Days have slowly been getting shorter, mornings have been getting colder and I’ve been pressing the snooze button on my alarm far more than I should; winter is coming. It’s appropriate that folk black metal band Ifing’s debut album, Against This Weald, is being released during our autumn’s slow journey into winter: it is a cold, moody album but not without certain warmth, much like a campfire ablaze in the bleak of night.
This contrast of hot and cold is representative of this album of dualities. In “The Stream”, folksy grandeur of Opeth-esque acoustic chord progressions are paired against black metal drumbeats and tremolo picked riffs. Even at some of the album’s most serene moments there is an ever present, almost unnerving, ugliness created by distorted fuzzy guitars. They seem content to bide their time, while acting as an omen of the menace to come.
The sorrowful synths of opener “The Sires Beyond Await” give it the majesty of a film score. While completely devoid of vocals, guitars and drums, it perfectly sets the tone for the rest of Against This Weald. As the synths fade away into the sound of rustling wind, “The Stream” begins in full force with an assault of blast-beats and raging guitars. The intensity of the guitar briefly tapers off, leaving room for a haunting melody and resonant acoustic guitar while the drums pummel on. This dense layering is typical of Against This Weald, with two or three guitars, bass, drums, vocals and multiple sets of synths often at play. Despite this, the album never feels cluttered.
The choir-like vocals featured in “Realms Forged” are a definite highlight, providing a strong contrast to the tremolo picked guitar line and unrelenting drums they are paired with. This is definitely one of the moments that demonstrate the duality I love in Against This Weald.
“The Stream” and “Realms Forged”, are both incredibly evocative pieces, swirling between moods suggesting everything from a Viking funeral to a dance party at Tom Bombadil’s. Ifing are constantly able to create and shift between moods without losing cohesion.
Traditional black metal elements such as thundering blast-beats and blistering guitar are typically given less prominence in the mix, leaving plenty of room for the rest of the composition to breathe. While some of the black metal venom has been drained from Against This Weald, the rough edges haven’t been sanded away. What’s left is a form of black metal that even your mother would enjoy.
Well, maybe not.
While accessible and memorable, Against This Weald certainly isn’t a pick-up and listen record. Epic song lengths aside, it is an album that requires, indeed commands, your full attention. Fortunately, the constant variation in dynamic, feel and tone makes it easy to be enthralled by Ifing’s shape-shifting compositions. The album’s song lengths may seem daunting, with the two main tracks at 13 and 18 minutes respectively, but they are filled with plenty of infectious hooks and with a run time of just over 35 minutes, it doesn’t exhaust the listener. I certainly would have enjoyed at least another track.
Against This Weald is a phenomenal album you can come back to again and again, and is one of the musical highlights of the year so far – contemplative, evocative, moody and melancholic , all things good folk black metal should be. The album paints vivid landscapes and transports the listener to a mythic land of fire and ice.
Against This Weald is available from label Blood Music’s Bandcamp – http://blood-music.bandcamp.com/album/against-this-weald
Review copy of Against This Weald was supplied courtesy of Blood Music
