With As The Stars, Australia's Woods of Desolation continue to stage a departure from their debut LP Toward The Depths, but as with Torn Beyond Reason that isn't necessarily a bad thing. This album continues on that stylistic road, while imparting a more hopeful, optimistic mood than its predecessor. It's not upbeat to point of daftness like, say, Deafheaven, and it's not as fundamentally sterile as they are either. The production is rough and raw, yet the music surprisingly melodic through the tremolo-laden whir that the mix allows to come forth. It may be a bit too brazen for those who didn't like the direction taken on Torn Beyond Reason, but then again it may also sway some naysayers of that album with its refreshing change in attitude. Woods of Desolation are running that fine line between raw black metal and this new monstrosity of so-called "post black metal", but thankfully things err on the side of the former.
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