Band: W.A.I.L.
Title: W.A.I.L.
Label: Hells Headbangers Records / Ahdistuksen Aihio Productions
Distribution: Hells Headbangers Records / Ahdistuksen Aihio Productions
Release date: March 7th 2011
Review: CD

W.A.I.L., which is the abbreviation for Wisdom through Agony into Illumination and Lunacy, were formed in 2006 in the city of Kristiinankaupunki, at the western coast of Finland at the Gulf of Bothnia. After two demos (2007 and 2009), the band recorded its debut, which got self-released on vinyl that very same year. Now, finally, and luckily, it is available too on CD-version with a better mastering and improved layout. The schizoid album was mixed by Juhana Itäkylä and the five hymns last for forty seven minutes (!).
Lyrically, the band deals with obscure, mystic and occult themes, yet with a personal and philosophical / psychological angel of incidence.
After the three-minute intro Initiation (with acoustics and a soft voice), the trio (in mean time the band became a quartet) brings an underground-oriented mixture of murky and grumpy old school-inspired Doom-Death with elements from Traditional Doom and oppressing Black Metal. The introduction on this second song, Wisdom, floats between early Cathedral and Celtic Frost, and then it introduces elements from, let’s say, Asphyx or Morgoth at the one hand, and fellow countrymen Hail or, if you want to, Barathrum at the other, with the limited yet perfectly developed addition of some wonderfully composed keyboard lines, meant to obscure the whole. These keyboard lines get used sporadically throughout the whole album, always as addition yet of the undeniably important kind. Agony is comparable, even though it does differ from the former song. Agony combines the kind of Doom-Death from twenty years ago (think: Anathema, Cathedral, etc.) with elements from Black Metal (atmosphere, certain riffs, the vocals and so on) and Funeral Doom (tempo, melodies), and even Epic Heavy Metal (Bathory-meets-Pentagram-meets-Warning). Next song, Illumination, is harsher and much more up-tempo oriented, and it brings a grim and cold yet most technical approach on (modern) Post-Black, coloured with, again, rather traditional characterisations from the (especially European) Doom-Death roots. At the same time, this crushing, monolithic song gets pretty close to the earliest years on Sweden’s Death Metal (especially some specific guitar and bass riffs as from half of the song). And what about those bizarre yet extremely asphyxiating and haunting additions in the second part of Illumination? Lunacy, finally, sounds as energetic as Illumination and this might be the most deadly track on this nameless full length. The Scandinavian roots (as mentioned: late eighties, early nineties) flourish, even though the Greek (Varathron, Necromantia, Rotting Christ) and German (Morgoth, Impending Doom, Torchure) scenes come to mind as well. And this time, the band profiles the song with a somewhat Oriental-sounding intermezzo.
Unusual, certainly not what we’re used to, that’s what W.A.I.L. (band) / W.A.I.L. (album) stand for. Filled with unexpectations (most correctly composed neologism in this band’s case), based on a rather strange yet successful equilibrium between tradition and experiment, and combining known efforts with an unconventional practisation, this is a blessing.

85/100

Ivan Tibos.