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watain thewildhunt
Artist: Watain
Title: The Wild Hunt
Genre: Black Metal
Release Date: 16th August 2013
Label: Century Media Records


Album Review

WATAIN has been making waves within the last year regarding their previous effort 'Lawless Darkness' which won a Swedish Grammy for being the “best hard rock album of 2011”. Some might argue that WATAIN deserves the best metal title, but an award is an award nonetheless... so congratulations. Oddly enough, 'Lawless Darkness' seemed a bit out of place with the WATAIN discography up to that point. The debut album was a raw, blistering fireball of black metal that was very kvlt, but the real attention came from the more groove infused 'Sworn to The Dark' which had the modern touches of SATYRICON but the raw fury of a band like SARGEIST. With 'Lawless Darkness' these three enigmatic performers created a very solid black metal album, but it just didn't seem to grab as hard. Fortunately, their latest effort 'The Wild Hunt' is a return to the fold for some very well-orchestrated black metal. It is raw, powerful, and full of surprises.

From the opening instrumental one can tell that WATAIN are mixing things up a bit. The churning riffs and bits of acoustic bits definitely make for more melody and adding more harmony elements to the music rather than feeling like a razor all the time. Once ‘De Profundis’ hits one can hear the good mix of groove and harsh, fast elements that make WATAIN so popular. They're definitely still taking shape- on a track like ‘Black Flame March’ they seem to have more MARDUK elements than usual, but it is still very appealing while not feeling like a total knock off. Other tracks like ‘Sleepless Evil’ are more steeped in the traditional sound of earlier WATAIN that made albums like ‘Casus Luciferi’ so popular. It is fast- with monotonous drumming yes- but still very appealing to the average black metal listener.

One thing that WAITAIN are incorporating more with their music is clean vocals. The epic ‘They Rode On’ is going to come as a big surprise with the more folkish elements of the music- it is still mostly harsh black metal but with the clean vocals and acoustic guitar bits it is going to come as a surprise to those who only know of WATAIN from their earlier works. This trend continues in ‘The Wild Hunt’ which is considered “slow” for WATAIN's standards with the plodding drums and guitars, but it is highly appealing- especially with the backing choirs. While hardcore black metal fans are not going to appreciate that much, this definitely adds more depth to WATAIN's music and sets 'The Wild Hunt' as an album away from the others as being unique- for now. By adjusting and evolving their sound, WATAIN could very well be on the way for another award for their solid production of another modern and enjoyable black metal record.


Tracklist

01. Night Vision - 3:38
02. De Profundis - 4:33
03. Black Flames March - 6:20
04. All That May Bleed - 4:41
05. The Child Must Die - 6:04
06. They Rode On - 8:43
07. Sleepless Evil - 5:37
08. The Wild Hunt - 6:20
09. Outlaw - 5:07
10. Ignem Veni Mittere - 4:39
11. Holocaust Dawn - 7:07


Line-up

E.- Vocals, Bass, Guitars
P.- Guitars
H.- Drums


Website

http://www.templeofwatain.com/


Cover Picture

watain thewildhunt


Rating

Music: 8
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10





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