Wolfshade is a one-man project led by Kadhaas who takes the listener on enigmatic oneiric demiurgic journeys. Wolfshade has previously released one full-length opus entitlted "Evening Star..." and has now created one of the most progressive demiurgic albums known to mankind "Trouble". "Trouble" is an album very different from Wolfshade's past efforts which draws the path of life harmonized by the mystery of creation, the mystery of existence. This album was spontaneously written by a sure heavenly strength. It plunges us into the transcending universe of life, unsuspected and phenomenal.
Wolfshade is an interesting band, they are a black metal band that drinks from the torrent of depressive black metal, and in 2008 when this album came out, they were making better DSBM than most bands in that genre. "Trouble" is their masterpiece, their absolute peak. I bought this record when it came out, without even knowing a single thing about the band, but back then I was a very serious DSBM enthusiast, I loved depressive, misanthropic, and agonic bands like Eiserne Dunkelheyt, Sterbend, Nyktalgia, Xasthur, and Vinterriket, those bands were very dark, negative and suicidal, but all of them had something in common, they were capable of horrid and aberrant emotions but at the same time, they were also capable of beauty, melody and good composition. Melancholy.
"Trouble" as an album is more focused on the melancholic emotions and the devastating melodies that can provoke. Drums are programmed, a thing which could alienate self-proclaimed trve blackers, but in this scene is not really a problem since most bands are one-man bands. Guitars have the dominant role in the compositions and they are the best part of the record being that they provide grief and despair as much as defeated aggression, sadness, and agony. The sound could be a problem for many, is clean but at the same time low fidelity, sometimes the drums will take over a part or be too loud to listen to everything clearly, although when the double bass kicks it's satisfying. Nonetheless is the only reason I cannot give this album a higher rate. I think in this genre it is a conscious decision to make your record sound bad or have a poor production as an artistic decision, but then you get albums like Gris' "Il était une forêt..." and you realize you don't need to do that, since the music, the compositions, and the raw emotions deserve to be listened in better quality.
There is no filler in "Trouble" each song is a journey and each one of them has its moment to shine and stay with you. The music is so sad and depressive yet beautiful that you cannot really tell that this is just black metal or a very composition-oriented depressive black metal band. No, I would say that this is melancholic black metal at its best. As I said, there is no weak song in this full-length, three of the five songs are over the ten-minute mark, which, in my opinion, are the best songs.
I have to talk particularly about "L'être" and "La mort", two masterpieces. First, "L'être". This piece of art of a song is one of the most mourner, hurtful and sad songs I have ever heard. It starts defeated from the beginning, everything is lost and nothing matters anymore, but you are still there. The lyrics are depressive indeed, philosophical questions, that more often than not lead to insanity, are asked. The human condition is presented in a nihilistic and decaying way, the guitars seem to cry the whole time, weeping after each verse. Then, a self-hatred thought creates aggression in the music, it is intense, but futile, since melancholy returns triumphantly after just a couple of minutes, with a waterfall of failures and disappointments in the form of harmonies. Next, a riff turns into an arpeggio and the despair hits harder than ever, accompanied by the lead guitar, suddenly it stops and it gets darker, slower, like agony. A song like this in any DSBM album is an achievement to be proud of, its pure emotion, and the artist actually had something to say, one could call it a day after composing something like this and fill the rest of the album with lesser and weaker songs, but this is not the case with Wolfshade.
"La mort" is the best song on the whole record. It is cruel and overwhelming from the beginning, there is nothing left, you are already dead. Your suffering soul wanders the graveyard, thinking about life that will never come back. Obscurity rules eternal, and the music is aware of that, but it suffers, creating melancholy since there is a moment of hope and light, that only makes the next part even more depressing, a great touch and an intelligent move by the composer in order to make an emphasis in the emotion he was looking for. There is a moment of majestic sadness enforced by the double bass, this creates a deeper feeling of apathy and grief. The climax of the song comes after a stop, the guitars present the main theme but in a clean arpeggio, and the vocalist, almost like a ghost, a lost forgotten sad spirit whispers in your ears: "agonie... agonie" (agony) and the guitar solo explodes followed by the double bass and the music achieves a perfect moment just to return to the dying melody. The song ends with anxious hopelessness that brings you to a calm and dark madrigal to embrace the eternal sleep.
I have to add that the vocals are top-notch for the music and the lyrics, closer to a depressive black metal style, but at times harsher and more aggressive. Keyboards are used moderately, but in a good way, ergo, only when necessary and in order to contribute to the music as a whole.
Overall, this is a great album, one of my all-time favorites. A very good black metal album, a top-tier depressive black metal effort, but a melancholic black metal masterpiece.
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