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| Artwork by Magda Piech. |
Age of Woe is a quite young five piece band from Gothenburg/Sweden. They founded in 2010 and An Ill Wind Blowing is their 2nd full length album.
At first listen the album may appear unspectacular, but if you allow it to unfold its active substances to take hold of your brain through several listens, you may also find it magically varied, skull crushing and spine tingling in an unobtrusive, unpretentious and subtle way, wrapped in a smooth mix of crusty HC, Death Metal, Doom and Black Metal.
The riffs are trudgingly heavy as well as they are catchy. The leads are driving as well as they are melodic. Pummeling, propelling drumming, passionate, creaky vocals, distorted, but grooving guitars and well placed word samples … all drenched in downtuned filth and crusty rawness.
In 36 minutes and seven songs Age of Woe conjures the 'Ill wind', tempestuously blowing or mephitically looming, but always evil and destructive. The only moment you could possibly recover your breath would be in the melancholic instrumental "Kiñe Weza Kuruf Konkey", but just for about one and a half minutes, before it gets cut off violently by the next track to destroy all hope for any stable calmness (this is one of the best transitions between two songs, ever).
Although the basic atmosphere is utterly dark and depressive throughout, it is constantly infused and mingled with different moods, be it a somewhat old fashioned occultish horror feel, a more unnerving and abrasive industrial vibe, a slightly disturbing chaos or a melancholic despair.
The term “active substances“ I chose deliberately to evoke associations of drug usage, because the album somehow works like weed. All the moods you can possibly find in the album are in a well measured balance. If you want to focus on one, you can happily do it. You want to get crushed immediately? Turn up the volume, feel the groove, bang your head. You want to feel the creepy, cold fear and despair? Sit down and let it crawl through your ears into your brain. But you can as well just let it all flow and enjoy to get blown away.
The track "Heavy Clouds" is featured on The Wicked Lady Show 134.