Music: Woods of Ypres: Woods III- Deepest Roots and Darkest Blues
Our Take
Though still an underground band by industry standards, Canadas Woods of Ypres have gained quite a following since they formed in 2002. After missing release dates for nearly a year or two, this progressive/black metal band has finally released their highly anticipated sophomore album entitled Woods III: Deepest Roots and Darkest Blues (the III refers to the fact that this is their third proper release with the first one being an EP). Running over an hour and offering 15 tracks that alternate between Opeth sounding progressive metal and European black metal this band once again impresses, though some may be disappointed with the loss of some of the doom elements.
While there are quite a few bands trying to do the progressive metal thing right now, Woods of Ypres stands out thanks to their inclusion of not only black metal blast beats but also folk/Pagan elements as well. Though much of the Canadian metal scene seems to be oriented towards traditional and technical death metal right now, Woods of Ypres seems to pull a lot more influence from the black/folk metal bands of Norway and Finland rather than their native country. And even though this sophomore release doesnt have as many of the doom metal breaks that its predecessor did, this doesnt mean that the riffs are any less addictive. From what I can understand part of the reason this album was delayed was due to the fact that the band messed around with production and mixing for quite some time, and that may be one of its only flaws. While the extremely polished production works for many of the folk/progressive moments, it doesnt work as well on the fast paced black metal tracks which couldve used a bit rawer production. But despite this minor flaw, the group is definitely on to something here and are sure to appeal to a variety of metal fans.
The vocals are all over the map and listeners will likely pick out a number of influences throughout the course of Woods III: Deepest Roots and Darkest Blues. In addition to death metal growling and black metal shrieking, there are also a variety of different clean vocals. These styles often alternate between more folk oriented arrangements and singing that is almost close to some of the more indie hard rock bands out there. The clean vocals have improved quite a bit since the bands previous album, and provided that listeners can tolerate singing (and arent just looking for relentless screaming and growling) they are likely to find that the combination of styles here has been pulled off extremely well.
Woods III: Deepest Roots and Darkest Blues is a worthy follow up to Woods of Ypres first album and is sure to gain them even more fans than before. Though the album can be a little lengthy and therefore hard to truly grasp in one sitting, it is admittedly more of a release that will grow on you rather than one that will knock you out of your socks right off the bat. However, this trio is creating music that much of their native scene cant match up to, and hopefully their somewhat underground status will move up a couple notches and allow some of the more mainstream listeners to appreciate what is offered here.
http://www.krankenhaus.ca
Chris Dahlberg
August 20, 2008
