Here at Heavy Blog, we try to bring a highly varied set of content to our readers on a daily basis. One thing we really pride ourselves on is how diverse the tastes of both our staff and constituents are, both on the metal spectrum and outside of it. Because of this, there’s nothing we love more than the opportunity to present something new and fresh to you, and that’s exactly what we have here today: an exclusive track from blackened doom band Windfaerer, to tickle your fancies with their energetic and melodic brand of mayhem.
Upon hearing “Finisterra”, the first thing one notices is Windfaerer’s fantastic command of atmosphere. The track starts off at a brooding crawl, allowing the listener to soak in the song’s lush sound and ambiance, then quickly speeds up into a powerful and soaring ride through a melodic odyssey. The band’s unique approach to blackened doom, allowing the listener to soak in the atmospheric side instead of bludgeoning them with riffs on riffs on riffs, works wonders to instantly set this band apart from their peers. The drums crash rhythmically like waves pummeling a cliff, and the vocals are deep, drawn-out, and gloomy. The guitars work wonders in both their melodic riffing and atmospheric tremolos, creating a duality wherein both sides of this dichotomy strengthen each other instead of tearing the music into two incongruous sections at the seams.
It’s impossible to listen to this and not think of this group’s contemporaries in Ne Obliviscaris. Their sounds, especially that of NeO’s first album, Portal of I, sync up pretty closely in their love of violins and arpeggiated, atmospheric chords. It’s not unfair to either band to label them as the two sides of a coin; although Windfaerer is decidedly more doomy to Ne Obliviscaris’s love of progressive death metal, they both use the same tools within the black metal spectrum to bring a new dimension to their other genres of choice.
“Finisterra” is a ride across a wooded landscape in the middle of the night. Lush, dense, and epic, while simultaneously desolate and empty at times, it’s a song that sets up an incredibly high standard for Windfaerer’s upcoming album, Tenebrosum. That album drops on September 22nd. Get ready.
-SH