Black Metal History Month - Wiegedood : "De Doden Hebben Het Goed II"

When it comes to black metal  things are fairly divided even when it comes to varied sub-genres. This is the case with many of the sects of metal, but black metal finds this even more pronounced. Go to a Deafheaven show and then go see Abbath and it clearly looks like you are in two different cultures. One could almost double for a Mumford and Sons crowd the other has on enough spikes to sink a long boat. This band from Belgium is one of the few able to bring some legit metal that is not punk or post-rock in disguise and still make picky critics like me happy. So this is the sequel to the Belgian band's 2015 album. This start off with a blaze of fury in their skies as it blast with a bunch of mean spirited rage. The vocals are screamed in a very throat curdling manner. The drummers sounds like it might be the weak link on the opener , but some of that could just be due to the guitar really pushed up and slicing into your ears in this violent mix. The first half of the 11 minute second song is more melodic , but the instrumental section sprawls on until the 5 minute mark. They kick things up to the kind of manic pace established in the first song. I don't mind when these guys get into the more blast beaten moments because they do so tastefully and there is never a sense that it's all they can do.

 I really like the groove they end up in on the title track. They really hit the sweet spot where the sonics are as heavy as the metal. While they hit a very high point here the more thrash rooted song that follows really doesn't do a helluva a lot for me. It sounds good and I was listening to this loud enough to make my ears ring...if you don't typically listen to good metal at this volume then lets just go ahead and get the fact you are pussy out of the way.I will give this short and sweet four song little thing a 9 though I doubt it will make it over to my iPod as most of it takes it time or sprawls out beyond what I want to listen to walking to get coffee in the morning no matter how hard it is snowing.