Woods of Desolation : "the Falling Tide"

 

It seems odd to release a black metal album this late in the year, but here we are. This Atmospheric project from Australia is a one-man band not unlike Burzum. Sonically different than Burzum, though perhaps more in ocmmon with Burzum's earlier work as it shares a similar anger. Though not as chilling or cold as what Varg used to do. There is a shimmer in the buzzing wall of tremolo picking that hints at black gaze leanings, though the overall mood is more rage motivated. That is even with the theme of this album being an exploration of death, this wall of buzzsaw shimmer worked for me on the first song, but when they try to go to the same well twice it is not as effective. It begins to sound like the same song, even though marginally more symphonic in scope. You can hear the guitars shift chords slightly, but it is more a opaque wall of sound. 

Going into the third song I am going to need more in the way of dynamics. There is more of a change here, but it still works off the same feel, making this begin to become a one trick pony. Why the time we get to the title track this uniform sounds is really making things just run together and hard to tell the songs, apart. You will have some cvltists , who are going to say "What you can't here the changes, how into black metal are you. And yes, the title track does change once you get to the midway point then it is back to more of the same. I would say the title track finds the songwriting beginning to move in a direction I want it to, over all this seems to be more of a matter of sound over songs. Writing melodic, dynamic songs is the bare minimum you need to create lasting music that matter. Then the question becomes what is being done to separate yourself from other artists who are also doing that within the same genre, which is a talk many of these bands are not ready to have., 

"the Passing" is the first song that is really successful in stepping away from the buzz of guitars to do this. Not sure why he had to wait five songs in to do it, but we made it here, so I am thankful for that. The last song finds a more traditional black metal path being raged into. There are some great sounds being captured here, but as far as the overall depth of mood and dynamics go it often falls short so I will give this album an 8. Very proficient and good and what he does, what he does just happens to be shining of one star. This was released on Seasons of Mist.