Gaahls WYRD – The Humming Mountain

Releasedate: 05-11-2021

Label: Season of Mist

Intro

Gaahls Wyrd is probably a familiar name to the fans of the Norwegian black metal scene. The band was formed by the Gaahl, mostly known from Gorgoroth, God Seed and Wardruna. They have released their first EP back in 2017 followed by the debut album “GastiR – Ghosts Invited”, which was released in 2019. Now they are back with the brand new EP “The Humming Mountain”, out via Season of Mist.

Review

“The Humming Mountain” delivers us five tracks, beautiful and dark. The EP starts out slow with “The Seed”, which reminds me of the old-school sound of Ulver’s “Kveldssanger” or Satyricon’s “Dark Medieval Times”. In particular, this atmospheric and ethereal start was what got me hooked on this EP! This darkness continues in the second song “The Humming Mountain”, which warms us up to the rest of the EP with that dark/post-metal sound. The instrumental arrangements are clearly in the spotlight here compared to Gaahl’s clean vocals.

At this point, if you are wondering where that black metal sound is, “The Dwell” will be your answer as we see the true essence of Gaahls WYRD here. The powerful and technical riffs and the melodies accompanied by the mix of clean vocals and growls make the song the highlight of this EP. This is not that ‘classic black metal’ sound that you might expect but a bit of the progressive approach combined with dark, black and post-metal is present, which adds a nice dimension to this song. This magic continues with the longest song, “Awakening Remains – Before Leaving”, which delivers the classic black metal sound! I personally loved the transitions within this song. Compared to the vocals, the riffs and the drums are in the spotlight once again and well.

After the stormy atmosphere of “Awakening Remains – Before Leaving”, the EP ends with “The Sleep”, an instrumental song. This feels like the closing of a loop, bringing us back to the beginning with that atmosphere and the darkness. I personally loved the length of the EP as it flows and doesn’t bore the listener. On the other hand, the vocals seemed to be in the background mostly in the album. This might have been to production or maybe this was the intention of the band to not make the sound ‘clean’ but a bit more distorted.

“The Humming Mountain” is the perfect EP for this winter season. Definitely recommended for the fans of that dark, atmospheric black metal sound.

Line up:

• Gaahl – vocals
• Lust Kilman – guitar
• Eld – bass
• Spektre – drums
• Iver Sandøy – guest musician; keys on all tracks

Links:

Bandcamp
Facebook
Official