Review Summary: Fortune favours the path you stick to.
By now I guess it wouldn’t be much of a leap to call myself a fan of Cân Bardd’s brand of atmospheric black metal. While genre name-stays like Saor and Falls Of Rauros seemingly dominate the realms to which Cân Bardd tread; the act’s third studio effort,
Devoured By The Oak continues down the same salubrious, well-trodden tack found on both the debut,
Nature Stays Silent and then the sophomore,
The Last Rain. Since moving from a one-man project to a duo, Malo Civelli (who handles writing duties en masse) and Dylan Watson (drums) have found strength in reworking their music from one musical canvas to the next. In this manner,
Devoured By The Oak isn’t really too far abroad from the band’s previous records—finding growth within a set of staple sounds and motifs. As such, nature themes run amok while sprawling compositions build into atmospheric climes. Cân Bardd’s immersive nature allows for sections that leave us in place; whether that’s solace on the edge of a running river, sitting on the mossy floor of a dense forest or even being caught in an arctic gail—ice in the wind,
Devoured By The Oak’s power isn’t measured in just how many burgeoning riffs and soaring refrains stretch across the album’s fifty-eight minute runtime. Rather, the triumph comes from the rise and fall of the atmosphere and how its respective music transports a listener.
As obnoxious as that is to read, Cân Bardd’s music is really all about that painted immersion. It’s almost as if you could assign colours and shades to “Echoes of the Moss'' and yet the track opens the new record with an epitome of that particular train of thought. While the canvas of the album’s opening track swells slowly, the chips of bird noises and even windswept leaves tickle at the sides of the mix. In providing this landscape of noise gently, Cân Bardd’s more ethereal sweeps begin to enchant and captivate through use of elegant tones and lighter notes. The time
before the use of guitars and percussion are well spent, paced; as if gentle fingers slowly glide over a lover’s back. Operatic vocals “ooh and aah's” which builds towards a graceful climax, only to return full circle to the gentle frames only minutes before it.
From here
Devoured By The Oak launches into an epic tale told through celtic black metal aesthetic. The two-part title track is a majestic, sweeping and sprawling display of the band’s successes to date. Despite this, there’s a light hiccup in the story-telling and some of the lyrics border the edge of a fondue recipe—but these become minor gripes on a portrait of sounds too wide to start nit-picking. Putting this grievance aside, the sixteen minutes that represent the album’s namesake carry the listener through each of the locations mentioned above and yet
Devoured By The Oak’s strongest sections (and my favourite moments) reside in its latter half. After a few somber notes “Crépuscule” saunters; steady rhythms making way for even paced raspy snarls and steadily building instrumentation—but there’s contrast. Before succumbing to the genre’s baser instincts and the larger blast beat meets tremolo riff aesthetic, “Crépuscule” becomes rather minimalistic and both the melody and atmosphere shine. The furor does return in magnificent fashion; bombast and abandon both thrown like caution to the wind, but these are all staples of the [very] atmospheric black metal genre, and comparatively similar to the more intense passages of musical brethren Saor and Caladan Brood. Thankfully,
Devoured By The Oak’s production and mixing shares less likeness to that of the debut and favourably follows that of the sophomore. As such the album sounds lush; with depth coinciding with the high crescendos and immersion follows the warm, organic minimalism that peppers the record’s length.
By the time listeners experience “Autumn Shore” they’re greeted by an absolute barrage of screams, blast beats and icy melodies and yet the more subtle tropes breathe in and out, allowing room for the listener to soak in all the nuance mentioned here and earlier. This nuance seeps into the closer, “Blomsterkransen” which features features from both violinist Lambert Segura and vocalist Linnéa Lindqvist who provide gentle dark folk edges to round out
Devoured By The Oak’s more typical ‘black metal’ soundscapes. If there was ever a moment throughout the new album’s run-time that screamed for some contrast, these two inclusions more than fit the bill. Looking forwards, there’s a few reservations to be discussed in terms of where Cân Bardd’s music goes from here. While it’s not really relevant to this specific release, I would worry that Malo Civelli and co. might accidentally find themselves self-plagiarising or copy-pasting their next few albums. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; as the music they do produce is enchanting—but I’d hate for the schtick to wear off into meaningless nothingness. Putting future misgivings aside,
Devoured By The Oak is another welcome addition to Cân Bardd’s discography, narrating the wilderness to which Civelli draws inspiration.
