It’s been 7 years since Withering Soul’s previous album “Apparitions of the Surreal”. “No Closure” is the latest work of Melodic Black Metal by the band from Chicago.
Norwegian Black Metal is quoted as the blueprint with moments of ambiance. This becomes apparent from the second track “Phantasmal Chaos Divinity”, a piece of dark and heavy, sometimes lingering Black Metal. The riff and the blood-curdling screams are memorable. The keyboards come to fill the air. There’s a majestic passage and pagan-sounding session before it all cranks up again. “The Sequitor” is lighter and the guitar is still flamboyant. The sound is symphonically Black Metal. The production quality is as good as it should be, and maximum value is extracted from the impressive screams. “The Sequitor” finishes with drums beating in militaristic style and resounding keys. Wardfare starts again with “Tides of the Accursed”. No punches are pulled. Evil vocals match the pulsating heaviness. The real strength is the great timing and guitar work. At one point it slows down and plods along malevolently like a Malsain or even Mayhem passage.
Plenty of thought has gone into this album. Each track has authority and darkness. There’s an air of Dimmu Borgir about it. If “Possession of Deception (Part 2)” has swirling rhythms, blasting drums, heaviness and intrigue, “Sadistic Redress” is even better. Here we have yet more screams from hell and machine-gun firepower. Along with it are great melodic rhythms. There’s nasty stuff going on, aided and abetted by evil keyboards. It holds together well. There’s total turbulence and chaos going on. And then in true Black Metal tradition, it stops. Toe-tapping headbanging stuff is the sequel with “Manifest Transparency”. It’s easy to listen to and repetitive to a point and very nasty. The track heads off into a hazy, pagan-style session and ends with the chaotic screams of death. The album takes us over and becomes ever more turbulent. Yet it’s easy to see through the dark clouds and pick out an appealing sound. So it is to “Lifeless They Lie”. Then “Unquiet” changes the mood. After a deliberate build-up, female operatic vocals interchange with the male vocalist. Good control is maintained but I wasn’t sure about this one. A different mood is created but it’s like a bonus track and I must say that I preferred the turbulent battering ram that preceded it. Orchestral sadness, mixed with nice acoustic melancholy ends the album and I just wonder whether “Unquiet” and the introduction and “outro” track A Requiem of Sorrow”, which seemed incongruous, should have been left for another project.
Leaving aside the tracks at the beginning and the end, “No Closure” is a fine work. The tracks may have a similar format but the ingredients are mixed up in different ways. It’s taken a long time for Withering Soul to release their second album, but it’s been well worth waiting for. “No Closure” is full of fire, turbulence and top quality atmospheric Black Metal.
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