Practical Art

Woods Of Ypres is a Canadian independent metal band masterminded by David Gold. Ever since 2002, they've been quietly churning out albums that should be getting them a lot more praise than they are currently getting. Their last one, Woods III: Deepest Roots And Darkest Blues, was somewhat of an overlooked masterpiece, containing a fine blend of black, doom and progressive metal. Following the ideas of that album is their latest, Woods 4: The Green Album.

Whereas Woods III was in essence a blackened progressive metal album with select doom metal influences, Woods 4 has a more distinct doom metal presence. Most people who know me already know my intense dislike for the doom metal genre. Indeed, there are only a handful of bands who have managed to do doom metal in such a way that doesn't make me comatose, and Woods Of Ypres is one of them. Perhaps it is the immediate association to the previous album, but whatever the case may be, Woods 4 is an album to behold.

The album starts with Shards Of Love. It tells the story of the destruction of a relationship and the build up in the verses reflect the increasing amount of hopelessness of the situation. Thus starts the concept of the album, which I'm not quite sure of myself. I've managed to grasp a rough idea of what is going on, but somewhere along the way the story seems to take a detour which I keep missing. This matters little to me since I don't put much stock in the stories behind concept albums these days (thanks to the clusterfuck that was Pain Of Salvation's Be). Despite this, the spiraling depression can easily be sensed thanks to some descriptive songtitles. Reading a title like By The Time You Read This (I Will Already Be Dead) doesn't quite put happy thoughts into one's head, no?

David Gold is a jack-of-all-trades of sorts, handling lead vocals, guitar and piano, plus he wrote all the songs and produced the whole damned thing. On previous albums he also did the drums. His vocals are a cross between Mickael Akerfeldt, Vintersorg and Disllusion frontman Vurtox. He does both clean and extreme vocals (of the death and black variety) and is quite capable at seemlessly integrating both into his songs.

The only one real fault I can find on this album is that it's a tad too long. Woods III was of a similar length, but the songwriting was such that it certainly didn't feel like it was clocking in at over 70 minutes. Perhaps it is my innate aversion to the doom style, but there are a few songs here, like Everything I Touch Turns To Gold (Then To Coal) and By The Time You Read This (I Will Already Be Dead), that could had benefitted further by being edited down a bit. However, there aren't too many instances where I find this album to drag. On the other hand, in the middle of this album there are a few songs that could have been made longer. There is You Are Here With Me (In This Sequence Of Dreams), a wonderful acoustic ballad that ends far too soon. There there is the much heavier Halves And Quarters, a two and a half minute death metal morsel. There are a number of non-doom tracks, mostly past the second half. Mirror Reflection & The Hammer Reinvention in particular has a very Opeth feel to it, though not necessarily in its structure.

The first 1,000 copies of Woods 4 come packaged with a copy of Necramyth's Slaughter Of The Seoul, a Korean death metal band where David Gold performed the drumming duties. Apparently the album is conceptually linked with Woods 4, in what manner I do not know as the packaging lacks any lyrics for the Necramyth portion. I'm not even sure if the lyrics are in English. The album itself is pretty good death metal, no real surprises though as an added bonus to an already good album, it's hard to find much fault in it.


01. Shards Of Love
02. Everything I Touch Turns To Gold (Then To Coal)
03. By The Time You Read This (I Will Already Be Dead)
04. I Was Buried In Mount Pleasant Cemetary
05. Dirty Window Of Opportunity: "Can You Get Here In 10 Days?"
06. And I Am Pining (For You)
07. Wet Leather
08. Suicide Cargoload (Carry That Weight)
09. Halves And Quarters
10. You Are Here With Me (In This Sequence Of Dreams)
11. Retrosleep In The Morning calm
12. Don't Open The Wounds/Skywide Armspread
13. Natural Technologies
14. Mirror Reflection & The Hammer Reinvention
15. To Long Life, In The 'Limbo Union'
16. Move On! (The Woman Will Always Leave The Man)

Score: 8/10