MESSIANIC: Jonah Jones’s shivering call sent tremors through the embryonic New England metal scene.

Jenkins describes his vocals on “December,” the eerie ache of melody that he lays over Stevenson’s crushing riff, as a “peripheral translation of Robert Plant.” Stevenson says, “The thing that I always loved about Jonah’s singing was that he was coming from an essentially hardcore background but he could write these really catchy tunes.” Stevenson, who now plays high-quality roots rock with his band Hank Crane, regards his old mate as “the best lyricist/frontman/singer in town.” Jenkins’s creative foil in OLW, he played drums but also wrote much of the band’s music, including the unexpected, spacious Morricone-meets-Jimmy-Page instrumental interludes that float through both OLW albums. “Everyone was cool with that stuff. They pretty much let me do it, but I knew it wasn’t where the band’s heart was, we really were a heavy band. I started to drift from what we originally wanted to do. But we were good, if I can say that without sounding conceited. We worked hard. I listened to ‘December’ the other day in my car, and when that end section came up, I almost drove off the road.”

“The theme for ‘December,’ ” Jenkins says, “was ‘I love the roar in my ears, the roar of the music, the roar of creating with all these people, of pushing back mortality.’ ” But at the heart of the roar was December, the death of the year. The song’s last words, cried out amid a merciless breakdown, are “Left — lost — tested — empty . . . ” “That was the punch line, at my own expense, because after all this, when it’s really scrutinized, what is there? What have you done? You’re just a regular person.” Left and lost, perhaps. Tested, for sure. Empty? Never.

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