One definition of a Swan Song is of a metaphorical phrase for a final gesture, effort, or performance given just before death or retirement, and that phrase is one that can be well applied to ‘Visions In Bone’, the last album from Dartmoor’s own doom stalwarts The Wounded Kings. In ‘Consolamentum’ the band produced one of 2014’s finest albums, Sharie Nelson’s folks tinged vocals adding ethereal textures to the crushing music. With her departure, ‘Visions In Bone’ would have a hard act to follow, but this is does with style and aplomb.
Album opener ‘Beast’ starts as a bit of a slow burner, simple, Gothic tinged notes matching the dark vocal delivery of George Birch opening the album before bass and drums blast in with a pomp that would match Candlemass at their most bombastic, all before reining back again for an introspective middle break before then again climbing to peaks of musical intensity. Allowing the track to ebb and flow over nearly fourteen minutes allows it to meander and grow, taking the listener on a sonic journey through the landscape of pure Doom. Honestly, the sheer scale of the track means it deserves a review of its own, let alone as just the first number of an entire album.
‘Vultures’ is an altogether denser number, starting with an intensity that it maintains throughout, the pace making its eight minutes pass by so much more quickly than you’d believe was possible for such an solid slab of music, whilst ‘Kingdom’ with its grimly psychedelic qualities plays as heavily as anything that cult icons of the genre Electric Wizard have produced in years. Riff worship abounds in ‘Bleeding Sky’, a track that is a real contrast to ‘Vultures’ in so far as the down-tuned tones make the number seem so much longer than it really is, being a positive sprint in terms of the normal compositions of The Wounded Kings, barely topping the four minute mark, its brevity almost condensing the sound of the band into a concentrated distillation of their influences. Rounding out the album is ‘Vanishing Sea’, an intense sonic battering of all things dark, and one that the band seem to pour in an energy and passion that belies the laconic pace of the song. I have no idea if when the band recorded it and put together the album that they knew it would be their last hurrah, but if they did, it did not lead to any loss of quality or dedication, a feeling that pervades the entire album.
I’ve seen some fantastic live sets by The Wounded Kings, and had already done a shift swap to see them on their forthcoming, and sadly now cancelled November tour. With this final release the band ensure they are not fading away, rather concluding their journey on a solid THC soaked high. I’ve every hope that the creative talents of the band will find new channels in the future, and can only wish them all the best. In ‘Visions Of Bone’, the band have written their own stunningly dark and eloquent obituary.
(8.5/10 Spenny)
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