Once again, Consouling Sounds have quite an impressive band signed to their roster, though some of the members are / were working with this label before. Anyway, it does not matter, for this is another superb release done via this Flemish label: De Doden Hebben Het Goed (meaning something like ‘the dead are all right’) by Wiegedood (‘death in the cradle’ or ‘sudden infant death syndrome’). The members are, for our good mutual understanding, Wim Coppers (The Rott Childs, Rise And Fall), Levy Seynaeve (AmenRa, Hessian, Black Haven) and Gilles Demolder (Oathbreaker). Do you feel the Church Of Ra-vibe too?...
Additional info: recorded at the Hearse Studio with Lander Cluyse (you might know him from his assistance with acts like, for example, Leng Tch’e, Eleanora or Soul Grip too) and mastered at Audiosiege by Brad Boatright (Nux Vomica, Vallenfyre, Toxic Holocaust, Twitching Tongues, Enabler and many others).
Anyway, with this project, the trio brings something that is enormously comparable to several of their (mutual) projects, but once again (and above all) it is quite different too. Wiegedood do not play some kind of Post Metal-alike Sludge stuff whatsoever. Damn no; what this trio brings under this specific moniker is something undersigned honestly adores: true Black Metal!
For almost forty minutes, De Doden Hebben Het Goed is a nasty expression of Black Glory. This stuff is fast and straight-forward, yet with quite some melodious and multiple-layered basics. The melodic aspects go for both rhythmic melodies as well as the fine leads, no matter if the focus lies on utter aggression or fine-tuned malignancy. And with those different aspects, I need to mention the great (simply great) changes in tempo, intermezzos, but especially the many levels / layers behind the production! Courtesy of this Belgian majesty, once again, do not forget that!!! These tracks are very lengthy (four pieces, so the average time of the compositions clocks nearly ten minutes each), which opens the opportunity to bring some differentiation within each single epos. Wiegedood do, but they do it with an attitude and professionalism, a craftsmanship and persuasion undersigned just adores. Blasting eruptions get interspersed by integer acoustic ones (listen to, and enjoy, the grandiose acoustic intermezzos and share my arousal), slow-paced epic excerpts, or atmospheric bleakness / blackness. No matter if the material gets into levels of hypnotic frenzy or malicious fury; in every case the coherence and persuasion, but for sure the quality of song-writing and execution, remain so high-leveled.
The richness of the French scene and the Canadian one (and then I am referring to both the eastern as well as the western coast scenes) might be a pronounced reference. Wiegedood come with that very same little-experimental finesse, combined with those scenes’ characteristic skull-crushing heaviness and brain-caressing subtlety, making adepts like undersigned reaching orgiastic heights!