Another disc that had us sold before we even got to the music. The band name alone, Wijlen Wij? We're a sucker for
whatthefuck band names... And the fact that this Belgian horde are made up of a veritable who's who of doooom
loooominaries, folks from bands like AQ faves Fall Of The Grey Winged One, Pantheist, Until Death Overtakes Me, In
Somnis and a bunch more. Throw in a totally black cover except for the name of the band, and that it was released on
Aesthetic Death, home to mighty UK doomlords Esoteric...
So yeah, we were expecting some serious doom, the lots-of-o's kind of doom, as in dooooooooooooooooom, but maybe with
twice that many o's, or heck three times as many o's, but what we got, while still doomy as fuck and seriously crushingly
heavy was a whole lot weirder.
The record opens with some delicate Renn Faire sort of flutter, organ and chanted vocals, very medieval sounding, a bit
Viking even, then a super King Arthur sort of melody joins the fray, and we were beginning to think maybe we had the
wrong idea about these guys, until the guitars kick in, easily some of the thickest most distorted, downtuned filthy
ugly guitar sounds EVER. And the coolest part is that the medieval intro, wasn't just an intro, the song continues on
with that sort of seasick Viking waltz, but now dripping with oozing blackdoom riffage, a bizarre epic medieval funeral
doooooooooooom. The next track ditches the Renn flair, and instead offers up a gorgeous crushing slow crawl, but with
moaning melancholy cello drifting amidst the pounding sludge like black smoke. This is serious doom, it's got the classic
sorrowful vibe of bands like My Dying Bride, but it's delivered though the cracked filth crusted sludge of bands like
Esoteric or Bunkur. And then out of the blue (or black perhaps is more appropriate) comes some haunting little Trollmann
like synth melody, or even what sounds like some Morricone Western style harmonica, that drifts along hauntingly before
slipping back under, and the band returns to some impossibly slow trudge, through a barren black landscape. One of those
rare records than manages to be so impossibly and crushingly heavy at the same time that it's utterly haunting and beautiful.
Absolutely our new favorite doom record. Hands down. Worthy of more o's that we have any right to be dealing out.
Essential for fans of Bunkur, Planet Aids, Winter, diSEMBOWELMENT, Esoteric, Catacombs, Wereju, and all other wielders of
black hole heaviness...
