EP REVIEW: There Flies Our Wail! – Scald

Russia’s SCALD were, until very recently, one of those bands that had a brief, but incredibly powerful, run. Formed in 1993, and with only a demo, North Winds, and an excellent full length, Will of God is a Power to their name, the band disbanded in 1997 after front man Agyl was tragically killed in a railway accident. These releases alone, and in particular their debut album, were more than enough to cement the bands legacy as a cult act with a small, but very loyal, following within the epic doom metal scene. Regrouping for a performance at 2019’s Hammer of Doom festival, with new vocalist Felipe Plaza Kutzbach, the band have kept going and essentially introducing themselves to a whole new generation of fans. Their newest, two song EP, There Flies Our Wail!, marks the first new material from the band in a quarter of a century, and it’s incredibly clear that the band haven’t lost a step in the intervening years.

There Flies Our Wail!, the bands first piece of new material in close to 25 years, opens on some great, pounding percussion, with huge, soaring riffs and subtle, yet effective, Celtic folk elements giving the song as a whole a monolithic, grandiose sound that it’s hard not to get drawn in by. When the vocals enter the mix, the song, if anything, becomes even more bombastic, with glorious highs and booming, authoritative baritones adding a huge, dramatic feel to the music. It’s a great piece of music that seems to end far too soon, leaving the listener eager for more.

Eternal Stone, a re-recording of the classic track from the bands Will of God is a Power record, gets a new lease of life with a more polished and modern production, and when the already excellent guitar work and powerful rhythms are coupled with Filipe‘s magnificent, sonorous vocal delivery, it elevates what was already a great track to a whole new level. Oftentimes, newer versions of older tracks come across more or less like a band living vicariously through their own past glories, but this couldn’t be further from the truth here, with this track feeling every bit as impressive as it did upon its initial release in 1996.

For die hard fans of this band and their music, this new track, and even the new version of Eternal Stone, have well been worth the two and a half decade wait. Epic doom metal is, for the most part, a style that is regularly attempted but very rarely done correctly, with the few bands who embrace it more often either failing to do it properly, or falling short of what this style could achieve. SCALD are one of those few bands that still do it extremely well, and this criminally brief, but fantastic, EP, is a testament to that fact. There Flies Our Wail! perfectly bridges SCALD‘s past, present and future, and shows that the band are still more than capable of creating great and compelling music.

Rating: 8/10

There Flies Our Wail! is out now via High Roller Records. 

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