UMUR
"Heart of the Ages" is the debut full-length studio album by Norwegian metal act In the Woods.... The album was released in 1995 through Misanthropy Records. In the Woods... have strong ties to the Norwegian black metal scene but their music is much more experimental than many of the more traditional black metal bands.
The riffing in the music have influences from melodic black/ death metal bands like Unanimated and Dissection. There are post metal influences here too though. The slow doomy riffing that is a trademark in that genre is also present here. Layers of synth is also a big part of "Heart of the Ages". The music is overall quite melodic. All tracks are of a good quality but "...In the Woods" is my favorite here. The singing is both clean and black metal raspy. Sometimes the singing is in the strange/ psychadelic vein of Ved Buens Ende which is an artist In the Woods... bears some resemblance too.
The music is generally played with conviction. The only thing negative thing I´ll mention is the drums. They sound untight to me and Anders Kobro´s drumming style is not very sophisticated. The tempo is slow- to mid paced and it´s especially in the mid tempo sections there are problems with the drum style. They play very straight forwared. I think it sounds like German heavy metal from the eighties and that drumming style is not fitting the rest of the music very well.
The production is a very thin sounding black metal production and a better sound quality could have done these songs more justice. My overall impression of "Heart of the Ages" is still pretty good though. I´m intrigued and want to hear more music from In the Woods... and that´s always a good sign. Bearing in mind that there are a couple of flaws I think a 3 star rating is fair.