It took me a while to write this review due to ever increasing work commitments, but that meant that I had time to fully appreciate and inwardly digest this majestic beauty as I revisited it, being smothered more each time by its cold embrace.
This is Woods of Desolation’s third album and sees the sound further develop and mature while sticking closely to the post black metal blueprint. ‘Far From Here’ gives us the first taste of what to expect with harsh, venomous vocals being spewed forth over the top of epic melodies. This is melancholic in the extreme and yet seems reassuring.
Despite a slightly more upbeat intro (it’s all relative!), ’Beneath a Sea of Stars’ soon builds into a crushing monolith with an overwhelming sense of depressive introspection before a sombre intro leads into ‘Illumination’. The melody in this track feels somehow uplifting before being dragged down by the howling vocals. The theme continues on the album’s title track with scathing vocals and sweeping melodies before ‘The Passing’ provides brief respite from the intensity with a short piece of post black metal melody which brings an air of calm and serenity. This is soon shattered as ‘Anew’ takes us back to the bleak riffs and strident vocals. Of course, this soon evolves into epic melodies which are the perfect juxtaposition for the harsher elements.
This symbiosis between vitriolic vocals with harsh riffs and sublime melodies is a common theme on this album, in part uplifting but equally lugubrious with weighty sorrow and dejection as key features. For me, this captures the very essence of post black metal…..it is melancholic and introspective, perhaps even depressive in part but it lets a slight ray of light shine through, that solitude ray of light piercing through the darkness.
(8/10 Andy Pountney)
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