From distant Russia sometimes we receive some interesting proposals. That’s a fact. Their cold heritage is always a feeling that some bands are able to transport to music. But, taking this into consideration, when listening for the first time to GREY HEAVEN FALL’s second full length we got astonished by the complexity of their somber passages. “Black Wisdom” was released last year through Aestetics of Devastation and represents a real blast that must not be hidden from you missionaries of the Black Death.
It’s not that usual raw or pagan black metal effort that we usually expect coming from that point of the globe. Instead we get a full of weight first track, with no Intro, as if the band was warning us for the punch that the following 45 minutes are going to be. We get sounds from the “French School”, as well as its derivation to the new Icelandic current. The voice is guttural, approaching some obscure death metal surroundings. There’s even some Inferno’s alike ethereal melodies towards the end of the first track. But if at the end of “The Lord is Blissful in Grief” you may feel still wondering about the right feelings, the following songs will surely eliminate your every doubt. Fast, strong and scary guitar grooves open the way for the threatening balance of violent black metal that comes next.
As the voice seems to go deeper you’ll find the first minute of relief, when the acute guitar solos paint in traditional doom the ceilings of “Spirit of Oppression”, before drifting to shoegaze unexpected territories. Moments of grief and despair that will make you stay for listening to the rest. Starting with the epic “To the Doomed Sons of Earth”, the catchiest of the whole album. Fast yet hectically balanced, the epic guitar melodies will lift your mind to darker locations, always suffering in a black awe. Keeping the variety of rythms, the Russians enter the field where the guitar melodies take the lead role to create an ambience of carnal delusion.
The second part of “Black Wisdom” starts by returning to more frightening territories, pushing both the vocals and the overtones. Maybe the end of “Tranquility of the Possessed” is too close to DSO, but its construction shows also a philosophical essay that tends to reveal what seems to be the essence of this effort. The impressive variety of rhythms will go till the end, where the burial of God is finalized.
Albeit the artwork is not that impressive, the lyrics are quite intricate, and this album represents one of 2015’s bigger revelations, alongside Serpents Lair. It would have entered last year’s top albums if we’d know it in time.
Enough writing. Go and listen to it. Right below.
8,5/10
