Winterfylleth : "the Dark Hereafter"

Something makes me dig this album, more than I would under other conditions. I'm not sure if it's the slight chill of Fall beginning to creep into the air as Halloween approaches that makes me or in the mood for what this British black metal band  is dishing out. They kicks into their fifth full length off with the kind of fury you would expect. It's when they slow down enough to smell the dead roses that the song really connects on "Pariah's Path", But as black metal would have it they can no resist the urge to blast beat away into the night for long . "Ensigns of Victory" carries a smooth coating of atmosphere to the driving wall of double bass propelling the song. The vocals at this point take on a very similar tone and cadence in their dry mid range scream. Even with this there still seems to be more fine tuning in the song writing department than many of the black metal bands that come through my in-box, though I can't say I hear a lot of sounds that are unique to them as a band.

At 13 minutes "Green Cathedral" is the first really long and winding song. It takes a minute for the first guitar part to unfold and then another two minutes for it to go somewhere, so this song could have been trimmed down to ten minutes. I guess this is like a black metal take on a power ballad. There is an interesting web of guitars melodies woven on this one. The album closes with "Led Astray in Forest Dark"  which is not inherently original, but the pieces in play click the right way. Musically it's more mid paced double bass driven epic black metal that backs off just enough for the  monk like  chants of the vocals to really work.

I am undecided if I need this in my iPod or not. But I am going to round this up to a 9 regardless. These guys are old pros now on their fifth album so it should not be a surprise that they have everything dialed in just right from both a production and performance stand point. The songs seems to always find something that can grab your attention as well, so if you are looking for moody black metal to lead you into the fall here's an album for you.