Woes are a band that took me completely by surprise. Very few artists I’ve come across have been able to craft such a strong debut. Valley of Desolation, Woes’ first release, pools its influences from everything from Darkthrone to GISM. The sinister vibe of classic black metal coexists abrasively and peacefully with the savage apathy characteristic of D-beat. Woes’ combination of outright presence and gloomy atmosphere play with little clunk over the demo’s six tracks.
The intro plays with woodland ambiance and Gregorian chants while iced riffs cut through it, a doom-paced snare underlying it all before the vocals set the pace into an ever-ascendant fury. “Blasphemous Runes” rides into battle on guitars straight from Blashyrkh that take a slimy punk turn, exchanging gauntleted blow with anarchic fist at a sweat-less pace. “Runes” descends into the obscenely bleak “Stone Knife,” an atmospheric middle-track that matches its Norwegian ferocity with glacial pacing. The deep winter blast that consumes the song at its midsections comes gusting with unsettling murk, becoming a maddening dirge by song’s end.
The record’s room for speed is tested with fourth track, “Fucking End it All.” The drums maintain an appreciatively chaotic rhythm, affording the song identity among its frequent style-turning. An energetic, acrobatic track, “Fucking End it All” reaches its endpoint on a less darker note than the preceding tracks, affording itself not only breathing room but lending eclecticism to the overall sound of Valley of Desolation. “Darkness Falls” is the record’s weakest point. At times an incomprehensible wall of shriek and shrill, the song maintains the demo’s tone well but ejects the listener from any previous entrancement. The final, title track exists as a showcase for all that Woes can do. Aside from lightly continuing the utter noise that made “Darkness Falls” somewhat disenchanting, “Valley of Desolation” meanders its way through a maze of echoed screeches, low-fi climaxes, laborious sludge and cold, calculating black metal before exiting to the sound of hollow, lonely winds.
Woes is a band with much promise. Debut Valley of Desolation says much and more of what this band is capable of and I look forward to whatever malevolence may come.
Valley of Desolation can be heard in its entirety at Woes’ Bandcamp. Also check them out on Facebook.
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