I took this album on, on the expectation of something grandiose, or at least morbidly pleasant. The sample sounded promising. I won’t lie, my curiosity got the best of me. It might have also been because the band name is too reminiscent to deceased (not really) garage doom quartet Satan’s Satyrs’s first full length Wild Beyond Belief!, of which I’m a huge fan.
Anyway, I think from the first paragraph, dear reader, you could gauge my sentiments about what ensued. But first, let me tell you a story. There I was, in my depression cave, finally emerging for a powwow at the gym, after three months of slumber (and tortilla chips). Needing a running booster and a tool to channel my inner hatred of everything the gym symbolises, I thought I’d finally give this album a go. Bad idea! I guess its monotony put me in a bit of a trance, which is normally a-okay. But, it also prolonged my threadmill suffering by a million seconds. Infinite misery, I tell you!
Story time over. Let’s get down to brass tacks. I admit, I’m not the biggest straight up black metal aficionado. Nor the smallest. Probably even less than that really. I’m more of an “atmosphere” person rather than a “hype” one. This album is more of a “hype” one than an “atmosphere” one. But, let me tell you, in this case I’m not going off pure bias alone. The problem is, even as a hype album, Wild Beyond is not doing a very good job at all. All epic and hype-full segments are broken up way too soon. One wouldn’t think that would be the cause of monotony, but in this case it is. Every single piece sounds like the previous: boring and unremarkable.
It’s honestly disheartening because Wild Beyond make it clear they’re all very talented musicians. Just not creative ones. Where are the riffs, boys? I don’t want to make it seem like riffs are at the core of black metal – because they’re absolutely not – but they kind of are essential to straight up black metal hype albums. If only this album had a few more riffs (and slightly lowered drums) the whole story would have been very, very different.
In my humble opinion, Wild Beyond should look more into taking their sound towards the death metal route. It would suit them and their chaotic energy a lot more than the blasé straight up black metal they’ve tried to emulate in this release.
But, you know what? It doesn’t matter all that much. This album would kill it out live. And as their first release ever, it would only serve as a clean slate to build up on.
(2/10 The Flâneur)
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