voila_la_scorie Wilt's second full-length, according to a review I read, sees the band returning to their atmospheric black metal style. Apparently, their debut full-length album, "Moving Monoliths" added a strong dose of doom metal. If there's any doom metal on this album, "Ruin", I failed to notice it.

Lyricist and vocalist, Jordan Dorge says that the album is a concept album that is inspired by the book, "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy but Dorge wrote his own narrative. One more powerful contributor to the album was the suicide of a dear friend of the band. Dorge also states in an interview that Wilt are inspired by the landscape and climate of Manitoba which is vast, open, and in the winter bitterly cold and bleak.

The review I mentioned above drops band names which the reviewer was reminded of while listening to "Ruin". Wiegedood, Drudkh, Winterfylleth - none of these bands being ones I have heard yet. My first thought, however, was that the beautiful lead guitar melodies reminded me a lot of Deafheaven, whom I saw live in Tokyo in 2019 when they opened for Empreror. But while Deafheaven oscillate between sweet melodies and intense music, Wilt combine the intense black metal riffing with the beautiful melodies. They have that post rock feel and make me think of someone who has spent days grieving but manages to look up through the tears and smile or a snow-blasted landscape with only the skeletal remains of an old collapsed homestead that, despite its impression of harsh bleakness and decay, is still beautiful to behold.

The album carries this atmopshere of anguish and emotional pain until the final track, "Requiem", which takes a decidedly positive turn as if someone's agony is over because they have ascended to the next world.

I loved this album when I first heard it and returning to it after a few weeks of not listening to it, I find it still has an impact. If you love atmospheric, melodic black metal with postrock/Deafheaven melodies, then do check this one out!