REVIEWS

Metal Storm (www.metalstorm.ee) Reviewed by: Deadsoulman

All ye who enter…
Abandon hope.
Hear the faded whispers…
Of the Wraith of the Ropes

These are the opening words recited by a hellish dehumanized voice. Cliché bragging by another vampire-wannabe band? No, fair warning for what you’re about to get into. Now just imagine: you wake up from agitated sleep, naked on the cold tiled floor of a dark room in an abandoned asylum. The moonlight hardly passes through the dirty smoky windows, splashing your surroundings with surreal yellowish light. You open the door and find yourself standing in the middle of a windy corridor. The light is even dimmer there. The walls are stained with some dark fluid. You realize this is blood. Blood everywhere on the walls, on the floor, at the ceiling. Human pieces scattered everywhere. Then you hear this sound. The rats? But rats don’t make the sound of an axe trailed on a cement floor… The noise is getting nearer. You want to run, but there is no exit. It’s getting nearer. And nearer and nearer and nearer, it’s behind you! You turn around and see……….

OK, imagine this text above written by someone who is talented enough to frighten the reader. And then imagine that I found the perfect soundtrack to this scene. The first album of the US self-named “horror metal band” Wraith Of The Ropes is the soundtrack to your worst nightmare. Every time I listen to it, I can’t help but watch behind my back, to… you know, just to be sure.

That’s right, the biggest achievement of this unique band is not really the music, that can be classified into the classic funeral doom category. The very unique thing in Ada is the atmosphere. Wraith Of The Ropes use all the tools they can to create creepy, terrifying, tense, horrible music. That goes from industrial noises (like some bangs you would expect hearing in a closed down factory), to the dissonant chords of a mad pianist (the piano is in my opinion the most important instrument here, it leads the terror). Even the vocals of Scarecrow Rottinghouse (love the name) are used like an instrument. Instead of being personifying, catchy and clear they are disembodied, indistinct, demonic, all but welcoming. Actually, only the instrumental Snow Dragon seems to bring a sparkle of non-darkness, but still not light or hope yet.

Everything here contributes to making your life miserable and fearful of what’s hidden. This is the great achievement of this amazing band. Wraith Of The Ropes proves that you don’t have to play at full speed with inverted cross-shaped guitars, growl around while fucking virgins or simply use blastbeats to be extreme. Ada is not musically violent but it is one of the most extreme albums of the year, so intense that you must not expect to be able to play the whole album twice in a row. This is too physically and morally demanding. In other words, a great release but not for all ears.

Highlights: I could say Chamber Of the Wraith, Lake Of Decay and Snow Dragon, but this album is above all working as a whole entity.

Rating: 8.7 / 10