Sunday, February 20, 2022

Black Metal History Month - Pure Wrath : "Hymn to the Woeful Hearts"








 I have already spoken on how the origin of a music's demographics effects the vibrational feeling of it. With black metal capturing darkness is key. This Indonesian project prove me right as it hits all the right notes and tries to fake you out by leaning at first more toward the melodic folk side of the genre. Perhaps that would have been a better path for it. It is not until the fourth song that I hear anything that sounds like pure wrath from an emotional standpoint. The fact this album has a really polished professional sound is good on one hand, but if this had a rawer darker mix it might have made it sound more like black metal and less like buzzing fast orchestral metal. The drumming is great because the drummer from White Ward played on this session.   

There is nothing that chills you or really makes you feel any of the ways that black metal should make you feel. Is it all played well? Yes. The midrange raspy screamed vocals are performed as they should be, but it is the feeling that should be conveyed which is where I begin to have a hard time believing what he is trying to sell me.  The dynamic range of "Footprints of a Lost Child" is more convincing. It is well arranged, and the execution is excellent, not sure the first three songs measure up as well in these regards.  "Those Who Stand Still" has enough variation that it does not just blend together and sound like the previous song, which the front end of the album is more guilty of. The blasting does get a little old a little fast.  

Things get a great deal more melodic for the title track that opens the album.  It is really more like an outro piece as this instrumental track is a wild departure from the metal that dominates the bulk of this album. It is very well done on every level expect a glaring variation from what this album normally sounds like. Overall this is well done it just does not hve the darkness or danger of black metal, I will give this album an 8.5. 



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