Behind The Tracks: Wolf Rd - A Twisted World (Single) (2020)

Chris Hoffmann (Wolf Rd): “A Twisted World” is a really important song for us as a band because it was the first idea we worked on for Wolf Rd. Our guitarist Geoff brought the main riff, chorus, and bridge section to our first writing session, and we pretty much finished writing the music in one night. It’s fitting that A Twisted World was the first song we wrote together because it has a lot of things that make a Wolf Rd song special in one place – big riffs, flashy lead guitar parts, soaring melodies, and breakdowns. The song is close to a 50/50 split of the pop-punk and metal sides of our band.

Chris wrote the lyrics later on, and actually finished the final verse while we were in the studio recording our debut EP: “Nowhere Around You.” Thematically, A Twisted World is directly tied to our song “Comeback” which is the opening track on Nowhere Around You. Comeback is only a minute long, but it sets the EP’s tone by opening with a pounding track that discusses feelings of stagnation and self-worth. A Twisted World directly follows Comeback on the EP and offers a hopeful outlook and renewed focus on the issues that Comeback talks about.

The opening line of A Twisted World (“I’ll trace my steps out of the nightmare”) calls back to the nightmare which is referenced at the beginning of Comeback (“I woke up screaming from this reoccurring dream, a relentless nightmare”). A Twisted World also deals with feelings of stagnation (“I don’t want to be caught in the crosshairs of regret, while I’m burning out like a cigarette with my hopes and dreams”) but ultimately comes to the conclusion that there’s something you can do when the weight of the world gets too heavy (“I couldn’t find myself on their path, so I cut a trail”). The song offers a window into Chris’ voice as a lyricist because, like him, its an existential optimist (“A twisted world won’t hold me back”).

Even though we only got to play a few shows before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, A Twisted World was already one of our favorite songs to do live. After getting the crowd warmed up with the breakdown at the end of Comeback, A Twisted World really set the energy for the rest of the show by getting fans jumping along to the opening riff. The time change that accompanies the song’s bridge riff really gets us amped live, and there’s nothing like getting up in people’s faces and having them scream “A Twisted World… Won’t hold me back” at you!