IN THE WOODS
“CEASE THE DAY”
Album Review by Gavin Brown

8/10

In The Woods have always combined their doom laden style of black metal with elements of psychedelic and a more avant-garde nature and on their latest opus Cease The Day, this has become even more evident than ever. The Norwegian band have also always followed their own path musically and stylistically and following in the footsteps of their last album Pure from 2016, they seem to be going in an even more progressive way than they have done in the past. In The Woods famously have covered bands like King Crimson and Pink Floyd in the past, and those bands influences are strongly felt more than ever on this album with the tracks gaining more traction as they expand throughout the duration.

Songs like sprawling opening number Empty Streets, the epic Substance Vortex and Still Yearning are vast and complex tracks that not only evoke progressive rock memories but combined with all the different elements of the In The Woods sound, elevate them into songs that sound particularly epic and special and even though the album takes in so many twists and turns, the underlying vibe is that it does sound epic, just listen to the grandeur of Strike Up With Dawn for proof.

The black metal elements are still there of course, and Cease The Day brings the heaviness to the fore frequently with some crucial death metal elements in there as well but it is combined with those psychedelic and avant-garde progressive passages and that is what makes In The Woods and this album quite unique.

The band have undergone some lineup changes since Pure but this hasn’t stopped the bands momentum since they reformed in 2014 and the band, as a unit, sound stronger than ever with some huge ideas executed superbly, with the bands founder, drummer and longest serving member Anders Kobro putting in a devastating percussive performance alongside frontman James Fogarty, who definitely proves himself as a formidable frontman and vocal presence on this album.

It seems like the sound that they conceived on Pure, and have done since their beginnings as a band is certainly fully formed on Cease The Day. The cover art to the album seems hugely significant as well, the stag that graces the cover stands as triumphant as the songs on this album do as well.

If you like your metal huge sounding (and even though it sounds more polished than raw, it is this that makes it sound so huge) and hugely expansive then Cease The Day is an album that you will not want to miss as it is an extremely vast and rewarding listen with an a chameleonic approach to different sounds and influences.

TRACKLIST

1- Empty Streets
2- Substance Vortex
3- Respect My Solitude
4- Cloud Seeder
5- Still Yearning
6- Strike Up With The Dawn
7- Transcending Yesterdays
8- Cease The Day

https://inthewoods-no.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/inthewoodsomnio/

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