Last summer we had the great pleasure of premiering For the Good of the Realm, the second album by the Idaho-based black metal band Weald & Woe. Fiadh Productions, which released the album, summed it up as combining “the majesty of the medieval era with the ferocity of classic black metal inspired by Obsequiae, Véhémence, Darkenhöld, Immortal, Ensiferum and many others.” We provided our own preview, which included these words:
[T[he album as a whole, when experienced front to back, does seem like a mythic narrative. It includes episodes of dire conflict, driven by punishing drum-blasts, vicious thrashing riffage, and scorching, throat-ripping vocals, but the music also elevates into the magnificence of waving banners and steel shining in the sun, with dramatic synths unfurling above the host and solos that spiral upward and flicker like druid sorcery….
To be sure, the songs also create grim and grievous moods, and moments that might spawn visions of terrible mayhem or corpses strewn across ruined fields. But the overused yet still apt word “epic” keeps coming to mind, because there’s nothing remotely mundane about this music. It’s an elaborate and thoroughly ravishing pageant unfolding on a vast scale, in a time long lost to the ages.
Today we have an excellent occasion to revisit Weald & Woe as we premiere an exhilarating video for an equally exhilarating song named “Wings of Hate“. Continue reading »
