EP REVIEW: The Humming Mountain – Gaahls WYRD
Patience is a virtue. We know that much to be true. Whether you heard it from your parents, discovered it through the 14th Century William Langland poem that spawned it, or encountered it as one of the most common clichés in modern media, you’ll be aware of the concept. The Humming Mountain is a mini-album from Norwegian esoteric dark metal outfit GAAHLS WYRD that is all about patience. The lyrical theme is one of universal patience and the intrinsic slowness of life and creation. Even the creative process for these five tracks required patience on the part of the band: originally written for their 2019 debut album GastiR – Ghosts Invited they were shelved, but have ultimately been been dusted off and given a new lease on life.
Patience also seems to be the name of the game on opening track The Seed. The longest song on this mini-album, clocking in at nine minutes and nine seconds, it’s a slow-burning introduction designed to set the listener up for the following 30-minute total runtime. Instead, it wears thin around the three-minute mark and you’re left clock watching.
The title track provides a solid slab of blackened sludge to get the record started properly, but even in under five minutes it starts to feel threadbare. While the vocals seem as if they’re understated-by-design, they just fall away into the mix and add very little, if anything. Meanwhile there is nary a hint of variation in the riff that underpins the entirety of the track; in some instances it may have a trance-like effect, but here it feels lacklustre and too repetitive.
The Dwell provides a well-needed kick and blasts into a thrashy riff before splitting off into your more typical black metal arrangement. Vocal performance is at a high on this track, with multi-layered, ethereal additions laced throughout the second half giving The Humming Mountain its fullest sound yet. As well as this, the performance of guitarist Lust Kilman includes a short but face-melting solo that elevates this track to new heights.
The real highlight however lies with Awakening Remains – Before Leaving. A sprawling, vicious journey of a song that swirls and pounds and shifts through a coherent progression of connected ideas that makes this feel like a complete track. Therein lies the blessing and curse of having included this in the track listing: it’s a great song, but it shines a spotlight on the shortcomings seen throughout the rest of this mini-album.
When The Sleep closes this album, there’s a real sense of ‘what next?’ But there is nothing. Instead, you have reached the end of a non-event. It’s a curious way to end an album and one that sticks in the craw. The album doesn’t feel wrapped up or finished, or like it’s setting up something else. It feels abandoned. What started life as an offcuts album, and now presented to the world as a mini-album (frontman Gaahl aka Kristian Espedal prefers the concept of a mini-album over an EP) still feels very much like a collection of ‘maybes’ and ‘not-quites’. It is testament that a concept album needs to be fully fleshed out and given a bit more room to grow, or else the message and the desired effect is lost.
Rating: 5/10
The Humming Mountain is set for release on November 5th via Season Of Mist.
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