On The Inheritance of Fear, Cork shoegaze quartet Ways of Seeing deliver a record that feels both vast and deeply internal, a meditation on trauma, lineage, and the shadows that shape us. Released via Joyful Hour Records, the band’s anticipated sophomore album marks a bold evolution in both sound and substance for songwriter James O’Donnell, who continues to mine the space between the personal and the philosophical.
Where 2022’s End Comes to Light was steeped in shimmering alt-rock textures and introspective grace, The Inheritance of Fear delves into darker territory, both musically and thematically. Drawing from literary influences such as Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Philip Larkin, and Samuel Beckett, as well as psychological works like Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score, O’Donnell explores the ways fear and trauma echo through generations. The result is a record that’s as intellectually probing as it is emotionally resonant.
At the album’s heart lies “Last Wave”, a song inspired by Ní Ghríofa’s poem An Experiment to Engineer an Inheritance of Fear, which reflects on Ireland’s collective wounds from the Famine era. Over glistening guitars and pulsing drums, O’Donnell examines how inherited fear intertwines with Irish identity, the weight of colonial pasts, religious guilt, and the uneasy inheritance of both pain and pride. It’s a song that captures the paradox of wanting to let go of darkness while recognising it as part of one’s deepest fabric.
The album’s sound is lush and layered, built from O’Donnell’s home recordings and elevated through collaboration with producer Daniel Fox (Gilla Band, Sprints, Silverbacks). The result is a dynamic sonic palette where shoegaze atmospherics meet post-punk urgency, heavy, shimmering guitars giving way to moments of quiet vulnerability. Tracks like “Cruel, Naturally” nod to Philip Larkin’s restrained melancholy, while “Godot” channels Beckett’s existential unease through spiralling reverb and glacial pacing. The instrumental “Solat” stands as the record’s emotional core, a wordless elegy for O’Donnell’s late friend and former bandmate Eoin French (Talos). Its beauty lies in its restraint: a haunting instrumental that offers space to grieve, breathe, and remember.
If The Inheritance of Fear is a study in weight, it’s also one in release. O’Donnell’s voice, at times hushed, at others soaring, carries the cathartic quality of someone confronting his ghosts and finding melody in the process. His sonic evolution feels both natural and necessary: crunchier guitars, sharper percussion, and the expansive mix courtesy of Fox reflect a confidence that Ways of Seeing are now fully stepping into their identity.
There are moments that recall My Bloody Valentine, The Cure, and Protomartyr, but Ways of Seeing never lingers in imitation. Instead, the band weaves these influences into something distinctively Irish, distinctively their own, a sound that balances beauty and tension, the heavy and the intimate.
The Inheritance of Fear asks what it means to inherit pain and whether confronting that inheritance can become an act of healing. Through its dense guitars and aching melodies, it finds light in the act of looking back. With this record, Ways of Seeing have not only refined their sound but deepened their purpose, marking themselves as one of Ireland’s most vital and introspective voices.
