A few months back I reviewed the sophomore album, Sacro Culto, from Opera IX and ended with the declaration that I’d be hunting down their debut as it quite simply blew me away. Knowing that there’d be a good chance of Peaceville re-issuing this album I held off the search and so when the Call from Pete Woods came that this had landed I couldn’t wait to get it in the stereo. Today’s scene is overflowing with generic symphonic black metal acts whose sound is polished to perfection and go for that grand overblown production which is fine and which some bands pull off very well. The Call Of The Wood was originally released in 1994 and what you really notice about this album as with Sacro Culto is the incredible amount of atmosphere that is created, which I think is all the more potent given the rawness and simplicity of the music.
The album itself is made up of five tracks with opener ‘Alone In The Dark’ clocking in at over the 17 minute mark. There’s a stark contrast between the eerie ambience which is largely down to the keyboards and the rough, bludgeoning heaviness of the core rhythm section. Around the half-way mark the crepuscular keys and acoustic guitar melodies really give off that vibe of being alone in the woods late at night with the stars dancing high above and you soon realise you’ve taken a wrong turn as the music bursts back to life with driving deathly guitars while the drums pound away incessantly below Cadaveria’s cadaverous croak. She has quite a range on her and I love the haunting cries that seep through such as on ‘Esteban’s Promise;’ at times her soft, spectral caterwauling sounds like a tormented spirit longing to be heard flitting between the trees. This second track crawls its way in at a languid pace hypnotising you with its atmosphere until it suddenly picks up pace and pounds away like there’s no tomorrow.
Title track ‘The Call Of the Wood’ is perhaps my favourite on the album; the acoustic guitars ease us in gently with soft wailing and leads us into a ethereal panpipe-infused melody that has a hint of an Eastern flavour to it. It almost feels like being led down into the woods and arriving with a loud bang into a Pagan ritual; the fierce, ritualistic drum pattering provides a strong rhythm and you can hear the keys and guitar solos dance to their own individual tunes moving and swaying to the beat while the sinister chants pick up momentum over a jagged, foreboding melody until it all fades out back to the peaceful tones it came in with. It’s music that will have the imagination working overtime and could quite easily have you freaking out should you listen to it during a midnight frolic through the trees.
There’s something really wild and chaotic to ‘Al Azif’ which has a kind of church bell ringing to it, and a shifting and changing to the rhythm as though the wind blows it in a different direction. In places there is something quite uncomfortable about this and if you try and listen too hard to the musicianship it is going to seem a tad clumsy but it’s that primitivism that gives it its charm. ‘Sepulcro’ races ahead with keys straddling the centre adding that symphonic sound on both ends, while the drums set a nice foundation. There are two bonus tracks to finish off with which are ‘Born In The Grave’ taken from the 1993 Triumph of Death EP and ‘Rhymes about Dying Stars’ taken from the 1992 demo which is a nice little extra. There is a uniqueness to the early Opera IX sound that I love, and though I do prefer Sacro Culto, this is a damn fine album and a must for anyone who likes atmospheric black metal.
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