The world of instrumental, epic rock music is getting a bit crowded these days. It seems like every week a new band buys a couple loop pedals, drones out for 10 minutes, plays one riff for another 10, calls themselves epic and repeats this process ad nauseum. As with any genre of music the bad often outweighs the good as hundreds of bands descend on the new sound like wolves. It can be dif?cult to ?nd the patience to sift through hours of mediocre, blatantly derivative or uninspired music looking for something powerful and exciting. In order to save time I’ll start by saying buy this album. “The Harrowing of the North” by Leeds based trio Wiht is an outstanding release full of fantastic dynamic shifts and equally fantastic riffs.
When this release was passed on to me I took one look at the 20 plus minutes length of the ?rst song and due to the aforementioned issues with a lot of instrumental bands I was concerned. From the ?rst of many climaxes in the song my concerns were laid to rest. The title track alone is worth the price of admission. Rarely has a 20 minute minute song gone by so fast. It is packed with enough beautiful interludes and big Sabbathy riffs to keep your attention. The composition is outstanding and there is never a moment of ?ller. That’s the beauty of this piece, every part has its place and every player is restrained enough to stay in that place.
The second song “Orderic Vitalis” picks up right where the ?rst leaves off. While it is less epic in scope than the title track it still holds up in terms of power. Opening with another riff many stoner metal bands would sell a kidney for, it quickly drops into a quiet and moody groove highlighted by some wonderful textural guitar playing and tasteful cymbal work. From there on out its just as densely arranged with every part feeding into the next seamlessley. By the time Wiht reaches the ?nale of the song and the synths (or strings) start up you realize what an accomplishment the previous 30 minutes of music have been.
The ?nal song “End of the Reign” is a bonus track for the Devouter Records reissue. At ?rst it felt slightly out of place, mainly due to the difference in sound quality and production. However after several listens it has become my favorite song on the album. There is a spectacular ebb and ?ow to this piece especially in the outstanding guitar work. It de?nitely makes the reissue the version of the album to seek out. It closes out the album perfectly but don’t be surprised if you start the whole thing over again.
I understand from the press release that Wiht have called it quits and this reissue is a swan song of sorts. This is terrible news to me as I just just heard them for the ?rst time. If this is indeed their ?nal album then they have truly gone out on a high note with a very impressive album. Maybe if enough people pay attention to it they’ll reform.
The Harrowing of the North will be released on vinyl and also as a digital download on the 4th of February 2013 through here.
Posted by Michael B. Hayden.
