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Woods of Ypres' swansong album Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light has been added to the Earache Records Bandcamp. It's a soulful, dark gem of an album that was released early this ear; and has been included in a few of the "Best of 2012" lists I've seen so far. Two of those lists were written by contributors to Metal Bandcamp, so I'll defer to my betters and let them do the talking.
From Atanamar Sunyata's Top 10 Albums of 2012 from Metal Injection:
David Gold’s last will and testament has been a constant companion throughout the year. Metal may often be obsessed with death, but Woods 5 is an academic study of life’s cessation, the eradication of love, and the passing of our dreams. These concepts are conveyed via infectious songwriting in tongues of morose, melodic doom. Ingenious hooks, captivating vocals and righteous rhythms demand introspection, uncontrolled headbanging, and more than a little bit of singing along. David Gold tells us in no uncertain terms that “the dead are to be forgotten.” David’s music, however, makes this request impossibleFrom Andy Osborn's End of Year Round-Up from The Alchemist's Cave:
I was lucky enough to spend time with David Gold before he passed away when Woods crashed at my house during their North American tour last year. I’m not going to pretend I knew him well but from the short time I spent with him, he was an extremely kind and passionate person who poured his soul into his music. This album is the final product of that catharsis, and it eerily and ironically deals extensively with the prospect of death. Woods V is the best thing he has ever produced, and a fitting tribute and legacy to a life cut much too short.
Your link to the End of Year Round-Up is broken. Thanks for sharing this album, though, I've given it a few listens now and really enjoyed it. It's always enlightening to see how critics differ in their judgment of this lyrical writing style, where the author says exactly what they mean with no subtlety or room for interpretation whatsoever. To some it reads like teenaged poetry, to others it's incredibly meaningful because it exposes the dark thoughts others don't dare to express (presumably for fear of being thought juvenile authors of teenaged poetry). I'm right in the middle... some of it makes me cringe, but the parts that work are brilliant. I need more music that explores the secular/atheist viewpoint and attitude towards death with this amount of seriousness, that doesn't resort to bashing religion or tongue-in-cheek Satanism. Lately I've been finding more of it, and I like to think that Wintersun's Time I counts, but this is also definitely a part of that playlist.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up on the broken link, it is fixed now. I'll give the rest of your comment a proper reply tomorrow.
DeleteThanks for the link, yet more music I missed this year. I've been meaning to check out the new Cattle Decapitation release since it came out and really should get on that.
DeleteI'm not surprised when people say they're disappointed by the new Wintersun (even though I disagree), but I am a bit confused that people seem not to like RIITIIR. I like my metal proggier than some, I guess!
I haven't heard neither Wintersun nor Enslaved, these days it's all about Bandcamp.
DeleteAs for your point about the Woods lyrics. I like my well written poetic lyrics, but yeah, it is refreshing to read some that lays everything bare.