The Nashville four-piece, featuring members of Waxed, Sheep Shifter, and War Brides, unveil its debut EP, out September 18, and shares its first single "Cuckin' 'Round." Burth channels the anxiety of the modern world into scratching guitars, hulking bass, and traded, caterwauling vocals.
Nashville, TN — YAMMER JAW, the new project from members of Waxed, Sheep Shifter, and War Brides, has announced their debut EP, Burth, out September 18, alongside their first single, "Cuckin' 'Round," premiering exclusively on Decibel Magazine.
The four-piece of Nashville music veterans gripped by the anxiety of the modern world and the need to translate it into something tangible — the band didn't so much decide to make this noise as get provoked into it. Scratching guitars, hulking bass, deafening drums, and the caterwaul of vocal cords tearing out: thrown in your face, relentless and unforgiving, this quartet is screaming at the highest wall. Feeding off the division, oppression, and apathy of the modern world, Yammer Jaw brings intense, heavy, abrasive rhythms that keep your toes tapping subconsciously. A heavy dose of post-hardcore with a nod to metalcore, the sound is driven by relentless rhythms and caustic, traded vocals.
The band's story starts with guitarists Chris Clark and Stephen Small, who spent years together in the hardcore band Sheep Shifter, throwing beer and breaking mic stands across Murfreesboro and Nashville's underground before the band ended in 2018. The pandemic reminded them how important it was to make music together, and in 2023 the two went looking for what came next, linking up with drummer Richie Townsend (War Brides) and bassist Ian Sundstrum (Waxed), who rounded out the lineup and completed the four-piece that would become Yammer Jaw. What started as a brainstorm between friends slowly turned into a band with a sound all its own, taking almost three years and plenty of obstacles to arrive at this point.
Their sound draws from a lineage of bands unafraid of sharp edges and stranger turns: the tension and control of Fugazi, the angular chaos of Drive Like Jehu and Faraquet, the low-end menace of Jesus Lizard and Quicksand, the violence of Converge, and the unexpected swagger of Thin Lizzy and David Bowie. Onstage and on record, that mix plays out through Chris, Ian, and Stephen trading off vocal duties — screaming, rolling, calling and responding to one another — over riffs that move from breakneck speed to feedback-drenched breakdowns without warning.
Lyrically, songs dig into a divided political landscape, the toll of mental health struggles, the slow rot of social media addiction, wealth inequality, and the daily grind of surviving under capitalism.
With "Cuckin' 'Round", the band makes a powerful first impression, turning its focus toward the reflex to bow to whoever's in charge. "It's about watching people fold the second an authority figure shows up — the flattery, the sudden agreement, all of it," Stephen explains. "We see it all the time. This song is us calling it out, making you look inside yourself."
Burth's second single, "Gun," takes aim at the way status gets measured by the weapons you possess. "There's this idea that owning a gun makes you somebody — that it says something about your worth as a man," says Ian. "We wanted to write a song that sits inside that logic instead of just pointing at it from the outside."
The EP is available for pre-order now on vinyl, CD, and cassette. The vinyl edition is limited to 100 translucent purple copies and includes a full-color booklet with lyric art. Burth was engineered and mixed by Shibby Poole and mastered and etched by Dan Emery at Black Matter.
Yammer Jaw isn't going quietly. Burth is forged from scorched-earth riffs, feral vocal trades, and a raw, gnashing nerve that refuses to blink at the ruthless tortures of modern life. Rather than tiptoe around hard subjects like political division, mental health, and the grind of capitalism, the record confronts them head-on and loudly, expressing them as an aggressive, all-out vocal outburst rather than something quiet or subtle. Jagged, feverish, and gloriously unhinged, it turns every uncomfortable truth into a full-throated, snarling roar.
Catch Yammer Jaw with Latter and Waxed on August 12 at DRKMTTR in Nashville. The band will celebrate Burth's release with a show alongside Iron Lung at DRKMTTR in Nashville on September 22.
8/12 — DRKMTTR, Nashville, TN w/ Latter and Waxed
9/22 — DRKMTTR, Nashville, TN w/ Iron Lung
