Wode | website | facebook | bandcamp |
Released on April 8, 2016 via Broken Limbs Recordings (NA) / Sell Your Soul Records (EU) / Church of Fuck (cassette)
It’s hard for a label like Broken Limbs Recordings to exceed expectations, especially since I’ve come to expect great releases from them, but Wode may just be the best album they’ve ever released. It literally blew me away, and that’s not an easy feat to accomplish.
I may heap excessive praise to albums that provide me a fun time listening to them, but Wode’s self-titled album is nothing short of special. It’s just catapulted past Goetical Equivalent as my favorite black metal release of the year, something I wasn’t expecting, to be honest.
Big hooks merge with some insane drumming on this album. Think Wodensthrone meets Altar of Plagues. Wode may have just raised the bar for UK black metal, and considering that this is their début full-length album, this band’s future is indeed bright!
From first note to last, this album doesn’t waste time with iffy riffs or pointless hackery. Original to say the least, quintessential modern black metal without sounding overtly experimental, Wode nail the coffin on mediocre second wave inspired retrograde material. Sure, second wave was fun while it lasted, but Wode make you forget all about the stuff that’s been overdone for years now. And, they do it without making a concerted effort to play black metal that isn’t catchy.
Atmospheric? Check. Melodic? Check. Intense? Check. This is a resounding triumph of a black metal album and I for one, can’t wait to hear what else the band accomplish in future releases. Altar of Plagues may be gone, but Wode is the band that will halt Altar of Plagues fans’ fears for a successor never making manifest. No hyperbole, no exaggerations for the sake of emphasis, Wode are brilliant and their self-titled album should be the jugular that makes you like black metal again. Not since Leviathan’s Scar Sighted have I witnessed such a euphony of talent. Wode’s self-titled release is inspired, no doubt about it.
Six tracks in all, each of them epic in runtime, don’t think for one second that the runtime means that there are a lot of ambient sections. Mostly blistering in tempo, occasionally slowing down for nuance, this album is a fun listen indeed, something hard to do with songs spanning seven to eight minutes in runtime. You won’t notice time go by slowly, nor will you itch to press the pause button. Wode are as convincing as new emergent bands come, and Broken Limbs Recordings has a runaway hit on their hands to try to follow-up. Support this album if you don’t hear another black metal album this year worth noting.
