Each new The Republic of Wolves album seems to marginally overshadow the previous. Varuna expanded on the Brand New worshiping His Old Branches EP and their Cartographer EP was even better than Varuna. Enters No Matter How Narrow, here to claim the title of The Republic of Wolves’ masterpiece. 

Whereas their previous three releases had been dark, brooding affairs, …Narrow is a bit lighter. This is apparent first even from the album cover – this one is white and gold and blue, while Varuna’s was brown and red and navy. But it’s the music that’s important. The choruses present are catchier than in the past, the guitar riffs are brighter than before, there’s less screaming present on this release. And when screaming is utilized, it’s done in a more sparing fashion, just to accentuate. A perfect example of this is the bridge of “Pioneers,” which finds only ten seconds of screaming for emphasis. 

As any aspiring musician can tell you, it is damn near impossible to get noticed anymore. Standing out from the hordes of tweens throwing up Garage Band tracks on all-too-similar looking myspace pages is the now almost as tough as getting your demo tape heard by someone at a record label used to be. Every now and then though, a new band is able to break through, and rise above the white noise of everything and everyone else. But it’s still pretty amazing that when viral marketing has jumped the shark, and people aren’t haphazardly clicking on cryptic links like they once were, a previously unknown band from Long Island would end up riding a brilliant wave of unintentional guerilla marketing into the scene spotlight.