There are two wolves inside you. One wants to tear through town on a hate-fueled rampage. The other wants to chill the eff out and listen to the cautionary wisdom of “Hostile Music.”
Salem Wolves burst into 2022 bearing their fangs on the new single (released today, January 19), snarling about our collective sad state of emotional affairs. After witnessing a world that’s eager to pummel opposing opinions to a pulp, the band channeled their concern — and their own antagonism — into a tune that riots in the face of unjustified rage.
“Hostile Music” addresses the the torment of holding that hostility in your heart, and the havoc it subsequently wreaks on the human psyche. Two of years of isolation during a pandemic has only encouraged the troubling pattern.
“With so much of our lives lived in isolation these days, it’s easy to breed hostility,” vocalist and guitarist Gray Bouchard explains. “When all we have is a screen to look at the lives and thoughts of others, that little window doesn’t allow for much humanity to shine through. We judge folks harshly. We set up walls against people and behaviors we find unsavory. Maybe there’s some wisdom and self-care in that, but the feeling of anger and distrust against someone itself is toxic. It eats away at you.”
“We’re not getting better / I can’t keep it up / Won’t you fill my cup?” Bouchard implores on the chorus. Consider it the band’s fanged plea for a better future.
“The song is a wake-up call,” he concludes. “We can’t live in this state of hostility all the time.”
Get hip to Salem Wolves’ “Hostile Music” below.