Oh my Satan, Cruz del Sur rarely, if ever gets anything wrong. Apostle of Solitude is another impressive add to their already magnificent roster. That said, their previous outing Last Sunrise, took me fair amount of time to appreciate and didn't quite live up to their debut which, despite being a bit sloppy here and there, was a very solid piece of volcanic misery. However, the Indiana natives are really coming into their own here, so I'll cut right to the heart of it. Of Woe and Wounds is a monstrous hybrid of Doomshine and Black Sabbath, with Trouble and early Grand Magus woven in, making for a colossus of an album.

Barring the short opening intro-cut, Blackest of Times sets a monolithic pace before exploding into the faster, dirtier, more fiery Whore's Wings. Here axe-wielder/vocalist Chuck Brown show off tremendous riffmanship as well as vocal work radiating pitch-black excellence setting this band apart from the rest. The slow, massive assault continues when drummer Corey Webb slows things down considerably for Lamentations of a Broken Man, a miserable giant of a song drenched in enchanting harmonies and the slow thunderous rhythms of an absolute earthquake of a song.

I didn't intend for this review to be a song-by-song kind of thing, but when you have so many awesome cuts on one album, you kind of have to mention every single one of them in some context or another, for fear of leaving anything important out. Die Vicar Die is one such essential feature, the absolute highlight for me on this album and quite possibly the best traditional doom metal song I have heard in forever with its beautifully crafted riffs, several "up-tempo" parts, and killer vocal lines. Then there's Push Mortal Coil, a shameless homage to Black Sabbath, and the faster slightly Solitude Aeternus-infused This Mania which will takes your hand and leads you into darkness. Further, the closing trio Siren, Luna and Distance and the Cold Heart (Reprise) ends things on an extremely miserable note, and thus Apostle of Solitude see their darkly intricate work fulfilled.

All in all this is what my appetite for doom has been craving for some time now, and this is likely to attend my year-end list. Of Woe and Wounds is a collection of tasty, heavy, bleak and perfectly executed traditional doom metal which hardly suffers from any faults. In comparison to their earlier work, this is the same stuff, only extremely much more well done. Highly recommended.