Dancing with Widow Sunday

Widow Sunday

Calling their new EP “Dance Metal” started out as an in-joke among the members of Widow Sunday.

“We were laughing about  the ‘over-genrefication’ of music. There are a million different kinds of ‘core’ bands. And then people say Venom started black metal and that Pantera started power metal. So we’ll start our own genre- dance metal,” is how Widow Sunday singer Jake Falconer explains it.

More seriously, Widow Sunday is forging a more cohesive sound compared to the one offered on the 2010 full-length “In These Rusted Veins.” The more prominent electronic-music tweaks and rumbling grooves definitely share some musical DNA with dance music, though Falconer’s rasp and the waves of guitar shred keep Widow Sunday firmly in the metal camp.

The band previews its renewed direction on the three-song “Dance Metal” EP released this week by Rat Pack Records. “Dance Metal” is available via iTunes and Amazon. Widow Sunday also performs Saturday, June 30 at The Palladium in Worcester. Behold Oblivion, Freya, Give Zombies the Vote, and Hope Before the Fall are also on the bill which gets under way at 6 p.m.

The show also marks the last for guitarist Adam Cutler, who leaves the band to pursue his art career. Falconer says the group is sad to see him go but understands his decision and Widow Sunday will spend the summer looking for Cutler’s replacement.

While “In These Rusted Veins” won acclaim for Widow Sunday, Falconer says he felt the album was too fragmented.

“‘Rusted Veins’ had a mix-tape feel. It was like, ‘Here’s the grind song. Here’s the epic song.’ And so on,” Falconer says. “We wanted to come up with a specific sound.”

And that is easier said than done with this group, as its members like a wide variety of music, from hard-core to electronica.

But Falconer, guitarist Sean Duffy, drummer Darin Moyen, bassist Patrick Flaherty agreed on a couple of points.

“We wanted metal songs with an electronics element. Some bands  push the electronics too heavily and the metal ends up in the back seat,” Falconer says.

Second, no keyboards. The band instead relies on programmed soundscapes and effects triggered by Duffy and Moyen.

The other thing you notice about the music is that the songs are defiant but not necessarily dark.

“I never came from a tortured past, so I’m not going to sing about how bad I had it,” Falconer says.

Instead, Widow Sunday offers up such lines as “This is my life/I will not fail” or crafts a tune like “The Wave” that simply makes you want to swing from the rafters (or hop in the pit).

Duffy and Moyen are already stockpiling song ideas for the full-length Widow Sunday is eyeing next.

“We have a ton of ideas to sift through,” Falconer says. “We need to put it all together in a way that can best establish what we do as a band.”