Windfaerer – Alma

[schema type=”review” name=”Windfaerer – Alma” description=”Label – Avantgarde Music” author=”Miguel Melo” pubdate=”2018-09-14″ ]

Windfaerer released Alma on 14th of September, their 3rd full length album and this band is from New Jersey, United States. They have been active since 2006.

Alma means soul in latin languages, as Spanish and Portuguese. That’s their roots and it explains the folk, black metal style. When analysing the other works, we see references to Iberian Peninsula history and folk tales, such as Viriato, the Lusitanian chieftain that engaged in a rebellion against the Roman Empire. And here we have an American Band, going as deep into European history as this. Makes sense, since there is a big portuguese immigrant community in Jersey.

Again, I tend to drag my reviews towards the history and geography forgetting the essential, meaning, music.

The album starts clearly with an 8 minutes track, Dawn of the phantom light and sets the pace for what we are going to hear next. Mechanic drums joined by electric violin and growl. It got a bit of time to me to get used to the drums that I deemed excessive, but eventually I came to terms as I understood that there was more musical variation. Hell… You have to do it when your tracks average length is about 8 minutes, otherwise your audience will be bored to tears. Skybound has one hell of an intro that got my attention through the high pitched sounds. It would suit perfectly to some epic entry to an anime or movie. Rite of emptiness feels like the waving sea, but suddenly comes the double drum again. For me, the song that takes the price is Journey because it’s well composed and truly gives that feeling. The folk vibe is mixed well with all the black metal power. All in all, the more you hear it, more you like it. At least that happened with me. These guys did a good job and manage to not repeat themselves too much in an album with 51 minutes, something that is very usual in this kind of style. I would go to these guys’ concert at any moment.

Line-up:
Karas – violin, vocals
Gonçalves – vocals, guitars
Muñoz – bass
Keren – guitars, vocals
Applegate – drums

Tracklist: 01. Dawn of Phantom Light 02. Becoming 03. Skybound 04. Rite of Emptiness 05. O Além 06. Journey 07. Awakening 08. Under the Sign of Sol

Links:
Windfaerer Official