Considering the three years of prolific and dense output by billy woods since his break out release History Will Absolve Me, the title Today, I Wrote Nothing seems like a ruse or misnomer. Are we to expect a different billy woods with this record? Lead single “Warmachines” suggests woods wrote a great deal, an inspired session wrought with bleak visions of taking it to the mattresses.
Produced by Messiah Musik, “Warmachines” satisfies in punk brevity, but creeps through the speakers with the blues, perhaps even funereal. billy woods has an uncanny eagle eye for spotting the truth and corruption in the middle distance. On “Warmachines” he begins under the nose with, “Missiles close enough to see model and make” following with, “Haters gone hate,” which places the corporate manufacturer adjacent to the street soldier, a juxtaposition he revisits ritually. In the preceding track on Today, I Wrote Nothing a sample lifted from Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian states “before man was, war waited for him.” It is with this knowledge woods delves deeper into that imprint of evil that awaited our intelligent arrival.
billy woods’ Today, I Wrote Nothing will be released March 31 on clear vinyl via Backwoodz Studioz. You can stream “Warmachines” below.
