Wildernessking | website | facebook | twitter | bandcamp |
Released on January 29, 2016 via Sick Man Getting Sick Records">Sick Man Getting Sick Records
2015 was a year that gave my ears many great memorable albums to listen to. Thank goodness, the first album that blasted out of my headphones in 2016 keeps the momentum going strong. Wildernessking is a Cape Town, South African black metal band, and their second full-length album is soon to be released on Sick Man Getting Sick Records. Formed in 2011, the band consists of Dylan Viljoen (guitar), Jason Jardim (drums), Jesse Navarre Vos (guitar) and Keenan Nathan Oakes (bass, vocals).
Now I must admit, I didn’t grow up listening to black metal as a kid. It just wasn’t available in my small hometown of Portland, Michigan. Even when I went to buy my music at the record store at the mall, I couldn’t find any black metal bands. But I would look through all the metal magazines at the book store and see all of the bands that wore corpse paint and I would read about the Norwegian church burnings, satanic themes and the stories of murder and suicide. I did eventually move out of Portland and was able to discover black metal. Along the way I discovered my favorite style of black metal, atmospheric black metal. When I did listen to Mystical Future, it took me back to living out in the country at my parents’ house were it can be so peaceful and at times dangerous.
The slower tempo controlled guitar riffs by Viljoen and Vos on the first track, ‘White Horse’, remind me of trudging through the deep snowy woods of Michigan. All seems peaceful until Oakes’s shrieking vocals hits you like old man winter, a chill that runs down your spine. Midway through song, the tempo picks up and the peaceful walk turns into a swirling snow storm in which you realize you have to turn back and seek cover right away.
In ‘I Will Go To Your Tomb’, the pace picks up with powerful galloping guitar riffs along with Jardim’s double bass drum and crashing cymbals. Midway through, there is a transition to folk metal and spacey guitar riffs and the finale features Jardim ratcheting up the pace on his double bass. The vision I had in my mind’s eye was of a bird of prey flying through the forest, hunting for his next meal.
We come to my favorite song on the album. ‘To Transcend’ is an atmospheric, instrumental track done perfectly. I loved sitting in my chair with my headphones on and my eyes closed, letting this beautiful track wash over me. From Oakes’s heavy bass lines to Jardim’s soothing long cymbal crashes to the ever so haunting wind-like vocals in the background and finally the tranquil riffs that drive the song, I could listen to this song 100 times in a row and not tire of it.
After the tranquil experience of the last track, ‘With Arms like Wands’ will definitely wake you up with scorching guitar riffs. Oakes’s vocals first remind you of high-pitched fingernails that slowly go down a chalkboard and then over the course of the track transitions to a hideous creature screaming from a deep dark sewer.
The last track, ‘If You Leave’, is a 13 minute journey in which the band shows it skill at easily manipulating your emotions. I fell in love with the clashing of the serene female vocals at the beginning and the turbulent vocals later on. The same can be said about the instrumentals, which reminded me of a slowly building rain storm. Harmless and enjoyable when the light rain pitter-patters on the windows, scary and fearful when the storm reaches a destructive pitch and the high winds tear off roof shingles.
Overall, although I know it’s only January, Wildernessking has set the bar very high for any other black atmospheric albums I will listen to for the rest of this year. I want to thank Wildernessking for an unforgettable album and for starting 2016 with a big smile on my face.
