In the Woods
A Return to the Isle of Men
[Hammerheart]
This is the re-release of In the Woods’ demo "Isle of Man" with a re-recorded
old rehearsal track and a different version of the song "Heart of the Ages" from
their debut album as bonus tracks. That’s seven songs, all in all, and 60
minutes. Not a bad amount, even if their album has three of these songs.
In the Woods started as a black metal band and lately have moved into a slower and cleaner direction. Their first album already was drenched in keyboards, atmospheres and experimentation, but this is more straightforward. Their style is slightly doomy, dramatic power chords piled on top of each other in a pagan invocation of nature spirits. Bass here is a restless and moving entity, almost jazz. Their albums are full of clean and female vocals, but here they are left to occasional backing effects and the focus is on the shrill Burzum-ish screams. These screams evoke hate in the faster climactic sections and futility coupled with sorrow in the slower sections where the music ploddingly progresses through rather unique, sad and melodic, yet rotten and dissonant riffs to it’s conclusion. This is dark and thoughtful music and contains an epic quality in the wide range of emotions and ideas portrayed. Where their music fails, especially on their albums, is when the band decides to wildly indulge into the whims and ideas of Pink Floyd-ish experimentation, instead of concentrating and focusing into their songs.
Their music, lyrics and thoughts are esoteric, without doubt, and require an amount if intelligence before they can be understood to their full extent. I personally feel the power in their music and appreciate it, but occasionally it slips from my grasp to the sea of melodies and sounds and I am left with only shreds of ideas without form or context.
As a conclusion, this would be a good first release to pick up from In the Woods. This isn’t as epic as "Heart of the Ages" or "Omnio", but tighter and more coherent. The basic outline of their musical ideas is clearly to be heard here, and is not necessarily topped and surpassed by any of their later work. And by the way, the production is high-quality for a demo.
© 1999 black hate
In the Woods started as a black metal band and lately have moved into a slower and cleaner direction. Their first album already was drenched in keyboards, atmospheres and experimentation, but this is more straightforward. Their style is slightly doomy, dramatic power chords piled on top of each other in a pagan invocation of nature spirits. Bass here is a restless and moving entity, almost jazz. Their albums are full of clean and female vocals, but here they are left to occasional backing effects and the focus is on the shrill Burzum-ish screams. These screams evoke hate in the faster climactic sections and futility coupled with sorrow in the slower sections where the music ploddingly progresses through rather unique, sad and melodic, yet rotten and dissonant riffs to it’s conclusion. This is dark and thoughtful music and contains an epic quality in the wide range of emotions and ideas portrayed. Where their music fails, especially on their albums, is when the band decides to wildly indulge into the whims and ideas of Pink Floyd-ish experimentation, instead of concentrating and focusing into their songs.
Their music, lyrics and thoughts are esoteric, without doubt, and require an amount if intelligence before they can be understood to their full extent. I personally feel the power in their music and appreciate it, but occasionally it slips from my grasp to the sea of melodies and sounds and I am left with only shreds of ideas without form or context.
As a conclusion, this would be a good first release to pick up from In the Woods. This isn’t as epic as "Heart of the Ages" or "Omnio", but tighter and more coherent. The basic outline of their musical ideas is clearly to be heard here, and is not necessarily topped and surpassed by any of their later work. And by the way, the production is high-quality for a demo.
© 1999 black hate