Austrian Black Metal band Wuodan’s Wunde have unleashed a smart looking debut album that comes adorned in intricate and inspiring artwork. Entitled ‘Es glimmt empor aus ewger Nacht’ which translates as ‘It glows up from eternal night’, features extracts of German poetry as well as certain texts relating to ancient Germanic myths, and has been released on a superb looking LP package through Altare Productions.

‘Wunde I’ opens with what could be the sound of manacles clanking to the accompaniment of smooth sounding dungeon synth, before blast beats subtly fade into existence along with harsh ravenous vocals. And that is all I can make out because this is painfully lo-fi to the point where I can’t hear bass or guitars at all; just a clamour of muffled drum tones and cymbal clashes, and those searching, anguished vocals. Yet even those are faint.

As the album progresses into Wunde II, the Dark Ambient harmonies are quite distinct but the rest is once more cloaked in lo-fi gloom. This is heavily to the detriment of the album as there may as well not be any guitar or bass parts, if indeed there are anyway.

Awful album! What’s the point in making something so hard to hear? The Dark Ambient sections are pleasant enough but this takes lo-fi to a ridiculous extreme. You can’t even call this Black Metal because that would imply there is any Metal on offer at all.

(1/10 Marksson)

https://wuodanswunde.bandcamp.com/album/es-glimmt-empor-aus-ewger-nacht-2