Ancient Vvisdom

A Godlike Inferno

Written by: PP on 07/11/2011 05:36:50

Ancient Vvisdom have certainly chosen an unfortunate name for the band and an even worse album title, at least if they are aiming to attract curious souls from outside the black/death metal genres. Looking at them both namely draws ones mind towards those two genres instead of the acoustically driven 'neo-folkore' dubbed as 'death rock' that the eight tracks of "A Godlike Inferno" is crafted from. Basically, dual acoustic guitars dominate the soundscape together with some weird tribal drumming, occasional distorted guitar, and gloomy male vocals that have a taint of goth attached to them.

It's a strange release coming from a band featuring two members of hardcore crew Integrity. You just wouldn't expect them to utilize bowed stand-up bass, bamboo percussion and that sort of thing, let alone release a record that for all intents and purposes can be judged like a folk rock record. It's the sort of album that has a warm campfire-like feeling throughout, albeit surrounded with an echoing big soundscape, which is artificially made to sound bigger than it actually is by pushing the vocals to the background and letting the percussion to bombastically float around the atmosphere. Those are the two key elements to "A Godlike Inferno": experimental percussion that's different from almost any band you'll have heard in the past, and down-to-earth acoustic guitars creating the soft contrast.

Then the question that needs to be asked is: well, how good is it? The gentle progression of "The Opposition" suggests it's very good alongside the catchy and nicely melodic "Forever Tonight", but overall Ancient Vvisdom sound a little too strange for my liking. It's an interesting experiment, sure, but that's also all it is.

Download: The Opposition, Forever tonight
For the fans of: Weh, 'death rock', gothic folk
Listen: Myspace

Release date 12.09.2011
Shinebox Recordings

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