Watain - The Wild Hunt

Published August 30 2013

*=Staff's pick	Night Vision De Profundis Black Flames March* All That May Bleed The Child Must Die* They Rode On Sleepless Evil The Wild Hunt* Outlaw Ignem Veni Mittere Holocaust Dawn*

Genre	Black Metal	E	Vocals
Tracks	11	E	Guitar
Running time	62 Min.	P	Guitar
Label	Century Media	E	Bass
Release	14 August 2013	H	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboard
Producer	Tore Stjerna
Similar artists	Bathory, Dissection, Marduk

Watain, hailed by hipsters and black metal fans alike, yet scorned by puritans for pulling black metal out of the underground. Anyone into metal of the extreme is bound to have an opinion on the Swedish horde, be it sell-outs, saviours, geniuses or madmen. Despite the opinion no one can accuse the band for not sticking to their very course caring naught for the opinion of others. Yet, most were taken by surprise when the talk of the bands fifth album 'The Wild Hunt' spoke of such unorthodox components as ballads, duets and generally new musical elements.

Fear not though, 'The Wild Hunt' is fundamentally a solid slab of black metal in the vein of its two predecessors 'Sworn to the Dark' and 'Lawless Darkness'. The musical cornerstones is yet the primitive guitar lines of Bathory spiced with the medlodies of Dissection and one of the best voices in the genre.

Despite a rather cleaner production and a somewhat stripped and less raw approach, Swedish black metal remains the foundation of the Watain sound, make no mistake about that. The band has simply taken a step back and journeyed to their 80's black metal roots fusing those influences with their efforts from 'Lawless Darkness', thus rejuvenating themselves. The sense of a purpose found in the bands previous work is ever-present and 'The Wild Hunt' is in no sense less dark and ill-boding than their predecessors.

There are however the aforementioned debated/dreaded elements. The 'Chaos A.D.'-era Seultura/'Illud...'-era Morbid Angel rhythms opening and closing 'Outlaw' is sure to confuse the listener first time around. So are the Morricone-styled acoustic guitars closing 'Holocaust Dawn' and the title track. The latter is pure Bathory-worship in all its brilliance, but 'Hammerheart' rather than the expected 'Under the Sign...'-era. The heavy metal found in the bands Bathory-influences has always been present in their sound yet never as apparent as in 'The Child Must Die'. All of these elements form a crucial part of the bands rejuvenation yet they will still be fuel for the puritan's sellout-fire.

What will cause the fire to become an inferno though is 'They Rode On'. A 9-minute pure ballad featuring surprisingly good clean singing from Danielsson ending with a 30-seconds male/female-duet. There really is nothing black metal with this hauntingly beautiful song whatsoever yet it fits remarkably well on a black metal album, the reason being the true greatness of Watain: the song building. Forget for a second the catchy riffs, lines and passages. Forget the awesome vocals and the groovy rhythms. The true greatness of Watain is the ability to turn any idea, any riff or fill, into an integral part of a song.

What many a time prevents a black metal song to raise from mediocrity is the feeling that one listens to a bunch of ideas stacked together rather than a song. Watain mastery in building proper songs out of their ideas made them rise to stardom about a decade ago and it keeps the musical quirks on 'The Wild Hunt' stick together as a coherent album in a manner few others would have pulled off. It might take a few spins but the pieces will eventually fall into place to form an impressive puzzle (possibly ov flesh).

In the era of playlists and randomizers it is a bold move to make an album that is to be treated like an album rather than a gathering of songs for its true magnitude to be found and 'The Wild Hunt' is surely the most album-oriented Watain full-length to date. Instead of following the safe trails of 'Sworn to the Dark' one more time the band has steered away from the paths of self-repetition and monotony.

Even though this effort does not reach the same levels of excellence as 'Sworn to the Dark' and 'Lawless Darkness' and the new elements are sure to divide fans worldwide, it was a necessary long-term step giving food for thought on the bands future endeavours.