The album starts off with a three minute field recording introduction, and this is exactly what I've been looking for. It's introspective, it's bleak... it feels like contemplating a life full of regrets, and it's absolutely stunning.
Unfortunately this is just the intro to the album. The first of four lengthy songs comes in and quickly reminded me that this was a metal album. The riffs are disgusting, the vocals are tortured, and the atmosphere is crushing... all good things on their own but it's not really what I was looking for at this particular moment.
Wolvserpent play a slow brooding blackened doom with a hugely oppressive atmosphere. There is quite a bit of droning within the riffs as well, they are allowed to exist for a while before the next one comes in.. not all the time, but there are lengthy sections where the band lets things devolve into feedback before strumming again, it helps with the noise and filth of the release.
Where the band starts to separate themselves from other blackened doom bands is what they do when there is not metal. For lengthy periods of the songs the metal stops and a violin plays over near silence. This... this is the reason I wanted to find this album and listen to it again. These sections are so emotionally charged... full of desolation and loneliness... its exactly what I was looking for.
So half of what I was trying to find is here... maybe a third over the course of the full album. There will be a day where I want blackened doom and these guys will fit the bill. There are other times where I need that incredibly bleak and complex atmosphere and these guys may be on that playlist as well.
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