02/01/2017 12:48
Slechtvalk – Where Wandering Shadows And Mists Collide
A big black metal name from The Netherlands. Known all around the country, Slechtvalk produces melodic black metal. It has been 6 years since Slechtvalk released anything so this must be a blast to listen to!
The new full length ‘Where Wandering Shadows And Mists Collide’ is released by Slechtvalk themselves which is pretty awesome. So, the album contains 10 songs and the duration of the record is around 55 minutes. A perfect length for a full-length record.
To be honest, it has been a while since I’ve listened to Slechtvalk. I guess this is the perfect opportunity to do this. As usual I look at the artwork. In this case, Slechtvalk has done an amazing job on choosing artwork for ‘Where Wandering Shadows And Mists Collide’.
As I said, it has been a while. But let’s get started. No subtle start like most of melodic black metal albums go with a symphonic orchestra intro to start off. Not on Slechtvalk watch. The keep the black metal black on the opener ‘We Are’.
‘Asternas’ is where the term melodic black metal comes to mind. ‘We Are’ was a little bit more melodic death metal orientated but ‘Asternas’ gives us a very good combination of melodic metal and black metal. The third song on ‘Where Wandering Shadows And Mists Collide’ is ‘Betrayal’. The song is more death metal orientated but gets mixed up a lot with black metal. No melodic parts expect for some well executed bits and pieces with epic clean vocal bits.
‘March To Ruins’. The whole song actually reminds me a lot of the style that Falkenbach uses in their music. Underrated but certainly not bad in anyway. An unique style with distant clear vocals gives ‘March To Ruins’ an epic black metal feeling. ‘Nemesis’. A small piano intro to let the mayhem loose. That’s what Slechtvalk wanted and that’s what Slechtvalk did. Full on blasting black metal song. The grooves are really noticeable during the verses and give you a great opportunity to give those neck muscles a good bashing. In the second part of the song, the death metal kicks in. The grooves are tuning headbangable and the combination with excellent drum-work gives ‘Nemesis’ a great vibe.
‘Rise Or Fall’. A pure death metal song. The style which suits Slechtvalk the least. It has some black metal bits but death metal takes the most part of this song. Not my favourite because it is more of a melodic death metal song and that’s the style that I like the least. ‘The Shrouded Grief’ could’ve been a Dimmu Borgir song. The style is pretty much the same as Dimmu Borgir’s later area. The backing-vocals are getting more and more atmospheric throughout the whole song.
‘Malagh Defiled’. What an awesome song this is. Every element that Slechtvalk has, has been put into ‘Malagh Defiled’. The first bit of the song really reminds me of newer stuff of Dimmu Borgir. Slechtvalk does not copy Dimmu Borgir but they have drawn some great elements out of it. The last part of the song reminds me of some parts of Falkenbach songs. Good combination of their own style and elements of Dimmu Borgir and Falkenbach. ‘Wandering Shadows’. If my atmospheric black metal side needs to be satisfied, this is the song for it. The almost 9-minute song is an epic journey. Very well composed song with some great clean parts in it which do not let the vibe of the song escape. It is however a black swan in the other songs on ‘Where Wandering Shadows And Mists Collide’ but that does not matter. Slechtvalk can pull it off. ‘Homebound’. The last song on the album. It does feel like an ender type of song. The more headbang-able riffs are very noticeable during the first half of the song. A solid ender type of song to an amazing album!
End verdict is going to be a 9 out 10. A very good return from Slechtvalk and it shows that they haven’t lost their appetite for new and amazing black metal. I hope they will return quickly for some new tunes.
Review by Bonno Zwaan