Richard HolmesWode – Wode (Broken Limbs)
Genre: Black Metal
This year’s announcement that North Eastern black metallers Wodensthrone were no more was a real blow to the UK’s BM scene, such was their unique talent. Yet thankfully, there’s enough new blood rising to the surface to take the edge of their passing, including Manchester’s Wode, who will do much to fill the void if their self-titled debut is anything to go by.
This record a bleak, at times punishing effort, that takes some of the best elements of the last decade of British black metal (the sweeping chord progressions, the dynamic approach to rhythm, a feeling of understated grandeur) and fuses them with the dark melodies of Sweden’s finest: Cloaked In Ruin is a fine example of this, a song that employs dramatic Scandi-melodies yet has its roots firmly in English soil.
There’s still some way to go for Wode to be competing with Winterfylleth for magazine covers, but there’s a real depth to the trio’s songcraft, and anyone whose world was changed by albums such as The Ghost Of Heritage or Loss will surely lap up the likes of Plagues of Insomnia and the stunning, ambitious Black Belief.
Interestingly, ‘Wode’ means ‘raging’ in Old English – and you would struggle to find a better way of describing this opus…
RUSHONROCK RATED: 7.5/10 Wode To The Wise