Reviews for In the Woods...'s Heart of the Ages

Only Just Passable... - 50%
Written by WilliamAcerfeltd on April 18th, 2007

I honestly don't know why this album is so celebrated. This album brings nothing original to the table. Although this album is considered by many to be black metal, this album was done long ago in the doom metal scene. However, the originality of this album isn't the problem. The REAL problem is the fact the songs just aren't that great. The songs for the most part, just aren't that interesting, the guitars and the drumming aren't technical and the even though the clean vocals are good, the "harsh vocals" just suck.

First for the songs, as mentioned above, they just aren't that interesting. There are no solos to be found on this album (at least I can not remember any) and the guitar riffs are pretty simple for the most part. There is nothing wrong if the songs are simple, Cannibal Corpse, for example, have some pretty interesting songs which are simple, however this is not the case here. The same can be said of the drumming, don't expect to be wowed by intense, fast complex drumming, just prepare yourself for some pretty average drumming. What's surprising about the drumming being so mediocre is that Kobro, the drummer of Carpathian Forest does drums here. Judging from some of the Carpathian Forest songs I've heard, he's a very good drummer, why he held back here is a simply mystery to me. Another problem with the songs is that there were some sound effects (e.g. random electronic noises and beeping) added to the songs which were totally irrelevant and added nothing to the song overall. In fact, they detracted from the song. Quite simply, these sound effects shouldn't have been there, had they not been added, I would have looked upon this album more favourably, only marginally though.

Now, for the vocals. It's very important to have a vocalist who suits the style of music you’re playing. The guy is not a bad clean vocalist and his deep vocals suit the music quite well. The problem is when he starts doing black metal vocals. There are two problems with this, 1. they are in the background, 2 he sucks. To give you an idea of what he sounds like, recall what Maria Sharapova sounds like when she’s hitting a tennis ball. If you can, you will know what he sounds like. I am not trying to be a smart ass or anything here, he really does sound like that. Thankfully however, about 70% of this album is clean vocals and some songs such as Heart of the Ages have no black metal vocals on them. But, it's extremely difficult to appreciate the music when he's doing his annoying black metal vocals. For example, I was enjoying the song, The Divinity of Wisdom, but he’s vocals drastically weakened that song and, it wasn’t the first time either. There is also a female vocalist on this album, although she only features on one song, which was a shame because she did sound quite nice.

There are a lot of ambient sound breaks in this album which are nice and do create a sort of, nice peaceful atmosphere. Sometimes, they have whispers mixed into them, with a soft, slow acoustic guitar being played in the background. I thought this was a pretty nice/cool idea.

In conclusion, this album is overall lacking. I was really expecting big things from this album, but came away disappointed. At the end of the album, I paused for a moment and said, "So, that was it?" I failed to realise what was so great about the album and still don't see what's so good about it. So, in summary this album isn't the worst thing I've heard, but it falls miles short of my expectations and what it's hyped up to be. A nice thing about this album (I thought I might throw this in here for the hell of it) is that it has nice art work, but art work alone doesn't cut it.

Conclusion: The above is not recommended for purchase, get it only if it's given to you for free or if you really want to listen to it, but if you don't you're not missing much, believe me.

This guy missed the point completely; comparing In the Woods to Cannibal Corpse? Being appalled by the lack of solo guitars? This guy has reviewed stuff like Nokturnal Mortum and Limbonic Art and then he writes this semi-diary of worthless experiences with an album he's too young to comprehend.

Are you sure you're not too young to understand the review?

I mean, he didn't use the Cannibal Corpse comparison as a part of the musical description, but as a way to convey the bigger idea of musical simplicity. Nowhere in the review does he write that they sound alike, just that it's possible to make music that is both good and simple (from the songwriting point of view), and that the band being reviewed failed in that. And you mention the "lack of solo guitars" as a bad point in the review, but you don't refute the fact, you just think it's not a problem on the album, right? If it bothers the reviewer, he has the liberty to say it.

