Phonebook Eater
7/10
Where despair becomes hopefulness....
Woods Of Desolation are an Australian Black Metal outfit, “Torn Beyond Reason” is already their third studio effort, after two albums mainly influenced by Depressive Black Metal. This last album is a major improvement, to the point where it can be compared easily to other great albums by projects such as Alcest, Fen, or Coldworld.
The maturity of the sound is felt because of a pretty solid change in direction, this time around being influenced more by Shoegaze and Post-Rock. The Atmospheric Black Metal sound is anyway far from gone: The production is very blurry but somewhat dreamy, the fierce guitars are veiled with shoegazey reverb, the powerful shriek vocals a little buried and drowned by the other instruments, as it is convention. As mentioned, this sort of sound reminds a bit of Alcest’s fiercer side, and other Blackgaze acts, thus what is heard isn’t really that innovating nor original, but very traditional and even safe. However, the band’s skills in songwriting is extremely strong, almost every moment is beautiful, evocative, and haunting. Their melodies are truly memorable, and that’s probably what makes the album the most.
While some think that “Torn Beyond Reason” is an album that, like it’s predecessors, is extremely desperate and depressing, I find that there is in it’s potent touch of melancholy a great dose of hopefulness, even though it does come from a very dark corner. But the emotiveness is undeniable and it’s all over the place for the entire thirty seven minutes; human emotion has never been put, I must admit, in such a dreary context this year, (except maybe for “Mammal” by Altar Of Plagues) but there can be sensed a sort of wretched attempt to grasping redemption.
The starting song, the title track, gives a tempestuous yet passionate start for the album, creating a bleak, haunting atmosphere thanks to some beautiful melodies. “Darker Days” does the job done even better, to the point where it’s easily the best and most memorable song of the album. As I previously implied, some moments are a little too traditional and remind of quite a few bands, like the following two tracks, however, it’s not wrong to wear influences on your sleeve, and they still manage to be haunting and efficacious. Another small highlight is “November”, a short interlude that however is extremely well done and deserves to be just as praised as a song like “Darker Days”: it starts with an acoustic piece, and shortly builds into shoegaze heaven.
“Torn Beyond Reason” is another highlight of the year for Black Metal: an extremely haunting and beautiful piece of work that should be recognized more than how it really is.