It’s strange how you don’t necessarily associate Australia with metal yet they do have their share of decent extreme metal acts over there such as obvious ones that come to mind Destroyer666, Naxzul, Denouncement Pyre, The Berzerker, Striborg, etc. Thankfully I escaped one of their continents worst exports this time around (see Kunvuk reviewed also this month by Lee Kimber) and instead ended up with the far more palatable Wardaemonic. I had no choice but to grab this one for myself when it came in really, on the surface it looked right up my street and a quick initial listen confirmed that.
Intriguingly, tracks 1-5 on here would seem to be part of one larger concept; entitled ‘Vigil Tenebrae’ it certainly seems to live upto its name casting an incredibly tenebrous shadow over everything. Part1, ‘The Precepts Of Salvation’ draws you in with a slow, crawling hum of dissonance, callous and filthy rasps protruding the murky depths and all sounds pretty hideous and ugly. It is on the third track ‘From The Ancient Depths’ that I really find myself engrossed by the fierce, storming riffs that swagger along with strength and a real sense of purpose. Crank the volume up full and you’ll notice how overpowering the bass sounds here, while the drums clatter aggressively and calamitously. As things move on we are swept into a real cacophony of noise, and soon it’s a real beast of a riff that takes over sounding sharp enough to slice you into pieces and this is exactly the kind of maliciousness that can be heard behind the music here.
The putrid rasps sound sick as hell on ‘Dark Water’s Confines’ and work wonderfully within the surrounding musical framework – by now the tracks seem to have joined together and it’s hard to distinguish where one ends and the next begins – it’s a seamless affair that successfully draws me in to it’s alarming ambience and doesn’t want to let me out. On ‘Fragments Of Dissolution’ the tone kind of sweeps effortlessly into a jangly earthly Agalloch-esque jaunt that lends itself to a sudden outburst of clean vocal wails. It is definitely the dark, sinister atmosphere that makes this such a fine piece of work – it’s something very high up my mental checklist of what makes a great album, and it is particularly true on ‘Aeons Of Perdition.’ There’s a sudden deathly thud to ‘Echoes Of Ageless Flames’ as we come out from the 5 part opener into track 6, and there’s a tumultuous whirlwind of sound here and almost technical approach to the guitars. ‘The Incarnate Ethereal Of Nine’ is much more reflective with those lovely clean vocals returning and emitting a real sense of melancholy.
‘Paths To Silence’ sweeps in with a poised and proud sounding Pagan riff before really picking up pace. There is genuine ferocity here, mingling with an intense gothic sense of beauty. The album is not overly lengthy – everything seems to flow very well with one track leading nicely into the next seeming to work well as a whole album rather than as separate songs. There is certainly scope for improvement, but this sophomore album is really good stuff; all the right elements are here and they really deserve to get signed up on the back of this. A band I’ll be keeping a close watch on in future.
http://www.myspace.com/wardaemonic
