80%
The Howling Wind—Into the Cryosphere (2010)
Details
Recorded and mastered at the Thousand Caves by Colin Marston, February 2010, Queens, NY.
Band
- Ryan Lipynsky—Vocals, Guitars, Bass
- Tim Call—Drums
Tracks
- The seething wrath of a frigid soul
- Teeth of frost
- Obscured pyramid
- Ice cracking in the abyss
- Will is the only fire under an avalanche
- Impossible eternity
- A dead galaxy mirrored…
Review
Another week where I’m running hideously late. At 5 pm on Friday I start a three weeks’ vacation and in my wisdom I’ve packed too much into this week to compensate for 21 days of blissful rest. Anyway, enough with the excuses… and I’ll keep this short: it’s a school night.
The Howling Wind‘s album disappointingly doesn’t start with the sound of an actual howling wind. More a kind of traffic sound in an echo-y tunnel.
I’m sure I read somewhere that this was a black metal band. If that is so then they are surprisingly doomy. It reminds me quite a lot of early Paradise Lost. It has those big, fat, slow riffs. The songs chug away with a rather bass-heavy production which makes it difficult to listen to in the car but decent enough on my PC speakers.
There are some albums in this project, I’m sure I’ve said this before, that I find difficult to listen to—I have to force myself. This wasn’t one of them. I must have listened to this quite a few times over the last few weeks. I imagine I’ll listen to it again and not just on random play, it’s the kind of album I might go to look for.
Conclusion
A hastily written review that doesn’t do the album justice. Thankfully the music stands on its own merits.
Review score: 80%