What could be more gloomy and sad than to hear a long forgotten yet beautiful and melancholic black metal album again? I find myself asking this question frequently as I give a lost album a deserved spin. Of some of those albums, the beginning of the first song can fill you with beloved sadness. This is such an album.

Even more than the opening to Ulver’s Bergtatt, the first notes of this record fill the mind with a walk in a never-ending forest and the memory of a long lost love, and stir them with melancholic midpaced melodies. After these first disconsolate acoustic seconds, the springtime forest starts to make place for the chilling sound of frozen wood. The cold atmosphere is mainly set by the fairly good yet still grim production, with according buzzing guitarsound. A little more reverb to emphasize the deepness of the music wouldn’t have hurt though. This album has a reason to be called against the seasons, for it was crafted during an extraordinarily hot summer, yet yields a sound as chilling as a winter landscape.

The music itself floats somewhere in the void between dark and black metal, but unlike their new release, black metal is still the factor that enhances its sound with the final momentum. The music itself mostly tends to fast, however the tempo of the songs is mostly midpaced: perfect to set the atmosphere. As I implied before, one of the strong aspects of this disk are the melancholic melodies. While remaining interesting at all time, the combination with the forest environment moves it onto a level rarely seen in black metal, and comparable to bands like Drudkh. While not as repetitive and folky as that band, the feelings that both bands give, are quite similar. When thinking of comparisons, a blackened Agalloch would also seem fair. Still, this release seems more down-to-earth than the work of both bands mentioned, and remains catchy throughout the songs without loosing on ambiance. No samples here, although there are quite a few acoustic breaks to be found. Also of notice should be the unorthodox method of acoustic parts accompanying the rest of the music rather than replacing it. Especially this last element gives Woods Of Ypres its identity.

The vocals are pretty raw and black and can be compared with vocals as on Satyricon’s Nemesis Divina, but a deep and echoing clean voice is being used pretty often too. While those can best be identified with the ones used on Ulver’s Bergtatt, the combination of those two leads to a style as on Nagelfar releases, yet not as cooperative. Even when the vocals are raw, they seem quite understandable, and thus the lyrics get the attention they deserve. These lyrics mostly deal with traveling in a forest, which was guessable knowing the name of the band and its idiosyncratic sound. They are rocksolid, fit the music very well and do not force themselves out of the metrum. Especially in the plentiful acoustic parts, they appear very convincing. I didn’t fully understand the lyrics, but it seems that the forest is used as a theme for self-enrichment and contemplation. I could be totally wrong there though.

The best thing about this album probably is that it keeps a perfect balance between all great elements described in the review: acoustic parts end before they get boring, aggressive double bass pedaling fades away ahead of getting habit, and the same goes for the vocals. This results in magnificent tranquility and that’s why this is such an outstanding release that deserves every point of the according score. Although slightly unorthodox, albums like these showcase all that is beautiful about melancholic black metal perfectly. Dedicating a little time to the samples of this album on their site is definitely recommended!