Wucan recently announced their new album Axioms, releasing on August 29 via Long Branch Records. The new longplayer showcases the band’s artistic ingenuity while continuing the transformation first hinted at on the previous album Heretic Tongues and ultimately pushing that shift even further.
Today, the band releases “Holz auf Holz,” the third single from Axioms. “I wrote ‘Holz auf Holz’ on a cold March evening in 2024, during one of my little candle rituals at home,” shares singer Francis Tobolsky. “Suddenly, my incense caught fire without even touching the flame – and right in that moment, the melody came to me out of nowhere. It was immediately clear that this had to become a song.
“We call it ‘Holz’ for short, and it came together quite quickly, since the guys immediately understood what kind of track it was meant to be. To me, this song strongly reflects our East German rock and krautrock influences. And in true Wucan fashion, this German-language song serves as a commentary on the current political and social situation in Germany.”
As is well known, true art is characterized above all by its constant renewal – a combination of the tried and tested with the innovative.
Like nearly all influential acts in music history who have followed this golden rule, Wucan demonstrate their capacity for artistic evolution with Axioms. On Axioms, the four-piece heavy rock outfit led by frontwoman Francis Tobolsky blends the distinctive elements of their previous studio records – Sow The Wind (2015), Reap The Storm (2017), and Heretic Tongues (2022) – with fresh ideas, resulting in a broader stylistic range and a more clearly defined conceptual approach. In other words: While the band continues to reference hard rock, krautrock, East German rock, and metal, the eight new tracks are also infused with touches of progressive rock, isolated electronic elements, and a playful jazz attitude.
Or Tobolsky aptly puts it, “The foundation of our music is international ’70s hard rock enriched by contemporary influences – this time with even more bombast, brutality, and complexity.”
