Band's List Black Metal Woe Withdrawal

Woe play a very American style of Black Metal, instant comparisons can be drawn to the likes of Krallice, Liturgy, Weakling and Wolves in the Throne Room, taking the best and most iconic elements of USBM Woe have created something head and shoulders above most black metal being released and have created a strong contender for one of the best black metal albums of the new millennia.

Withdrawal is an excellent album; it perfectly mixes brutality and melody whilst also retaining a powerfully dark and primal atmosphere. Withdrawal is a very diverse album, pooling in influences from all over the black metal spectrum from popular American bands to the grim Norwegian forefathers. In all actuality, the most apt comparison to be made would be San Francisco’s Weakling, both of these bands specialize in creating sonically diverse black metal, yet whereas Weakling were infamous for stretching their songs out a lot longer than needs be, Woe are able to keep the song lengths at a suitable duration, ensuring that Withdrawal remains interesting and exciting throughout. Unlike Dead As Dreams, nothing about Withdrawal feels overdone, stretched out and bloated, everything is kept succinct and concise, nothing feels out of place and incongruous as everything comes together perfectly to create a well-structured and cohesive album of phenomenal black metal.

Unfortunately, the American black metal scene has been scrutinized left, right and centre, it has been criticised for producing bands that can’t hold a candle to the likes of the Norwegian scene, American black metal has unfortunately garnered a reputation as being a cheap knock off the European black metal scene. This couldn’t be further from the truth, all scenes have their bad and good bands and I think it’s unfair to dismiss the American black metal scene entirely, it has over the years produced some excellent bands ranging from Agalloch, Alda, Deafheaven, Krallice and Wolves in the Throne Room.

The sound on Withdrawal is excellent and diverse, with the most obvious comparison being Weakling’s infamous Dead As Dreams, Withdrawal is an atmospherically bleak and brooding piece of music. The atmosphere is excellent, being very cold, dark and primal, it complements the music brilliantly. The atmosphere would mean nothing is the music was lacklustre, but Woe have created a very interesting and phenomenal album in the form of Withdrawal, there are elements of raw primal brutality, to a more reserved melancholic melody. There’s no shortage of astounding and compelling moments on Withdrawal, this album showcases all the best elements of the American scene ranging from the brutality of Weakling to the more hypnotic atmospheric deliveries of the Cascadian black metal movement.

Withdrawal is pure guitar based black metal, there are no female vocals, symphonic arrangements or anything of the sort, this is the way black metal was intended to sound, raw, uncompromising and hateful. Although black metal can be have said to have lost some of its bite with bands constantly moving into calmer and more atmospheric tendencies, Woe have remained faithful to the original black metal formula. Sure, there are moments of melodic beauty in Withdrawal, but the melodies never detract from the albums overall atmosphere, there is enough bite and venom to create a brutal and primal atmosphere.

What I most admire about Woe is their ability to remain the classical black metal atmosphere whilst piling unconventional elements into their sound, some bands in an attempt to be forward thinking lose that special black metal edge, Woe on the other hand have kept it. The melodies never feel incongruous in the context of the music; everything feels cohesive and well structured, possibly the best example of their ability to mix high levels of melody with brutal black metal is the second track “Carried by Waves to Remorseless Shores of the Truth” which successfully melds elements of melodic beauty with harsh walls of sound. The juxtaposition between melody and brutality is reminiscent of the excellent Polish band Mgla, who like Woe can create excellent slabs of aggressive and melodic black metal. “All Bridges Burned” opens up with an excellent and emotional acoustic riff and then erupts into a furious display of emotionally charged black metal.

Withdrawal is an excellent album and I cannot recommend this enough, it’s probably the best album I’ve heard released this year and one of the best black metal albums of the 2000’s. Withdrawal is an album that is successful in capturing many different feelings and emotions and augmenting them together to create a phenomenal display of emotionally charged black metal. Every element of Withdrawal works perfectly together, from the depraved shrieking, to the melodies to the raw black metal fury, Withdrawal is an album of many colours and quite possibly the single best USBM album of all time. This is essential.