In The Woods... ‎"Cease The Day" CD Digipack

Some context first: In the Woods...'s 2016 "comeback" album, Pure, featured an almost entirely new band, with drummer Anders Kobro the only returning member from the Omnio era.
If you're going to resuscitate the ITW name - dormant for 15 years but still gold-tinged in the extreme and prog metal undergrounds - the new material had better justify it. Did it? Well, kind of. Pure was generally well-received, but for me, it mostly just blurred together and left me feeling lukewarm. And so, with a 2018 follow-up hot on its heels two years later, I expected just more of that. ...Two or three good songs perhaps, but nothing that truly sticks with you, nothing likely to stand the test of time the way their 90s material has.
I daresay I may have been wrong.
While Cease the Day continues the introspective yet grandiose prog-doom sound that Pure established, it takes a major step forward in the songwriting department and re-introduces the Black Metal element - not heard in this quantity since HEart of the Ages. That first scream in "Empty Streets" might just take you back to their self-titled song. In The Woods... have never ever repeated themselves, for better or worse, so it pleases me to hear progression from the new incarnation of the band as well (even if not nearly as stark as the jumps from the aforementioned album to Omnio to Strange in Stereo.
Anyways, Cease the Day succeeds where its predecessor struggled in creating a memorable full-album experience from front to back.
And I mean "front to back" literally, since the shining example of this mindful songcraft is the recurring lullaby melody that bookends the album on a unifying somber note. This haunting, softly-sung lullaby sets the somber stage for "Empty Streets" and is recalled brilliantly for the wistful closer "Cease The Day", the lyrics masterfully switching as the melody is reprised. It's a musical moment that hit me hard on my very first listen - the type of impact moments that I loved about 90s ITW. I could already imagine myself reflecting on the lyrics while stargazing in the mountains or walking the desolate city streets on the album cover.
Between these poetic bookends is plenty of memorable stuff as well. After only one or two listens, each song on this album had already taken on its own distinct identity in my head, rather than running together as a big blob like Pure that, yes, sounds good, but loses impact as a full experience or individual replay value. Whether it's the return of black metal screams, James Fogarty bringing better clean vocal melodies, or just simpler, more refined songs... In The Woods must be commended for largely eliminating this tonal "saminess" problem that has sometimes plagued them - even on my favorite release of theirs, Omnio.
With the soft/clean to harsh/piercing dynamics of "Empty Streets", the pointed darkness of "Substance Vortex", the Woods of Ypres-esque melancholic anthem "Respect My Solitude", the doomy harmonies of "Cloud Seeder", the fist-raising catharsis of "Strike Up With the Dawn" and climactic barnstormer "Transcending Yesterdays", this is some of the most song-to-song diversity I've heard on an ITW album. A few of the songs fall short of true greatness ("Still Yearning" sticks out as the weakest to my ears), but at least they're all memorable. It's not a long album, and every song feels vital. Few moments are wasted.
While the band are not really innovating or making one-of-a-kind music anymore, Cease the Day holds up better to the vaunted ITW back-catalogue than most skeptics (myself included) would have expected and proves that "the new ITW" can still be highly relevant and one of the leaders in this corner of the metal world. Recommended to fans of any previous In the Woods... album - even those who did not particularly love Pure - as well as those who know they typically enjoy the very Scandinavian fusion of the melancholic, avant-garde and darkly melodic.

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...