Thursday, January 5, 2012

MP3// Wildernessking: Rubicon



I figured,l I haven't posted any great metal in a while, so I set off on my quest to do so! My emails have stacked up to an incomprehensible size, but Wildernessking were worth it. An incredible and melodic black metal quartet from Cape Town, South Africa, two tracks from their forthcoming album have been streaming on the Bandcamp. Something about brilliant and heartfelt and complex orchestral metal makes my heart pound, with this band virtually ripping such organ from my chest. The vocals kick off as you'd expect on 'Rubicon', which you can stream above, but soon they transform into something much more. The raging of wind. The magnificence of thunderstorms striking from heaven, humbling our small, almost insignificant mortal bodies. As animals scream under heartbreaking drums and guitar, you truly feel like screaming and crying and running away through the rain. Its all an emotional barrage, smashing into your body with tangible passion. The solemn guitar interlude that haunts 'Uptopia' provides time to recover before the desperate pleas and sad screams of an apocalypse wrench tears from your heavy, uncontrollable breathing. People never go and use one word to describe metal. Beautiful. Somehow though I think that this just might be. There is a reclaiming of days past, living in the land of monsters and legend. Fantastic lines like "And when we rode with grace, calloused hands to the sky" are strong. They feel poetic and thoughtful and yes, quite unnaturally beautiful. Hear 'Rubicon' up above, then head over to Wildernessking's Bandcamp page and listen to its brother 'Utopia' over here!