I just noticed – and that’s a pity – that I did not write down my thoughts on the self-titled debut by Pillar Amongst Willows, which was released in very early 2025 via Centipede Abyss. But I’ll make it right up by reviewing the second release by this one-man project, called Kindred Odyssey, which got released as well via the Centipede Abyss label more or less one year after that nameless debut album.
Pillar Amongst Willows (what a fine moniker it is!) is a new outfit by Ohio-residing multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Benjamin Vanweelden. His name might ring a bell if you’re trusted with acts like, for example, Lowered Head, Ceremonic Buryment, Vessel Of Balon, Axiom Chaos, Venomous Echoes or some others. Ben wrote all music and lyrics, and performs all instruments and vocals for this sophomore full-length. The result was eventually mixed and mastered by Stephen Knapp, involved with e.g. Cerulean or Sleep Paralysis, in case of interest.
Anyway, Kindred Odyssey gets released once again via UK’s mostly open-minded Extreme Metal label Centipede Abyss, as mentioned above. And in the vein of this label, this specific release, at least the physical version, is extremely limited too. Pressed in an edition of 26 (twenty-six) copies only (!), it indeed is a rare casus. And just for completeness: the artwork is a fragment of a work by Peter Paul Rubens, one of the most notorious Flemish Baroque painters in the 16th / 17th century. It’s a fragment from his master work The Fall of the Damned.
Once again, this effort consists of lengthy compositions. This time, the three tracks clock more than thirty-five minutes, with two pieces out of three lasting for more than thirteen minutes. Opener Clock Of Resolution (13:07) actually starts in a melancholic Dark Ambient oriented vain, before turning into some proggy experience, with jazzy and groovy elements, then followed by neo-symphonic orchestrations. Yet suddenly, after almost three minutes, things expand towards bombastic proportions, when thundering drums, intense blackened screams and melodious yet gloomy strings invade the orchestral foreplay. There’s so much to experience: sudden blasting drum eruptions, (semi) acoustic intermezzi (sometimes with a folksy touch), unpredictable discordant textures, progressive rhythm-structures, astral outbursts, hypnotic leads, catchy Avantgarde fragments, cinematic chapters, Jazz-influenced bass-lines… Adorable is the interplay of both leading and supportive guitars, pounding basses, fiery solo-work, the grim throat, subtly used keyboards, enormously variative drums and percussions, melancholic acoustics; an amalgam of details, yet carefully combined into a lucid one-directional alignment. Toll Of Dissolution (08:37) too opens with an acoustic preface, catchy and harmonious, and soon transforming into another eccentric sonic document of progressive excellence. Mind these capricious Jazz-laden drum patterns (with some truly monumental effusions) or the curious and contrarian snare-manipulation. When the brutal heaviness takes over, the equilibrium of elegant melodicism and seemingly atonal construction skill overwhelms; when another fragment of advanced and onward craftsmanship follows, organically despite its complexity, all that remains is surprise, astonishment, awe… There’s so much to experience, so many intricate components that come in contrast, but above all in symbiotic intercommunion. The title track (13:40) opens in a purest sense of meditative fairness with a sad-romantic atmosphere, setting the tone for a captivating epos / ethos. Built up with epic, semi-depressed, menacing and inconsonant segments, prudently yet accurately balanced, and characterized by multiple changes in tempo, structure, sphere and heaviness -cohesive despite the contrasts- the result is remarkable. Atmospheric Black Metal, darkened Sludge, Progressive Doom, integer Post Rock; this outcome is of an ingenious level, for the coherence represents an organic testimony.
Nothing more to add… A recommendation for every open-minded worshipper of sonic trial…
https://centipedeabyss.bandcamp.com/album/kindred-odyssey