Windhand - Soma (2013)^{Release ID: 7078}

I must admit, I was worried about this album when I first started listening to it. Something about it's extended runtime that was not helped at all by the inclusion of a thirty minute closer. But then as I reached the end, what I found myself appreciating was those final two tracks more so than the four shorter tracks that precede them. Don't get me wrong, "Orchard" and "Feral Bones" are quite good, and the acoustic "Evergreen" was a nice change of style, but they always felt like glorified interludes; stylistically they could have been reduced in size. But then again, I could say the same thing about the albums final two tracks, but that would take away from the hypnotic atmosphere that they contain. "Cassock" has nice simmer and dynamic growth, but "Boleskine" adds a hard song structure/form to adhere to. The very monotonous and hypnotic motif modulates through the first half of the track before finding a steady ground for it to fade out over an absurdly long timeframe. The production of the guitars can be hit or miss as they do clip the mix frequently, but the fuzziness of it all gives it the impression of a stoner metal album, and fuzzy distortion like this is not uncommon in stoner music. In fact, it usually bolsters the record.

I hear the pieces of a great album, but can truly only enjoy a record such as this from a distance. Stoner metal has never really been my thing, but structurally it is far more impressive than many other albums in this style. What holds it back is the Deadmau5 approach to songwriting of using sixteen bar phrases instead of eight. Windhand could have said the same amount in a shorter amount of time and it would have been great.

Best Songs: Orchard, Feral Bones, Evergreen, Boleskine

Soma is undeniably a superior recent doom release. The riffs are slab-heavy, perfectly complemented by Dorthia Cottrell's ethereal vocals. The whole album is excellent but, the final two tracks are the real stand-outs. The other-worldly feel to the vocals on track 5, Cassock, is added to by the addition, quite low down in the mix of, I think, electric violin (or an electronic reproduction of). The final, 30 minute, track Boleskine conjures up an image in it's extended fade-out of some huge Doom leviathan disappearing into the distance, it's titanic sound fading as it slowly grinds, glacier-like toward the horizon. If you love doom then you, most definitely, should check this album out.