vote
8.0
- Band:
In The Woods … - Duration: 00:46:46
- Available from: 11/04/2025
- Label:
-
Prophecy Productions
Streaming not yet available
With an now unpredictable blow of the tail, a class coup, blow of something else – call it as you want! -In the Woods … surprise their best album from the 2014 reunion to today, truly an almost unexpected event after the constant qualitative drop in inspiration and serious interest in their career that had distinguished the most recent post-union years so far. Not that the Norwegian band has ever written total ugliness, but it is undeniable that the Avantgardi glories of the nineties had already disappeared at the time of “Pure” (2016), when at least at least the Botteri twins were of the game; With the subsequent “Cease The Day” (2018) and “diversum” (2022) the group had grown again between the predominant nature of James Fogarty to steal the scene and a new, third line-up revolution that had made the penultimate work a mere exercise of style, albeit impossible to reject.
Today, although we started with a strong affirmation at the beginning of the review, you don't have to expect a disc in any case 'Back to the Roots' Towards their usual 'ninety' masterpieces to be mentioned, or “Heart of the Ages” (1995) and “Omnio” (1997), dark prototypes of the avant-Black of the beginning; but you will find ourselves admiring, with the due dose of humility and low expectations, a compound disc, written and designed with a decisive and illuminated inspiration, which led the in the Woods … to set up a compact settto of songs simply beautiful as such.
Very few elements out of place, in these three quarters of an hour of progressive and more or less extreme metal: a non -exaggerated minutage, an order of traces well studied and perfect and, ultimately, a group in more than good form which, compactly around Anders Kobro (drums), Kåre André Sletteberg (first guitar and keyboards) and Bernnt Sørensen (second guitar), has. Extract from the cylinder seven well -kept, captivating and never banal compositions, taken by the hand and raised by the excellent Bernt Fjellestad to the voice and the punctual contribution of Nils Olav Drivel to the bass.
The style that propose the in the Woods … in this “otra” – by the way, the title is the name of the river that flows in Norway for two hundred and fifty -five kilometers towards Kristiansand, before leading to the Skagerrak, the strait that separates Norway from Denmark, precisely from the ports of the town of origin of the band – does not change almost anything of that proposed by “Pure”. Of a progressive metal of extreme mold but with multiple spatiant influences from Doom to Gothic, from Black to Melodic Death Metal, to touch only in part that strong experimentation that ours had handled with courage and dexterity at the dawn of their career.
Despite this' nothing 'to change' from “diversum” to “Otra”, starting from the lively and carrier baptism of Kobro to the impressive vocal variety of Fjellestad, it is perceived from the first listening to a different tension along the tracks, a positive sense of the overall, the exceptional taste for the arrangements and, last but not least, an effectiveness in the composition never thus alive and present. We repeat it, “Otra” is a record that, unlike the last three, manages to take root faster and longer in the user's mind, making his listening a rewarding experience.
The traces, how are they then? Corpose, even lengths, but capable of never tired and flowing with a natural dynamism and organicity, oscillating among their various parts without apparent efforts, risky cuts and sewing or hateful copy/paste: zero filler, all pleasant components, with a couple of real masterpieces answering the names of “The Kiss and the Lie”, the best song out of the name in the Woods … 1997 to today (just listen to the first ninety seconds to stay speechless), and “A Misrepresentation of I”, from the Catchy Inadere and with a enthralling groove, very melodic and epic quality death metal; Then there are “The Crimson Crown” and “Come Ye Sinners”, the somewhat more sustained traces of the lot, accompanied by always spot on keyboards, by the lower button and a series of precautions that slowly discover, during the continuation of the listening, all the hidden magic of these skilled musicians.
Fjellestad carousel between Growl, various clean stamps and a few episodes in Scream with disarming looseness, making some references to Amorphis and Shores of Null, while the alchemy between the rhythmic of Sørensen, the Sletteberg's solos and the arpeggios of both is phenomenal, leaving in the rear the fundamental driver engine composed of the Driving torque.
In short, a formation that, although already consolidated, seems to have managed to find new lymph and new resources from one's own finding yourself well together, as if it had rolled the understanding and sharpened their weapons to dot, until you get a refined job, tanned and 'bright' with absolute skill. We admit that we were amazed immediately – but you will have understood it by the tone of the review – for the freshness and validity of these compositions, and who cares if the nostalgia towards “omnio” is still here around the corner.
These in The Woods … reconciles with most of their past, despite having little to do. We hope they continue with such (upper) quality. Applause!
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
