Withered Land “Hall of The Dead”
There are very few one-person black metal bands that are truly delivering talented musicianship, grand scale in production and sound, and an image that is truly their own. Withered Land is a project that is doing all of those and then some. On their 2021’s debut The Endless Journey, the project showed potential and an intrigue on where the project would be going on it’s follow-up. On the band’s new album, Hall of The Dead, the band’s frontwoman Olga Kann, took the lessons learned from the debut and cranked the scale to eleven on the new album. Pushing creative ideas, folk and ambient influences, all through a sea of blast beats and shrieking. And what a huge journey did she embark with Withered Land’s new album.
“Through The Winterhold’s Blizzard” opens the album with howling wolves and rising distorted guitar strums. Before Olga Kann’s nasty, snarling vocals come rising from the depths as drums come in, bringing a dirge-esque pacing to the track. Then, the gas pedal gets stomped and the song turns into a second wave black metal track akin to early Darkthrone. Drums come thundering and aggressive after wolves howl to the skies above. Blasphemic in nature and delivery, capturing the frost, cold and frigid aesthetic acts like Immortal capture in their version of black metal. Guitar playing is aggressive and shifts between first and second wave black metal, with moments of melodic at times that get accented by the atmosphere. SO much happens in composition, production layering and sheer intensity in this almost five-and-a-half minute opener.
Dungeon synth-era keys open “Dark Pale Winter”. A driving, war-like drum beneath shifts into sheer unmitigated distorted guitars and Olga’s snarling vocals add that croak, phlegmy sound I love in black metal. The sweeping strings over the blast beats in-between verses hits hard, before adding to a militaristic drum roll and spoken word piece. Orchestration really gets showcases on the track as the strings add such a foreboding and evil tone to the chorus and the overall vibe of the track. The acoustic instrumentation near the halfway mark, with the haunting vocals, add a creepy, storytelling-esque nightmare presence to the song’s aura. Creating fear, dread and the feeling of an otherworldly entity as the dungeon-synths brings it back to sheer black metal intensity. I adored the guitar solo, into soaring leads and another ominous, ritualistic spoken word piece. As the song sprints to the finish line with one more burst of sheer unholy terror and cinematic strings beneath.
We get a break from the brutality with the dungeon-synth inspired instrumental piece “In The Restless Depths of Ustengrav”. Mimicking acts like early Mortiis and late stage Burzum. Brass pierces through the somber, melancholic keys as the strings begin to slow rise from the depths of darkness. Giving the listener the imagination to picture images of war, death, desolation, darkness and whatever the listener can imagine in their brain. Before ending with a thundering, but somehow tame piano wrapping the piece up in a nice bow.
“Revenge of The Fallen” comes in heavy with war-drum like percussion and anthem-esque guitar strums and palm-muted chugs. Double bass is commanding and forceful in the mix. Strings try to pierce through the tom hits, along with Olga’s growls, but the sheer vastness of the production adds so much to the audio delivery of the song. With piano, piercing guitars and thundering drums, the song just goes for unholy terror and a sonic attack. Olga’s shrieks almost get buried in the mix on some moments, but still fits the tone and sheer-unmitigated impact of the song’s composition. The song leans more into the melodic black metal sound and works so well with the sheer grandeur and scale that Withered Land is going for. Bombastic in its intent, it is just one unrelenting beast of a track that doesn’t seem to let up.
Ethereal vocals and plucking starts off “All Dead, All Rotten”. Vocals are more visceral, unhinged and abrasive. The pounding drums brings the song a slower, broodier delivery. Showing that you can still be heavy by not going fast and building tension and dynamic musical tone with the way you play around with timing and pacing. Olga just shreds her throat with her performance on the track. Mixing snarling, phlegmy screeching to almost deep growls that sound like a battle of the unholy within her throughout the song. Intensified by the strings over the tremolo guitars.
“Draugrs of The Dead Man’s Respite” is another instrumental that instantly draws from the roots of dungeon-synth and atmospheric ambience. More restrained and simpler compared to the previous instrumental, until the halfway mark and then all hell breaks loose. Guitars and drums come thundering in and delivering a quick, burst of thrash as the strings come slowly trying to break the power of the drums and guitar. Before the song comes back to a dark and ominous ease of brass, drums and gentle piano.
The album closes with the title track. I loved the opening strings and piano combo. Very hopeful, optimistic and the addition of clean singing vocals adds an angelic essence. Guitar come in before the heaven’s fall and demonic shrieking and double bass take over. I was banging my head along with the guitars as the power of the drums and speed of the tremolo guitars just hits everything on the way down from the heavens. Brutal, punishing, and just going for the throat, the band just constantly beats the listener’s ears to death with just sheer heaviness and darkness.
Hall of The Dead is a huge step-up from the debut and is truly epic in it’s scale. The combination of so many different genres of black metal and the roots of dungeon-synth and symphonic elements, will also have a little bit of everything for any black metal fan. The production does have moments of the “loudness wars”, which can take away some of the effect of the musicianship like the vocals or strings, but it was still a titan of a record and definitely spun it again after I finished it. For a second album, this hit like a ton of bricks from sheer power and brutality from the album opener to closer. I can’t wait to hear where the band goes for their third album and how much grandeur they can go.
SCORE: 4 / 5
You can purchase Hall of The Dead on Withered Land’s Bandcamp or stream it on the band’s Spotify when it’s released September 19th. Check out our interview we did with Olga Kann about Withered Land, as well as her many side projects.
