Many will know of this band as being made up of several members of both Woods of Ypres and The Green Evening Requiem. Woe's new album, 'Quietly, Undramatically' is anything BUT that, in terms of the words used. This makes it possibly the biggest oxymoron album of the year. The title and cover art alone will fool you into thinking this is yet another heavily Atmospheric Black Metal album, one of many released this year, but that is too far from the truth. As soon as the opener is finished, and the first note of ‘The Road From Recovery’ hits your ears, this will become apparent. Contrary to the title and cover art, this is a very pure, thick and raw Black Metal release filled to the brim with 43 minutes of pounding, aggressive and melodic material that rarely lets up.
Each song carriers a relatively unique sound to it that makes the whole album feel very diverse and never repetitive or tiresome. Comparisons of the band can be made to Wolves in the Throne Room, Agalloch and Negura Bunget, in terms of layers of sound and melodies. These factors driven into each track steer away from one dimensional sounds and overly simplified tremolo picking found in most Black Metal bands these days. Where Woe succeeds in this is with their fantastic guitar sections and engaging melodies under the dense drums and bass lines. The speed is there, but so is the substance, which in recent years, has become an issue for a lot of BM bands. This release shows heart, and a lot of it, with risk taking seen with a few of the longer songs, such as the title track and ‘Full Circle’. Each incorporate several different moods and speeds throughout, as well as clean vocals and acoustic sections thrown in, giving the songs much more clear and clean direction. Compared to longer songs from other artists in the genre, Woe does not sacrifice song writing skills and flow for repetitive, drawn out assaults that go nowhere.
While the production and mixing is very questionable, it does not take much away from the overall effect of the album. Some parts do get a tad bit distracting when trying to discern the vocals amongst the feedback-laden guitar work, but cheap murky production seems to go a lot further in Black Metal then other forms of music. This gives the album, although probably not intentional, a post-black/Avant-garde vibe. Even so, it may turn out to be a surprise that this could be one of the best pure, raw, energetic, old school Black Metal albums of the year, that takes its aggressive and harsh styling and makes it much more accessible than your average release.
