When it comes to Black Metal the UK is very fortunate in the quality and quantity of bands, and undeniably up there with the best of them is Manchester’s Wode.
Wode – Burn In Many Mirrors (20 Buck Spin)
Release Date: 2 April 2021
Words: Jools Green
Wode are back, four years after their previous album ‘Servants of the Countercosmos’, and are continuing to go from strength to strength with their third full length and best to date, ‘Burn In Many Mirrors’, with six new exhilarating tracks which span a ferocious forty minutes.
‘Burn In Many Mirrors’ is brutal, driving, dark and engaging, thanks to their trademark meld of the most ferocious aspects of 80’s Thrash with an element of Death Metal all blended together with a hearty measure of dark sinister and utterly engaging Black Metal.
Wode told MetalTalk: “We are just as excited about the new record now, as we were when writing it. ‘Burn in Many Mirrors’ is the best realisation to date of where we are coming from and marks a new chapter in our saga of chaos.” And understandably so, it makes an excellent listen.
Opening track ‘Lunar Madness’ ticks every box you might require. Powerful and driving as it opens, ramping up to a manic Thrash rich sound that also has its fair share of melodic elements, punctuated with acerbic blackened vocals that deliver with clear and sinister intent.
The pace varies in a convolutedly fascinating manner throughout. First track in and I am utterly won over. What follows does not disappoint either.
The sinister yet engaging riffs of ‘Serpent’s Coil’ sit alongside semi spoken vocals that are delivered with vitriol and a melody that weaves its way through …. like a serpent.
‘Fire In The Hills’ opens in a slow smoulderingly, sultry manner and when the pace picks up the mood shifts completely to a more sinister one. “Multiple voices” are used to deliver the lyrics with great effect and as the pace increases gradually across the track, the mood darkens and engulfs.
‘Sulphuric Glow’ opens with dark thrashy intent that drives brutally, punctuated with expressively vitriolic vocals and has a melodic undercurrent that adds a surprising extra texture to an already engaging work. ‘Vanish Beneath’ takes things to a sinister downturn initially, rising up gradually with driving blackened intent. It is insidious, but so magnificently engaging, the lyrics delivered with bile and punch and be prepared to brace yourself for the second half maniacal thrash-fest.
The final monster, the nine-minute multifaceted ‘Streams Of Rapture (I, II, III)’ is a tale of three melded parts. It takes you on an winding journey. Opening like an ominous sound track for a late night mystery thriller, it is filled with atmosphere and intrigue, merging into a dark thrashy assault on your senses, with ominous leadwork punching through. This is a track that is as complexly convoluted, as it is darkly intriguing, forging onward like an unrelenting beast.
It takes a final dark sinister downturn in the third segment, with darkly vitriolic vocals and cleverly understated leadwork.
The graphically unnerving, but very intriguing artwork for ‘Burn In Many Mirrors’ is by Santiago Caruso (Stargazer).
This is an album which will have huge appeal to fans of bands such as Sacramentum, Dissection, Watain, Uada, Absu or Necrophobic.
