It’s good to know that this group from Texas are back with their 4th album. Their 2001 work “Psychotic Sculpture” brightens up my life each time I listen to it. After listening to it, I always find myself wondering why I don’t do so more often or why I didn’t investigate the 2006 follow-up “Regenesis Creation”. Essentially symphonic black metal, “Psychotic Sculpture” is epic with harsh and sad moments and could loosely be compared in style to Dimmu Borgir but it also has elements of Limbionic art, Bal Sagoth and Insomnium. Flowing movements merge with sonoric shifting sands and the majestic you’d expect of good symphonic black metal.
“Stormwinds of Ages” is less quirky than “Psychotic Sculpture” and more set in the groove of epic black metal. From the outset, it’s clear that this album is as far away from the ambiance of popping out for a bottle of milk as you can get. It is big and cosmic in its dark scope. Comparison is therefore once again invited with Dimmu Borgir. Is “Stormwinds of Ages” the new “Stormblåst”, then? Many of the same dark and sweeping qualities are there as are the furiously blasting drums. Vesperian Sorrow do manage to create their own atmosphere, inserting melancholy into the black turbulence on the title track. “An Empire to Mourn” similarly captures the violent and expansive breadth, the majesty and the touches of melancholy which the track’s title would suggest. Symphonic strains peer through the pneumatic drilling of the drums, the flamboyantly dark guitars and tales of battles, lords falling to slaughter and an empire left in ruins – a loud and truly evocative track. Holes continue to be punched through walls with “Casting Dawn Into Shadow”, a track whose insistent tone recalls Rotting Christ. The movement is impressive as if an epic story is being told. This is a feature of the whole album.
“Crown of Glass” reinforces the symphonic chaos. In amongst it all there appears an exotic, Mediterranean sounding instrumental line as the track slows and rises with a heavenly and distant chorus while never losing the heaviness. A strength is the superimposition of layered sounds at different strengths, creating a rich core. “Legacies Befallen”, while having that Rotting Christ type pitch, equally sounds as if Vesperian Sorrow have borrowed Shagrath for the day. It’s hard to get away from that Dimmu Borgir comparison, but in its own right this track is eerie and nasty. If “Legacies Befallen” has tones of Shagrath, then the chorus of “Eye of the Clocktower” has shades of Vortex, but without the impact. It’s turbulent but has less character than others and is one of the weaker tracks. At this stage, the album sags slightly as the repetitive “Oracle from the Ashes” lacks the standard of intensity to which we had become accustomed. The drama makes a welcome return however and the atmosphere heightens. Triggering drums are back. For “Relics of the Impure” the band change tack slightly. It is slower, stepping up when it needs too, with the Rotting Christ style chant and an epic ending. Timing and power are what’s needed. “Death She Cried” has both, along with typically skilful technical guitar work. The final track “Of Opiates and Accolates” sums up the bombast of this work. I couldn’t say it provides a rousing end because the whole album has been about expansiveness and controlled power. The track vacillates between the sad symphony and the passionate and turbulent section. The cover of “Stormwinds of Ages” is resplendent in magnificent artwork with its image of threatening grey clouds, lightening, skulls and dark angels. It is reflective of and appropriate to this dark and majestic work which finishes in the ether with melancholic strains, suggesting a sad ending after all the musical and emotional battles which have gone before.
I missed the slight oddity of “Psychotic Sculpture”. “Stormwinds of Ages” is cleaner and to a point more conventional in style than its predecessor. I also felt there were a couple of tracks in the middle which didn’t add anything. This said, there’s no mistaking the power of this work which has a great deal to offer.
(7.5 / 10 Andrew Doherty)
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