About the solo thing: you'd have to be a real moron to actually expect soloing on a black metal(-ish) album.

Are you sure you're not too young to understand the review?

the rest of his reviews, which are neatly classified into very low scores for untr00 black metal and very high scores for the kvlt classics.

Question answered. Only little kiddies write stuff like "tr00" and "kvlt".

Not to nitpick but... you know... Mayhem.

You seem all too happy to disregard the cynic undertone of my quoted statement. Are you deliberately dumb or was it my mistake to leave out some clarifying emoticons?

You must be very new to the internet if you think that lamest of all excuses still impresses anyone.

Ah yes, amusing to see how in one discussion Mayhem are ridiculed by some, and in the next lauded by the same. Until someone finally finds out about that, I'm going to have to ask you to find a better example.

I had heard rumours of a sort of clique of rather arrogant senior members being sceptical towards newcomers, and they seem to have been confirmed.

Ah, the logical next step, blaming all criticism of your obvious failure on senior members being too intolerant of newcomers. Keep working, soon you'll have made your way through all the stereotypes.

I walked to the post office today and found King Arthur's Excalibur as well as The Rosetta Stone both lying in a ditch, but, sadly, I didn't find any coins.

Imagine that either of those are Unholy Trinity.

The fact that you have actually constructed catch-all stereotypes proves that your misbegotten seniority has risen to your head.

I'd like to ask where that failure of mine was committed, but then of course you'll be cheering "The Stereotype of Denial!" at me like a black preacher.

About the solo thing: you'd have to be a real moron to actually expect soloing on a black metal(-ish) album.

Wow, you just blew my mind!

...

I don't know why, but that was hilarious.

http://www.metal-archives.com/userreviews.php?id=82464&nickname=stormruller

Anyone else think most of this guy's reviews are really amateurish?

I stand corrected, and obviously did not interpret the thread to its fullest. As usual, it took a rational and polite post to make me aware of this. Thank you for being more mature than your predecessors in this topic.

The solo thing can be argued on and on about, and perhaps this is not the place for a discussion about it. Suffice to say that I make the distinction between lead and solo, and while I have heard plenty of the former in bm, I've yet to chance upon a noteworthy band using solos (Crystalium, eeesh). Besides, I'm of the mindset that you can't go into bm expecting to hear solos and leads, there's plenty of indispensible albums that don't have any of that going on. If there are solos and leads and they work out, well great, but if that's one of the factors upon which to decide the worth of an album...

http://www.metal-archives.com/review.php?id=16328

This is pretty useless. One paragraph for a split and he doesn't even talk about one of the bands, and the one he does talk about is incredibly thin.

Okay, another retarded sentence in the new Dimension Zero review:

"Swedish melodic death metal has always been a "taboo genre" within extreme metal."

Yes, this is why At The Gates, Dark Tranquillity, early In Flames, etc. are all highly revered. Because they're so fucking taboo.

well, since it's actually true for most melodic death/gothenburg nowadays, I don't see it as being quite as unfitting as you do.

well, since it's actually true for most melodic death/gothenburg nowadays, I don't see it as being quite as unfitting as you do.

I stand corrected, and obviously did not interpret the thread to its fullest. As usual, it took a rational and polite post to make me aware of this. Thank you for being more mature than your predecessors in this topic.

The solo thing can be argued on and on about, and perhaps this is not the place for a discussion about it. Suffice to say that I make the distinction between lead and solo, and while I have heard plenty of the former in bm, I've yet to chance upon a noteworthy band using solos (Crystalium, eeesh). Besides, I'm of the mindset that you can't go into bm expecting to hear solos and leads, there's plenty of indispensible albums that don't have any of that going on. If there are solos and leads and they work out, well great, but if that's one of the factors upon which to decide the worth of an album...

Wow there's a difference between leads & solos? I've been playing for 16 years, dammit nobody told me. All this time I've been soloing when I could have been playing leads!

Good for you.