Every so often an album lands that reminds you why you spent silly money on high-end headphones. PREYRS’ debut full-length “The Wounded Healer” is one of those. It sits on the fringes of the heavy world rather than squarely inside it – alternative rock with art-rock ambition, electronic shimmer and a dark undercurrent – but it will absolutely appeal to anyone who lives in that Pelagic Records intersection between atmosphere, weight and emotion. Released via Pelagic Records on 14 November 2025, it’s the first full statement from the new project of Irish vocalist Amy Montgomery and multi-instrumentalist/producer Michael Mormecha, written on a winter retreat on Wolfe Island and finished back in their own studio.
Conceptually, the record leans into Carl Jung’s idea of the “wounded healer” – the notion that empathy and healing are born from your own wounds rather than in spite of them.
In practice, that translates into a collection of songs that feel like they’re constantly stitching light and shadow together: vulnerability and power, softness and abrasion, analogue warmth and digital menace. For me, it also triggered a very specific sense memory: mid–late ’90s indie and alt-rock, the era when bands weren’t worried about fitting a playlist lane and were happy to throw shoegaze haze, big choruses and weird production flourishes into the same pot.
Sonically, “The Wounded Healer” is a very deliberate headphones record. The production is polished without feeling plastic, and the band lean hard into a wide, immersive soundstage – guitars, synths and percussion swirling around the stereo field, little textures panning and reappearing at the edges of your hearing. It has that three-dimensional, almost “surround” feel where each listen reveals another detail hiding just under the skin. It’s experimental, but never in the self-indulgent, “clever for the sake of it” way that kills so many records in this space.
The journey begins with “Humble Eyes”, a short, atmospheric opener that functions more like a portal than a standalone song. It’s all mood: sparse, cinematic, hinting at the emotional weight to come rather than dropping you straight in. “Wave Of Wisdom” is where PREYRS really plant their flag. Industrial-flavoured percussion and a slightly off-kilter slide guitar motif rub against Amy Montgomery’s soaring vocal, which manages to sound both wounded and defiant. The song’s structure is deceptively simple, but the arrangement is anything but – there’s a lot of subtle detail in the way the drums push and pull, and how the backing textures creep in behind the chorus. It’s also one of the clearest examples of that Jungian push-pull: “stronger than before” delivered with the kind of cracked conviction that makes you believe it.
“Into The Blue” is one of the clear highlights. This is where that ’90s DNA really comes through for me: a slow-burning, melancholic verse that gradually swells into something genuinely epic. The vocal melody isn’t a cheap pop hook, but it lodges in your brain through repetition and dynamic control rather than sheer catchiness. The band are clever about restraint here; they let space, reverb and layered harmonies do a lot of the heavy lifting, rather than piling riffs on riffs.
If the front end of the album leans into atmosphere and emotional framing, the middle is where the “band” side of PREYRS really flexes.
“Zeros, Ones & Lies” sits in that sweet spot between sleek and raw – a properly modern alt-rock track that plays with electronic pulses and fuzzed-out guitar without ever losing its human core. The rhythm section of Nolan Donelly and Ciarán McGreevy gives it a swagger that keeps the more experimental edges from floating away.
“Bring Ur Bruises” and “Crucify” up the energy without abandoning the textural playfulness. The former is one of the more immediately “rock” tracks – punchy drums, gazey guitars, a vocal that moves from intimate to full-throated with ease. The latter is stranger around the edges: a little warped, a little off, with riffs that feel like they’ve been dragged through an effects chain until they’re half-organic, half-industrial. It’s here that the band’s willingness to be genuinely odd pays off; they never sound like they’re chasing someone else’s sound.
“Change Change” is a groove piece at heart, riding a strong guitar figure and a thicker backbone, while “Nova” pushes back towards the darker, more cinematic side of the record. The chorus on “Nova” in particular feels built for big rooms – not in the cheesy “festival pop” sense, but in the way it opens up the mix and lets the vocal ride over a bed of slowly shifting chords. It’s one of the few moments where I can imagine audience voices coming back at the band live.
“W.D.I.F.L_” is probably the most anxious piece here – a tangle of soaring melodies and twitchy, almost nervous textures that refuses to sit still. It’s also a good example of why this album works despite not being stacked with obvious sing-along refrains: the emotional contour of the song carries you even when you couldn’t hum it back note-for-note after one listen.
Closer “Life Is Kind” ties the whole thing together with a surprisingly uplifting tone. It’s still eccentric in its arrangement, still full of small production quirks, but there’s a warmth and openness to it that feels like exhaling after 35 minutes of internal wrestling. As a last statement, it lands exactly where it should.
If there’s a criticism, it’s this: “The Wounded Healer” is an album I love being inside more than one I walk away singing. The songs are strong, but the real magic lies in the sound world – the production choices, the layering, the way the record moves from one emotional state to another. For some listeners, especially those raised on big, obvious choruses, that may mean it doesn’t land as hard as it could. For me, it sits comfortably as a record I’ll happily return to when I want a fully curated listening experience, rather than just a hit of one or two tracks.
It also raises an intriguing question: how much of this translates to the stage? So much of the album’s power comes from those spatial tricks and fine details that bloom in a good pair of headphones. I’m genuinely curious to see how PREYRS reconfigure these songs live – whether they lean into a heavier, more direct rock presentation, or manage to bring some of that immersive, layered character into the room.
Either way, PREYRS have delivered something thoughtful, textured and emotionally resonant. “The Wounded Healer” feels like the work of a band – and a writer – who have done the inner work and are brave enough to present the scars without sanding them down. For listeners who like their rock intelligent, atmospheric and a little bit left of centre, this is absolutely worth your time.
Rating: 8/10
Release Date: 14 November 2025
Label: Pelagic Records
Writer: Andy
Tracklist:
- Humble Eyes
- Wave Of Wisdom
- Into The Blue
- Zeros, Ones & Lies
- Bring Ur Bruises
- Crucify
- Change Change
- Nova
- W.D.I.F.L_
- Life Is Kind
