Track Listing
1. Yearning the seeds of a new dimension 2. Heart of the ages 3. In the woods 4. Mourning the death of Aase 5. Wolan's return 6. Pigeon 7. The divinity of wisdom Year: 1994 Label: Misanthropy - Official Site |
In The Woods... - 'Heart of the ages' - By C. Diamantis
The first album from the Norwegian band In The Woods finds them remaining still within the boundaries of black metal, though both their music and their philosophy were much different than the majority of the black metal bands of that period. While a lot of black metal bands decided that their music would be very fast, brutal and, most of the times, the production of the albums would be extremely bad, In The Woods presented us with a totally different sound. Mostly slow, melodic songs with a lot of clean vocals were something totally new at the time. However they don�t forget their roots and they add into the songs parts with black vocals and faster tempos. They�re not afraid to use keyboards, but do so without overshadowing the other instruments. Keyboards are used in order to add to the atmosphere but they don�t dominate in the songs. Most of the compositions are long and this, along with the slow music, gives an epic feeling to the album that many so-called �epic� bands would envy about. The production is good and this makes the album more easy to listen to (and this is a good thing, unlike what many old-school black metallers may believe). The vocals of the album are mostly male, with the exception of one song, �Mourning The Death Of Aase�, which is sung solely by a woman. This song has no lyrics, just pure singing and the strong emotions it transmits make it one of the best songs on the album. Concerning the rest of the songs, while they all are extremely good, I�d like to distinguish �Yearning The Seeds Of A New Dimension� and �The Divinity Of Wisdom� as my personal favorites. Another thing that sets this band apart from the rest of the black metal scene of that time is their lyrics. Most of the bands had chose a more or less satanic concept in the lyrics, but In The Woods are one of the first bands of the style later labeled as pagan metal. Their lyrics are mostly influenced by the pagan ideology (religion?) and also have some references to the old Viking gods (e.g. �Wotan�s Return�). This gives them another point of originality and adds an even more epic aspect to their music. When I listen to this album a really nostalgic feeling overwhelms me, because in this album we can listen to the first, inexperienced and even �primitive� steps of one of the greatest European metal bands. This is truly an album-monument in European black metal but history showed that the continuation would be totally different and even more magical� Metal Obsessive Grade: 85% |