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Woewarden – In the Art of My Caged Existence

woewarden – in the art of my caged existence

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It never ceases to amaze me how some of the best bleakly atmospheric music can originate from a land of dust and scorching sunshine. Yet once again our Antipodean brethren have unleashed a new windswept saga packed to the brim with Depressive Black Metal overtones. I am of course talking about the debut full length offering from the lads for Woewarden, a side project of Deadspace amongst others and hailing from the remote Western Australian city of Perth. Entitled ‘In the Art of My Caged Existence’ and released on both CD and LP by Bitter Loss records, this is a passionate and stirring debut offering that offers a vast array of expansive atmospheric guitar leads, that are then tempered by darker rhythms and the anguished cries and shrieks from vocalist John Pescod, whose style really draws you into the agony and desolation of his lyrics which you won’t be surprised to learn focus on the more negative side of existence. (I particularly like the lyrics to opening track ‘Ravelled’ which lay out a need to drink in a deluge of rain to drown oneself and the world.)

Despite the vocal performance being weighted down by the colossal oppressive nature of their own depression, I found this album to have a respectively uplifting tone. In particular ‘The Name of Suffering’ has some powerfully surging guitar melodies and soaring undercurrents that adds a hint of levity to the overall sombre tone, whilst the drumming display from the man behind the kit, Herb Bennetts, is one of metronomic accuracy and power!

I think it is that juxtaposition between soul shredding angst from the vocals, and uplifting enthralling harmonies from the guitars that intrigues me the most, and as a result of that i found myself absorbed totally in this album right until the very end. Yet even without that duelling style, this is an album that is just crafted superbly and performed with great talent and experience, and the bottom line is, its just a damned good listen!