OLD WAINDS - STORMHEART
Finally breaking a decade of silence, Russia's Old Wainds emerge from the frozen tundra of their homeland to create an ice-cold atmosphere of barren black metal to further make the barren wasteland before them more inhospitable. What awaits us after this lengthy hiatus has been shattered at last?
Winter shall remain eternal with "Watch The Midnight Unveil", forlorn strings stirring up both a buzzing and cold mood with a breakdown to transition to ghastly frostbitten vocals. In tremolo fashion with drums blasting a blitzkrieg to summon otherworldly beings, "Of Night and Ice" is a devastating blow to wake up a somewhat stagnant black metal scene as of late. Without pity or remorse "The Eternal, the Dead, the Arcane" swallows to listeners with a barrage to start, a brief reprieve to a midpaced interval, the right back to icy Hell straight of of a vision from Dante. There is no compromise to be expected with "To the Midnight" and its changes in tempo and picking right back into biting winds of winter pummeling the listener. Finally with Snow Swarm (a self-reference to the band themselves, perhaps?) the band resurrects its roots and forces us to imagine, if not hope, that every album from a particular act that has had quite the storied career full of bizarre antics sounded like "Under A Funeral Moon" as it gives nods to that era of black metal glory that may or may not ever be recaptured, unless an act like Old Wainds were to demand it be so!
The sleeper has awakened; "Stormheart" captures more of the bleak and catchy riffing and feeling of total despair the band has been know for over the years and continues down this sorrowful path. Without a doubt, they are back in full form standing atop the highest mountain of skulls, a feat not many acts can achieve after obscurity overtakes them. This indeed further cements Old Wainds postions as masters of the black metal craft.
9/10
