fear. Whatever it is, it’s safe to assume that the next chapter–like what we’ve seen so far–is going to be epic.