Time Signature The loneliness...

Genre: melodic black metal

I think I've said this a couple of times before, but I am not really an expert in black metal. I acknowledge it as a genre of artistic expression, but I am not able to appreciate all its different subgenres as I lack insight into all the little details and conventions that a true aficionado has. However, every now and then, I happen across a black metal band or maybe just a black metal release that clicks with me.

Wormwood's "Arkivet" is one such release.

While it is rich in many of the tropes that make black metal what it is, such as tremolo-picking, harsh and screetchy vocals, and blastbeats galore, the album has another feature that hits it home with me: melody. That is not to say that I don't like the black metal figures that I just mentioned, because I do, and they work really well on this album. They work so well because they are not just juxtaposed with the melodic elements; the harsh intensity and the melody are intertwined in an unholy union of melancholy.

The melodic element consists in guitar melodies, which are often but not always tremolo-picked, along with the chord progressions themselves. Adding a slightly epic feel are atmospheric keyboards, and in a track like "Ensamheten" there is even some traditional Scandinavian folk instrumentation. In addition, there is the occasional breakdown into mellow clean-guitared sections.

"Ensamheten" is Swedish for "the loneliness", and, if there is one emotion that captures the atmosphere on this album, it's gotta be loneliness. There is a pervasive sense of melancholy on this album, and I guess that, with covid and lock-downs and all that, this sense of loneliness and desparation makes this album even more relevant. I'd say that we are not dealing with the typical type of self-pitying attitude that characterizes much melancholic black metal. This is bigger than that. This is about humanity itself. No, seriously, it is; just check out the lyrics. While personal suffering is tragic, the suffering of humanity does raise the stakes just a bit.

I think the songwriting is really good as is the musicianship. We are dealing with a band of musicians who are not afraid of letting melodic sensibilities not just shine through but be the fundament of a black metal release. We are even treated to some pretty good almost rock-like guitar solos every now and then which go well together with the melancholic in-built harmonies that characterize the entire album. The compositions are dynamic with changes and shifts where necessary and lack thereof where necessary. This means that there is a nice blend of black metal hypnoticity and interesting dynamicity.

Not surprisingly, I think this is a great black metal album. It immediately made it into my top ten of black metal albums (for what it's worth, of course, seeing that I'm not a trve kvlt gvy). Fans of melodic, melancholic, folky, and maybe even epic and symphonic black metal should find this a very intriguing listen. It is also likely to appeal tp people who are looking for a gateway into black metal.

adg211288 Wormwood, who are not to be confused with no less than four other metal bands who have used the same name (all from the US) is a fairly new Swedish melodic black metal act. Formed in 2014 and featuring two members, vocalist Nine and guitarist Nox, of the black metal act Withershin, they previously released the EP The Void: Stories from the Whispering Well (2015). Ghostlands: Wounds from a Bleeding Earth (2017) is their debut full-length studio album.

The music on Ghostlands: Wounds from a Bleeding Earth (which I'm going to refer to as simply Ghostlands from herein) is, for the most part, an example of a fairly standard melodic black metal sound. That means aside from there being plenty of melody the production is extremely well polished for the black metal genre with absolutely no trace of cold rawness and the songwriting favours directness over any kind of atmosphere. Given the near one hour, twelve track running time of the album were this all the album did it would most certainly outstay its welcome as while Wormwood show themselves competent musicians, whose ear for melody is noteworthy, there wouldn't be all that much variation in their approach. Fortunately they find that much needed variation by also including an influence of folk metal, which changes up the feel of their songs considerably when it comes into play.

While this makes Ghostlands a more interesting album, it also acts as something of a double edged sword as the more folk metal based songs also show off how much stronger an album Ghostlands could have been if Wormwood had made it their focus, as these certainly are the best tracks on the release. There just isn't enough of a folk influence here for Ghostlands to be considered a true folk/black metal hybrid even though the influence is used on a regular basis and the only non-standard instrument in use is the fiddle. One track that stands out in particular is Tidh ok Ödhe (and by extension the shorter Silverdimmans Återsken that acts as something of a lead-in to it), which features guest female vocalist Alexandra 'Lalla' Moqvist, whose clean singing provides vocal interplay with the growls and adds another dimension to the music that instantly makes it the most memorable song Wormwood have here. It actually strikes me as a melodic black metal version of some of power metal band Falconer's folksier tracks, especially those that have featured a guest female voice as well.

Ghostlands ultimately stands as an enjoyable first major release for Wormwood, but an overall lack of memorability means that come its conclusion I'm struggling to recall the individual tracks even after giving the complete album several listens. This drags down the likelihood of my returning to it too often, except of course for that one really exceptional track Tidh ok Ödhe where everything just fell together and showed what the band were really capable of. If they can manage more tracks of that calibre in the future then they can definitely expect a much more enthusiastic review from this writer.