REVIEWS

EPower Metal Zine (www.powermetal.de)

(translated from German)

The rope spirits come from Hamilton in the US state of Ohio and are two dark journeymen whom one could absolutely arrange musically (on this debut album) under extreme Doom Metal. Nevertheless, the duo attaches importance to the statement that they are not a Doom band but rather the dominant stylistic alignment of the album would be based upon the dramaturgical needs of the told Horror story, that just this time a gloomy, lethargic and melancholy atmosphere is demanded. However, this could change with future releases drastically, so they prefer the self-elective classification of "Horror Metal". One can see that definitely in such a way, because despite the very Doom alignment of this album, the music is primarily about setting her horror scenarios effectively. The boys succeed outstandingly, and therefore they rightly do not care about genre stereotypes and cliches.

Now let us occupy ourselves for the first time with "Ada". This album is promising, from the very first line, to the followers of very extreme and absolutely uncompromisingly dark Doom Metal who are also not completely averse to Avantgarde Black Metal elements and bring along a weakness for gloomy and sombre Horror soundtrack music. The album starts with the relatively short "Chamber of the Wraith" which is unyieldingly pitch-black and profoundly oppressive. The backbone of the album is the ten-minute "Final Reflection" which is built on simple but effective Doom Riffing, torturous slow-motion drumming, and orchestral and electronic synths that would fit first-class in the soundtrack of an ambitious and artistic Horror film. The electronically distorted and dramatically dark singing of Scarecrow Jack Rottinghouse, which sounds more like a diabolic speech than singing in the classical sense, fits the music very well. Above all, the nasty and massive outbreak in the middle of the piece has succeeded here extremely well. The nearly-just-as-long "Lake of Decay" is even Doomier, but with a stronger accent on melancholy. Yet also there are ghostly and eerily bizarre parts which properly knot the throat.

Although the album makes use of often simple and repetitive elements, it is nevertheless recognizable (from their versatility and from their unorthodox approach to compositions and arrangements) what kind of enormous musical talent is possessed by "singing" keyboardist Scarecrow and Multi-instrumentalist E.M. Hearst. Thus, the protagonists give us three more approximately ten-minute epics like the Funeral Doom track "Alone", the ice-cold and monumental "Death Bed", and the good and very hypnotic ambient track "Snow Dragon" which would easily fit alongside WONGRAVEN and the later BURZUM sound. Follows still another outro with tons of weird samples and a small shock effect at the very end, before the haunting finally comes to an end.

"Ada" is from my viewpoint very independent, and has a quantity of depth and is extremely well delivered for a debut album. It is certain, however, that the absolutely dark, gloomy, hopeless and extremely (in the truest sense of the word) oppressive atmosphere is probably difficult for most people to digest, and therefore WRAITH OF THE ROPES seems to demand the attention of only the most hard-boiled Doomsters and Blackies. The disc, however, bound me more with each listen, so I would like to recommend this to all Horror fans (Fulci?), Extreme Doom Metal fans, and definitely the followers of THE RAVENOUS and Ambient Black Metal. I urge you to visit their site and listen to the availble samples from this album. In addition, there is a "title track" to Ada which is contained only on an EP and is completely cost-free for download. This song is faster and more Black-Metallically aligned than the album material.

Recommended songs: Final Reflection, Lake of Decay

Rüdiger Stehle [05.12.2005]