Review: Woods of Desolation - Torn Beyond Reason

Artist: Woods of Desolation
Title: Torn Beyond Reason
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Northern Silence
Genre: Atmospheric/Melancholic Black Metal
Rating: 87 / 100

Most of the people who have been following that whole wave of Melancholic Black Metal bands since, let's say, 2006, probably must have noticed Australian band Austere. With their very typical guitar sound and tortured moans they gained quite a lot of attention, releasing two albums that were musically speaking far superior to most demo's and full-lengths being released in that genre. Unfortunately somewhere in spring 2010 they decided to quit Austere. Meanwhile there was this other Australian band called Woods of Desolation, for which Mitchell Keepin (one of the Austere members) already did some session vocals on their 2009 EP Sorh. Woods of Desolation creates Black Metal pretty much in the same fashion as Austere once did, so much even that after listening the first two tracks of Torn Beyond Reason I started wondering whether there weren't any Austere members involved. Well big surprise, it's Tim Yatras (the other Austere member) who is responsible for both the drumming and the vocals on this album (it also seems he did the production, but I will come back to that subject later).

For those who aren't familiar whith Austere's work I will try to explain what their, and Woods of Desolation's sound is all about. Something I already mentioned is their very typical guitar sound, it's not your average distorted Black Metal sound, but more some kind of droning melodic blur, in some cases accompanied by a synth mixed very much to the background. Tim Yatras' drum sound is almost as typical as the guitar on this album, he has a very own style of drumming, especially the fills really make it clear that it's Tim drumming on here and not somebody else. When everything is put together there is only one way to describe the sound with one word, and that's massive, it seems to cover each frequency; from a deep rumbly bass to the high-pitched moans that are used so often in this style of music.

In the introduction I already mentioned that I suspect Tim Yatras of doing the production of this album, or at least helping D. with his guitar set-up. This because the guitar sound on Torn Beyond Reason is just practically the same as the guitar sound on the last three Austere releases. Normally I wouldn't be charmed by something like that, but in this case I am; I have always adored Austere's guitar sound and thus I am very happy to hear it back on a Woods of Desolation release.

There is a very clear reason why I didn't put the word depressive in the genre section, normally bands like these are labeled as depressive or even suicidal. When I think about depressive music I think about Trist's Sneni or Perfume Genius' Mr. Peterson, the overall atmosphere on this album just wouldn't be justified by calling it depressive, I would say it lays somewhere between melancholia and nostalgia, two quite similar emotions that represent this album much better in my humble opinion. As a result, this album could with ease be described as beautiful, the blurry guitar layers, the melancholic type of melody and the desperate moans, when it all comes together it just sounds so damn fine.

Torn Beyond Reason is qualitatively speaking a terrific album, which deserves, and will probably gain, a lot of attention. Even 'though their huge, massive sound is very similar to Tim Yatras' previous project Austere, this album could be considered as a progression since Austere was disbanded, and will definitely be heard more often by my neighboors.

Spread some love, it will not spread itself,

Selwin.